"Hi Nicky." She told him with a smile as she wrapped him in a friendly embrace as soon as she saw him.
Nick swallowed hard.
"I'm married." He blurted.
"I know, you told me on the phone, congratulations." She responded.
"Thank you." He managed.
"Nick, are you alright, you look like you have just seen a ghost." She commented.
"I'm alright, a little hot, but ok, let's order." He stammered.
They ordered their coffee (Nick being a gentleman, paid for hers) and then they sat down.
They talked about their careers, his as a CSI and hers as a research scientist.
They also talked about their families, she'd never married but she had a little girl from a long term relationship she'd been in that had recently fallen apart.
A couple hours passed before either of them had known it.
"Wow, I can't believe we've been here a little over two hours." He said.
"Yeah, the time really flew." She responded.
"Hey, I'm staying at one of the big hotels on the strip and they are having a baseball card convention there, you should come check it out with me, I know how much you like baseball after all." She said with a slight twinkle in her eye, referring to his days in college when he had been on his college baseball team.
He had always enjoyed baseball card collecting, he even had a very small collection himself and he'd like to go check out the convention but he wasn't sure he should.
He thought about calling Jackie and making sure she'd be ok with it but it was late and because school had started again she had to once again get up early and he didn't want to wake her and he knew for certain the kids would already be asleep when he got home so he didn't see the harm in going for just a short while.
"Alright, I'll go check it out." He finally agreed.
They decided to take their own cars because it would be pointless to have to drive back to the coffee shop.
Nick held the door open for her as she got into her car.
She flashed him a grateful smile, she had the whitest teeth of anyone he'd ever seen.
As he followed her back to her hotel he started to get an uneasy feeling, maybe he shouldn't be doing this, he couldn't deny that this woman had changed into an incredibly beautiful woman and here he was heading over to her hotel.
TBC