Bethany suggesting to her uncle Nick that I should join him for his wine sampling was unexpected, but as soon as I heard her, I hoped that maybe he would extend the invite to me himself. Doubt shrouded my mind as he shooed off his niece and stood awkwardly before me, looking nervous.

"She's right you know. You should totally come to that wine thingy. And before you make up an excuse – "

"Excuses? I'm sold, I'm there. What time?"

"Oh ok, er, five?"

"It beats stock tacking with Kirky you see. See ya."

With that final statement, I strutted off down the street to nowhere in particular as I refused to let him see the daft smile that had taken over my face. As if I would not want to have an evening of drinking free wine, having a laugh, and spending time with someone who makes me happy. That was a terrifying thought within itself as Nicholas Tilsley, the man I spent most of my time avoiding or groaning at over the past years was fast becoming someone I cared a lot about. The man had a way of making me smile and feel free again, he was someone I sought out and wanted to spend time with. Recently everything I did during the day involved him somehow and if it didn't, my mind was filled with him and I felt like a schoolgirl again.

By the time five o'clock rolled around, I was too engrossed in sending out my final emails for the day to notice I was running late. It wasn't until Alya and Sally were being competitive by who was more committed to staying late that I realised the time. I was only running ten minutes behind and the Bistro was practically next door, but I still felt guilty and quickly logged off. Gathering my bag and coat, I barely spared a glance at the women before racing out of the door.

"Will one of your lock-up? Thanks, girls."

My heels carried me quickly to the Bistro even if my gaze faltered for a second and was drawn to the closing of number one's front door. I wasn't sure why my attention was called over there, but I shook myself out of it and walked straight into the restaurant to look for Nick. It wasn't hard as he was at a small table with a man and loads of wine glasses, as soon as his eyes landed on mine, his smile was broad and he stood to welcome me, ignoring the seller. He made introductions and I noticed the seller's gaze on me immediately, I sat down and made myself comfortable though, ready to start enjoying some free wine.

"This one has a slight undertaste of oak and…"

The seller was just background noise at this point as he described the drink pretentiously, we had yet to have a proper drink of anything as he demanded to describe everything and watch us swirl each glass. The flirting with him was constant and almost funny to me as I hadn't been flirted within a while and he was noticeably confident in his approach. Nick and I were behaving like children, holding back laughs, taunting each other, and enjoying each other's company, it was one of the best evenings I had had in a long while.

My favourite moment was still when the seller flirted a little too eagerly for Nick's liking and he abruptly objected, trying to put a stop to it. In the back of my mind, I hoped he reacted out of jealousy rather than protecting a friend as surely, he could see I wasn't going to respond to his advances.

"So, I have the order form, you've tried the product, what can I get for you?"

Suddenly I found myself trying to find out how far I could push Nick, to see how far he would let me go before he told me no or shut me down. I got closer to the business owner and looked at the list with prices as I started to point at various ones, I could vaguely remember liking. To my surprise, he jokingly objected but listened to every suggestion and ordered a great amount, he genuinely valued my opinions. The seller was obviously pleased as he left after making such a big sale and I found myself smiling at Nick.

"That order is going to cost me a fortune."

"Aye, you can't begrudge a girl a bit of fun, the most exciting thing I get to order is some knicker elastic."

"Fair point, just don't tell my family, they see free booze as a birthright."

"Ok, I promise."

Did he know how he was looking at me? Did he understand what thoughts he was putting in my head and how stupidly happy it was making me?

Before any more conversation could take place, before anything more could escalate the situation as I sipped on wine, Steph came over demanding her boss's attention and pulling me out of my head.

"Nick!"

He raised his hand to dismiss her, and I felt bad for monopolising all his time when he was clearly needed to help run the bistro, it wasn't fair of me. Instead of wasting any more of his time or nonsense, I gathered my coat and made my excuses.

"Oh, you know what, I will leave you to it."

I stood feeling a little dizzy from the effects of the booze and grabbed my stuff as he stood too, to see me out, ever the gentleman.

"Ok, why don't I… er, I'll erm, walk you home."

"No, no, I'm fine."

My actions contradicted my words though as I stumbled in my heels and felt his hands reach out to steady me so that I didn't fall.

"Wow."

"I'm fine."

"Ok."

We were umming and awing at each other awkwardly and then he reached out to help me with my coat, we were so close to one other, I could feel his breath on my face.

"Thank you."

"So, erm…"

As I moved to kiss his cheek, we were both moving our heads weirdly around each other until finally, our lips met in a short kiss. It was basically a peck, but it still had him blushing as he looked down and said goodbye, turning quickly with a smile on my face, I spoke my goodbye to the air.

"Night."

The turn of events shocked me, but it was something that just happened, no thoughts, no chasing, it just happened, and I couldn't tell whose fault it was. There had to be something between us that he wasn't picking up on as I clearly knew what I wanted, it was standing in his restaurant, hopefully smiling, and thinking about the moment we just shared. The smile wasn't budging as I walked down the street wrapped up in my own world, it felt new. Maybe I wouldn't have kissed him if I weren't tipsy, but I definitely didn't regret it, not one bit. It was only as I approached number one and heard my name called that I got out of my own head and finally looked at Simon.

"Alright, Si?"

"Yeah erm…"

I took a few more steps to get closer to the boy that was once my stepson and reached my arms out to steady myself after finding myself a bit wobbly when walking. I received a smirk from the young boy at my difficulty walking and smiled in response to his reaction. He looked behind him into the house as he hesitated what to say but I was in no mood to wait around and I didn't want to spoil the good mood one simple kiss had done to me. So, I reached out to squeeze his shoulder and went to walk past him, until he stopped me once again.

"How is erm – how is your laptop since I looked at it?"

It seemed like a strange question to ask me and it took a while for my brain to catch up with what he was saying, I forgot that he had even looked at my laptop let alone fixed it. As soon as my brain realised, I released his shoulder and finally reacted.

"Oh yeah, no, yeah the laptop is all good, no issues there, if there is at least I have your number ready to call."

"What's all this then?"

That voice. His voice. The one I hadn't heard in so long and was secretly hoping not to hear again for a very long while was spoken right behind me. It sent a shiver down my spine and my mind sobered up quickly, my whole body went rigid in reaction and it was a weird feeling. Peter was right behind me asking such a simple question and I didn't even know how to react or what to do, my eyes were still glued to Simon. My mind was racing with questions such as, what was he doing back here? Was he back for good? How much of my life did he know? Why was Simon smiling at me and his dad? Well, that one I could probably answer as he set me up, kept me here just long enough for his dad to come out of the house, I just didn't know why?

"I was just asking Carla how her laptop was, she broke it the other week and I fixed it for her."

Then the men were laughing at me and Peter was moving around me to his to force me to look at him, I hated to admit it but he looked good, better than he should do. Something in their reactions had me agitated and wanting to set them straight, I wasn't as useless as they thought, I never broke anything.

"Actually, it was Nick who broke it, I asked him to help when it froze but he was the one who totalled it."

The smiles on their faces faltered and although I was pleased to have them stop looking at me like that, I was annoyed at myself and the booze in my system that made me mention Nick. Peter was quick to regain his composure and smile at me again, pretending like I hadn't just mentioned Nick's name. Luckily, before anything else could be said, I heard the footsteps and bickering of Ken and his stepdaughter, Tracy, as their voices got louder, they finally came out of the house and joined our weird gathering. Of course, Tracy was the first to react to my presence and quite loudly at that.

"What is she doing here?"

"Leaving."

I was in no mood to have Tracy ruin the good day I had had, but as I tried to move away from the gathering of Barlow's I stumbled again, my legs not getting the memo that my brain had sobered and no longer wanted to be tipsy, it wasn't the time.

"Oh, and she's drunk, what a surprise."

She really never knew when to shut up.

"Are you alright Carla?"

At least Ken had an ounce of care about him and wanted to check my wellbeing, he held my arm for support and gave me a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, sorry Ken, I was just wine tasting, apparently it all adds up rather quickly on an empty stomach."

It wasn't a lie, but I wasn't giving them everything to my truth, they didn't need to know it was at the Bistro or with Nick, they didn't need to know about our kiss, our laughs, and our fun. Tracy scoffed at my explanation but didn't see any more after a stern look from her stepfather, it had me thankful for him. He smiled back at me and released my arm so that I was supporting myself once again, I started to feel more stable luckily, and was a good thing as I still had steps to take to get back home. Just as I was about to walk away Peter still had more to say, he still wanted to keep me there, to keep me talking.

"Where was your wine tasting?"

His voice was mocking but I could tell that he wanted to find out more, he was curious about my life and I refused to let him think he had the upper hand.

"At the Bistro, my excellent wine skills have finally come of use after all these years."

It was smugness with humour in my voice and I intended it to be a joke, Peter let his smile slip slightly and I almost felt pleased with that. Ken didn't take notice of my comment though and continued the conversation happily.

"Ah, the Bistro, that's where we are going, a family meal you see. Would you like to join us?"

"Dad, no, come on."

For once in my life, I agreed with Tracy and her reaction, I really didn't want to go and have a meal with them, and I was struggling to think of a quick lie to get me out of it.

"No, it's fine Ken, I've spent too long in there today. In any way, the good wine won't be in stock for a couple of weeks, well you'll have to double-check with Nick. Anyway, I'll erm, leave you to it."

I don't know why I mentioned Nick again, maybe it was a slip of the tongue or something I could blame on the alcohol but maybe it was the reaction I got to see on my ex-husband's face. Whatever the answer was, I ignored my feeling of pettiness and started to walk back to the flats so that I could finally take my heels off. Simon shouted his farewell when nobody else did, no one else wanted to yell, and instead of verbally responding, I raised my hand to say goodbye without looking back. I ignored the talk from the group that was obviously about me, I tried to get the gooey feeling back about Nick rather than being petty to my ex-husband. Then again, I tried not to focus too hard on the kiss I shared with Nick and the feelings that were bubbling inside of me, it hurt to overthink it. Surely, I had been a little too obvious, a little too eager, surely, he could tell I liked him, yet he wasn't doing anything about it, he wasn't chasing after me and if he didn't feel the same, he was leading me on which wasn't fair.

I reached my flat door and ignored my instinct to go up another level and bang on Nick's door, he wasn't even in. Then though, if I pushed Nick to the back of my mind, my mind was suddenly consumed with another man, my thoughts were filled with Peter Barlow. Why was he back and how long for? Why was I finding myself caring? I couldn't help it though, if I tried to stop thinking about Nick, I thought about Peter, if I stopped thinking about Peter then it was back to Nick, the circle went round and round, never stopping.

Nick was my new friend, someone I found myself relying on and trusting, he had become someone I sought out, someone I wanted to see, someone I wanted to spend time with. That space used to be filled by Peter and I wasn't stupid, I knew what it meant now that Nick took that place. It wasn't that easy anymore as Peter was back physically, even if it was just for the night, he was back in my head. I had spent so much of my time thinking about the man I married, the thoughts running round in my head nonstop, finally, they had stopped though, stopped without me noticing. Did Nick help stop those constant thoughts? Did my brain and more importantly, my heart, finally get over him? Seeing him again was weird though, as a shock to my system, his image wasn't just a memory to me anymore, but it was updated he looked better than I remembered, and I hated him for that.

I tried to move away from these thoughts as I slipped off my shoes and tied my hair up to wash off my already probably smeared makeup. They followed me like an obsessed stalker though, I looked in the mirror in the bathroom and wondered what the two men thought when they saw me today, how differently did they see me? I mean one had seen me naked and the other, I guess I hoped would see me naked. I needed to stop that. Nick was the first good friend I had had in a while, apart from Michelle but she didn't count, she loved me enough to be mean and tell me the truth even when it hurt, Nick just wanted to comfort and protect me.

Nick.

I saw the smile in the mirror and fought past it as I washed my face and cleared my nightly routine, my mind was filled with him again. The man with the annoying family, the family he felt the need to help constantly and fix their problems, it gave him more grief. Anyone else would just focus on themselves, but not him, no, he was a family man and cared about everyone, including me.

My thoughts drifted as I lay in bed ready to sleep, they remained on my neighbour as I stared at the ceiling. Wondering. Wondering if he walked into the building and wondered whether he should stop on my floor to knock as I wondered about going up one more floor to see him. Wondering if I filled his mind like he did mine, but I doubted that, he was too busy thinking off everyone else and how to help them. I wondered if he found himself thinking about me randomly, consumed with me, and unable to stop smiling like me. Did he think of me the same way I thought of him?

I started writing fanfic to challenge my writing, which I have improved but not grown, I want to work more on dialogue and less depressing plots, hopefully, this stays light and fun. Fingers crossed.