Chapter 10

When Norman arrived at his hotel, the first thing he did was call Chloe. As soon as she answered he knew something was wrong.

"What's wrong, babe?" he asked. He could tell she was crying.

"Nothing, it's stupid," she said sniffling. "Wait, did you just call me babe?"

"Um, first of all, why are you crying?" he said, completely caught off guard by his slip. "Secondly, uh, yeah, I called you babe." He was so glad she couldn't see how red his face was right at the moment.

"It's nothing," she said. "It's embarrassing."

"You think you're embarrassed right now?" he asked.

"Ok, you have point," she said. "Which we will get back to in just a minute. I was just watching something on TV that made me sad."

"What were you watching?" Norman asked trying to remain off of the subject of calling Chloe "babe".

"I may have just watched Sophia come out of the barn as a walker," Chloe confessed.

"Ah, so you finally decided to watch it," Norman said teasing.

"Oh, shut up," Chloe said, annoyed that he was enjoying this way too much.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Just giving you a hard time. So what do you think?"

"Oh, no," she said. "You're not getting off the hook that easy."

"Damn, so close," he whispered. "It just kinda slipped out."

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna bust your balls," Chloe said. She was uncomfortable talking about feelings or anything remotely similar. She thought Norman was a little uncomfortable with that type of stuff too. To be honest, she tried not to think too much about her feelings for him. She definitely found him attractive, who wouldn't? And she liked talking to him, even looked forward to his calls and texts. She still had her reservations though. She had been hurt too many times in the past and made a vow to herself to never put herself in situations like that again.

They were both silent for a moment. Norman was scared she would end the call at any moment. He didn't mean to call her "babe". It really did just slip out. He knew better than to call her "sweetheart". He learned from that mistake. Plus he called everyone "sweetheart". He didn't really call anyone "babe" unless it was a good friend. He called Melissa "babe" and Danai "babe".

He and Chloe had been talking for over 6 months now, practically every day. He thought about her constantly, always wanting to ask her opinion on something or wondering what she was doing. He had to admit, no one ever made him feel the way he feels about her. She calls him on his bullshit, but also makes him feel good about himself when he's feeling insecure, like with this new movie he was getting ready to start. There's no way in hell he would've agreed to it without Chloe's pep talks and support.

Norman cleared his throat and broke the silence. "Can I ask you something without you getting mad?"

"You can ask me, but I can't guarantee I won't get mad," Chloe said, curious as to what he wanted.

"Why aren't you involved with anyone?" There, he opened that can of worms. Now he'd have to wait and see if she would open up to him or hang up and never speak to him again.

"I don't know," she said softly. "I just haven't met anyone I'm interested in."

"Um, if I didn't already know that was a bullshit excuse, I might be offended," he said trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm just don't believe in relationships, romance or even love for that matter," she confessed.

"Did you use to?" She didn't hang up on him. He wasn't going to let this go.

"Maybe, once upon a time ago," she said.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Look Norman, I really don't want to talk about this, especially with you," she said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked a little defensively.

"I didn't mean to offend you," she said. "I just don't like talking about my past failures in relationships with anyone, much less some stranger I met on a cruise ship."

"Oh, so I'm just a stranger now?" he was getting offended and a little hurt.

"I didn't mean it like that," she said.

"Then how did you mean it," he asked.

"Look, I think we both just need to call it a night," she said. "You have a big day tomorrow."

"Yeah, guess so," he said knowing this conversation wasn't going any further. Chloe had already shut down.

"Good night," she said.

"Night."