Nick woke up to the phone ringing. "Hello?" he answered groggily.
"Nick its Heather. Are we still on for lunch?"
"Oh crap. I totally forgot I’m so sorry. Its just Erica got sick and when she got better I decided to have a party. I knew I forgot to call someone!"
"Nick it’s ok."
"Well the party isn’t until dinner time. We could still do lunch."
"Ok Nick. Is Erica coming?"
"Hold on let me check." Nick rolled over to talk to Erica. "Baby," he whispered gently shaking her awake. "Baby, wake up."
Erica slowly stretched and opened her eyes. "Good morning baby." Nick said as she kissed him. "Are you still coming with me for lunch with Heather?"
"Yeah I guess I am." She said and let him kiss her neck.
"Thank you."
"Your welcome."
Nick turned back to the phone, "Sorry it took so long I had to wake her up."
"Is she in a different room?"
"No right here beside me."
"So that means you guys have already…"
"Nope."
"Oh ok. Never mind I won’t ask."
"Oh shut up Heather. We really haven’t. I’m serious."
"Sure you are."
"Heather…" Nick wined.
"Ok sorry. I take it you talked to her?"
"Yeah but she fell asleep with me the first night she was here."
"Oh I bet she was listening."
"Huh?"
"Nothing Nick. Just remember if you ever need to really talk to her you know how. You always show your true feeling when you’re asleep."
"Ha. Ha. Very funny Heather."
"You know I’m just playing with you."
"Yes… ooh that feels good… Oops wait stop I’m still on the phone. Um, Heather I’m gonna go now." Nick joked.
"Ha, ha Nick. I take it you were sleeping?"
"Yup. Erica’s a bad little girl." Erica spun around to Nick.
"What did I do?"
"Nothing baby. Could you um, massage my neck?"
"Fine just get off the phone soon."
"Ok Heather. We’ll meet at our table. You know what I mean right?"
"Of course I do. That’s where we met and shared our first pizza."
"Exactly… a little to the left yeah that’s it."
"Ok I’ll leave the two of you alone see you around noon."
"What time is it Nick?" Erica said turning back over.
Nick looked at the clock. "It’s um, 8:00."
"She sure did wake you up early considering you’re not on tour."
"Nah she’s always done that."
"Oh ok."
Nick pulled Erica close to him and kissed her face and neck. She liked the feel of his bare chest on her back. He wrapped his arms around her waist under her shirt. She had worn the shirt he gave her the first day every night that week. He almost unbuttoned it but stopped himself. A thought popped in his head and he wasn’t aware that he had thought aloud.
"Yes I’m a virgin, why?" Erica asked confused.
"Oh my god did I say that out loud? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to."
"It’s ok. Why did you want to ask?"
"I don’t know it just popped in my head."
"Meaning you weren’t exactly thinking, ‘is she a virgin?’ you were thinking more along the lines of, ‘I want to be the one to take it away’. Am I correct?" she turned to face him again.
Nick blushed slightly. "Yes. I’m sorry." He whispered.
"No need to be embarrassed." She kissed his cheek. ‘I want him to be the one to take it away too.’ She thought.
They kissed again and were making out and when their door opened they didn’t even notice.
"Oops I’m sorry Nick I didn’t know…" Aaron stumbled to find something to say.
"What the…" Nick turned to see who had just said something to him. "Aaron!" Nick jumped out of the bed and ran to his little brother. "I missed you so much!" he swung the boy in the air.
"Um, Nick you don’t have to act like I didn’t see that." Then he whispered, "I suggest you put on some pants before she notices that."
"Oops. I’ll be right back." Nick put his brother down and ran to his closet.
"Hi."
"Hi, you must be Erica."
"Yeah. I am."
"You don’t look sick to me."
"Good. That means I’m better."
"Nick called the house crying the other night. It seemed like he would’ve rather just talked to me about it but he knew mom wanted to talk to him so he ended up talking to everyone."
"Oh, I didn’t know he called you guys."
"You were asleep. He sounded really scared."
"You can come over here and talk to me." Erica pointed at the chair she had sat on the first night.
"Ok." Aaron sat down just as Nick walked back in.
"Better?"
"Much." Aaron answered. "I put all my stuff in the extra bedroom. It looked like no one was actually using it."
Erica blushed as he handed her the small box she had left on the dresser. "I figured it was yours. Don’t worry I don’t go through anybody’s things but Nick’s."
"Thank you Aaron. Nick would you help me up?"
Nick reached down and pulled her up. They kissed and Nick smiled at Aaron who was smiling at the couple.
At breakfast when Erica left to go to the bathroom Aaron turned to Nick. "I like her a lot better than Mandy or Jess. She’s nice."
"Thank you Aaron. Are you going to come with us to lunch?"
"Sure. Um, have you guys… well."
"No we haven’t. I do believe that is the question of the day."
"I’m sorry I didn’t mean to intrude."
"You’re my brother believe me I’ll tell you when we do." Nick smiled as Erica walked back in.
"What exactly is that look for?"
"Nothing baby. Just having a mano y mano conversation."
Aaron stifled a laugh, as Erica looked at Nick puzzled.
"I won’t ask what it was about. I probably know already."
"Yeah you probably do… it was about strawberry lip gloss." Nick teased.
Aaron watched as Erica sat down on Nick’s lap. "I love you."
"I love you too."
Nick kissed her a few times and smiled content. "Yup, I love that strawberry lip gloss."
"I won’t ask what that’s supposed to mean." Aaron got up and went to his room.