“Kevin, hi!” Corinne opened the door, putting a false smile on her face, dreading Kevin’s reaction to Nick’s presence.
“Hi, Kevin.” Nick appeared behind her. “I was just checking up on Corinne. I saw her at the party last night and she wasn’t feeling well.” It wasn’t really a lie; she wasn’t feeling well last night—emotionally, anyway.
“O—kay…” Kevin said hesitantly, not knowing what to think.
“I was on my way out anyway. Bye, Corinne. See ya later, Kev.” Nick tried to appear casual as he walked past Kevin and left.
Corinne felt a little awkward. She didn’t know whether to hug him or what, so just said, “Come, sit down.”
Corinne turned and walked back to the bed and Kevin followed her. That bed was sure getting a lot of use this morning, she thought, but not in the way she would have liked it to.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to put this washcloth back on my head and lie down. I have a really bad headache.” Corinne said as she laid down again, washcloth intact.
“Did you do a lot of partying last night?” Kevin eyed her suspiciously.
“Yeah, I guess I did and I’m paying for it now.” They attempted smiles at each other. Damn, this was really awkward.
“So, Kev, what are you doing here? I thought you would be back in London doing the play.”
Kevin looked at her, puzzled. “Did you not get the message I left you here last night?”
“I…” Corinne started to lie and then changed her mind. “Bab…” she started to say Baby and then stopped. Old habits die hard. “Um, Kevin, I will tell the truth. I started to listen to it and then I hung up right before I was able to hear the reason why you called. Honestly, I wasn’t ready to hear it. I was not feeling that great last night. I tried to listen to it again this morning, but Julia interrupted me.”
“And Nick I guess did, too…” He sighed.
“Yes, he did. He came over right after Julia got here.” She suspected he was fishing for information about whether Nick had spent the night or had come by this morning like Nick had told him.
“Oh! Here.” Kevin pulled her phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. “You’ll probably want this. You dropped it on your way out the other night.”
“Thanks.” Corinne took it from him and put it on the bed next to her.
“So, Kev, since I didn’t hear your message, can you relay it to me now in person? I was curious to know what you wanted to tell me.”
Kevin looked at her. She probably didn’t realize it, but she looked so beautiful lying there with her long hair splayed out around her, her face sans make-up and wearing obviously the same dress from last night. God, what a sexy dress…
He frowned. “That’s a beautiful dress you’re wearing. What happened to it?” He pointed to the neckline.
Corinne looked down. Oh, yeah! She had forgotten about the spilled drink episode.
“Oh, that. That’s nothing. I just spilled a drink on myself accidentally last night.”
“Oh.”
“And thank you for the compliment.” She smiled.
“You’re welcome. So…”
“So, you were about to tell me about the message…”
“Right, the message. Um, I’m not sure I want to right now. It’s kind of lost its luster now…”
Corinne sat up. “Kevin, I really want to hear what you had to say to me; I really do.”
Kevin looked into her eyes. It took all of his strength not to kiss her right here and now, but that wouldn’t solve anything…
“I know you do, but you can listen to it later after I’m gone.”
Corinne was puzzled. What’s going on?
“Can you at least tell me why you are here and not in London?”
“Just listen to the message. I’m going to go, but I will call you later.”
As Kevin started to get up, Corinne grabbed his hand to stop him.
“Baby, wait! I’m sorry if I hurt you…”
“I just wanted to say that my decision to leave had nothing to do with how I feel about you personally… I still really care about you…”
Kevin pulled away and said, “Just listen to the message and I’ll call you later. Bye.” And she watched him walk out on her.
Corinne sat there in shock. That wasn’t like Kevin to be so serious and acting like the fight was taken out of him. He was usually a fighter. Every time they went out in public just the two of them, with Nick, Howie, Brian and AJ or with anyone, he wouldn’t let anyone insult her, offend her and especially try to hit on her. Oh, there were instances where strange men would try, but Kevin would always politely, yet forcefully make them see that she was “his girlfriend” and that was that. Most men got the hint pretty quickly. Corinne had always loved how he had talked to them tactfully instead of resorting to the ape man mentally of punching some guy out. She had always felt loved and well taken care of with Kevin. So, why the hell wasn’t she still with him? Suddenly, the reasons didn’t seem so important anymore…
I must have really hurt him, she thought. And seeing Nick here didn’t help matters, oh God… she never wanted to hurt the man she had loved; she probably still loved.
Corinne grabbed the phone, picked up the receiver to retrieve her voice message again. “You have no messages.” What?! She tried it again and went to the play old messages menu. And a similar message played, “You have no old or saved messages.” NO! She cried out. This can’t be happening! She tried it again three more times. Finally in desperation, she called the front desk.
“Hi, this is Corinne Whitman in Room No. 717. I had a voice mail message from last night that I didn’t get to hear all of and I wanted to replay it, but now it says that I have no old or saved messages. Why is it?” Her heart was beating quickly; she just had to hear that message!
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but our voice mail system is set up so that a guest can only listen to a previously played message twice. After that, the system automatically purges all the messages.”
“Oh my God, no! I really needed to hear that message! Is there anything I can do?!”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but that’s the way the system is setup. I apologize…”
Corinne slammed down the phone, put her head in her hands and started crying. This is fuckin’ unbelievable! She wanted to know right now what Kevin wanted to say to her. Why the hell couldn’t he just tell her when he was here?! And then it dawned on her… maybe it was something serious like he wanted to get married or something? No, that couldn’t be it… but the more she thought about it she suspected that maybe that was it. In the months they were together, the subject of marriage was only brought up once. They had discussed that they both wanted to get married, but maybe within a year or so. They both had things they wanted to accomplish first. Corinne was fine with that at the time because she had decided that when she did get married, she wanted to have a baby right away due to her age and the fact that she always wanted to have a child. She wanted Kevin to be absolutely ready before he proposed and that was why she wasn’t in a major hurry then and she still wasn’t. She loved him, but with the way things were between them now—very precarious, it definitely wasn’t the right time.
Corinne sighed and finally went into the bathroom to take her long-awaited shower. Oh, it felt good to shower again; to let the water wash over her tired and stressed body and ease her sorrows. She remembered taking a shower yesterday before the party soon after she had checked into her room. She had been in depressed state to be sure, but still the excitement of getting ready for that party was in her mind. She was secretly hoping to see Nick there and that was the real reason why she went; not just because Julia had invited her. Nick always had a way of cheering her up. However, once she got there, the memories of the night before between her and Kevin had flooded her mind and she was back in her depressed state again until of course, she saw Nick… Corinne stepped out of the shower and thought, how can I go from thinking about Kevin to thinking about Nick? The entire time she had dated Kevin, she didn’t allow herself to think of Nick as anything more than a friend and now the minute they break up, she’s all over it, so to speak. Corinne shook her head as she toweled off. She was happy her headache was finally gone. She wrapped one of the big white fluffy towels around her head and another around her body, tucking one of the ends into the fold at her chest. Getting ready for last night was fun; picking out her dress and shoes and how her hair would look… she had no idea that by almost noon the next day, major drama would have ensued and her life was still turned upside down. Damn! It was almost time for check-out, she realized.
Corinne hurriedly put her make-up on, did her hair and pulled some jeans and a royal blue short-sleeved blouse on. The blouse buttoned down the front and the top button didn’t quite cover up a hint of her generous cleavage. She smiled at herself in the mirror. Much better! Grabbing her things, she went downstairs to check out.
“Nick? Hi, it’s Corinne.”
“Hi, Corinne!” Nick suddenly perked up, his whole body at attention, his heart pounding wildly.
Corinne was calling Nick was her cell phone in her car. Damn if she were going to sulk around all day or try to talk to Kevin. If he did want to talk about marriage or something serious like that, she wasn’t ready to, at least not today. She wanted to have fun and be carefree this weekend and Nick was just the ticket for that.
“Hey, I just checked out and I’m in my car, but I suddenly don’t have anywhere to go. I don’t want to go home and I really just wanted to do something fun and crazy this weekend. Julia has to work and I don’t really feel like calling any of my other friends.” She took a deep breath. Just say it, Corinne… what harm can it do? She told herself.
“And I was wondering if you had any plans today?” She bit her lip. God, she couldn’t believe she was asking him out. “You know, I just thought we could hang out or something, you know, just as friends…” She quickly added.
“Oh, just as friends, huh?” He smiled.
Nick laughed. “Corinne, it’s okay. Actually I’m packing right now. My friend, Chris invited me to hang out with him, his girlfriend and another couple on his yacht in San Diego for a couple of days. I’m supposed to meet them there in a couple hours or so.” Then Nick hesitated and then said, “Uh, would you like to come?”
“I don’t want to intrude on your weekend plans. I’m sure you were planning to take another woman anyway, right?”
Nick laughed again. “I guess you kind of know me. Yes, I was, but to tell you the truth I would rather take you. This girl who was coming with me is actually just someone I met last weekend. I don’t even really know her. I just asked her because she happened to be there when Chris asked me, so I felt kind of obligated, you know?”
Now it was Corinne’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Don’t tell me; a one-night-stand gone wrong or something?”
Nick chuckled. “Yeah, something like that. So, anyway, I would love it if you came with us, but we aren’t coming home until Monday. I don’t know if you have to work…”
“Not a problem. I have Mondays off.”
“Cool. Corinne?”
“Yes?”
“I want to make sure everything is cool with you and Kevin. Is it over?”
Corinne hesitated and then decided to lie. “Nick, everything is settled. We’re broken up. So, I would love to come with you if you’re absolutely sure.”
Nick’s entire face lit up, not mention he felt a tug in the groin area at the possibilities… “I am! But, can you be packed within 30 minutes? I can pick you up then.”
“I’m on my way home now, so I’ll be ready. Do you know where I live? Oh, wait, yeah, you do. You came over for that dinner party I had… OK, so I’ll see then.”
“See ya." Nick said.
Corinne hung up with a song in her heart. This weekend would make her forget a lot of her woes with Kevin and maybe give her a new outlook on life. Her body tingled with excitement as she drove
