by Nella Tyler
“I probably shouldn’t admit this but this is probably the eighth outfit I tried on,” she said. “I wanted to look nice and sweet and all that.”
“You succeeded,” I told her, giving her hand a squeeze. We stopped at my car and I gave her a quick kiss on the lips before I opened the passenger side door for her. “My parents are going to love you.”
“Who are you trying to convince?” Nicole slid in and grinned up at me. I shrugged and shook my head, hurrying to the driver’s side of the car.
It took us about forty-five minutes to get to the restaurant my parents had arranged to meet us at, and I felt myself getting more and more nervous as we got closer and closer. It wasn’t that I really thought that my parents wouldn’t like Nicole; it was more that I just didn’t know what would happen between them. They had hated Kelsey from the first time they’d met her—and they’d been right, even though at the time I hadn’t been able to see it.
My mom and dad were waiting outside of the restaurant, a mid-range steak house that they’d taken me to on a few other occasions—when I’d been in soccer and won a game, or something like that. “That’s them,” I told Nicole in a low voice as we walked up from our parking spot. She gave my hand a quick, reassuring squeeze.
“Ty! Good to see you, son,” my dad said as we stepped up to the entrance where he and my mom waited. I let go of Nicki’s hand and gave first my dad and then my mom a quick hug.
“Mom, Dad,” I said, taking a quick, deep breath. “This is Nicole. Nicole, this is my mom and dad.”
“You can call me Sylvia,” Mom said, extending her hand to shake Nicole’s. I almost held my breath, waiting for the reaction.
“It’s a real pleasure to meet you, Sylvia,” Nicole said, shaking my mom’s hand and smiling. “Ty’s told me a lot about you.” My mom smiled, glancing at me for just a moment. Nicole turned to my father.
“You can call me Tyler,” my dad said, offering his own hand. Nicole shook it a little more firmly, and I saw the respect in my dad’s eyes.
“It’s good to meet you as well, Tyler,” Nicole told him. “I understand you’re the reason Ty got into the idea of becoming an accountant in the first place.” Dad beamed.
“I’m just proud my son wants to follow in my footsteps,” Dad said, shrugging.
“Let’s head inside; I think they have our table ready for us,” Mom suggested. I took Nicole’s hand in mine and followed my parents in, already starting to feel more relaxed. The restaurant did have the table ready, and I thought—at the last moment, beyond the point when I could have actually warned Nicole—about the fact that I hadn’t coached her at all about what to order or how to order.
Somehow—I was too relieved to remember to ask about it later—Nicole hit exactly the right note with her order. My parents chatted while we waited for the waitress to come to our table, asking if Nicole wanted some wine, pointing out some of the more expensive items on the menu, mentioning some of their favorites.
“I wish I could have some wine,” Nicole said, smiling ruefully, “but I’m underage. I’d hate to put you in the position of being embarrassed when I get carded.”
“We’ll order a bottle for the table,” Dad said, shrugging off the potential for embarrassment. “They won’t ask too many questions—we’re here all the time.”
Then, when we ordered, Nicole managed to hit the exact right note again; she waited until Mom, Dad, and I had ordered and picked something that was right in the same price range. I was so proud of her, so happy that she’d managed to make exactly the right kind of choice—presumably without even knowing what it was my parents were after.
It was obvious to me that my parents were trying to test her—without being too obvious about it. But I could also tell that Nicole was passing with flying colors, seemingly without any effort at all. She sipped her wine when it came, along with her water; she paid attention to whoever was talking at any given moment, and compared notes.
She was as different from Kelsey as it was possible for a girl to be, and different even from my other girlfriends; Nicole was absolutely classy, completely and utterly charming, and I wanted more than anything to take her to the cloakroom and pin her against the wall to show her just how pleased I was with how she was coming across.
She asked my dad questions about accounting—and I was shocked at how much she’d understood of what I’d explained to her. Mom asked about her studies and I jumped in, knowing that Nicole was a little nervous about her classes. “Nicole is still figuring out what she wants to do with her life,” I said. “But she’s got a really full course load: psych, history, literature, math, and the freshman classes.”
“How do you feel about college? I remember it being tough when I first started out,” Mom said, obviously wanting Nicole to answer instead of me.
“It’s tough,” Nicole agreed, smiling wryly. “But I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. Ty has been so good—he’s really such a great support, and I just try to be as supportive of him when I can, even though he never seems to need it.”
“He mentioned that the two of you study together often,” Dad said, glancing at me briefly.
“We do,” Nicole said, and I saw the pink spreading through her cheeks. “In fact, Ty taught me that flash card trick you taught him how to use in high school.” I laughed; it was true that I had taught it to her, and true that Dad had taught it to me in high school, but it was so exactly what she was supposed to say in that moment that it was almost unbelievable.
“I hope the two of you aren’t just shut up in your dorms studying all the time,” Mom said, looking almost concerned.
“Oh no, we also go to campus events together, or to dinner or things like that,” Nicole said. She looked at me and smiled. “Ty is the most wonderful guy I think I’ve ever met in my life.” She glanced at my mother again. “Don’t tell my dad that though—he might actually take it a bit personal that his number one spot has been kicked out from under him.”
By the time we walked out to the car to head home, I knew that my parents had come to a conclusion about Nicole—and I knew that it was a positive one. I hugged my mom goodbye, and she gave me a kiss on the cheek. “She’s beautiful,” Mom murmured in my ear. “Beautiful and sweet.” I pulled back from the hug with a smile and then Dad clapped my shoulder.
“It’s been a pleasure getting to know you a little better, Nicole,” Dad told her. “I hope we’ll get to see you again sometime soon—though I understand you’re going to be at your parents’ for break.”
“Well, if Ty and I find a way to meet up during break, I would love to see you both again too,” Nicole said. Then we were climbing into the car, leaving my parents behind, and I felt the little bit of lingering tension that had been with me all night dissolve. Nicole had met my parents, and my parents had loved her.
We didn’t talk much on the way back to campus, mostly just comparing notes about how much packing we still had to do. I was more than ready to go up to Nicole’s room and distract her for a few more hours, but I knew I’d just feel guilty about it later when she had to spend the whole night making up for lost time, and ended up going home exhausted.
I pulled into my parking spot in the student lot and before Nicole could open the door on the passenger side, I grabbed her carefully and turned her to face me. “You did great with them,” I murmured, even as I leaned in to kiss her.
I sealed Nicole’s lips with my own, sliding my tongue against her until her mouth opened to let me in. In a matter of moments, all of the tension and stress and pride I’d been feeling in the previous few hours came to a peak, and I kissed Nicole as if I wanted to devour her, as if I hadn’t spent the evening eating a long and leisurely dinner. My hands began to move on her body, and I felt the car heating up around us, felt my whole body beginning to warm up and tingle as I got turned on.
I pulled back, taking a quick breath. I reminded myself that Nicole and I both needed to pack to leave campus the next day; if I kept going, I was
n’t going to even remotely be able to stop unless she said something, and we’d just end up spending the rest of the night having sex until we fell asleep.
“Fuck,” I said, sighing. “I should have stopped five minutes ago. I’m hard as a rock.” Nicole giggled and leaned over, kissing me quickly on the lips.
“If you get done packing before midnight, text me,” she said. “We can make time for one last session.” I nodded, taking another breath. I needed to cool off.
“I am so going to get done before midnight,” I told Nicole, grinning at her. “And you’d better be done too.”
“I’ll try,” Nicole said, lowering her eyelashes in the way that always drove me crazy. “You just text me if you’re done.” I gave her a last, quick kiss, and we got out of the car. I was absolutely determined to get all of my packing for winter break done as quickly as possible.
Chapter Five
I parked in the student parking lot on the last day of winter break, my stomach in knots even though my parents had told me at least five times that whatever my grades were, they knew I was working hard, and if I needed to retake anything to get a higher grade, we’d work that out when the time came. I hadn’t exactly admitted just how much doubt I had about my grades; I had just told them that I was nervous.
“Nicki-baby,” Mom had said, cuddling with me on the couch while we watched It’s a Wonderful Life, “your dad and I both know college is tough. Sometimes you have to retake classes—it’s normal.” I didn’t think Ty had ever had to retake a single class.
I had at least managed to see Ty a couple of times during break; two days before Christmas, we’d met to exchange presents—I’d made him some DIY shave cream and face lotion, along with a leather bracelet I’d braided myself, and my mom had knitted him a scarf that I gave him.
He had gotten me a necklace and at first I’d felt terrible about how much more he had to have spent, but he’d sent me a picture of his wrist with the bracelet on it, and his face after he used the products I’d made for him—clean-shaven without a single dab of blood on it—and I felt a little better. I’d sent him a picture of me wearing the necklace and nothing else, and he’d begged me to find a way to sneak over to his parents’ house while they were out at a party.
Classes for spring semester were supposed to start in three days; I’d registered during break, picking two more Literature classes, another History class—world history instead of American history—the second parts of my required freshman classes, and one called Art in East Asia, just because it had seemed interesting, and it would—according to my advisor—fulfill an art credit requirement.
The day before classes started, the previous semester’s grades would appear in the system, and I was as nervous about that as I’d ever been about anything. Ty’s quickie idea had at least made me feel less nervous about my Psych exam, but I had no idea how well I had done on it—or on any of the others.
When his mother had gotten a round of champagne at the dinner when I’d met Ty’s parents, I had hesitated to celebrate my “successful semester,” mostly because I didn’t know if I could actually call it successful. I didn’t even know how many of my classes I might have managed to pass. But I’d drunk the champagne anyway, not wanting to admit to Ty’s parents that I wasn’t sure I’d even manage to finish the year in good standing.
Once I had my bags unpacked, I headed to the dining hall; Ashley had told me that she was headed that way when I arrived on campus. I could only hope that she—and maybe Ty—were still there. I made sure that I had my ID, my phone and my keys, and half-ran down the stairs to get to the lobby of the building. I smiled as I walked across campus, in spite of how nervous I felt, the anxiety bubbling up inside of me at the thought of my possible grades.
I peeked into the dining hall and spotted Ashley sitting with some of our other friends—Magda, Elise, and Julie—but no sign of Ty. Catch up with him later, I told myself. I wasn’t all that hungry, since I’d eaten just before I’d left the house to come back to campus, but I figured an afternoon snack wouldn’t hurt. I grabbed an apple, and a packet of sliced cheese and crackers, and a cup of coffee and headed out into the dining area.
“Hey! Nik! Move over, Elise.” I smiled at my friends and brought my snacks to the table where they were sitting.
“How was everyone’s break?” I opened the packet of cheese and crackers and started eating, looking around at each of my friends.
“I went to like, five holiday parties,” Magda said, shaking her head with a grin. “It was kind of insane.”
“I mostly just slept,” Julie said with a shrug. “And ate all the freaking food in the world. My mom’s taking cooking classes—some Asian-fusion thing—and oh man.”
“What about you, Nicki?” Ashley raised an eyebrow, grinning at me. “I know you and Ty were supposed to meet up during break at least once.” I blushed and lifted the necklace Ty had given me free of my shirt collar.
“Some Christmas present!” The other four girls examined the pendant on it one by one. “What did you get him?”
“I made some stuff—shaving lotion, moisturizer, a bracelet. Mom made him a scarf.” I giggled and rolled my eyes. “But he liked it a lot, so I guess there’s that.”
“Didn’t you mention something about meeting his parents right before break?” I nodded.
“We went to dinner with them the night before break started,” I said. “They seem pretty nice.” Julie grinned.
“I’m sure they liked you better than the last one,” Julie said.
“What do you mean?” I frowned in confusion, thinking of the girl that I’d seen grinding up against Ty when we’d gone out together weeks before. I had almost completely put her out of my mind. I could still—vaguely—remember Ty saying that she was an ex, that she had been kind of a mess. But I couldn’t think of anything else that we’d said about it, except that I hadn’t really felt completely satisfied by the explanation.
“His last ex, Kelsey,” Julie said. She shrugged. “Word has it she was a complete train wreck, but he stayed with her for three years. He gave her all kinds of gifts, took her out all the time, spoiled her. They only just broke up last year at the end of the year—I think it was even at the formal. His parents must be glad that you at least have something more going on for you than drinking and partying.”
I forced myself to smile, even as the words hit me. Ty had been with that girl for three years? It didn’t make any sense. If Kelsey had been such a hot mess, why would he have stayed with her?
And then the other side of that issue popped into my head. He’d been with her for three years, and they’d only broken up months ago—less than a year, anyway. What if I was just a rebound? He was going to be graduating in a few months, going back to his hometown. How could I have been so stupid?
I managed to finish eating my food mostly because I knew the girls would notice if I suddenly lost my appetite, and somehow I also kept up my end of the conversation, even though my mind was spinning. Ty was sweet, and he was kind—and he had given me the best sex I’d had in my life, not that I had much to compare it to—but it was clear to me that he probably wasn’t thinking about me as a long-term girlfriend. I kept my mouth shut about it, but I was full of doubts, questions spinning around in my head. I didn’t know what I could—what I should—do about it.
Chapter Six
About a week after classes started for spring semester, I sat in my room, waiting to hear back from Nicole about going out to dinner together. I’d barely had time to see her once classes started up, and with the weekend coming I wanted to make up for it. I’d planned a nice dinner off campus, and a little bit of dancing, and then we’d spend the night at a hotel. Dad had given me a gift certificate from one of his clients during break, saying that since he and mom had the house to themselves, they didn’t need to go away for privacy.
My phone buzzed, and I grinned to myself, thinking of how surprised Nicole would be by the date. I just knew that she would love it. I unlo
cked my screen and opened up my message app; just as I thought, the message was from Nicole. I opened it and started to read. It was longer than I would have expected for a message sent to confirm she was free that night. As I started to read it, really read it though, it became clear to me why.
Hey, Ty. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and I feel like…considering how much I struggled last semester, and how much harder this semester is going to be, we should probably just take a break. For a little bit. Back off of going out and hanging out and stuff like that. I hate that I have to say this when you’re asking me to go out with you tonight. The words hit my stomach like a lead pipe.
I wrote her back quickly. Is something wrong? You seemed okay the other day when we hung out. Whatever’s going on, we can get through it together. I closed my eyes and hit send, thinking of all of the things I had put together for us for that night. I could probably postpone or cancel them—but the thought of losing Nicole altogether was worse even than the feeling of disappointment at losing our dinner reservation, or not getting the value of the hotel certificate. It was a much bigger thing. My phone vibrated in my hand.
It’s nothing wrong. I just feel like I need to focus a lot more on studying and trying to get ahead. I didn’t do that great last semester, and if I want to keep my GPA up, I need to really keep my nose to the grindstone.
I half-smiled, understanding but still absolutely baffled as to why Nicole would pick that moment to back off of our relationship. Hadn’t I done everything I could to support her—just as she’d done everything she could to support me? Hadn’t I helped her out the previous semester, giving her tips and tricks and study time? How could I possibly be a liability to her?
If you feel like you need to focus on schoolwork, we can do that without having to take a break, I wrote back. I really feel like we can probably balance it. I mean I’ve been at this a long time. I can still help you with making the grades. We can work this out, Nicki-babe.
