Page 15 of Who’s Playing You (In The Nick of Time #1)
NICK SOBA
I was having a really fucking hard time containing myself.
My adrenaline was through the roof.
I’ve been waiting for this moment for years! To be in Scottie’s presence. To talk to her. To touch her. To monopolize all of her attention. To breathe the very same air.
Her workshop retreat thing had forced my hand with our meet cute, but honestly, it worked out perfectly. My worry then, and something I’d been stressing about for a while, would be whether she’d recognize me. Either as a football superstar, or as Nat’s little brother.
But it’d been a few years since Nat last brought her home with her, I was still in high school and a teenager then. And admittedly, I’d changed quite a bit in the last few years. I’d grown a few more inches. Put on over sixty pounds of muscle. Bulked up. Matured.
I was now the man that Scottie didn’t even know she needed.
I somewhat relaxed when I realized she had no idea who I was, but I still couldn’t help myself and I touched her.
Twice.
I recognized my faux pas at first and apologized, but when I touched her arm and stroked her arm with my finger, she didn’t flinch. She didn’t tell me to stop. She didn’t feel uncomfortable. I wondered if she felt how natural it all was too. Because it was. It was totally natural.
We were meant to be, so of course this connection between us would be so strong.
Once I realized she had no idea who I was and asked her if we could start over, her response both took me by surprise, and not at the same time. Because I knew Scottie was the most beautiful, genuine and kind person. So of course that’s how she approaches every person she meets.
I also preened at her willingness to share one of her favorite spots with me. So once we established that I was in fact up for the added hike, she seemed relieved, while I was just jonesing. I was so fucking excited.
“So I had intended for the group to work with some charcoal sketches to start and then maybe move onto acrylic paints. But since it’s just us…
Well, what would you like to get out of this experience?
What medium most interests you? I ask because we now have the freedom to totally custom-design this around you and your experience during these sessions,” she questioned me while she motioned to the trunk of her car that seemed to hold the contents of an entire art supply store.
“Honestly?” she nodded. “I’ve never done this before.” I couldn’t help but chuckle in a little bit of a sheepish way. “Let’s just say I wasn’t exactly the artsy type in school.”
“Oh no?” She was teasing me. I fucking loved it.
“Nah. Let’s just say other activities and extracurriculars took up all of my time.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” she replied as she gave me a somewhat forced look right before she turned to the trunk of her car.
I didn’t like that.
I didn’t like her look and I didn’t like that she was assuming something.
“Don’t be so sure, Scottie. Things aren’t always how we assume or judge them to be,” as I said this she whipped her head back to mine, her cheeks slightly colored with embarrassment.
“Oh, I didn’t mean…”
I put my hand up to stop her, “No, it’s fine.
I’m just saying, don’t assume something that may be - granted - a typical assumption, and I’m sure they’re most often true.
But things aren’t always the obvious nor what one would think.
At least not when it comes to me.” I made sure to hold her gaze to show her how serious I was.
Because I believed that she was assuming that I was referring to hooking up with girls as being the extracurricular activities I had mentioned.
This wasn’t something new for me either.
I’ve had to deal with that all my life, and that was definitely not something that I wanted Scottie of all people assuming about me.
In fact, I could give two shits about what anyone else thought, but when it came to Scottie, I didn’t want her thinking anything that wasn’t true.
I knew we had technically just met (or so she thought), but it was important to lay our foundation down correctly so that when she was catching up to me, she’d be going down the right path because she had one hell of a marathon to run before she even began catching up to where I was in regards to our relationship.
She eyed me curiously. I’m aware that I was probably coming off a little strong, perhaps even like some weirdo, but it was okay. She could handle it. After all, we were soulmates.
“Well, I’m-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any-anything by it,” she began stammering. “It’s none of my business anyway.”
Oh, I didn’t like that one bit. It most certainly was her business.
And only her business.
I gave her a gentle smile to alleviate some of the tension that I didn’t want between us. I reached out and cupped her elbow. “Don’t apologize,” I had to hold myself back so I didn’t lean into her and put my forehead to hers.
Not yet.
She wasn’t there yet.
I needed to let her catch up to me.
“I’m an open book - for you,” I tacked on that last part on an exhale. “I just really hate when people assume things. It’s a pet peeve of mine. And, to be honest, I’m really excited for today. With you.” To this she visibly relaxed and gave me a tentative smile in return.
“Me too,” she breathed out on an exhale like I’d done before, and her smile grew.
I couldn’t help the shit-eating grin that took over my face at her response. “That’s why I wanted to clear that up, I didn’t want you to assume something about me that isn’t true. I’d prefer to just tell you, or you ask me.” She looked at me a little curiously.
Shit! I needed to remind myself that she didn’t really know me. For all she knew, this was the first time we’d met.
I had to backpedal a little, “I just mean, I’m so excited for today and the remainder of our workshops. So we’ll be spending a lot of time together. And so I’d just hate that you thought something of me that wasn’t true.”
She nodded in understanding. “You’ll learn, Nicholas, that I’m not a particularly judgemental person.
And I do apologize for jumping to conclusions and assuming…
well, anything. But I mean…” she trailed off as she looked me up and down and I fucking loved the fact that she was obviously checking me out, which also meant she was attracted to me.
Obviously.
I waited for her to finish her perusal and sentence, “... well, I’m sorry but I’m not blind…
” her eyes snapped to mine and they were about to bug out of her head.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” She covered her face in embarrassment.
“That is so unprofessional of me, and I just objectified you… I. Am. So. Sorry! That wasn’t supposed to leave my brain, but apparently my mouth didn’t get the memo. ”
She was adorable. And I loved that her body and brain knew to just spill everything to me. All her secrets. Her desires. Her thoughts. This would come in handy that she had no filter around me.
I rendered her totally into putty in my hands.
I let out a loud full-belly laugh. I couldn’t help it.
She was just too cute. My hand stroked up her arm from where it had been at her elbow this whole time.
“I like honest, no filter Scottie. Maybe that’ll be our thing.
So in the spirit of that, what I was saying earlier as to why I wasn’t exactly ‘artsy’ in school is because I was busy with sports, and desperately trying to get the attention of one girl. ”
She gave me a slight smile, one of understanding.
“You do look like the sporty type,” she chuckled. “Were you good?”
I let out a loud laugh. “Umm, yeah I guess you could say that.”
“Oh, good. That’s nice for you. I hope all the time you spent on those extracurricular sports paid off for you in the end then.”
“Oh, you could say that,” I honestly stated.
“And I hope all the time you spent on trying to get that one girl’s attention also panned out how you liked,” she said, not realizing that she held all the power on that one.
I let out a low chuckle that, to me, spoke of the irony. “Yeah, well, I always end up getting what I want, especially when I put my all in it.” I bookended that statement with a playful grin to play it off, but little did she know how dead serious I was.
Soon though. Soon enough she’d understand the full weight of that statement.