AN – Once again, I can only offer excuses and apologies for how long this chapter took me to get ready for you guys. January has been a bit of a busy month to say the least, wedding planning, my fiancé ending up on crutches and year end at work have all led to me having very little time to write!
But I do want to thank you all for the lovely reviews you guys keep leaving, I really do love reading them and they put a big smile on my face and encourage me to sit down at the laptop and try to write something, even when I really should be doing other things.
To those of you without accounts who reviewed the last chapter – as always just a few words – Anonymous – I'm so pleased you enjoyed the last chapter and as for them both admitting a few things to each other... it's coming! Hope you like the update! BlueJean452 – I'm so glad you liked the last chapter – hope you enjoy this one too! Nicole – I'm so pleased you liked the chapter – I couldn't send you a preview because you didn't leave your email address, or if you did, it got blocked out – sorry! Hope you enjoy this update too. Violet – So glad to hear you enjoyed the chapter and the way things are progressing between Nathan and Haley – hope you like this update too. Mazzy – The mirror was on Haley's list, as for Nathan giving her a nice evening just so he could sleep with her – I don't think he did any of it for that reason – he just wanted to apologise for their fight. Lily will all be explained soon as will the marathon questions, hope you like this update. Rachel – Aw I'm sorry I made you cry! Hope you enjoy this chapter! Lou – So pleased you liked the last update, your theories on Lily will all be revealed soon, hope you like this chapter.
Also just a quick note to DreamNaley – I couldn't send you the preview because you don't have messages allowed on your profile – so I'm sorry I didn't send it to you but I physically couldn't!
Anyway, enough rambling and on with the story. It's another long one (I think my longest yet) – which I hope makes up for the lack of posting from me over the last couple of weeks :o)
Major thanks go to Kristen and Rebecca as always!
Enjoy!
Chapter Nine
Nathan didn't know whether he was coming or going. He was running around his bedroom in a complete panic, tripping over all the clothes which had dropped from the piles he was yanking out of his wardrobe and forcing into his suitcase which lay open on his bed. Once he thought he had packed enough shirts and suits, he quickly remembered he needed his toothbrush and so he ran out of his bedroom and came to a halt outside the closed bathroom door. He knocked urgently on it and he then waited impatiently for Haley to let him know that it was okay for him to enter, so that he could retrieve the items he needed from inside.
Haley had just switched off the shower and was wringing out her hair when she heard Nathan bang relentlessly on the door to the bathroom. She sighed heavily, wasn't he usually out of the house by this point on a Monday morning? She then quickly realised that Ryan was going to be picking her up very soon for their morning run and she'd told him the number of the apartment the last time she had seen him, so there was a very good chance that Nathan could still be here when he buzzed up. She grew slightly panicked because Ryan buzzing up to the apartment would be incredibly annoying, as she'd then have to explain to Nathan who Ryan was and what he was doing picking her up so early in the morning when she really didn't want to, not when they had just made up with each other this weekend after the debacle that was last week. "What is it, Nathan?" She called out while she squeezed her hair one last time to get rid of as much water as she could.
"I need to grab my toothbrush, Hales." Nathan shouted through the door as he placed his hand on the doorknob and began to twist it so that he could grab the item from where it had been left beside the sink. "Are you decent?" He knew very well that he should probably wait for an answer from her but he needed to finish packing, the car would be waiting outside very soon and so he didn't have the time for her to consider whether she was in fact ready for him to enter the room or not.
Satisfied that she'd wrung out as much water from her hair as was possible, Haley opened up the shower door and was just stepping out onto the bath mat. "Give me a min… Nathan!" She screamed as she reached out to grab her towel and quickly covered her naked body from his eyes, not that he was looking at her anyway, but still.
"Sorry, Hales, but I need to get going." Nathan half-apologised in a rush as he grabbed his toothbrush and then walked right out of the bathroom, barely noticing that Haley was trying to cover herself with a towel.
Haley adjusted the towel more securely around her body, confused by how quickly he had entered and then left the bathroom and then followed Nathan out of the room towards his bedroom, wondering why he couldn't have waited for two minutes for her to get herself ready and also why he needed his toothbrush so badly. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the bulging suitcase sitting on the top of his bed and watched as he placed his toothbrush inside one of the zipped compartments. "Why are you packing?" She asked, wondering what on earth he was doing and where he thought he was going at six o'clock in the morning, he hadn't mentioned the need to go anywhere to her at all. She could feel this sense of foreboding rising from deep inside of her and she was starting to panic a little because she didn't want to have to go through another week of not seeing him, last week had been absolute torture for her and she wasn't sure if she could cope with another week of that right after they'd just made up with each other. She'd been really looking forward to spending some time with him this week, she'd been looking forward to getting things back to normal but now it seemed he was leaving, which made normality impossible.
"I've got to go to Madrid." Nathan responded distractedly as he pushed all of his crumpled clothes down into the suitcase and then attempted to zip it up; only one of his shirts wasn't in the suitcase properly so the zipper got stuck half way around his case. "Damn it." He muttered to himself as he tucked the shirt inside and then successfully managed to close the suitcase.
Haley frowned as she watched Nathan pick up the now closed suitcase from his bed and place it on the floor, allowing his words to digest in her brain. Madrid? "But why do you have to go to Madrid?" She asked, unable to hide the disappointment from her voice.
"We need to attend a meeting with the European Director for the company I've been working on that ad campaign for and think about how we can merge the European and American markets." Nathan explained as he took his suit jacket from the chair in the corner of his room and put it on his body while moving his eyes quickly over his bedroom, checking to make sure he hadn't accidentally forgotten something.
"Well, when will you be back?" Haley asked with a panicked tone to her voice, really hoping that he wasn't going to have to stay away for longer than a couple of days, because she had been really looking forward to spending some time with him this week after all the drama that had happened the week before, she really didn't want to have to be on her own.
Nathan began to wheel his suitcase towards where Haley was standing in his doorway. "I really don't know, gorgeous. It depends on how well the meetings go and if the European division like what we're doing with the American side of the business." He said as he wheeled his case right past Haley and proceeded to walk towards the front door, hating the look that was in her eyes, but equally knowing that there was nothing he could do about it, he simply had to go, and if he didn't leave soon he'd get sucked into feeling even worse at having to leave her alone.
Haley could feel her shoulders slumping under all the disappointment which was weighing incredibly heavily on her body. That hadn't been the answer she wanted to hear at all, but then again, what she really wanted was for him to tell her that he wasn't going anywhere at all, and the suitcase he was carrying made that rather impossible really. Sullenly, she followed him out into the hallway and came to a stop next to the front door where Nathan was grabbing his keys and putting his wallet in his pocket.
Nathan patted his pockets and checked he had his passport, phone, keys and wallet before he turned to face Haley who had her sulky face on. He sighed heavily as he walked over to her, coming to a stop right in front of her, really wishing that he could do something to make her feel better about all of this. "Cheer up, gorgeous, please. I know the timing of this is shit but it has to be done. I'll be home before you know it."
Haley sighed to herself, knowing that she was being whiny and pathetic and as she looked at Nathan, she could tell that he was in a bit of a flap about having to leave so suddenly, so she probably wasn't helping the situation one bit with her moping. "Will you be back by Friday?" She asked, really hoping that he would be because at least then she'd have something to look forward to all week and that way they'd be able to spend the weekend together.
"Honestly, gorgeous, I don't know if I'll be back this week at all, I might have to stay out there until mid next week." Nathan responded, wanting to be honest with her even though he knew that wasn't what she wanted to hear.
"So you won't even come back for the weekend?" Haley asked in yet another whiny voice. She really needed to get a hold of herself because she knew this wasn't Nathan's fault, and he really had worked so hard to get that account, so she knew he needed to do all he could to make sure the customer was happy, but still she couldn't help but feel upset, even though she knew she should be supportive about his career.
Satisfied that he had all the items he needed before he headed out of the door, Nathan rested his arms at the sides of his body. "Trust me, gorgeous, I'll do all that I can to get home for the weekend, but I don't want to tell you I'm definitely coming and then have you feeling all let down because I can't make it in the end. So make plans as if I'm not going to be here, and if I am, well then that's a bonus, right?" He said and then checked his watch, seeing that his car should be outside waiting for him any second now.
Haley bit down on her lip and nodded her head, really hoping that he would do as he said and try his very hardest to come home at the weekend, because she really didn't want to make any plans that didn't involve him, he was the only person she wanted to spend time with.
"Good. Right, well I need to head outside, the car should be waiting for me now." Nathan said as he opened up the front door to their apartment. He walked through, wheeling his suitcase behind him and then turned around, finding Haley shuffling from one foot to the other, still biting down on her lip. He sighed once again and released his grip on his case. "Come on, Hales. Please don't be so upset. I'll be back before you know it."
Haley nodded her head once again, realising that she was being incredibly stupid but she couldn't help the way she felt at having him leave her, even though it was only going to be for little over a week by the sounds of things. "I'm sorry, Nathan. I just really wanted to spend some time with you this week, you know, after everything that happened last week and all." She said quietly as she looked down at the floor, playing with her hands with rested in front of her body.
Nathan reached his hand up and placed it just underneath Haley's chin, raising it up until she was looking right into his eyes instead of her looking down at the floor. He gave her a small smile and saw that she returned it despite how upset she clearly was, he could see it in her eyes. "I wanted to spend time with you too, gorgeous. But I have to go, you know that if I could see any way out of going, I would have taken it, don't you?" He said earnestly, really hoping that she believed him, because it was the truth.
Haley lowered her eyes once again quickly and then returned them to meet Nathan's blue eyes, which were looking at her so sincerely; she couldn't doubt him even if she had wanted to. "I know. Just, be safe, stay in touch, and call me as soon as you land please." She said, offering him another small smile to let him know that she understood why he had to go, even if she didn't like it.
"Of course I will." Nathan returned. He pulled her into his arms, wrapping them around her back and crushing her to him, burying his nose in her still damp hair, the scent of her shampoo assaulting his nostrils. He felt Haley cling onto him, and he was mildly confused by the battling emotions he could feel inside of himself. It was always hard to leave Haley for business, but it had never been this difficult, he'd never been this hesitant. He really did feel like calling his bosses and simply telling them he couldn't go, but he knew the ramifications of not going could damage his entire career at the company, so in all reality he couldn't just do as he pleased.
Haley wondered if she held onto him tightly enough, she'd be able to coerce him into staying and not going away at all. She hated herself for thinking so selfishly, because she knew how important this entire project was for him, he'd literally been working his ass off for it, but she couldn't help the way that she felt. She closed her eyes and squeezed him more tightly to her body, turning her head so she was able to breathe in the glorious scent of his aftershave from his neck.
Although Nathan wanted to keep Haley in his arms for much longer, he knew that he needed to go. He gently prized Haley off his body, and held onto her shoulders, bending his knees and holding her at arm's length so that he could look her right in the eyes, so that she'd know he meant business. "Promise me you'll take care of yourself?" He asked pleadingly, hoping that she would understand exactly what he meant.
Haley could help the fact that she rolled her eyes at his remark, knowing exactly what he was alluding to. "I promise I'll eat three, healthy meals a day. Okay? I'll even keep a food diary if you're that worried, or shall I email you each time I put a piece of food in my mouth?" She responded sarcastically.
Nathan chuckled at her snarky response, pleased that she had dragged herself out of her wallowing hole, even if it only was to show her displeasure over his over protectiveness. "I don't think the daily emails are necessary, but just make sure you do eat properly, okay?" He said and then leaned forward so that he could place a kiss on her forehead.
Haley closed her eyes when she felt Nathan's lips land on her skin for a brief second, and as soon as he pulled away from her, she nodded her head at him. "I will." She said.
"Good. Well the car will probably be waiting outside now so I should head on down." Nathan responded and then took a hold of his case again. He smiled at Haley and then began to walk towards the elevator, turning around to see Haley, still dressed in just her towel, leaning against their front door.
Haley watched as Nathan wandered towards the elevator, turning around every few seconds to smile at her. She leaned her head against the door and saw him press the button to call the elevator to their floor. The doors opened and Nathan stepped inside, turning around to face her again. "Call me the second you land, okay?" She called down the corridor.
Nathan smiled and waved at her as the doors began to close, nodding his head to her request. "I'll miss you, gorgeous." He called back down the corridor just before the doors shut.
"You too." Haley responded as she waved once more to Nathan before the doors closed completely. She sighed to herself, still resting her head against the door, before she realised she was standing in the hallway wearing nothing but her towel. She sighed to herself and walked back into the apartment, closing the door behind her, the slamming noise reverberating through their home. She pondered over how much more lonely she felt, despite the fact that she'd been on her own here so many times before, given that she knew Nathan wouldn't be coming home at all tonight.
The elevator doors opened with a chime once Nathan reached the ground floor of the apartment building. He rolled his suitcase through the lobby towards the front doors and opened them, dragging his case out behind him. He saw a man jogging along the street in his peripheral vision and then noticed that the man began to jog up the steps towards the front door, so Nathan quickly reached out to stop the door from closing so that the man wouldn't need to buzz up or use his key. He saw the man halt for a brief second and he puzzled over why he didn't just carry on jogging through the door.
Ryan jogged up the front steps of the apartment building, seeing that a man had very kindly held open the door for him. He hesitated for a second, wondering if he should just head on inside and get Haley from her front door, or whether he should just buzz up and wait for her outside. After pondering this for a couple of seconds, he decided that he didn't see any harm in going inside and so he smiled at the man who was holding the door open for him. "Thank you." He said as he walked through the door and past the suited man.
"No problem." Nathan responded and then carried his case down the steps towards the car which was waiting for him by the curb.
Thirty seconds later, Haley was still standing in the hallway of the apartment, wondering what she was going to do with her whole week now she knew she had the apartment all to herself, when she heard a knock at the front door. She rolled her eyes to herself, wondering what it was that Nathan had forgotten. She turned herself around and took a step forward before she opened the door. "What did you forget this time then..." She said as she opened the door but then trailed off at the end in confusion when she realised that it wasn't Nathan but was in fact Ryan who was standing on the other side of the door.
Ryan wondered briefly what the hell Haley was going on about; he hadn't forgotten anything, but his thoughts were quickly distracted from asking what she was talking about when the door opened and revealed her standing on the other side wearing nothing but a towel. His eyes nearly popped out of his head as they wandered down her bare neck to where her cleavage was currently pressed up to her body given how tightly she had the towel wrapped around her body. Picking her up from the front door instead of buzzing up had inevitably been a genius idea.
Haley could feel her cheeks flushing what she knew would be an incredible shade of red as she wrapped her hands around herself, modestly trying to cover more of her body, even though that was impossible given that she was wearing nothing but a towel. "Ryan, what they hell are you doing here?" She hissed at him in complete embarrassment, although judging by the grin which was covering his face, it was clear to her that her levels of embarrassment were not reciprocated in the slightest.
Ryan couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Nor could he keep his eyes from wandering over her body, even if it was covered by an extremely large towel, it was still a sight he needed to behold for as long as he possibly could.
He wasn't answering her question and Haley was starting to lose her patience with him extremely quickly. She knew that she'd given him the number of the apartment she lived in, but that still didn't explain what he was doing, here, outside her apartment door, instead of waiting outside of the building like any normal person would when they didn't have a key to the front door. She watched as his eyes continued to roam over her body which finally caused her to interrupt his actions and get herself speaking instead of thinking. "How the hell did you even get in here?" She asked as she tried again to cover herself up a little more, making sure that her towel was securely wrapped around her body. Ryan's eyes were still wandering and she could tell that he wasn't giving her question any consideration whatsoever. "Ryan, I asked you a question. Two in fact. Quit ogling and for crying out loud will you look at my face, please."
Ryan heard Haley snap at him and so knew that she wasn't pleased about something, but he didn't for the life of him comprehend what she was going on about. He guessed it was the fact that he had caught her dressed in nothing but a towel and so reluctantly, and with one last longing look at her body, he raised his eyes up to her face. "I'm sorry, Haley, what were you saying?" He asked.
Haley noted that he didn't look at all sorry, but at least his eyes weren't on her body now. "God, you're such a typical man." She muttered under her breath and then sighed heavily to herself.
"Hey, don't you start all that 'typical man' crap again, Haley." Ryan defended himself and raised an eyebrow at Haley.
Haley placed one of her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow of her own right back at Ryan. "Okay, let's just recap on what just occurred here, shall we? You catch me wearing nothing but a towel, and then proceed to spend two or three minutes staring at me and ignoring everything I'm saying to you. Yet I'm not allowed to brand any of those actions as you acting like a typical man?" She retorted.
Ryan opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to come up with a response to that for a while, until he eventually found some words. "Well, what about you, Hales? How do I know that you didn't plan for me to find you wearing nothing but a towel? That would be typical woman behaviour, planning a trap for me to fall into just so you can then shout at me about it." Ryan responded, feeling rather pleased with himself that he'd managed to come up with any reply at all, because honestly everything Haley had said had been true.
"Okay, first of all, I don't even know how you got in the building without a key in the first place, so your logic about me wanting you to find me dressed like this is completely flawed anyway. And second of all, why would I even want you to catch me in a towel?" Haley responded, still standing with her hand placed on her hip and her eyebrow raised at Ryan.
Ryan was trying to ignore the fact that her comments hurt him just a little; it seemed the step from being her friend to being a potential date wasn't one that she was quite ready to make. But that was okay. He had plenty of time and didn't mind waiting for her to realise that they could be good together for as long as it was going to take her to. He decided to remain upbeat instead of letting her offhand comments drag his mood down and also decided to answer the question about how he'd managed to get into the building instead of continuing this stream of conversation any further. "Some guy held the door open for me as they were walking out, so I decided to come up and get you myself."
Haley instantly felt her mind begin to work overtime. It had to be Nathan who had held the door open for him, the timing all fit perfectly, didn't it? She could feel herself beginning to panic, praying that they didn't say anything to each other. "What guy?" She asked cautiously.
"I don't know, some dude in a suit." Ryan responded. "He had a suitcase with him too so he was obviously headed out of town."
Haley could feel her heart racing in her chest. God, it really had been Nathan. What if Ryan had asked him for directions up to the apartment? How the hell would she explain to Nathan what Ryan was doing, coming round at six o'clock in the morning without mentioning the fact that they were training for a marathon? Because she knew that Nathan was so not ready to hear about that, not when they'd just made up after a major row about the fact that she had simply joined a gym this past weekend. But Nathan would have asked loads of questions if Ryan had asked for directions up here, wouldn't he? He wouldn't have just let some strange man he'd never met come up to the apartment to see her, would he? "Did you say anything to him?" She questioned apprehensively, holding in a deep breath as she waited for Ryan's answer.
Wondering why Haley was acting so weirdly about it all, Ryan thought back to the moment that had happened a couple of minutes ago. "No, I just said 'thank you' when he held the door open for me, why?" He responded.
Haley let go of the breath she had been holding and felt the relief wash over her, pleased that her secret was still safe. "Oh, it's nothing; we're just not supposed to let strangers into the building, that's all." She lied, thinking about how much of a close call that had been.
"Okay." Ryan responded sceptically, not believing Haley's reasoning but deciding to change the subject, after all, they needed to train and then he needed to get to the gym for work. "So are we running today?"
"Oh yeah, sure we are. Come on in and I'll just go and get changed really quickly." Haley responded and then held open the door to the apartment wider, allowing Ryan to enter.
Haley left Ryan in the lounge and walked along the corridor towards her bedroom, eager to get out of the towel she was wearing and change into something more appropriate for her to be wearing around a friend. She was mildly miffed at the fact that Ryan had been more interested in her wearing just a towel than Nathan had been, but she quickly shook those feelings from her head. Ryan was simply Ryan, he was flirty and fun and his staring probably didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. And Nathan? Well he had been in a rush, hadn't he? And besides, why would she want her best friend staring at her when she was wearing nothing but a towel? That was the most inconsequential of her thoughts, surely. But then why was that thought the one that she kept mulling over continuously as she walked into her closet?
Once she had changed into her training shorts and a cropped top, she walked past Ryan in the lounge and headed into the kitchen, pulling out a bottle of water from the refrigerator. She then wandered back to the lounge, seeing that Ryan was eyeing up the DVD collection which was shelved over by the television.
Ryan could see Haley in his peripheral vision but he was so engrossed in all the DVD's she had on the shelves, he couldn't bring himself to look away from them. "This is quite the collection you have here, Haley." He said, feeling rather impressed with the films she had on display. "You like films like Casino and Scar Face?"
"Oh, those are all Nathan's." Haley responded. She wasn't sure why, but she felt kind of strange, seeing Ryan standing in the apartment she shared with Nathan, talking about her best friend. It didn't feel comfortable to her at all.
Ryan smiled but continued to eye Nathan's DVD collection. "Well you can tell him from me that he's got good taste in films then." He said before adding casually. "What's your favourite film?"
"Phantom of the Opera. It's actually my favourite show but I love anything and everything to do with it, so..." Haley said, shrugging at Ryan as he turned to her with a smirk on his face, one which could possibly rival Nathan's. And once again, she felt a slight shiver run down her spine at how weird this whole situation seemed. Shouldn't the only person who smirks at her in her own home be Nathan? But she quickly disregarded that thought because it was stupid. It wasn't like she and Nathan were boyfriend and girlfriend, it wasn't like they were engaged and were going to spend the rest of their lives living together, was it? So of course other men would smirk at her in her own home. She was just being silly, that was all.
Ryan couldn't help but smirk at her answer. He turned around to face her and shook his head at her. "Typical girly answer." He muttered just loud enough for Haley to hear him.
Haley's mouth dropped open in shock, not just because of what he was saying, but because it was something that Nathan used to tease her about constantly. "Excuse me, but Phantom of the Opera is not a 'typical girly answer'. A typical girly answer would be The Notebook, or... I don't know, something like PS I Love You. Not Phantom of the Opera." Haley shot back and the folded her arms across her chest in defiance. "And anyway, what about you? There are all kinds of films on those shelves and which ones do you pick out, Casino and Scar Face? I'd say they were extremely stereotypical boyish choices."
"No Haley, they're just good films." Ryan returned with yet another smirk as he took in her stance, she had her arms folded across her chest and she was glaring at him. "And besides, Phantom of the Opera is just..."
"Don't you dare say anything bad about Phantom of the Opera. If you do, we can't be friends anymore." Haley returned seriously.
Ryan held his hands up in mock surrender. "I was only going to say that the film is just not as good as seeing the show on stage, don't get all uptight about it, Haley." He returned and then laughed at her when her stance softened slightly. "Come on; let's get you outside so you can work off some of your fury on the ground while you're running, instead of snapping your head off at me."
Haley glared at Ryan as he walked past her towards the front door and then followed him out to towards the elevator, grabbing her keys from the side table as she did so. "Believe me, Ryan, that was not me snapping. You don't want to hear or see what I'm like when I'm really snapping." She called after him as she followed behind him.
"I'm sure I don't, Haley." Ryan responded playfully as he called the button for the lift to arrive.
"I mean it; I can be really scary when I want to be." Haley retorted. She didn't know why she was being a little bit hostile with Ryan, but she could probably put it down to the fact that fifteen or so minutes ago, she thought she'd have her best friend around all week, and now she was faced with the reality of him not being around. She knew she was being a little bitchy, pushing all of her frustrations onto Ryan, but she couldn't help how upset she felt at Nathan leaving.
"I'm sure your five foot four, is it, frame would completely and utterly intimidate all six foot two of me." Ryan returned and then stepped inside the elevator given that it had just arrived at their floor.
Haley continued to glare at him, not moving from where she was currently standing outside of the elevator.
"Are you getting in or not?" Ryan asked as he held the door open, unable to stop grinning at how determined she was being. He obviously knew she had it inside of her, you needed a heap of determination to be training for a marathon, but he'd never seen her like this really, she'd only been this fiery when she was being hard on herself, but that had been different.
"Only if you admit that I can be scary." Haley returned, folding her arms back across her chest and tapping her foot on the ground.
Ryan couldn't help but chuckle at her. "We really need to get going if you want to get a full hours training in, you know?" He responded.
"Well then you'd better start admitting a few things, shouldn't you?" Haley said, this time raising her eyebrow as she continued to tap her foot on the floor.
Ryan rolled his eyes at her playfully, still holding on to the button which held the doors open. "Fine. I'm sure you can be really scary when you want to be, Haley." He said. "Are you going to come inside now so we can get running?"
Haley smiled at him in triumph. "Thank you. And yes." She said as she stepped into the elevator. She stood next to Ryan and glanced up at him, seeing that he was still continuing to roll his eyes at her as the doors closed. "Will you stop with the whole eye roll thing, please. I may be small, Ryan, but believe me, my size is not relative at all to how scary I can be when I'm angry."
"I don't know about angry and scary, Haley, but you're as stubborn as a mule sometimes." Ryan returned as he felt the elevator begin to descend.
Haley nodded her head to herself. She'd heard that one from Nathan on more than one occasion too. God, he'd only been gone all of twenty minutes and she already missed the hell out of him. She didn't know how she was going to be able to last a whole week, if not more, of not seeing him.
~*~
"Come on, Haley, why not?" Ryan asked again as he jogged along beside her. It was now Thursday and they had moved past their friendly disagreement which occurred at the start of the week. They were now back to full on, Ryan-Haley banter. It really was business as usual.
"Because, Ryan, I'm washing my hair." Haley returned with a grin on her face as she continued to jog along at the pace they set. Each day this week, they'd run for an hour and each time they had covered more distance than the previous day, which was a great achievement as far as she was concerned. She loved the feeling of accomplishment she got each day that she managed to run just a tad further, it really made her feel like she was getting somewhere with this whole marathon training business.
"Come on, Haley, that's crap and you know it. It doesn't take you all night to wash your hair." Ryan returned, unable to hide the grin from his face too.
"You'd be surprised actually. It takes me ages to dry it." Haley responded and grinned over at Ryan.
Ryan shook his head at her. Ever since Haley had told him that Nathan had gone away for the week on Tuesday, he'd been trying to get Haley to come out with him on Saturday night. "So you're seriously going to just sit in all night and wash your hair?" He asked disbelievingly. "Why wouldn't you want to go out?"
Haley sighed, knowing that there were more than a few reasons as to why she didn't want to go out with Ryan on Saturday night. There was firstly the fact that it would feel a little bit strange because she didn't know what label to put on their night out should she decide to go. She didn't really feel like she wanted it to be a date and she couldn't put her finger on why it made her feel a little bit uncomfortable. But besides that, there was the fact that she didn't want to plan anything just in case Nathan decided to come home for the weekend. She'd missed him desperately all week, throwing herself into the gym and training for the marathon as a way of distracting herself from how lonely she felt without Nathan being home. She knew she was being silly, because she'd spent a lot of time without him while he was working on this project at home as it was, but there was something about knowing that he was coming home for the night, even if she wouldn't see him, there was simply something about knowing that he'd be there. The apartment felt incredibly empty and desolate without him there. She didn't like it one bit. But Nathan had told her on the phone this morning that the likelihood of him coming home for the weekend was unlikely, almost impossible. She'd moaned and whined incessantly, but eventually had to accept what he was saying to her, what was she able to do about it from New York when he was in Madrid? So therefore, she reasoned with herself, if he wasn't coming home, she may as well do something on Saturday night. Ryan was right; she would just be sitting in the apartment all night sorting out her hair. How pathetic was that? "What would you be suggesting?" She asked cautiously as she kept the pace up alongside him.
Ryan was slightly shocked that she was now appearing to be interested in his plans for Saturday night. "I don't know, I was thinking maybe just going to the movies or something?" He responded, unable to hide the smile that covered his face now that Haley was at least thinking about going out with him on Saturday night. That was a turn up for the books to say the least.
Haley pondered his offer. She was meeting up with Brooke, Lucas, Peyton and Jake tomorrow night, and then she had no plans apart from hitting the gym all weekend. She'd probably end up driving herself crazy with how depressed she'd be, so maybe going to the movies would be a good idea, it would serve as another distraction for how much she would no doubt be missing Nathan. "What movie?" She asked as she turned her head to face Ryan, finding that he was absolutely beaming at her.
"We can go and see something incredibly girly if you want to." Ryan said, shaking his head at her in mock jest. He had wanted to see the latest horror film but if he got to spend some time with Haley away from any form of training, he could live with sitting through two hours of incredibly predicable storylines.
Haley couldn't help but laugh at his words. "You sure you don't mind seeing something girly?" She asked, wanting to double check.
"No, we can go and see whatever you want us to see." Ryan responded, just as his watch started to beep, indicating that they had finished their one hour's training for the day.
Haley slowed to a stop beside Ryan, noting that they had, once again, run further than they'd managed to yesterday. She felt rather proud of how well she was progressing with all this running malarkey. Once she had got her breath back and had stretched her muscles, she walked with Ryan towards the exit of the park.
Ryan walked alongside Haley in silence as they continued towards her apartment. He felt rather pleased with himself that he'd managed to coerce a movie trip out of her. It had taken a while but he guessed the old saying was true, sometime persistence really did pay. He came to a halt outside her apartment building. "So what time should I pick you up on Saturday?" He asked.
"I don't mind, what time do you want to pick me up on Saturday?" Haley asked, still feeling a little bit strange about the whole thing. She still couldn't put her finger on why it all felt so weird.
"How about sevenish?" Ryan suggested.
"Sure, seven works." Haley responded and then walked up the steps to the apartment building's front door. She then turned back around once she got to the top step. "This isn't a date though, right?" She didn't know why she felt the need to clarify that point, but she wanted to nonetheless.
Ryan felt slightly knocked off centre as he took in Haley's comment. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but, being his usual happy Ryan self, he smiled back at her. "Of course it's not a date." He returned, and felt slightly put out when he saw Haley visibly relax.
Haley felt like a million pound weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She felt much better about the whole thing now. It was simply two friends going out to the movies together. There wasn't any harm in that, was there? "Well thanks for training today. We're not running tomorrow, are we?" She said.
"No, no running tomorrow. I can't do Saturday either, I've got the early shift at the gym and I need to be there by half five in the morning." Ryan returned.
"Okay, well I guess I'll see you at seven on Saturday then?" Haley asked.
"Sure, I'll swing by and pick you up, that okay?" Ryan questioned.
"Sounds good. See you Ryan." Haley said as she turned around and put her key in the lock, opened the door, turned to wave at Ryan and then wandered over to the elevators.
Ryan watched as Haley walked further into the apartment building before he took off towards the gym with a gentle jog. So it seemed Haley still wasn't ready for dating, but maybe after they spent a night out together she'd think differently. He hoped so, anyway.
~*~
On Friday evening, Haley found herself in the bar, just like she would be on any other Friday night; however, instead of being happy and excited that it was finally the weekend, she felt extremely miserable inside of herself. She was doing her best to appear cheerful, as she didn't need Brooke, Lucas, Peyton and Jake to know how down she felt, especially as the only explanations she had for feeling this way was because Nathan wasn't home. It was ridiculous, she knew that but given that this morning he'd confirmed once and for all the fact that he would definitely not be coming home for the weekend, and in the processes darkening the only shed of light she'd been holding onto all week, she felt completely shattered.
"Okay, seeing as the drinks are on Jake this week, for once, I think we should go all out. Who wants some sambuca?" Brooke asked with an extremely excited tone to her voice.
The whole table muttered their approval of this idea, but Haley wasn't listening. Instead she was staring off into space, wondering what she was going to with herself all weekend now she knew for definite that Nathan wasn't going to be there. She was going to the movies with Ryan tomorrow, but apart from that and going to the gym she didn't really have anything she needed to do. She had to grab some groceries at some point but that was all.
"Haley?" Brooke asked as she waited for a response from her before she went to the bar.
"Huh?" Haley said, snapping out of her daydream and turning back to face Brooke, not having a clue what she wanted from her.
"I'm ordering sambuca, that okay?" Brooke said as she rolled her eyes at the fact that Haley hadn't been listening to her.
"Yeah, that's fine." Haley said distractedly and then watched as Brooke walked over to the bar, and Peyton and Jake wandered over to the pool table. She felt her mind drifting off to Nathan again, wandering what he would be doing right now. Sleeping probably, she presumed given that it was the early hours of the morning in Madrid.
Lucas slid over in his chair, closing the distance that was between him and Haley, taking a gulp of the bottle of beer he had in his hands. "Has Nathan been in touch since he left for Madrid?" He asked, placing the bottle of beer back down on the table.
Haley turned her body slightly so she could look at Lucas properly. "He's been calling me a couple of times a day. He's pretty busy out there." She responded, unable to keep the smile from playing on her lips as she thought about him. "But then again, where work's concerned, he's always busy."
Lucas rolled his eyes at his brother's antics. "He's been that way for some time now, hasn't he?"
Haley nodded her head as she picked up her vodka and diet coke, taking a sip and then she placed it back down on the table, running her fingers along the table until they were perched on the edge of it. She studied her fingernails for a brief second, noticing that she could do with getting a manicure. She wanted to say so much to Lucas, to tell him how worried she was about Nathan but somehow she felt like she would be betraying her best friend if she went behind his back and discussed all of this with his brother, even if she did count Lucas as one of her closest friends too.
Lucas sighed, knowing that he shouldn't put Haley in this position but given how badly the discussion with Nathan had gone last time, he wasn't sure what else he could do. He hoped that Haley would be able to somehow get through to his brother in a way that evidently he couldn't. "Has he said anything to you, Haley?" He asked, the dislike of having to ask Haley without Nathan knowing he was doing so was clearly evident in the tone of his voice.
Haley sighed and stopped staring at her hands, moving her gaze up to see Lucas' worried expression on his face and she knew exactly what he was talking about without even needing to ask. There was only one subject of conversation which caused this much trouble and anguish. "I tried to talk to him about it, to be honest it probably wasn't the best situation for me to do so because we were arguing, but you know how he gets. He just clams up, refuses to even acknowledge anything happened." She responded.
"I asked him if he wanted to come up with me and Brooke to see her but he just completely lost it." Lucas said and shook his head. "I just don't know what to do. He can't keep avoiding it like he is, one day it's all going to catch up with him and he's going to have a complete meltdown if he doesn't start accepting what happened soon. I'm really worried about him."
"I am too, Lucas." Haley responded, completely understanding where he was coming from. "But I don't know if it's best to keep bringing it up or whether we should just let him deal with this in his own way."
"But he isn't dealing with it Haley, he's completely evaded it, for five years..." Lucas trailed off, running a hand through his hair in complete frustration at the whole situation.
Haley smiled softly at the familiar gesture from Lucas, one that Nathan seemed to do constantly when he was troubled, frustrated, angry, nervous... "I know he is, but you try telling him that."
"I did try. He told me he was dealing with it in his own way, which is total crap because he knows, I think, or rather I hope, deep down that he hasn't even tried to begin to deal with it at all." Lucas responded and then noticed Haley's conflicted expression on her face. "I'm sorry to be discussing this with you, Haley, I know it puts you in a horrible position, I just don't know what to do."
"Don't worry, Lucas, it's no problem. I completely understand your concerns because I have exactly the same ones myself. I'll tell you what, when he finally gets back from Madrid, I'll do my best to talk to him again about Lily. But I can't guarantee that I'll get anywhere. He absolutely despises talking about it." Haley said, smiling softly over at Lucas.
Lucas breathed a sigh of relief, pleased to have Haley on his side for this situation. "Thank you so much Haley. I just hope he finally decides to listen to one of us."
"You don't have to thank me Lucas." Haley responded and then spun herself around in her seat when she heard a noise coming from behind her. She looked down at the table and could see a tray full of shot glasses in front of her which Brooke had just placed down. She lifted her gaze and saw Brooke standing in front of her, having rounded up Jake and Peyton also. She raised her eyebrow at the amount of alcohol which was on their table. "Seriously, Brooke?"
"What? Jake is never the last one here, so we need to make the most of the fact that he's paying for drinks tonight." Brooke shrugged and then proceeded to hand out sambuca shots to everyone.
"Jesus, my account is going to be taking a hammering tonight, isn't it?" Jake asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh yes." Brooke said with a wicked grin on her face. "Come on then, everybody ready? One, two, three!"
Haley lifted the shot glass that had been placed in her hands to her mouth and drank it all in one gulp, wincing as she felt the alcohol run down her throat, causing it to burn slightly. She slammed her glass back down on the table and closed her eyes for a brief second, allowing the drink to settle inside of her.
"Alright, another one." Brooke said as she handed the second shot out to everyone.
Haley groaned. "Brooke, I don't want to do another one of them."
"Stop moaning, Haley." Brooke said as she raised her glass into the middle of the table, waiting for everyone else to follow suit. Once she was satisfied that everyone had their drink in place, she grinned, pleased to be surrounded by her friends, minus Nathan of course. "Cheers!"
Haley took the second shot, still feeling the burn of the alcohol in her throat. She immediately grabbed her vodka and diet coke and took a large gulp of it, trying to get the disgusting aniseed taste out of her mouth, which the vodka and diet coke managed to do. "Urgh. I'm going to get myself another one of these, anyone else want anything?" She asked as she waved her now empty glass in the air.
"Can you grab me a scotch?" Lucas asked.
"Sure." Haley responded and then scooted along the seat until she got to the end so that she could get out and head towards the bar. She'd obviously had more to drink that she thought because she had to grip onto the table when she stood up to prevent herself from falling over.
She stumbled over to the bar and managed to order the drinks and bring them back, although half the scotch and her vodka and diet coke had somehow managed to get knocked out of the glass on the way back to the table. She held the glasses up to her face, frowning as she tried to understand how they were no longer full, but then giving up on thinking because her head was so hazy she couldn't think straight. She shrugged and placed the glasses down on the table.
"Where's the rest of it?" Lucas asked humorously as he took his scotch and gulped down some of the liquid.
Haley stuck her tongue out at Lucas as she slid into the seat.
Lucas almost spluttered his drink out on the table as he watched Haley fumble as she tried to move across the seat. He shook his head at her and grabbed onto her arm, pulling her along the seat towards him. "Are you drunk, Haley James?" He asked teasingly.
Haley frowned as she picked up her vodka and diet coke from the table and took a sip. "No, I'm not drunk." She returned pointedly. She hated it when people accused her of being drunk. She wasn't a good drunk; Nathan always had to take care of her one way or another when she drank too much and he'd always give her stick for it the next day when she couldn't remember what the hell had happened.
She was drunk, she realised at around ten o'clock when she decided that she'd had enough for the night and wanted to go home. She stupidly had refused Luke and Jake's offers to get her home, insisting that she was okay and that she could walk herself home perfectly fine. They weren't too happy with it but she'd put up enough of an argument to mean that eventually they agreed with her decision to leave by herself. She walked to the curb and stuck her arm out in the hope that a cab would stop for her; there was no way in hell she'd be able to walk all the way home.
Two minutes later, she saw a cab indicate and pull up beside her. She climbed inside and mumbled the address of the apartment to the cab driver and slumped back on the seat. In her drunken haze, she seemed to miss Nathan even more now than she had before. She was moping, staring out of the window, dreading going home to the apartment, knowing that it would be empty, except for herself of course, for the entire weekend. Even when Nathan was locked away in his study and she didn't see him for hours on end, just knowing he was there was a comfort of sorts, and it all felt wrong, him not being there for so long. Completely forgetting about the time difference, she pulled her mobile phone out of her bag and pressed her pre-assigned speed dial to his phone, hearing the phone ring in a foreign ring tone.
Nathan had been sleeping soundly in his hotel bed but was woken by the shrill ring tone of his mobile phone. He glanced at the clock, cursing to himself when he saw the time, before reaching over to grab his ringing phone from the table next to the bed. He stopped cursing as soon as he saw Haley's name on the screen though, jolting upright in bed and answering the call quickly. "Gorgeous, is everything okay?" He asked quickly. Why else would she be calling at four o'clock in the morning, something had to be wrong?
Haley sighed heavily, feeling half better for hearing his voice and half worse, because now her level of missing him had escalated once again. "No, everything's not okay." She responded and pouted a little.
Nathan grew incredibly panicked. "What's wrong?" He asked urgently. Had she been hurt? Had the apartment been burgled? Had there been a fire? He pondered over the tone of her voice. She didn't sound hysterical at all, so it couldn't be either of those things, and now that he thought about it, she just sounded a bit sullen and depressed.
Haley leaned her head back against the seat in the cab and closed her eyes. "You, you're what's wrong. I miss you and I can't believe that you're not coming home this weekend. I can't believe that after last week and everything that happened that you're just not going to be there. Now it's like I haven't seen you properly in two weeks, not one, and it's just not right Nathan, and it's not fair either." She moaned and rambled.
Nathan flopped back down on the bed, slightly relieved that the reason she was calling at such an unreasonable hour wasn't for anything too serious. "Gorgeous, I know its rubbish but I didn't really have a choice..." Only he was interrupted from speaking any further by Haley.
"Yes you did have a choice. You could have just said no but you didn't, did you? You just left me here all on my own." Haley continued to moan. "And now I've not got anything to do the whole weekend and it's all just shit, Nathan, I really wanted to spend some time with you, you know, just hang out and stuff but you've made that impossible with your stupid business trip and all I have to keep me occupied is cleaning the damn apartment..."
Nathan ran his free hand over his face, listening to Haley go on and on. "Gorgeous, how much have you had to drink?" He interrupted.
"What are you saying, Nathan? That I'm drunk?" Haley exclaimed in complete outrage.
Nathan rolled his eyes to himself. The fact that she was drunk was obvious. She was mouthing off and moaning incoherently about things she knew he couldn't control. But the biggest giveaway of all was the fact that if she were sober, she'd know that it was currently four o'clock in the morning in Madrid and she would have left him sleeping, but as it was she was evidently drunk and moaning down the phone at him. "Yes, gorgeous, you're drunk. How much have you had?"
Haley pouted, wanting to fight back with him but knowing that she shouldn't, so she reigned in her anger and instead took a calming breath. "I don't know." She answered quietly.
Nathan couldn't help but chuckle. "I was expecting a bit of backlash from you, Hales. Why is it that you're only a good drunk when I'm out of town?" He asked playfully. "Usually I'm the one that has to save your ass from one thing or another."
Haley gasped audibly. "Nathan, that is so not the case!"
"I think it is, Hales. What about that time at college when you decided you wanted to do a pole dance on one of the street lights right outside that club? Who managed to stop you before things got too out of hand? Or the time when you thought it would be a good idea to dig a hole in the middle of the football pitch so you could bury your shoe?" Nathan returned, unable to keep the smile off his face at the memories that were currently running through his mind.
Haley scowled even though she knew that he wouldn't be able to see her. "Those were both a long time ago." She said nonchalantly, even though inside she was angry that he had chosen to bring them up. What point was he trying to prove again?
"Oh so you want something more recent then?" Nathan said with a smirk on his face. "How about a couple of months ago when you got so wasted you decided to pick a fight with that huge guy over nothing and I had to haul your ass away before things turned ugly?"
"He slapped my ass!" Haley returned incredulously.
"I'm sure he did, Hales." Nathan responded, and then chose to steer the conversation away from this memory because he knew how Haley got when she was like this and she would drone on and on about it for another hour at least before he'd manage to get her to stop yakking, only Haley interrupted him before he had a chance to say anything more.
"Anyway." Haley started, interrupting Nathan before he had a chance to commentate on that night's events even more, which was something he seemed to enjoy doing at her expense and only led to her defending herself until she was blue in the face. "That doesn't matter now, does it?"
Nathan was surprised that she was being cooperative for once, instead of repeating herself five thousand times. "No, you're right, it doesn't matter now. But seriously, Hales, how much have you had to drink?" He asked.
"I honestly have no idea, Brooke decided to buy, or rather Jake inadvertently bought, a tray full of sambuca shots, and then I had a load of vodkas and cokes... I didn't keep count." Haley answered him honestly.
"And where are you now?" Nathan questioned.
"In a cab, just on the way home." Haley responded.
"Have fun at the bar?" Nathan asked.
"No. I just missed you mostly." Haley answered honestly.
Nathan sighed heavily. "I miss you too, gorgeous."
"Was there really no way you could have come home this weekend?" Haley asked quietly. She wasn't really sure why she was asking this again, because she knew deep down that if there had been a possibility of him being able to come home, that he would have taken it, but still, she felt sad that he wasn't here with her, and nor was he going to be there tomorrow or Sunday either.
"Gorgeous, we've been through this and I told you, if I could be there with you, I would be, but you know how important this client is, you've seen how many hours I've put in and I can't just throw the towel in now, not after all the effort I've put into this project, despite how much I hate not being with you." Nathan explained, hoping that she would understand that it was purely about work, not about her in the slightest.
Haley felt the cab draw to a halt outside the apartment. "Hold on." She said and then grabbed some money from her purse to pay the driver, before she walked on inside, calling the elevator. "Sorry, just had to pay the driver."
"So do you understand that if I could be, I'd be there?" Nathan asked, continuing their conversation because he really needed to get some more sleep.
"I know that, of course I know that." Haley said as she stepped into the waiting elevator and pressed the button for the floor which housed their apartment.
Nathan yawned and stretched in his bed. "Good." He said, pleased that she understood him.
Haley wandered over to the apartment once the lift doors had opened on their floor. "I just don't like being on my own." She said softly, dreading, in her intoxicated state, walking into the apartment and knowing that it would be empty; much like it would be for the entire weekend.
Nathan hated how vulnerable she sounded; it sent this ache right to the centre of his chest. But there was nothing he could do about it from Madrid, which he completely despised. "I know gorgeous, but I'll be home before you know it." He heard the door click through the phone, indicating that she'd made it in to the apartment. "Just go to bed, gorgeous, and I'll call you tomorrow. At least that way it'll be one less day until I come home, yeah?"
"Yeah." Haley sighed as she kicked off her shoes and swayed down the hallway towards her room. "Promise you'll call tomorrow?"
"I promise. Sleep tight, gorgeous." Nathan responded.
"You too." Haley said and then hung up her phone. She crawled into bed, not even bothering to take off her makeup or change her clothes and hugged her pillow as she drifted off to sleep, wishing that she was hugging her best friend instead.
~*~
Haley flopped herself down on the sofa in the living room, feeling utterly exhausted. She stared at the clock on the far wall and wondered how time could possibly move so slowly. She'd already cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, changed both her and Nathan's bedding, washed a huge pile of clothes, been to the gym and done the grocery shopping for the following week. She'd bought enough food to feed both her and Nathan because she was still clinging onto the hope that he'd be home early on in the week, instead of having to stay out in Madrid for another week in its entirety, which for Haley didn't bear thinking about. She'd be so bored and so lonely if that were the case she'd probably end up driving herself crazy.
Picking up her phone from the coffee table, she tired Nathan's number and just like the other twenty or so times she had tried to call him today, the call went straight through to his voicemail. She couldn't believe that he'd turned his phone off, it really irritated her because although she knew that he was busy with work, it was still the weekend and she thought it was incredibly rude of him to ignore her all day. Was she really that much of a bother to him? Obviously she was, she thought bitterly.
She sighed as she looked around the vacant apartment which felt far too quiet for her liking. Once she worked out how much time she had to kill before Ryan picked her up for the movies, realising that she had a good four hours to whittle away while she waited, she picked up the remote and began to channel hop. How she and Nathan could have all these channels and there not be anything decent on at all completely baffled her, and she soon grew tired of waiting for something to pique her interest, so she pressed the off button and watched as the screen went completely blank, the silence once again filling the entire, empty, lonely space.
She really didn't know what to do with herself. She pondered over doing some baking but the only thing she felt like making were cupcakes, a sort of homage to the fact that Nathan wasn't with her, but they'd be no point in her doing so because there'd be no way that she would be able to eat all of them, so they'd only end up going bad. She didn't feel like primping herself for her cinema trip with Ryan because she didn't want it to feel like a date, and spending hours worrying over her hair, makeup and clothes would make the whole thing feel too weird for her. Jeans and a top would have to do, she was going for casual, and hoped that Ryan would too.
She knew that she was going to end up driving herself crazy if she simply sat there clock watching and so she lifted herself up off the sofa, grabbed her ipod off the coffee table and wandered into the kitchen, plugging the ipod into the sound system Nathan had bought them, placing her phone next to the docking station. She selected her 'Golden Oldies' playlist and smiled when the sound of Diana Ross filled the room. Walking over to the fridge, she selected the ingredients she'd need to make a lasagne, placed them on the counter and got to work while singing along to the classics at the top of her voice.
While she waited for the beef to brown in the frying pan, she tried Nathan's phone once again, rolling her eyes when she heard the familiar, cheery sound of his voicemail. She hated it when she couldn't get through to him; this completely irrational but irritating fear crept through her veins, the worry etching into her mind, wondering if he was safe, if he was okay. She knew, of course, that he was simply busy, but he could at least turn his phone on just to send her a text or something, give her a quick call to let her know that he was fine.
She placed her phone next to where she was working in the kitchen as she began to assemble the lasagne in the dish, layering the beef with the tomato sauce, the pasta and the white sauce, the meticulous task causing some of the worry she held for Nathan to appease slightly. She continued to sing along to her ipod, extremely loudly given that she didn't have Nathan to consider, knowing that he wouldn't come in screaming at her to keep her voice down. He'd always joke that her singing sounded like a cat being strangled, which was charming, because he couldn't hold a damn note in tune. Truth be told, she had a fairly decent voice and she'd always tell him that he was simply jealous of her. She smiled as memories of the banter they shared filtered through her brain, and as comforting as they were, they also served to intensify how much she really did miss him.
Haley methodically layered the white sauce over the top of her last layer of pasta when Let's Twist Again came blaring through the speakers. She squealed and sung along to the music, twisting her hips while she ensured that the white sauce she was spreading over her dish covered all of the pasta. Grabbing the cheese she had grated she sprinkled it over the top and then checked that the oven was set at the right temperature. She carried her dish over to the oven, shaking her hips as she moved and placed it on one of the shelves. Wiping her hands on a tea towel she smiled in satisfaction at a job well done; the lasagne would feed her for a few nights, relinquishing the task of needing to cook something once she got in from work and it had kept her suitably distracted for a good half an hour or so.
Continuing to dance along to the music, she wiped down the counter and started to get really into the dance moves, this time making sure that she twisted right down to the ground and then back up into a standing position, and it was as she stumbled slightly and lost her balance a little bit when she heard someone snicker behind her. Halting her movements abruptly, she felt her heart begin to race in her chest because she was supposed to be alone in the apartment. She briefly contemplated grabbing a knife before she turned around to face whoever was behind her but she couldn't find one in close enough reach. So she turned around, unarmed save for the dishrag in her hands extremely slowly, all the while telling herself how stupid she was being, because the noise she had heard had probably only been her imagination.
Nathan was doing his best to remain quiet and not interrupt Haley's danceathon in the kitchen, and given how loud she had the music blaring, it was pretty easy for him to chuckle quietly to himself as he leant against the doorway and have her not notice him. But when she stumbled as she twisted her hips from the floor to a standing position, really letting herself go, he couldn't help the full on belly laugh that escaped from his mouth, what on earth was she doing?
Haley's mouth literally dropped to the floor when her eyes rested on Nathan. He was standing, casually leaning on the doorframe to the kitchen, obviously laughing at her dancing. He looked impossibly exhausted, his hair was messy, like he'd been running his hands through it constantly for days on end and his eyes looked really tired, but his face was covered with that glorious smile of his. Dressed comfortably in jeans and a blue polo, he looked devastatingly handsome. However, the more she raked her eyes over his dishevelled appearance, the more she couldn't believe that he was standing there in the apartment. Wasn't he supposed to be in Madrid? Wasn't he supposed to be too busy to come and see her? She recalled the conversation she'd had with him during the week when he had definitely confirmed the fact that he wasn't going to be able to come home at the weekend and then also vaguely remembered a slightly drunken phone call to him last night, but he hadn't mentioned the fact that he was coming home, had he? No, although she couldn't really recall all that was discussed last night in detail, she was sure that him telling her he was coming home today would be something that would have definitely stuck in her mind.
Nathan took a couple of deep breaths as he tried to regain control of his breathing, but every time he looked over at Haley, the image of her stumbling as she twisted her hips kept replaying in his head and he couldn't control the bursts of laughter which poured through his lips. "Do you make a habit of dancing around the kitchen like a crazy lady each time you have the house to yourself, gorgeous, or is this just a special occasion?" He asked with a teasing glint in his eyes as the laughter finally started to subside.
Haley knew that he was teasing her but she still couldn't quite believe that he was really here. So she made the conscious decision to ignore his jibe and instead concentrated on the fact that despite what he had told her, despite him saying that it was an impossibility, he was somehow home. "What are you doing here? I thought you said there was no way you'd be able to make it back for the weekend?" She asked in a shocked tone, still unable to hide the amazement from her face and the tone of her voice, even though she'd been staring right at him for a good couple of minutes now.
Nathan smiled over at her and shook his head at her softly, recalling the conversation they'd had last night. "Do you remember calling me last night?" He asked and then raised his eyebrow at her in accusation, because given that she'd been drinking, and quite heavily it seemed, he wouldn't be surprised if she didn't remember it at all.
Haley rolled her eyes at him. "Don't give me that look, Nathan. I know I'd been drinking but I still remember speaking to you." She returned with a hint of determined defiance in her voice.
"Oh so you realised that when you called me it was four o'clock in the morning in Madrid then, yet you still called?" Nathan responded cheekily as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Haley scoffed at him and her mouth dropped open in disbelief. "I did not call you at four o'clock in the morning, I'll have you know that I left the bar really early. You were obviously disorientated at being woken up so suddenly or something."
"Hales, trust me, it was four o'clock in the morning when you called." Nathan returned.
"No it wasn't! I wouldn't have called you if I'd have known that it was that early." Haley responded.
"But you were drunk, so how would you have realised that it was so early?" Nathan said in a teasing tone.
"For goodness sake, I wasn't drunk!" Haley said, quickly losing her patience with him because he'd just flown back to see her and they were already disagreeing with each other. However, she knew a sure fire way to sort this out. She reached over and grabbed her phone from the countertop and scrolled to her call log. "Look, I'll prove to you that it wasn't that early." She stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth in concentration as she scrolled through the calls she had already made to Nathan that day, searching for the call she made to him last night.
Nathan couldn't help the smirk that played on his lips as he watched her concentrate on her phone. "You got a lot of calls to scroll through, huh?" He teased, unable to resist the cheap shot. Once he had landed in New York and turned his phone on, he had been hit with what felt like thousands of alerts telling him about the missed calls that he'd had while his phone had been turned off during the flight. All of them had been from Haley.
Haley lifted her eyes from her phone and scowled at him. "Shut up." She muttered and then went back to concentrating on her phone. "Aha! Found it, look see, I called you at ten o'clock last night, so it wasn't four o'clock in Madrid."
Nathan uncrossed his arms and stared at the phone Haley had thrust in his face, seeing that she had indeed called him at ten o'clock last night, which was something he already knew anyway. "And how many hours ahead of us is Madrid?" Nathan asked.
"I don't know." Haley shrugged and then pulled her phone back towards herself, smiling in triumph as she closed the screen and then placed her phone on the countertop again, leaning back against it with a grin on her face, feeling incredibly smug that she'd won this one. She didn't understand why Nathan's face was mirroring her expression though, what did he have to be so conceited about? He'd been wrong.
"There's a six hour time difference between New York and Madrid, Hales. So if you called me at ten o'clock New York time, what time does that make it in Madrid?" Nathan asked.
Haley mentally did the maths and brought her hand up to cover her mouth as she gasped, realising that Nathan had been right and she really had called him at four o'clock in the morning. "Oh my gosh! Nathan I am so sorry, I really didn't think they were that far ahead of us." She replied sheepishly.
"Oh because of course, waking me up at any time before four o'clock in the morning is acceptable, right?" Nathan returned cheekily.
"No, of course not… I…" Haley stuttered as she tried to come up with an explanation for her actions last night, but of course, the only one she could come up with was the fact that she had been drunk. "I guess I just missed you, that's all." She looked up at him from under her eyelashes, hoping that she at least appeared to be innocent.
"No, gorgeous, you were drunk." Nathan corrected.
Haley bit down on her lip as she shuffled from foot to foot, trying to think of a possible way for her to talk herself out of this one. However, she soon realised that it was completely pointless of her to do so because Nathan knew her too well, and of course he'd be able to tell when she'd had too much to drink, that was one of the privileges of being a best friend. So instead she decided to change the subject, instead of dwell on her drunkenness for a second longer than was necessary. "So why are you here?" She asked.
"Well after you so very rudely woke me up in your drunken state, I couldn't get back to sleep and so decided to head to the airport to catch a flight back to New York, just so that I could tease you endlessly about it." Nathan responded with a smirk.
Haley sighed and shook her head at him, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "So you flew God knows how many miles just so that you could tease me about my drinking?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well that and after nearly a week of room service I was really craving some of your delicious cooking, and maybe a cupcake?" Nathan asked with a wide grin on his face. "And speaking of your amazing skills in the kitchen, that lasagne smells great, when's it ready?"
"Well I haven't baked you any cupcakes, and after all your teasing I'm not going to either, but the lasagne should be ready in about twenty minutes." Haley returned with a smile, knowing that he was only playing with her. She pushed herself off the counter and walked over to where Nathan was still standing against the doorframe. She wrapped her hands around his back and squeezed him into her body, breathing in the familiar and welcome scent of him. She felt his arms wrap around her waist as he pulled her in closer to him and she felt him place a soft kiss on the top of her head. She closed her eyes for a brief second, revelling in having him here with her. "Why did you come home early?"
Nathan rested his chin on the top of her head, unable to help the smile that covered his face as he squished Haley into his body. He had known that he had missed her but coming home and simply being in her presence solidified just how much she meant to him, and also how much he hated spending time away from her. If he had any control over it, he wouldn't go away on business ever again, but the reality of the situation was that he wanted to progress in the company he worked at, so that he could do things like buy a bigger place and give Haley all that she deserved throughout her life. And in wanting to accomplish those things, travel with work would be a necessity, no matter how much he didn't like it. "You whined." He returned cheekily.
Haley whacked Nathan playfully on the back. "I don't whine, Nathan." She mumbled into his chest.
"Trust me Hales, when you're drunk, you whine constantly. In fact, when you're sober, you whine too." Nathan teased.
"Nathan, stop lying!" Haley said as the smile spread across her face again. "And don't say things like that, I'm not a whiner!"
"Sorry, gorgeous." Nathan muttered softly as he placed another lingering kiss on the top of Haley's head, closing his eyes as he inhaled the scent of her shampoo. "I came home because I missed you. A lot."
Haley pulled herself away from Nathan slightly so that she could look up and see his face. She smiled as her eyes met his deep, blue ones and then she moved herself back into the comfort and safety of his embrace. "I'm glad you're home." She said softly into his polo shirt.
"Me too." Nathan whispered. Although he was completely shattered from jetlag and working his ass off on the plane so that he would be able to spend some quality time with Haley the rest of the day, and the fact that on Monday he'd be absolutely kicking himself for his impromptu trip home, as he stood in the kitchen, with his arms wrapped securely around his best friend, he knew that it had been worth it. Seeing her beaming smile and feeling her arms around him made everything worthwhile and meaningful. He snapped himself out of his musings and glanced around the kitchen, noting the washing up that was piled in the sink and the ingredients left on the counter which she'd yet to put away. "There are seriously no cupcakes though?"
Haley couldn't help her eye roll as she unwrapped herself from Nathan's embrace. "If you'd actually picked up your phone and let me know that you were coming I'd have baked some for you." She said with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah yes, but if I'd have called, I wouldn't have been privy to your spectacular dance moves now would I?" Nathan teased as he watched Haley walk back over to the other side of the kitchen, presumably so she could begin to clear away the ingredients.
Haley halted her movements and turned around quickly, scowling at Nathan. "I swear to God if you mention that to anybody, and I mean anybody, I'll… I don't know what I'll do but you won't like it, I can promise you that." Haley said seriously as she waggled her finger in his direction, hoping that she sounded stern enough for him to realise that she meant business.
Nathan chuckled at her, because really she looked ridiculous, but he knew that she had stuff on him that no one else in the world knew about, and if he spoke even a word of this to anyone she'd retaliate with something equally as embarrassing. He knew when to mess with her and when to draw the line. He held his hands up in front of himself in mock surrender. "Don't worry gorgeous, your secrets are safe with me." He returned.
Haley eyed him suspiciously but she knew he meant what he said. "Good." She responded and then gathered up the ingredients from the counter and walked over to the fridge.
Nathan could see that she didn't have enough hands free to open the fridge door and so he quickly walked over to it and opened the door for her. He then took the ingredients from her hands and placed them back in the fridge. "So what do you feel like doing tonight then gorgeous?" He asked once all the cheese and fresh pasta sheets had been placed on the correct shelves in the fridge. He turned around and raised an eyebrow at her as she nodded her head in approval at him for placing things back in the fridge properly. He couldn't help but smirk at her, she was quirky like that, everything had its proper place. "We could go out for some drinks, go out for dinner, go and see a movie... whatever you want."
It was only in that moment that Haley realised that she had completely forgotten about her evening she had planned with Ryan. She mentally scolded herself for forgetting about it so easily and silently thanked Nathan for bringing up a trip to the movies because she'd have ended up forgetting about what she had planned with Ryan entirely otherwise. She pondered over what she should do. Should she text Ryan and cancel, or should she tell Nathan that she had plans; after all, he had told her to make some, hadn't he? She knew that Nathan had to be knackered after his flight and so he'd probably go to bed really early anyway. "Well we could always do the cinema tomorrow night?" Haley asked tentatively.
Nathan shook his head at her. "Sorry gorgeous, no can do. I'm on the first flight back to Madrid tomorrow morning."
"What?" Haley asked, wondering what he was going on about. He was going back?
"I'm just here for the night, then I need to head back and I'll be home on Wednesday." Nathan clarified.
Haley found this completely bizarre; he'd only flown home for the night? Why would he do that? She knew, without question that she couldn't go out with Ryan now, not when Nathan was home for just one night. She'd have to text Ryan and cancel, otherwise he'd be buzzing up to the apartment at seven o'clock and Nathan would no doubt wonder what the hell is going on. She felt slightly bad at having to cancel on him, but she couldn't not see Nathan after he'd flown all this way to see her, could she? And more than that, she wanted to be with Nathan tonight, not Ryan.
Nathan watched Haley carefully as she pondered over what he had just told her, wondering why she looked so confused. "Gorgeous?" He said, hoping to get her attention and snap her out of her daydream. "Is everything okay?"
Haley shook her head free of her musings and moved her eyes back over to Nathan, offering him a beaming smile. "Yeah everything's good. Just thinking about what we're going to do tonight, that's all." She said, making a mental note to remind herself to text Ryan once Nathan left the kitchen, she didn't want to do it while he was in her presence; she didn't want to offer him the opportunity to ask her questions about Ryan if she could help it. She had this weird feeling in the pit of her stomach which she tried desperately to push away but the more she tried to ignore it, the more prominent it became. She told herself that she was being incredibly stupid, because how could she feel guilty about spending time with Ryan? Sure, she felt a little bit bad that she still hadn't told Nathan about the fact that she was training for a marathon but the guilt that was creeping up inside of was about something more than that. It was ridiculous, because she actually felt guilty about spending time with another man, she realised. She was partly shocked at her feelings because she was free to spend time with who she wanted, wasn't she? She wasn't tied to Nathan in any way at all. But if that really was the case, then why was she feeling this way?
"So what do you want to do?" Nathan asked. He waited for her to answer him but as he continued to look at her he grew incredibly puzzled at how distant and distracted she seemed, she looked like she was trying to conquer some huge conundrum or something, not like she was trying to figure out what they should do tonight as he'd asked. "Hales?" He waited until he had her full attention once more before continuing. "Are you sure everything's okay? You spaced out a little there."
Haley blinked rapidly a few times, trying very hard to push her thoughts into the backs of her mind. Now was not the time for her to start dissecting her relationship with Nathan and her feelings over seeing other guys. She caught a whiff of the lasagne cooking in the oven and decided to go and check on it. Seeing that it still needed a couple of minutes, she closed the oven door and leaned against the counter, realising that Nathan was trying to have a conversation with her about what they were going to do tonight. She moved her eyes over his frame once again and noted how tired he seemed. "You must be so tired, Nathan, why don't we just eat the lasagne and have a quiet night in tonight? Maybe have a movie marathon or something?" She said, smiling over at him.
"If you want to go out gorgeous, I don't mind, I can sleep on the flight back tomorrow if I need to." Nathan responded, not wanting to forgo a night out with Haley if that was what she really wanted them to do tonight.
"No, I don't particularly want to go anywhere, to be honest." Haley replied. "I got a couple of really good bottles of wine in the fridge that I picked up earlier which we could drink."
Nathan chuckled at her. "Are you sure you want to drink two nights in a row?" He teased.
Haley narrowed her eyes at him but laughed along with him this time. "I'm pretty sure I can handle a glass or two this evening."
"Well then, lasagne, wine and some movies sounds like a great idea." Nathan said, and then ran his hand through his hair. "I'm going to take a quick shower and freshen up."
"Okay, I'll make a start on the washing up. Are you hungry now or do you want to eat later?" Haley called out to Nathan's retreating form.
Nathan turned his head over his shoulder and smirked at Haley. "Gorgeous, I'm starving."
Haley smiled back at him and rolled her eyes. "You always are." She said and then walked over to the sink so that she could make a start on the dirty pots and pans she'd used to make the lasagne. Once she heard the door to the bathroom close, she grabbed her phone and sent a quick text to Ryan, letting him know that something had come up and so she couldn't go out with him tonight. She still felt that pang of guilt residing inside of her as she thought about actually going out with Ryan and not Nathan, but she quickly pushed those feelings aside and concentrated on the washing up.
~*~
One and three quarter films, one nearly finished lasagne and one and a half bottles of wine later, Haley lay against the arm of the couch with her feet resting in Nathan's lap. She sipped on her wine glass as Nathan massaged her feet, not really paying attention to the film he seemed so engrossed in because she was still mulling over and analysing her feelings. She hated it when she got like this, she would completely dissect everything until she couldn't think straight and often in the process she wound up being even more frustrated with herself than she had been in the first place. She sighed softly to herself, wishing that she could simply just switch off completely but she knew any attempts to do just that would be completely futile.
Why was it that as soon as Nathan came home, she instantly felt like she had cheated on him by agreeing to go out with Ryan? If she was being completely honest with herself, she'd actually felt a bit weird about the whole thing when Ryan had simply asked her to spend some time with him outside of training. She didn't understand these feelings at all, because to her, they were completely irrational. Nathan was her best friend, not her boyfriend, so why the hell was she thinking as if he were? She didn't like these thoughts at all, because they went against absolutely every rule of friendship that had ever been written.
She studied him closely, trying to work out what had happened, trying to pinpoint exactly why she was feeling this way so suddenly but ended up feeling incredibly frustrated with herself when she couldn't come up with an answer. She ran her eyes over his form, noting that, yes, he was good looking, but she'd always felt that way about him, she'd always known that he was handsome. So that was nothing new. Not in the slightest.
Her eyes ran over his face and she noticed the slight stubble covering his neck and chin because he'd not bothered to shave when he woke up this morning which added this manliness to him, and she was faintly but not wholly surprised to note that she found it appealing, sexy even. The way he chuckled quietly to himself at the film was something she found endearing, because she loved his laugh, she always had. When Nathan was happy, she was happy. Only she was also incredibly aggravated at the moment too but on the whole, she was happy, of course she was, he was here with her. Then there was the way the tight, white t-shirt he'd changed into after his shower clung to his body. But again, he'd always had a pretty good body, so yet again, that wasn't anything new. But the desire that was pooling in the pit of her stomach, the yearning to slip her hands underneath it and run her fingers over his toned abs and chest was certainly something new, and something quite unexpected. And if she was being honest with herself, she wasn't too sure if she liked these new feelings one bit, purely for the fact that they were incredibly dangerous.
Nathan continued to absently run his hands over Haley's feet which were resting in his lap. He was incredibly tired, all the travelling had left him feeling utterly exhausted, but the film they were watching was really funny and so was offering a nice distraction to the other alternative, which at this point would have simply been to sleep. But he was enjoying spending time with Haley, just doing something normal with her after being apart from her for a week. His fingers began to trace a line right over the top of her foot and he slipped his fingers just underneath the bottom of her jeans so that his fingers were on her ankle. He felt her jerk a little in surprise from his touch, and he knew that he'd tickled her a little, but he kept his fingers there, tracing idle circles over her soft skin.
Now that Haley had acknowledged that she felt this desire inside of her, instead of it being this dull, flickering flame, it suddenly ignited to full capacity and completely overwhelmed her. The lust which ran through her veins was so overpowering, she was helpless to feel any other emotion at all. All of her senses seemed to be heightened in that moment, she could smell the enticing scent of his aftershave, she could hear his sexy chuckle and she could feel his fingers tracing over her ankle, and she wished in that moment that she wasn't wearing jeans, just so that his fingers could itch higher on her leg, she wished that his hands would trace right up her leg until he was touching her where she needed him to, so that he could suppress that dull ache which was beginning to form in her stomach. The fact that it was a Saturday night was something that wasn't escaping her notice either.
Nathan was fighting with his exhaustion, paying extra attention to the movie in an effort to keep himself awake. Given that he'd travelled so far to spend time with his best friend he really didn't want to waste a second that he didn't have to by doing something as trivial as sleeping. He concentrated so hard on the film, and kept his hand busy playing with Haley's foot which seemed to help him fight off the need to sleep. He lay his other hand on her knee and began to lightly move his hands over her jeans, keeping his hands and his mind busy seemed to do just the trick.
Haley knew that she should be ignoring these feelings, she knew that she should be strong enough to be able to simply push them aside and not dwell on them for any longer than she was, but when she felt Nathan's other hand rest on her knee and begin to trace patterns through her jeans, the lust she was feeling seemed to overflow from her core and pour out through her veins, clouding her thoughts and her judgements. In that moment, all she could see was Nathan, and all she could feel was Nathan and the need to be with him. She tried once more to reconcile these feelings, wondering if perhaps it was because she'd been alone all week, perhaps it was simply because she'd missed him and suddenly, him being here was slightly overwhelming. She wanted to believe that she could put these unexpected feelings down to those reasons, but deep down inside of herself, she knew that it was more than that, and she wanted to feel scared, she wanted to berate herself for feeling this way, but lust won out over any feelings she had of compassion, worry or concern.
Nathan stifled a yawn but couldn't help the need to stretch, so he arched his back up off the sofa and instantly felt better now that he'd had a chance to iron out his back. He moved his hand from Haley's knee, keeping his other hand just underneath her jeans as he continued to trace circles on her skin and ran his hand through his hair. He let out another deep chuckle at something funny one of the dudes in the film had said and then reached his hand around to the back of his neck, rubbing the skin there idly.
It was the flash of his stomach that did it. That toned, tanned stomach, with the little trail of hair which disappeared under his grey lounge pants was far too much of a temptation for Haley to withstand. She lifted her wine glass to her mouth and finished it off, glancing up at Nathan from underneath her eyelashes as she did so, trying to gauge his reaction, trying to search for that need which he surely had to feel too, because to her, the electricity was crackling through the air, the tension, desire and longing was far too palpable. But as she searched his face, she saw no trace of anything she was feeling, she simply saw an extremely good looking man who was far too interested in the film he was watching for her liking. Evidently she was going to have to initiate their Saturday night rendezvous tonight, which was perfect for what she wanted to try to tick off the list anyway.
Before Nathan even had a chance to process what was going on, he found that Haley had literally pounced on him and was now straddling his lap, facing him with a look of pure, unadulterated lust on her face. He didn't quite know what she was doing, why she was looking at him like that and his expression must have mirrored that shock, especially when she shifted on him and began to run her fingernails over his stomach, because she bit down on her lip and glanced away from him coyly.
Haley could see that Nathan was confused, it was written all over his face. She bit down on her lip and glanced away from him as she ran her fingernails underneath his plain, cotton t-shirt and then, as she began to trace through the hollows of his defined muscles, she glanced back at him. He still hadn't got it, and was looking at her like she was crazy, and in a way, she found it cute, funny even, that she was as horny as a teenage boy who'd just snuck into the girls changing rooms and he looked equally placid and perplexed at her behaviour. She felt this rush of boldness sweep through her veins, especially when the image of her riding Nathan popped into her head and she couldn't help the soft moan that escaped through her lips. She leaned down towards him, inhaling the intoxicating and sexy scent of his aftershave which sent a wave of desire through her entire body, and once she got to the side of his neck she licked a path right up to his ear. "It's Saturday." She whispered hotly in his ear, and then grabbed his earlobe between her teeth, tugging on it gently, eliciting this groan to come from deep inside of him, the noise sending shivers right down her spine.
All of a sudden, everything seemed to click inside Nathan's head. Of course it was Saturday, why hadn't that fact registered with him before? He felt Haley tug on his earlobe and he let out a groan as his hands moved of their own accord to her back, seeking out the soft feel of her skin, gently nudging her tank top up a little so that he had no material blocking his touch from her body. He softly ran his fingers over her skin, revelling in the feeling of her moving her mouth back down his neck, licking, sucking and kissing her way towards his throat before giving the other side equal treatment. He noticed that her movements became more forceful with each second that passed, until she was biting down on his neck, causing this rush of desire to sweep through his body, claiming all of his thoughts, making him want and need only her.
Haley felt Nathan's fingers respond to the forcefulness of her mouth on his neck, the more needy her kisses became, the more frantic his touch on her back was. His hands were edging up towards her bra strap, causing her top to bunch up and she couldn't help the fact that her hips started to grind into his, because she had this throbbing ache between her thighs and she desperately needed to find some friction from somewhere.
As soon as Haley started to push her hips into his, Nathan's cock sprung to life. He could feel it pushing against his lounge pants, and with each pass, with each rub of Haley's, it grew harder still. His hands continued to move underneath her top all over her back, so frantically he almost began to claw onto her skin but he didn't know what he was trying to grip onto, he didn't know what he needed, what he wanted, except for her, because every thought in his mind had become incredibly hazy.
Haley felt Nathan's hands move around her sides and slip up until he was touching her breasts. He ran both of his hands over the cups of her bra before she felt him lower them so that he had exposed her breasts. She continued to move her mouth over his neck, feeling his stubble scratch against her mouth, but she enjoyed the feeling of his roughness, she enjoyed the manliness and sexiness of it. His fingers ran softly over the tops of her hardened nipples and then he pinched them between his fingers, causing her to left out a deep moan into his neck and buck her hips against him more forcefully.
"God, Hales." Nathan groaned. The feel of her rubbing herself against his hard cock was proving to be too much for him to take and coupled with the feeling of her mouth moving frantically along his neck, up towards his ear, gripping onto his earlobe, her tongue running back down towards his pulse point, it was all starting to make him feel dizzy. He was getting frustrated with the limitations her bra and top were causing him also, because he desperately wanted to see her and the material was blocking what he knew to be a fabulous view. So he moved his hands from her breasts and trailed his fingers around to her back, making quick work of unclasping her bra and then he grabbed onto the bunched up material and pulled it up over her head throwing the top and her bra to the floor, exposing her beautiful body to him.
Haley watched as Nathan's eyes feasted on the sight of her breasts and seeing the wistful, hungry look on his face only caused her to become even more turned on. She continued to rock her hips over his cock, the wetness pooling in her panties and in that moment she craved him like she had never craved anything before in her entire life. She reached down and gripped onto his t-shirt, pulling it up, exposing his well defined chest and once she had thrown it down onto the floor, she licked her lips in anticipation, her eyes appreciatively moving down his chest, to his abs before resting on that happy trail. God, did she want him.
Nathan lifted himself up from leaning against the back of the sofa, pushing Haley's chest into his own, the longing he felt for her increasing to exponential levels when he felt her nipples touch his chest. He ran his hands possessively over her back, pushing her into him even further as she resumed the rocking of her hips. His mouth moved hungrily over her neck, his tongue running languorously over her pulse point before he made it up to her ear. She was continuing to rock against him, causing this unbelievable friction which was just enough and not enough all at the same time. The desire he felt rush through his veins to consume, to take, to give was so strong, so reverent, it almost felt unbearable. Once his mouth moved up towards her ear, he sucked on the skin just below it and then pulled his mouth away before blowing softly on her skin, smirking to himself when he felt her shudder. "What are you thinking?" He said gutturally in her ear, wanting her to choose what happened tonight, because she seemed to have done a rather excellent job of initiating their escapades this evening as it was.
Haley ran her hands up Nathan's back and then threaded them through his hair, tugging his head slightly until he pulled back and looked at her. She could see the desire in his eyes, the hunger and need which she was sure was reflected right back at him through her own. The fact that she could see that he wanted her, the fact that he seemed to crave her as much as she did him sent this wave of a feeling she couldn't quite put her finger on through her body. However, the fleeting thought soon evaded her as she felt Nathan thrust his hips up harshly into her just as she began to rock herself over his cock, causing the denim of her jeans to push into her and rub right over her clit. "Nathan." She moaned throatily, her breathing suddenly becoming much sharper and more laboured than it had been, the anticipation of what was to come sending a shiver right through her entire body.
God, the friction, the relief Nathan felt was simply amazing, and when he felt Haley's fingers tighten and pull on his hair, the pain mixed in with the pleasure he felt rushing through him fuelled him on. He did it again, thrusting his hips harshly against her, his cock rubbing right where he knew she'd be aching and throbbing for him. The thought of her feeling that way, the thought of her initiating activities with him because she needed and wanted him sent this possessive shiver through his body, and as a result of feeling her heat against him, as a result of all of this, he brought his hands down her back and trailed them along the waistband of her jeans until he reached the buttons, popping them open and then slipped his hand inside her underwear, seeking out that sweet spot which he knew would cause her to come completely undone.
Haley was turned on to the point of it being utterly ridiculous, and as soon as Nathan's finger grazed over her clit, she heard this moan escape from between her lips partly in relief, partly in need of more. She began to rock her hips against his hand, feeling his finger move right over her clit, the sensation causing the pleasure to build with each pass. She released the grip her hands had of his hair and began to rake her fingernails over his scalp and down to the nape of his neck, moaning softly as the pleasure continued to grow deep inside of her body. "Oh God, that feels good." She moaned, unable to stop herself from vocalising just how good he was making her feel.
Nathan found himself completely enchanted by Haley's face. He continued to move his fingers over her clit and the awkward angle his hand needed to be bent in so that he could touch her there meant that his arm was starting to ache tremendously but he honestly didn't care in the slightest because he was drawing so much personal pleasure in watching her come undone before him. He could feel how turned on she was, he could see how turned on she was and he could hear how turned on she was. And this all only led to him feeling completely and utterly full of desire and craving for her. The only thing that was stopping him from tearing their clothes off their bodies and burying his cock deep inside of her right in that very second was the promise of being able to watch her come for him, which, if he knew her body as he thought, she wasn't far from doing in the slightest. He slipped one of his fingers down into her folds and found her to be completely soaked, which caused a deep groan to rise from his chest. "You're so wet." He said, and then licked his lips as his eyes moved down her body, coming to rest on her breasts. He reached his free hand up and began to twist her nipple between his fingers, the thought of being able to be inside of her soon causing his cock to twitch inside his boxers and he had to know what she wanted, he had to know what number she wanted to do tonight because if he didn't find out soon the anticipation would kill him, he was sure of it. "What are we ticking off tonight, gorgeous?"
"Hmmm." Haley hummed in pleasure and closed her eyes as she felt Nathan's finger move back up to her clit, and she continued to rock her hips into his hand, craving the release she could feel building inside of her. She opened her eyes and connected her gaze with Nathan's, the intensity of his gaze almost startling her. "I was thinking me on top tonight." She said breathlessly, and instantly felt the speed of Nathan's fingers on her clit increase, causing her hips to buck in response to the additional pressure she felt.
Simply the thought of having Haley ride him was enough to nearly make Nathan come in his boxers, let alone the image that suddenly sprung into his mind. The speed of his fingers and the pressure he was using increased because he knew he needed her to come soon, so that he could then see this thought, this fantasy of his come to fruition. He could feel her body begin to tense under his fingers and he knew she was close. "Come on, gorgeous, come for me." He whispered as he looked right into her hooded brown eyes, and those words were all it took for her to fall over the edge. He watched her eyes close as her body began to shudder, the pleasure of her orgasm consuming her, much like how he planned to consume her within the next couple of minutes. She softly muttered his name as he rode out her orgasm with her, the speed of his fingers slowing down as she then leaned forward and rested her forehead against his, her body continuing to shake, her breaths deep and laboured as he removed his hands from her panties.
Haley hadn't even had enough time to calm her breathing down when she felt Nathan lift them both up off the sofa. She yelped, wondering what he was doing but as he walked them towards her bedroom, she realised that he was simply continuing their evening. She locked her ankles together at the base of his back, looking into his eyes which seemed wild with longing and need, causing her to ache and yearn for him to be inside of her. Once they made it into her bedroom, she unhooked her legs and felt Nathan lower her down to the bed. She watched as he lowered his lounge pants and boxers, her eyes feasting over his cock and she then removed her own jeans and panties, throwing them to the floor beside the bed.
Nathan lowered himself on to the bed and stretched himself out, rolling onto his side when he felt Haley lay down with him. He smiled at her, the urgency that had been coursing through his veins earlier had somehow gone, and as he reached up and placed a lock of her hair behind her ear, he felt this rush of emotion run right through his body. But as he looked at Haley, he could still see the fire burning wildly in her eyes.
Haley felt Nathan's finger linger behind her ear and then softly trace a trail right down over her shoulder until he reached her breast. She shuddered as she felt his finger trace around her nipple, causing them to harden. She brought her hands up and pushed his chest, causing him to roll flat onto his back because she couldn't wait for him to be inside of her for a second longer, she was utterly desperate for him.
Nathan had to stifle a grown as he watched Haley climb over him, settling herself once she was straddling his waist. He watched through hooded eyes as she leaned down, resting her hands on the mattress beside his body and placed kisses on his chest, her hair tumbling over his body, causing his skin to tickle each time she moved her head. She traced her tongue around his nipple, causing him to push his hips up in an attempt to create some much needed friction and then she continued to leave a trail of hot, wet kisses right down to his stomach. "Gorgeous, please." He muttered, needing to be inside of her, unable to cope with his cock being so close to where it longed to be for even a moment longer than was absolutely necessary.
Haley lifted herself up from his chest and brought herself to an upright position. His words continued to reverberate inside of her, his need for her so apparent and so evident it made her feel empowered almost. However, much like him, she desperately wanted him inside of her, and she couldn't face teasing him because she knew it would only end up frustrating her just as much as it would him. So she reached her hand down and gripped onto his rock hard cock, pumping her enclosed fist up and down it a couple of times, hearing Nathan hiss at her in the process, before she moved his cock towards her entrance, and then slowly sunk herself onto him, marvelling at how wonderfully he filled her, at how satisfied she felt at having him inside of her. She couldn't really explain the feeling, it just simply felt right.
God she was so tight yet Nathan seemed to fit her so perfectly. He groaned when he felt her lift up off him cautiously, as if she were testing the new sensation of her being on top of him, instead of him being in control like all the previous times they'd had sex. He watched her face as she then lowered herself back down onto him, a breathy moan falling from her lips. She'd never looked sexier and Nathan had never felt more aroused, had never felt more turned on that he did in that moment. The reality of having Haley on top was so much better than he could have ever possibly imagined. And as she rose off him again, he lowered his eyes back down her beautiful body to where they were joined and groaned at the sight of his cock disappearing deep inside of her.
Haley lifted herself up off Nathan once more, trying to get her hips to move in a more regular rhythm. Her eyes were trained on Nathan, who seemed to be wholly engrossed in watching her ride him, which made her feel really sexy because the look of wonder and pleasure that was spread over his face was something that made her feel really good. Finding a steady rhythm, she continued to roll her hips, each movement causing his cock to move in and out of her. The feeling of being in control, of his cock delving deep inside of her caused a wave of pleasure to flow through her body and she continued to roll her hips while her eyes devoured the vision of Nathan laying underneath her, watching the quick rise and fall of his chest, the way he licked his lips, the way he groaned each time she lowered herself back down onto him, she could feel the pleasure rising from deep inside of her all over again.
Once Haley settled into a more steady rhythm, Nathan moved his hands up to rest them on her hips, helping her to keep the pace. He began to thrust his hips up to meet her when she lowered herself down onto him which caused this shudder to run right through her body and he knew that she was close. He was slightly relieved at this because watching her sitting on him like she was meant that he didn't have a hope in hell of lasting for long at all. Suddenly having a light bulb moment, he reached his hand over to grab one of hers and then trailed their joined hands down her stomach. He continued to guide her hips with his other hand, lowering and rising her down onto him as he thrust his hips up to meet her while he lowered their hands down towards where they were joined. He glanced up when he felt her hand tense in his and he could see the apprehension in Haley's eyes but when he offered her a small smile, she seemed to acquiesce as her hand no longer tensed up and became more relaxed. This was what he loved about her, the willingness to trust him even when she had no idea what he was about to do, it simply showed how much they meant to each other because he also implicitly and unquestionably trusted her too.
When Haley felt their joined hands land on her clit, she realised what Nathan wanted them to do. She felt slightly embarrassed but as he started to move both of their hands over her, she quickly forgot that feeling as the pleasure she was experiencing completely overrode any other emotion she could possibly feel in that moment. After a while she felt Nathan's hand move back to her hips, helping her to increase the pace slightly and keep it there, and she continued to move her hand over her clit, closing her eyes and surrendering to the building sensations which seemed so overpowering she knew she was helpless to stop them from erupting.
Watching Haley touch herself, while she was riding him had to be the hottest thing Nathan had ever seen in his entire life. "You feel so good, you know that Haley?" He muttered through his laboured breathing, his fingers digging into the flesh of her hip in an effort to control himself for just a while longer. He felt Haley increase the pace some more, to almost frantic levels and as he heard her moans of pleasure, he grunted in response, fighting with himself to hold off, to not come until he felt her inner walls clench around his cock as he knew they would. He just hoped it was soon.
Haley was struggling with her breathing and as she continued to move her finger over her clit and felt Nathan's cock move deep inside of her, she suddenly was overwhelmed with the tingly sensation as her body convulsed and shuddered, the force of her orgasm hitting her strongly. "God, Nathan." She cried out as she felt him continue to thrust his cock into her, each time more desperate and frantic than the last as he searched for his own release, her inner walls clenching around his cock sporadically like she didn't want to let him go. And she didn't. She wanted to hold on to this feeling for as long as she could. With a rough, guttural groan falling from his lips, she felt Nathan's cock begin to twitch inside of her, and he stilled his movements, his hands digging into her hips as his face contorted in pleasure while he released deep inside of her body.
Nathan felt Haley lift herself off him and she settled down beside him on the mattress. His breathing was still incredibly laboured and his heart was beating frantically in his chest, so loudly in fact, that he was sure she could hear it. After a few minutes had passed, the mattress shifted beside him and he felt Haley roll onto her side and cuddle up next to him.
He fidgeted for a brief second, wanting to turn over to his side, so that he could check the time. He felt Haley's grip on his side loosen, allowing him to roll over and he saw that it was just coming up to midnight. Feeling Haley's body scoot closer to him, he sighed softly, knowing that he had to be up in a few hours so that he could catch the early morning flight back to Madrid. He was going to be absolutely knackered, he knew that, but he couldn't help but feel that this impromptu trip had been worth it. Seeing Haley's face light up when she turned around in the kitchen earlier and found him standing there had made the entire journey worth it.
Through the faded light filtering in through the window, Haley allowed her eyes to drift over Nathan's strong, muscular back. Her eyes wandered up his side until they hit his tattoo and she closed her eyes briefly for a second, before tentatively raising her hand to his back. As soon as her finger made contact with his skin, she felt him jolt as if she had burned him with her touch.
Nathan instantly seized up as he felt Haley's finger touch the section of his back which housed his tattoo. He closed his eyes as the memories threatened to plague his brain, darken each and every one of his thoughts and he battled hard with himself to prevent the images from forming in his head. He felt Haley begin to trace the outline of the ink which covered his back, her feather light touch which would usually be such a comfort to him, causing him to recoil away from her due to what she was touching. He tried to shuffle away from her, tried to turn his back so that it was pressed down on the mattress and out of her sight, but her other hand moved onto his shoulder, gripping onto him tightly.
"Don't." Haley said softly, hoping that he would stop squirming away from her and lay still again. She wished that he would be able to relax. She wished that he didn't carry all of this sadness and guilt around inside of him. She wished that he would open up and talk to her about how he felt about that day, about how he now felt about all that had happened.
Nathan kept his eyes closed as Haley continued to move her fingers delicately over the markings on his skin. He took a deep, shaky breath and tried desperately to clear his mind, and just when he thought he had been successful, flashes of that night would come creeping back into the far corners of his head. Lights. Metal. Darkness. He cringed as the sounds from that night boomed repeatedly in his ears and he fought to keep himself from slipping into that abyss, the depressing hole which he really didn't want to retreat into.
Haley could feel him shaking underneath her touch and she sighed in sadness for him, hating seeing him like this. She flattened her palm over the intricate drawing, ceasing the path of her fingertips and leaned her head down until her lips pressed lightly against his shoulder blades. She removed her lips from his warm skin and hovered her mouth just above his back, her breath fanning out over his skin. She felt his shaking begin to appease and she leaned her mouth down to place another kiss on the back of his neck, wishing that she could suck some of this despair out of his body, wishing that his soul wasn't as tainted as she knew it was, despite his attempts to shield her, and everyone else from it all.
Nathan felt Haley pull away from him, though her hand remained on his back. Now that she wasn't tracing the path of his tattoo, his racing mind had calmed down a little and he was able to relax a little more. He took a deep breath in and opened his eyes, staring at nothing in particular but he was pleased that those horrific memories seemed to be receding slowly back into that box inside his head. He felt her fingers begin to trace a path from his shoulder towards his neck and her hands eventually ended up being wrapped in his hair. He closed his eyes, focussing his mind on the feel of her fingernails softly scraping against his scalp.
Haley rested her head on her arm, propped up by the pillow as she continued to run her fingers through Nathan's hair. Her eyes were still trained on that tattoo of his, she was unable to remove her gaze from it and the more she looked at it, the more she knew she needed to at least attempt to bring the conversation up. She licked her lips as she pondered over her words, not knowing what would be the best way for them to begin this conversation. "Lucas is worried about you, you know." She said quietly while her hand continued to move over his head.
Nathan didn't know what to say back to Haley because he really didn't want to have this conversation with her. Not now, when he was already feeling incredibly overwhelmed and tired from his journey back to see her. But he also knew deep down inside of him that in his eyes, there would never be a good time for them to have this conversation because as far as he was concerned, Lily was a subject that he never wanted to discuss, ever. So instead of responding, he continued to stare into nothing.
Haley raised her eyes up to the ceiling, really wanting Nathan to respond to her. She didn't want this discussion to turn into another argument, she didn't want them to end up in the same position they had ended up in last week, so she was trying to tread carefully, but equally, the frustration of having him bottle all of this up inside of him, without even so much as a word of encouraging discussion, was making her feel incredibly on edge. Lucas was right, if Nathan didn't start dealing with this properly, and soon, he really was going to have a meltdown, and she desperately wanted to do all she could to prevent that from happening. "Lucas told me that he asked you if you wanted to go and see Lily in a couple of weeks, do you think you're going to go?" She pushed lightly.
Nathan couldn't even begin to fathom what going to see Lily would be like for him, what it would do to him because even the thought of it was enough to make him feel physically sick. The guilt he felt over the events of the past weighed heavily inside of him each day, but going up there, seeing with his own eyes the evidence of what he had done would mean that the guilt would surely consume him. Some days, especially when it came close to the anniversary, he barely felt like he was treading water. He could sometimes feel the forces deep down inside of himself begin to tug and pull him below the surface, sending him spluttering and completely helpless into a swirling oblivion he had absolutely no control over. He swallowed thickly, the bile beginning to rise quickly in his throat. "No, Haley. I'm not going to go." He said with an incredible degree of finality. He couldn't go. He knew that. He simply couldn't cope with going to see her.
Haley closed her eyes and shook her head in exasperation. She knew, no matter how hard she tried, that she would never be able to fully understand what he was going through, but it most certainly didn't help in the slightest when he wouldn't even breathe a word about it to her. She, like Lucas, believed that by going to face his demons, it might actually help him begin the process of moving on from all of this; it might actually help to bring him some form of closure over all the events that had happened. It might even make him finally realise that this was not his fault. For months after it had happened, Haley had tried to tell him this very thing but he was having none of it, instead choosing to wallow in self-pity, guilt and disgust at himself. It had been one of the most depressing and sad things she'd ever had to witness, and despite his façade, despite his attempts at concealing all of those intense feelings, she knew he still felt that way. "It might help, if you go, you know that Nathan?" She asked softly as she brought her hand down to the nape of his neck and began to run her fingernails lightly over his skin.
Nathan didn't want help. He didn't want saving. He was perfectly happy coasting along as he was at the moment. The guilt and the pain made him feel better, the suffering he felt was a reminder that he was alive, but was also a welcomed constant reminder of what he had done. It consistently burned faintly under his skin and without that feeling he would probably be lost; he'd grown so used to it over time. Not wanting to discuss this topic any further, he flipped himself over so that he was facing her, trapping Haley's hand between his neck and the pillow and hoped he had plastered what he wanted to be a believable smile on his face. "I don't need any help, Hales, I'm fine, really." He said in what he hoped was a convincing tone, only he then saw the look of disbelief in her eyes, which made him smile that little bit more, because it was clear that she could see right through him, and in a way, that was a really big comfort to him. She knew him better than anyone, often better than he knew himself. It never ceased to amaze him, but at the same time, it was slightly irritating when he wanted to shut something off, especially something of this magnitude. So he decided to try to put the subject to rest, at least for this evening. "I'm knackered, do you mind if we put the rest of this conversation on hold for a while?"
Haley nodded her head at Nathan softly, knowing that what with the flight over here from Madrid today, and the flight back there tomorrow on his mind, he had to be absolutely exhausted, without her piling on the emotional exhaustion of the whole Lily subject too. She watched as Nathan shut his heavy eyes and fell into a deep sleep almost instantly, his chest rising and falling in time with his deep breathing. Sleep wasn't going to come as easily to her though. Her eyes roamed over his body, and although she knew that she hadn't really got anywhere with him tonight, at least he had remained calm, instead of snapping his head off at her. Therefore, in her mind, that was progress. She just hoped they continued down this path, instead of retreating back to his defensive behaviour on the subject. Who knew, maybe the next time they talked about this maybe Nathan would finally open up, even just a little bit with her. But she knew she needed to tread carefully because this was an extremely delicate subject, so she made a promise with herself to be patient with him.
She closed her eyes and willed herself to fall asleep quickly but her mind was spinning. And it was only at this point that she realised that she and Nathan were laying in the same bed, and she was about to fall to sleep. She bit down on her lip as her eyes opened quickly and she pondered over whether she should go into his room and sleep in his bed. It would be the right thing to do, surely. Sleeping in the same bed as each other was most definitely not on their list of rules. However, before she could even move a muscle, Nathan wrapped his arm around her back and pulled her in close to him, effectively trapping her to him and Haley couldn't help but wonder if, on some level, he had known what she was about to do. She smiled softly and instead of struggling out of his vicelike grasp, she snuggled further into his body and slipped into a restful sleep.
~*~
As soon as Nathan had showered and dressed, he tiptoed along the hallway back to Haley's room, slipping inside the door he had left slightly open so as not to wake her when he returned from the shower, halting in his movements once he got inside. He stared at her sleeping form, watching as the covers which were wrapped around her body rose and fell in time with her breathing. He cast his eyes over her face, taking in each of her delicate features, unable to help the smile that flitted across his face as memories of last night came back to him.
Holding Haley in his arms had caused the most amazing feeling to rush right through his entire body. It had felt so natural to him, like it should be something that they should always do, constantly. He hadn't had a decent night's sleep like that in an age. That was the thing about him being near Haley, she made all the dark thoughts he had about himself, all the pain and guilt he constantly carried around inside of himself, disappear. He felt whole around her, complete and happy. He always had felt that way, she did something unexplainable to him, and that was why he was so relieved to have her, for her to want to be in his life. But last night, the wholeness he felt intensified, to the point where everything had just felt right, like he belonged in her bed, like she belonged in his arms.
He walked quietly over to the bed and smiled softly as he sat himself carefully down on the bed beside her. He watched her for a few seconds, revelling in just simply being able to see her like this, so at peace with everything. He reached his hand up and tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear and then softly trailed his knuckles over her cheeks, before pulling them away, afraid to wake her. Every time he touched her now, his skin seemed to tingle. It was the strangest feeling, one he had never felt before but it was almost addicting, and he couldn't seem to help himself from wanting more. He brought his finger back up to her face, unable to resist one last touch and traced a light line right down the centre of her nose, smiling as the tingles returned to his skin, moving his finger along to her cheek where he traced her cheekbone.
Her mouth was pouted slightly and he stared at her lips for a while, wondering why he had the sudden urge to kiss her. The thought had fluttered into his mind so casually he barely even recognised the fact that it was wrong and that he shouldn't be thinking those things. But as soon as he focussed on this wonderful idea some more, he realised that he most certainly shouldn't want to do that. The thought confused him immensely, especially as no matter how many times he tried to banish it from his brain, somehow it kept on creeping back in there. But he couldn't do that, he couldn't defy the rules to this agreement. Especially when she wasn't even conscious.
He sighed heavily and closed his eyes, willing himself to control his urges, because breaking the rules would get him absolutely nowhere. He battled with himself, because he still really wanted to kiss her, but he was somehow managing to resist. He glanced over at the clock and realised that he really needed to get back to the airport, because his boss would kill him if he wasn't back in Madrid for drinks in the evening. He leaned forward and brushed his lips lightly against her forehead, pulling away and hovering his head above hers. He was so close his nose was practically touching hers and he could feel her steady breath fanning out against his face. He closed his eyes, because the desire to kiss her had only intensified now that his mouth was extremely close to hers, and with all the willpower he had inside of himself he pulled his head away.
But he wasn't able to resist her lips completely. He pressed his fingers to his lips, kissing them and then placed them to Haley's lips lightly. He ran his fingers softly over her full lips and then in that moment he knew he needed to get himself right out of temptations way, because he was making what was supposed to be a simple, silent goodbye, far too difficult for himself. He removed his hand from her lips and turned his head away from her, lifting himself up off the bed. He then walked towards her door, unable to resist another glance at her as he placed his hand on the doorknob. "See you Wednesday, gorgeous." He whispered and then walked out into the hallway, closing her door behind him, wondering why the act of leaving her had suddenly caused him to feel like a part of him was being left behind too.
As soon as Haley heard the click of her door, she jolted her eyes open and ran her fingers over her lips, wondering why in the hell they felt like they were tingling and why the hell Nathan had touched her like that.
But the one thought that was confusing her so very much, the one thought that wouldn't stop screaming so very loudly inside of her head was the feeling that she wished it had been his lips, rather than his fingers which were causing her mouth tingle.
AN – Okay, so as usual, please let me know your thoughts on the chapter.
Lily and the hospital stay will be coming up in more detail very soon – as will the Ryan/Nathan meeting – which I think is going to be interesting.
Teaser pics for the next chapter will be up on the blog soon.
I'll be sending out a preview of the next chapter too, so if you want it, just let me know in a review and I'll send it out to you ASAP. Thanks :o)
