History Repeated Part 4: Total Recall
Tess couldn't sleep. No matter how much she tried, she was confronted by images of her and Nick. Snuggling into the pillow which still had his strong scent on it wasn't helping things either. But she couldn't help herself. She loved him, she missed him, and she wanted him. The only problem was she couldn't have him.
Even after Nick left he couldn't get her out of his mind. It was like she was permanently etched into his brain. Every thought was of Tess. He'd spent a total of two and a half hours with her, but that was enough to unleash the feelings he had been hiding for years.
"Mate, ya wanna keep your mind on the job?" Alex hollered at him, "I'm the only one doing any work"
"Sorry, Alex," Nick cleared his throat, shook his head, and began to help his brother clean out the silo.
"Go on, spit it out," Alex said, resting on his broom.
"Spit what out?" Nick asked.
"Since you got off that plane last night you've been walking around like a sick calf. Something's eating at you"
Nick sighed. Was he that transparent? He wondered if Sally had noticed the change too. "I saw Tess in the city."
"Yeah?" Was all that escaped Alex' mouth. He wondered if he really wanted to hear the rest of Nick's sentence. Whatever happened between the two had definitely knocked Nick around. He looked as though he hadn't had a wink of sleep the night before.
"I slept with her, Alex" Nick blurted it out without thinking, but it was eating away at him.
Alex was speechless. What the hell was he supposed to say to something like that? How was he meant to respond? By patting his brother on the back and saying 'Good on ya, mate' or by smacking him in the head for being such a bloody idiot?.
"Nick," Alex began, "I wish you'd make up your bloody mind about which one of them you want to be with. You can't flutter between the two of them forever."
"She doesn't want anything to do with me anyway," Nick sighed.
"How did you find her anyway?" Alex asked. "Did you go rifling through my address book?"
"Of course not," Nick spat "I ran into her and Charlotte in the street."
Alex sighed and continued to clean out the silo again. After about two minutes of silence, he turned to Nick. "Are you still in love with her, Nick?" He asked the question that had been playing on his mind for the past few minutes, and the past few years.
Nick nodded "Head over heals."
"Well for christ's sake, do something about it before you regret it," Alex told him.
"I can't just walk out on Sally and the kids, Alex"
"You were never really there, Nick" Said Alex, "We both know that you only married Sally out of a sense of duty. I think she knows it too. Why settle for second best?"
"Because I have kids to think about. I can't just abandon Harrison and Libby," Nick replied.
"If you wanna be miserable, that's your choice. But at least do the right thing and tell Sal what happened between you and Tess."
Nick nodded. He had already decided he was going to. He wasn't a liar. Sally had to know the truth whether he wanted to tell her or not.