After burning the card prior to the flop, she decided this would be a good moment to try to bring upthetalk.
“Something funny happened at the restaurant,” she began, feigning a casual tone in spite of feeling her tummy clench with nerves.
“Oh yeah?” he asked as he picked up a card, then sipped from the water cup.
“Kimberly called me, uh, called me your girlfriend when she was talking to Chase.”
Nick instantly choked on the water.
“Oh.” He coughed, and then coughed again. “Oh. She did?”
He literally just choked. That can’t be a good sign.
Samantha laughed a put-on laugh. “Yeah, it was, um. It was funny.”
He took a long gulp of water and she noticed his gaze shifting from side to side, and she managed to avoid pursing her lips and rolling her eyes.
Definitely not a good sign.
“What did Chase say? He didn’t make some kind of dickheaded comment, did he?” Nick asked, setting the cup down and sorting his cards.
She shrugged, casual as ever. “I have no idea. She was on the phone with him.”
“He can be a real ass sometimes.”
“Well, I didn’t hear anything bad,” she mentioned, and then decided to immediately drop the subject, having decided she had enough of an answer for right then. “It sounds like things are still going perfectly smooth over there.”
“I’m fortunate to not have to worry about the restaurant on top of everything else.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Kimberly seems like a bright girl. She’s basically running the place right now.” She paused to chuckle politely. “You should give her a raise.”
Nick tilted his head as he appeared to consider it. “I probably should. She’s only supposed to be a hostess.”
He threw his cards down. “Straight. Nine and three,babe.”
She laughed as he scooped the change in the center pile toward himself.
“Card shark,” she teased, winking at him again.
“What can I say? I’m gifted.”
She gave him an amused look as he took a turn shuffling and dealing. “So, the doc came by this morning. Did he give you any good news?”
He beamed. “Next week.”
Her face broke into a genuine grin. “That’s awesome! I bet you can’t wait.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I can’t wait to get out of this room. Go for a walk. Take a normal shower. Get a damn haircut.”
She couldn’t help reaching over to tousle his hair. “I don’t know, you’re kind of cute all shaggy like this.”
He scoffed and put on a faux-annoyed smirk. “I look like a damn hippie.”
“Cutest hippie I’ve ever seen.”
He smirked again as he grabbed both of her hands and tugged her arms toward him, urging her to scoot across the bed, then pulled her into a tight hug. The natural thing to do seemed to be letting her head rest on his chest so she went with that, even though he made it clear he was uncomfortable with the whole girlfriend notion. It probably didn’t matter. Maybe it was still too soon. And things hadn’t exactly been normal this whole time. She still wanted to be with him,and that was enough for now.
As she lingered on his chest, he cradled and stroked the side of her face while he held her back firmly.
