“Now boarding first class, flight 197, Boston to Los Angeles. First class only.”

Tyler grabbed his bag. All he had with him was his change of clothes for after practice. As soon as he got off the phone with Freddy, he sprinted out of the locker room to find Claude, not even bothering to take off his skates. He asked for a few personal days off, expecting to have to fight for it. Claude let him go. Tyler drove straight to Logan Airport from Ristuccia, even paying the ridiculous fee to leave his car there overnight. He bought one of the only tickets left for the next flight to California. It cost him nearly $3,000. He didn’t care.

He pulled out his boarding pass and showed it to the woman at the desk. He made his way onto the plane. Once in his seat, he took out his phone and sent Freddy a text.

I’m on a plane to see her. I need to know where she’s staying and what her room number is.

After making sure the text went through, he put his phone on airplane mode. He realized that he had nothing to do to keep himself entertained throughout the six hour flight. He could buy an in flight movie, but it would only last a third of the time, and there was nothing good. Instead, he pulled his headphones out of his bag and plugged them into his phone. He selected the playlist that contained the songs Nicki got for him.

** * * * * *

“It worked! It fucking worked!” Brad screamed into the phone. “Freddy you’re a genius!”

Freddy laughed. He knew that it would work. Nicki made him promise not to tell Tyler where she was. She never said anything about Brad.

“I know, I know. I needed to do something. I don’t even care if she gets mad at me. I just hope Tyler doesn’t screw it up.”

“He won’t. He looked like he was about to cry when he left. I wouldn’t worry,” said Brad.

“And Claude was totally fine with it?” That was the part that Freddy really couldn’t believe.

“Yeah. It’s been affecting his game. So when I told him what we were going to do, he was all in. Besides, the only game we have lined up is against the Panthers. They suck.”

“Good. Well I gotta go. I’ll let you know if either of them calls me. Thanks for the help Marchy.”

“Anytime!”

Freddy hung up the phone. He had about six hours to find a way to get Nicki’s room number without making her suspicious.

** * * * * *

The first thing Tyler did when he got off of the plane was check his phone. He had a single text from Freddy.

Freddy: received 15:03:57: shes at the sheraton in san diego. room 809. go get her bro

Tyler was confused over the time he had received the text. Then he realized that on the flight over, he gained an extra three hours. Back home it was after six.

He wished he had brought some cooler clothes. As he stood in line to rent a car, he couldn’t stop sweating. He didn’t even have sunglasses to shield his eyes from the vibrant California sun. His turn finally came. He ended up with a black Dodge Charger. It suited him just fine.

Once inside the car, he started it up and plugged the address for the Sheraton in San Diego into the GPS system. It was a two hour drive from LAX to San Diego. He blasted the A.C.

** * * * * * *

Nicki stripped out of her uncomfortable court clothes. She felt like a stiff wearing a woman’s suit. She looked like she could have been her brother’s lawyer. It was only five o’clock and she was done for the day. There was still some time left to do something fun.

She grabbed one of her bikinis out of her suitcase. She hadn’t bothered to unpack since she didn’t know when she would be leaving. She stepped into the bottom. Her phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey sweetie. How are you doing?” Her father called her every few hours when she wasn’t in the courtroom.

“I’m okay. They called it an early day today. I just got back. I think I’m gonna lay out by the pool while the sun is still up.”

“It’s good to hear that you can still relax a little. How’s Jason?”

Nicki sat down on her bed, still topless. “He says he’s doing fine. He looks awful, dad.” She felt terrible thinking it, but she had a hunch that her brother really was guilty.

“I’m sure he does. I wish I could be there with you, honey.”

“I know. Me too.” There was a knock on her door. She looked through the small hole to see who it was. “Dad, I’m gonna have to call you back.”

Nicki hung up the phone and raced across the room to put her bikini top on. She didn’t bother trying to cover anything else up. She unhooked the chain on the door and undid the lock. Tyler stood in the hallway. He didn’t say a word. Instead of speaking, he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed, hard. She felt him rest his chin on the top of her head.

It was Nicki who pulled away.

“What the hell are you doing here?” She asked once she got her bearings.

“I had to see you. How could you not tell me any of this?” She saw the hurt in his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been dealing with a lot.”

Her words stung him. She didn’t mean to make him feel worse. She was just being honest. He looked down at the ground.

“Ty…” Nicki didn’t know what to say to him. It was like there was a wall between them, keeping them from telling each other how they felt.

He put his hands around her waist. “What can I do to make you forgive me? I swear I’ll do anything.”

His hands on her skin reminded her of how much she missed him. On the outside, she tried to appear tough. On the inside, she was melting. How could she not forgive him? He flew across the country to see her. Wait a minute…

“How did you find out that I was here?”

“Marchy.”

Nicki shook her head. Freddy kept her promise while breaking it. She tried her hardest to be strong. She gave in and wrapped her arms around Tyler’s neck. Maybe the strongest thing she could do was forgive him.

“It’s okay,” she whispered in his ear. “I forgive you.”

He held her a little tighter and kissed her again on the head, in the same place as before.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” she said when he let go.

“I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You could have just called me,” she said, laughing.

“I wanted to see you,” he admitted. “And I wanted to be here for you. I’m still in shock about what’s going on. How are you holding up?”

“I’m not really sure,” she said.

She filled him in on all of the details that had accumulated over the last three days of trial. They had a lot of evidence against her brother. The prosecutor decided that the motive was drugs. They found multiple traces of drugs in his system, and those were just the ones he did right before he got caught. It didn’t look good for him.

“Nicki, I’m so sorry,” Tyler said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. She brought her hand up over his.

“Well, I was about to go to the pool and relax. The sun will only be up for another hour or so. Wanna come?”

“That sounds great.” He looked her over. Nicki got the feeling that he hadn’t even realized that she was in a bikini until she mentioned the pool. “You look really good.”

She blushed. It was the first time in a long time that he made her do that.

“It looks like you didn’t bring much,” she said, “I’m guessing you don’t have a bathing suit?”

He shook his head.

“They have a store near the lobby. We can get you one there.”

“Okay. Just please don’t make me wear a Speed-o,” he said. “My legs are too white.”

Nicki cracked up. “Oh, that’s the only thing holding you back? Come on, let’s go.”

She slipped on her flip flops and pulled a cover-up over her head. She grabbed his hand and led him out of the room. He laced his fingers between hers. That was just fine with her.

The bathing suit they got for Tyler was a little too big, but it wasn’t a Speed-o. It was 5:45 by the time they got to the pool. It was a gorgeous place. Palm trees lined half of it, and the other half looked out over the harbor.

“The sunsets here are amazing,” she said.

“It sounds like you’ve been here before,” said Tyler as he sat in one of the lounge chairs.

“Yeah. Every year since I was a baby my family would come out here. I’m guessing that’s why Jason ended up here, of all places.”

“That would make sense.”

Nicki took off her dress. It wasn’t too warm out, but the pool was heated.

“Are you going in?” Tyler asked her.

“Eventually. Once the sun sets I will. I haven’t gotten the chance to watch it yet. Every day so far the sun has been down by the time I got out of court. I’m telling you, it’s amazing. It’ll change the way you look at things.”

Tyler opened up his arms. “Well come here, we can watch it together.”

Nicki stared at him for a moment. God, she missed him. She gathered her courage and walked over to him. He spread out his legs and patted the space between them. Nicki sat and leaned back. He wrapped his arms around her bare stomach. She let her head fall back onto his shoulder. Tyler kissed her gently on her temple. She closed her eyes and snuggled up to him.

Nothing could have made that moment more perfect. They were the only two in the entire pool area. The orange light from the sun made everything look soft. For the next hour, they watched the sun go down in silence. When the sky finally turned blue again, Tyler broke the silence.

“You were right,” he said.

“About what?” She turned her head to look at him.

“That did change the way I look at things.”

He took one of his arms off of her stomach and brought his hand up, placing it underneath her chin. He lifted her head and pressed his lips against hers. Nicki reached up to touch his face. She put her hand on the back of his head and pulled him closer to her. This time, there was no one to stop them.

He pulled away to look at her. The darkness that had fallen gave them a sense of privacy. Nicki needed a chance to catch her breath. She could feel his heart beating just as fast as hers. She moved and sat on top of him, arms around his neck. He held her tight as she kissed him passionately. Their lips moved in time together, tongues meeting in the middle. Every second that passed made her feel closer to him. There was an electricity between them that she couldn’t ignore.

* * * * * *

Tyler was the one who finally pulled away. He cupped her face in his hands.

“I would love to do nothing but this for the rest of the night. But first there are some things that I want to say.” He finally found the courage to speak up.

Nicki leaned in to kiss him softly one more time before climbing off of him. She sat cross legged at the end of his chair, ready to listen.

“I don’t really know where to begin,” he started. “First of all, I want to say that I'm so sorry for hurting you. I made some really poor decisions that night. And I want to explain why, because you deserve at least that much.”

He stopped, trying to think of the right thing to say. He felt Nicki place her hand just above his knee.

“I was sitting at the bar that night, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I was frustrated and pissed off because I didn’t know what to do. I had it etched into my mind that we could never be anything more than friends. And I feel really bad, because at some point I realized that you wanted more than that. I just wasn’t ready. Then Adam comes up to me and hands me a beer. So I drink it, hoping it will clear my head. And it did. Too much. To the point where I wasn’t even thinking. I knew then that I had feelings for you, and my drunken ass figured if I had sex with these girls the feelings would just go away and I wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. I know you said you forgive me. But I don’t think I forgive myself yet. Nicki, I want to be with you. Only you.” He looked down as he finished speaking. Maybe he had said too much.

When he finally found the guts to look up, tears were falling one at a time down Nicki’s face. He waited for her to say something. Anything. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, then once more on the lips.

“That’s all I ever wanted,” she said, as she stroked the side of his face with the back of her hand. Tyler closed his eyes. It was so comforting.

The moment was broken up by Nicki’s phone. It was vibrating on the small table next to them.

“It’s probably my dad,” she said as she leaned over him to get it. Tyler got the feeling she didn’t realize that she was sticking her chest in his face. She leaned back and looked at him. “It’s Jason’s lawyer.”

“Hello?”

As interested as Tyler was in what the lawyer had to say, he was having a hard time concentrating. Nicki had her legs spread wide over his. Today was the first time he had seen her with basically no clothes on. He ran his hands along her curves, trying to memorize every inch of her.

Lying with her while the sun set had brought on a moment of clarity for him. It was when he realized that he didn’t want to be anywhere else in the entire world that he could admit to himself he really did have feelings for her. As soon as he did, he felt like he was drowning in thoughts of her. All of the memories they had. The memories they could make. It was overwhelming in the most amazing way. He couldn’t believe that he had been missing out on that feeling for so long. He felt alive.

“Tyler? Hello?” Nicki waved a hand in front of his face.

“Huh? Sorry.” He had no idea what just happened.

“Were you just staring at my belly button?”

“Uh, no. I was just thinking.”

She tilted her head. “Did you hear any of that conversation?”

“Nope. You wearing a bikini sitting on top of me was slightly distracting.”

That made her smile. “Well, the lawyer said that some evidence got mishandled. They’ve cancelled court for tomorrow to try to get things in order. How long are you staying?”

“I’m not going home without you. I’m staying until this is over.” He said, brushing a piece of hair out of her face. All of the sudden, he couldn’t stand not touching her.

“Ty that’s really sweet. But you have a life to get back to. What about Marshall? And hockey?” He read the doubt in her eyes.

“You are all I need to worry about for now. Freddy’s aunt picked up Marshall and brought him to her house. And Claude gave me some personal time off. Unless you want me to leave…”

“Never,” she said as she kissed him.

The emotions that they had kept pent up for so long were all coming out at once. Tyler never wanted to lose that feeling.

“Brr, it’s getting kind of cold out,” Nicki said. She got up. “Ready to go for a swim? I don’t have to be in bed early tonight, let’s make the most of it.”

She grabbed his hands and pulled him up. She ran over to the deep end of the pool and dove in. She had a pretty good dive. Tyler preferred to ease himself in. He was expecting the water to be at least a little cool, but it felt like a warm bath. Nicki swam over to him and pushed her hair out of her face.

“You’re sexy,” he said as he grabbed her.

She kicked a little, pretending to fight. She was strong for a girl. But not strong enough to break Tyler’s grip. He pulled her towards him through the water. She wrapped her legs around his hips and her arms around his neck.

“You always do that,” he said.

“Do what?” Her face was only inches away from his.

“Put your arms around my neck. How come?”

“I dunno. I guess it just feels right,” she said, shrugging.

“Like this?” he asked as he kissed her again.

Every kiss felt like their first. It was new and exciting and different. He put his hands underneath her thighs and hoisted her up, so that her head was above his. When he did that, her kiss changed from soft and romantic to heated and passionate. She ran her fingers through his hair, even pulling it a little. That only provoked him more.

Tyler broke away and moved his lips down her neck. He tasted chlorine, but he didn’t care. He felt her legs squeeze tighter around him, coaxing him. He heard a moan from deep within her throat when he ran his tongue along her skin. He could feel the vibrations from her vocal chords. He didn’t want to stop. But he had to. He was getting too aggressive, and he doubted a hickey would look very presentable in court.

When he looked at her, her eyes were still half shut. She looked as if she was in a daze.

“You are incredible,” she said, breathless. “The way you kiss…”

He smiled at her. “Takes one to know one.”

She must have underestimated just how good of a kisser she was. He had made out with his fair share of girls, even some famous ones. None of them compared to her. Not even close.

“I can’t believe we kept this from ourselves for that long,” said Nicki.

He couldn’t believe it either. He didn’t even know that he could feel half of the things he was feeling that night.

“I know. I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

“Well we’re going to have to make up for lost time then,” she said seductively. She brushed her lips against his, teasing him.

“I think we’re getting off to a pretty good start.”

Just as Tyler was about to kiss her again, they heard footsteps.

“Hey! Sorry to break this up but the pool is CLOSED!”

Tyler turned his head backwards. The man addressing them was wearing a brown suit and had to weigh four hundred pounds.

“Oops,” said Nicki, biting her lower lip. She was doing everything she could to turn him on. It was working.

“Come on, folks. Get your stuff and get outta here.” He stood there, waiting for them to leave.

Nicki hopped out of the pool and ran over to the towel bin. She wrapped one around herself and grabbed one for Tyler, throwing it to him. She grabbed her phone, dress, and flip flops. Tyler gathered his things.

“G’night folks,” said the security guard.

Tyler and Nicki scrambled away from the pool area into the hotel.

“I was afraid he was going to beat me up,” said Tyler.

“Oh, shut up. I bet you could take him,” Nicki teased. She gave him a little hip check.

“You just made a bad move.”

“What was that?”

“You just hip checked a hockey player.”

She giggled as she pressed the up button for the elevator. They were dripping water all over the hotel’s carpets. Tyler loved how flirtatious Nicki was being. She never acted like that. It was fun.

The elevator doors opened. The people inside got off, giving them dirty looks as they walked by.

“They’re just jealous,” Nicki said as she pressed the button for the eighth floor.

“So what do you want to do tonight?” Tyler asked her. It wasn’t even eight thirty yet.

“No idea. If it was just me, I’d get some room service and watch a movie. But if you want to go out I’m up for that. I think the last time I went out was Milan’s party.”

“What a loser,” Tyler scoffed.

Nicki stuck her chin in the air and looked up. She was ignoring him, but doing an awfully bad job. Every few seconds she would look at him out of the corner of her eye. They walked silently to her room. They got in, and Tyler saw his opportunity. He wound up and hip checked Nicki onto the bed.

“Ow! Jeez, unnecessary roughness! Aw and you made me get the bed all wet!” She whined.

“Hope you learned your lesson,” he said.

“Yeah, whatever.”

He laughed. He had never seen this side of her before.

“Seriously, though. Staying in is fine for me. If we do that, maybe we can get an early start tomorrow and do something fun.”

“Like what?” she asked, interested.

“I have an idea or two. But it has to be a surprise.”

There were so many things to do in the San Diego area. The bonus was that they were all things he thought Nicki would enjoy. He wanted to take her on a date, even if it was a day date. The thought of spending the entire day with her made him extremely happy.

“I hate surprises,” she said. She got off of the bed and touched her hair. “Yuck. I have to get this chlorine out before it ruins my hair. I’m gonna shower. Do you mind if I go first?”

“Why don’t we both go first?” Tyler asked. He was still heated up from their encounter in the pool.

Nicki raised one corner of her mouth and sat back down on the bed. She gestured for him to join her. When he sat, she put her hand on his knee.

“Listen Ty, I am loving the way things are right now. It’s amazing. You’re amazing. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned the last few weeks, it’s that waiting for something makes it a whole lot better when it finally comes. I mean, the way I feel right now is unbelievable. And I don’t think it would be nearly this great had it happened the night we met. Do you get what I’m saying?”

He nodded his head. “Yeah, I do. And I completely agree with you. I’m glad you have enough self control to realize that. I happen to lack severely in that department,” he said, laughing.

Nicki sighed. “It’s so great to hear you say that. It really means a lot. Believe me, when it finally happens, it’s going to be something that you’ll still be dreaming about ten years from now. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to jump in that shower with you right now. But I think it will be worth the wait.”

“Yeah, me too,” he said as he kissed her forehead.

She smiled and got up. Before entering the bathroom, she turned back to face him. She brought a fist to her mouth and bit one of her fingers, shaking her head. It made Tyler laugh. He could tell that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her. He never thought he’d say it, but he sincerely thought it would be worth it to wait. He wanted to experience everything with her one thing at a time. He wanted every moment to be as special as the ones they had that night.

To pass the time while she showered, Tyler turned on the television to check what movies the hotel had for renting. Not much. He picked up the room service menu. He was starving, and guessed that Nicki was too. He picked up the phone on the bedside table and dialed zero for room service.

“Yeah, can I get two orders of spaghetti, a bottle of your best red wine, and chocolate cake.”

He had no idea what she wanted to eat, but everybody liked spaghetti. And he knew that Nicki had a huge sweet tooth.

“Will that be charged to the room or paid for in cash?”

“Cash, please, thanks.”

As soon as he hung up the room phone, Nicki’s phone began to ring. He looked to see who it was. It was Freddy.

“Hey man,” Tyler said. He couldn’t hide how good he was feeling.

“Wow, Nicki are you sick? You don’t sound so good.”

“Shut up, Freddy. You know it’s me,” he said, laughing.

“So you answer her phone now, huh? Things must be going well.”

“Dude, I owe you like a million apologies. And a million more thank you’s.” He understood now why Freddy had been such a jerk. He was just trying to make him realize what he had with Nicki.

“Jesus, what happened?”

“A lot. I got here and we talked. Then we went to the pool and she wanted to watch the sunset. One thing led to another and I kissed her. And that’s more or less all we’ve been doing since. I feel like such an idiot. Things are really great Freddy.”

“Glad to hear you finally took your head out of your ass. Where is she now?”

“In the shower,” Tyler responded.

“Why aren’t you in there with her?”

Tyler hesitated. He knew Freddy was going to give him shit.

“She wants to wait. And so do I.”

There was silence on the line.

“Who are you and what the hell did you do with Tyler?”

“Make fun of me all you want. Nothing is going to get on my nerves right n…”

“Tyler? What were you gonna say?”

Nicki had walked out of the bathroom. When she rounded the corner, she slowly let her towel fall to the ground.

“Freddy, I gotta go.” He hung up.

“Holy shit.”

She just looked at him.

“I thought we were going to wait…” He stumbled on his words.

“Oh, we are. That doesn’t mean that I can’t tease you until it happens,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.

She walked across the room to her suitcase, bending over to get her clothes. Tyler could barely keep himself together. He watched her get dressed. She put on a pair of intensely short shorts, and a camisole that made it impossible not to stare at her chest.

Nicki made her way to him, taking a seat on his lap. She moved her hips back and forth across him and kissed his neck. Tyler pushed her away.

“You are a terrible human being,” he said.

That earned a smile from her. She took her pool towel and wrapped her hair in it.

“You gonna shower?”

He nodded and walked into the bathroom. She had left her bathing suit on the floor. He hung it up on the curtain rod, followed by his own. He turned on the water and stepped in. He couldn’t get the image of Nicki out of his mind. How could he possibly wait if she was going to get naked all the time? That wasn’t any fair.

** * * * * *

Nicki brushed her hair in the large mirror above the desk. She couldn’t believe what she had just done. Where did that come from? She never did anything like that before. Being with Tyler was opening up a part of her that she didn’t even know existed. She had never felt confident like that before.

She placed her brush on the desk and looked herself over in the mirror. She brought her fingers up to her lips. How could all of this happen in one day? Her mind didn’t even know where to begin, there was so much to take in.

After all of the fighting and crying and insecurity, this was where they had ended up. After his incident in Florida, she had given up hope for them. And all of the sudden, he shows up at her door five thousand miles from home, and hours later finally admits that he has feelings for her. She couldn’t have dreamed of a better scenario. Everything felt so surreal. She wished it could last forever.

She heard the water turn off. He took a really quick shower. Guys, she thought. They didn’t have to shave their legs or leave conditioner in their hair for five minutes. They had it so easy. Nicki heard the door open and looked to her left. She should have been expecting it, but she wasn’t at all prepared.

Tyler stood in the doorway, soaking wet. And bare ass naked.

“Two can play that game,” he said, grinning.

He had certainly won the game. He was physically perfect. There was nothing wrong with him. She stared at him, gaping. She wasn’t going to try to hide it. What he saw in her, she would never understand.

Nicki got up and walked towards him. She ran a hand from his throat all the way down his stomach. He grabbed her hand.

“Hey, no touching.”

“I never said that.”

“I did. Maybe you should leave me a towel next time.”

The towel that she had dropped was on the floor at his feet. She bent down to pick it up, lingering at his crotch. There was no reason why she couldn’t make his plan backfire. She straightened out and handed him the towel. He stared her down before accepting the towel and wrapping it around his waist. Nicki couldn’t help but notice that he was well equipped.

There was a knock on the door.

“Who the hell is that?” she asked.

“Room service,” Tyler said as he went to open the door.

“Tyler, not in the towel! Come on!”

Her words fell on deaf ears. The man who brought up the room service had a moment of surprise when Tyler greeted him, partially nude. Nicki got the feeling that those people had seen much worse.

“Let me just get my wallet,” he said. He grabbed it off of the bed. “Here you go. Thank you,” he said as he paid and tipped the man.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said.

“I wanted to. Plus, I’m starved. I hope you like spaghetti.”

“I like spaghetti. I love chocolate cake though…” she said.

She kissed his cheek. There would be no shortage of cheek kissing. His face was so soft and smooth. She couldn’t get enough of it.

“K, let me get dressed, then we can eat.”

He dropped his towel right in front of her. She gave him a look. That was the last time she tried to tease him. He was much better at it. He grabbed a pair of boxers out of his bag.

“We’ll have to get you some clothes tomorrow,” Nicki said. She forgot that his trip wasn’t planned.

“Yeah, we can go first thing in the morning.”

He picked up the tray with their food and put it on the bed, then opened the bottle of wine and poured a little into each glass.

“That’s a little fancy for hotel pasta, don’t you think?” Nicki asked skeptically. She didn’t really drink wine. She was afraid of what might happen if they drank too much. Normally she had self control. But Tyler’s stunt had pushed her over the edge. Alcohol would just make it worse.

“I wanted to do something special. It was all I could think of on the spot,” he said as he sat next to her.

“That’s very romantic of you.”

“I try.”

He raised his glass to her and she brought hers up to meet it.

“What are we toasting to?” Nicki asked.

“I’d say us, but that’s a little too cliché. Why don’t we toast to Freddy. It’s because of him that I found you here.”

“To Freddy,” she said. She took a sip. Boy, was it strong.

A plate of spaghetti and three glasses of wine later, Nicki was ready for the chocolate cake.

“Ty you’re the best, seriously.”

“You’re drunk,” he said, chuckling. “I didn’t know it was so easy to get you toasted.”

“Shut up,” she said. She tried to shove him and failed miserably. “I might be a little drunk. But that doesn’t make it any less true.”

She picked up a fork and dug into the cake. “Actually, I take it back. This cake is the best.”

He took a bite, too. “Whatever you say. I bet this cake can’t kiss like I can.”

Nicki puckered up to the piece of cake. She stuck out her tongue and licked off some of the frosting. Tyler laughed hysterically.

“Nope. It can’t. But it tastes better.”

“You have frosting all over your face,” he said, breaking out in a fit of giggles. Nicki noticed that he was a little drunk himself.

She watched him get off of the bed.

“Hey, where are you going?” She sounded like an idiot, but she had no control over her voice anymore.

He picked up the towel off of the floor and brought it into the bathroom. She heard water running. He came back a moment later. He held the damp towel up to her face and wiped off the frosting. He showed her the towel.

“How did you even get all of that on your face?”

Nicki shrugged her shoulders.

“I should probably clean this up before we spill something,” he said.

“No, let me.”

She tried to get off of the bed. Just as she thought she was successful, she fell backwards, landing hard on the soft pillows. Tyler laughed and shook his head before he cleaned up.

“There, all set.”

Nicki stuck out her arms. She wanted to kiss him again.

“You look like a weirdo,” he said as he climbed on top of her.

“You look like a weirdo,” she said, giggling.

She grabbed the back of his neck and tried to pull him towards her. She was too intoxicated to apply any pressure. Her arm fell limply onto the bed. She saw Tyler smile as he leaned in to kiss her. She liked the way it felt, him smiling while he kissed her. It made her happy.

“We should really get you to bed,” he said, “I don’t want you to be hung over tomorrow.”

He didn’t let her answer. He picked her up over his shoulder and with his free arm pulled down the covers.

“You’re making me dizzy…” she said as he put her down gently.

“Sorry.” He pulled the covers up around her.

“Aren’t you coming?” She wanted him in bed with her.

“Yup, be right there.”

She turned her head and saw him walk into the bathroom. She heard a trickling noise. Was he peeing with the door open? The toilet flushed and the sink ran. Yup. She giggled some more as he came over to the bed.

“What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.” It came out sounding like ‘nuuthiinn’.

He got into bed next to her. She rolled over onto her side, hoping he would cuddle with her again. He took the hint and wrapped himself around her.

“No nightmares tonight, okay?” he said. “I’ll be right here the whole time.”

“Nope. No nightmares.”

She grabbed his arm and cuddled it like she would a stuffed animal. He kissed the back of her neck. It sent a million little chills from the top of her head down her spine.

“Mmm. That felt nice,” she said, hoping he might do it again.

He did. She closed her eyes as his lips touched her skin. She didn’t want to be anywhere else. Or with anyone else. She was exactly where she belonged.

“Sweet dreams,” he whispered in her ear. That was her thing.

“Night, Ty.”