Out of My Element (5 page)

He was truly a sight to behold as
he moved around the field. The muscles in his legs bulged as he ran, stopped
and pivoted around the other players. He was so focused, and I could feel the
passion and love of the game through him.

I sprung out of my seat, cheering
as he took possession of the ball, dribbling it down the field as he passed it
back and forth between his teammates. He lined himself up and yelled at his
teammate to pass the ball back to him. “Go Nick!” I screamed as he pulled his
right leg back and sent the ball directly into the net.

I jumped up and down, clapping and
laughing, while I watched Nick run across the field with his hands in the air
where he and his teammates hugged and celebrated their win.

“It looks like you’re getting a
free dinner,” I giggled when Nick spun around with a huge grin.

“You came!” He pulled me into his
arms and spun me around.

“I told you I would.” I couldn’t
help but smile. His excitement was contagious. “That really was awesome to
watch, Nick.” God, his arms felt incredible around me, and his sweaty smell was
intoxicating—all man.

“Thanks.” He backed away from me
slightly, but didn’t take his hands off my waist.

“Hey, Nick, are you going to
introduce us?” Two of Nick’s teammates walked up behind him.

“Hey guys, this is my friend,
Chelsea. Chelsea, this is Adam and Mark.” They both shook my hand, but Adam’s
lingered a little longer than normal. He was very attractive, with blond hair
and blue eyes, tanned skin and a muscular body. He was slightly shorter than
Nick and his hair was longer and hung a bit over his eyes.

“It’s nice to meet you,” he said.
“Hopefully I’ll see you around.” He grinned before turning and walking toward
the locker room.

Nick squeezed my side before
letting me go. “I’m going to grab a quick shower. I’ll meet you at your car in
ten minutes, okay?” He didn’t wait for an answer before turning and running
after the guys.

Nick

“So, what’s the deal with Chelsea,
Nick? She’s fucking hot, man.” Adam dried his hair with his towel and waited
for me to answer.

Adam was a fun guy, and I liked
hanging out with him, but I didn’t think he was right for Chelsea. She deserved
a guy who was devoted one hundred percent to her, not someone who just wanted
her because she was a hot piece of ass.

“Are you sleeping with her?” Adam
waggled his eyebrows.

“She is my friend, just like I said
before,” I warned.

“So, you wouldn’t mind if I asked
her out then?” Adam asked.

Yes, you asshole, I would!
“Uh, no. I don’t have a say over who she dates.” I pulled on my shoes. I just
wanted to get out of there before I did something I would regret. I didn’t like
talking about Chelsea with these guys, any more than I liked the thought of one
of them going out with her. It wasn’t that I wanted her for myself; I just
didn’t want to see her get hurt.

“I’ll see you guys. Great game!” I
grabbed my things and headed for the parking lot.

The evening was a bit brisk. I
zipped up my jacket and rounded the corner. Chelsea was leaning against her car
smiling at me, and I couldn’t help but grin back at her as I approached. I
hadn’t seen her when the game first started, so I wasn’t sure if she was going
to make it or not, but as excited as I was about scoring the final goal, when I
realized she had come after all, I was ecstatic! It was incredible to have
someone cheering loudly for me.

We pulled into a small pizza place
and parked. “Pizza?” 

“Is that okay?” she questioned.

“Well, I just figured after my
impressive win, you would want to take me out for a five-star meal,” I joked.

She laughed. “Come on, Superstar,
I’ll even buy you a beer, too.” She climbed out of the car, and I followed.

I watched Chelsea as she sunk her
teeth into another piece of pizza. She was quickly becoming a special friend to
me, although I didn’t recall ever having a female friend before. Most women
took any attention I gave them as a come on. Well, who was I kidding? It almost
was always a come on, but I had never really taken an interest in just being
around a woman without sleeping with them before. Chelsea was different. She
was special—too good for me.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I
pulled it out and read the incoming text. “Hmm.” I frowned.

“What’s up?” Chelsea asked around
her bite.

“You know my friend Adam that you
met earlier?” She nodded. “Well, he wants your number.” I watched her reaction,
trying to gauge her level of interest.

She shrugged. “Okay.”

“Okay?” I asked.
Well shit
.
I didn’t want her to go out with him. He was almost as much of a man-whore as
me.

“Yeah, okay.” She took a drink of
her beer and watched me as I replied to Adam and slipped my phone back into my
pocket.

“I’m not sure why Adam even wants
your number,” I tried to sound nonchalant as I picked up my piece of pizza.

“Why would you say that? Is there
something wrong with thinking someone might be interested in me, Nick?” Her
voice betrayed her, but I could tell that I had hurt her feelings.

The truth was that there wasn’t
anything
wrong with her, which
was,
in itself, the problem. She was beautiful,
nice and fun to be around. Any man would be a fool to not want her. That was
exactly why I didn’t want her to go out with Adam.

“No, it’s just … well, it’s just
that … I’m pretty sure he’s gay,” I lied.

“Really?” She quirked her eyebrows
at me, trying not to laugh as she picked at the crust of her pizza.

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t know for
sure, but I’m pretty sure I caught him checking me out in the locker room.” I
smiled and shrugged.

She wasn’t buying it. “Wow, Nick,
could you blame him? I mean, look at you! You’re just such a hot piece of man
candy,” she gushed. “I mean, you’re so hot that if I baked cookies on you, I’m
pretty sure they’d burn.” She bit her bottom lip, trying to control her
laughter.

“Sarcasm is truly an unattractive
quality.” I chuckled, shaking my head.

“Let me ask you something.” I put
my pizza back on the plate. “Why is it when a woman has a close male friend
people automatically think she's sleeping with him, but when she has a close
female friend no one suspects a damn thing?” I asked seriously. “Just to
clarify, you aren’t sleeping with any of your girlfriends are you? Because that
would actually be hot.” I waggled my eyebrows as she giggled.

“Does someone think we are sleeping
together?” She tipped her head to the side.

“It was one of the first things
Adam asked me. As if it isn’t possible for me to have a female friend,” I
scoffed.

“Well, rest assured that I’m not
sleeping with
anyone
, male or female, friend or not.” She winked at me
and took another drink of her beer.

“That might change if you go out
with Adam. I’ve seen his moves; he’s almost as gifted as me,” I mused. “You
know he’s going to want to sleep with you.” The thought made me want to punch
something.

“I thought you said he was gay.”
She grinned.

I shrugged. “Probably just bi.”

“Well, I’ve managed to make it
twenty-three years without sleeping with
anyone
, so I’m sure it would
take more than just a nice date with Adam to change that,” she said and then
almost immediately realized what she had shared.

“Whoa, wait. Do you mean to tell me
that you’re a … um … that you are still a …” I stammered.

“Shit, Nick. I didn’t mean to share
that with you. Let’s forget I even said anything.” Her face was flushed with
embarrassment.

Holy fuck!
If I remembered
correctly, she had said yes to come home with
me
the night of the
wedding, before I had completely made an ass of myself. What did she think was
going to happen when she got to my house?
Christ! Had she seriously planned
on sleeping with me?

My heart rate was out of control.
What the hell was I supposed to say? I really didn’t want to screw this up.
“Hey.” I covered her hand with mine. “Chelsea, please don’t be embarrassed. I want
you to feel like you can trust me and tell me anything, okay?” 

“Thank you, Nick. I don’t know why
I even blurted that out. Sometimes I just feel so comfortable with you that I
say things before remembering that we haven’t exactly known each other for that
long.” Her eyes were watching me closely.

“I understand completely.” I
grinned. Everything was always so effortless with her.

“Do you?” She smiled back at me.

“Yeah. I’ve never had a friend like
you before. I mean, I have Trevor and Tom, but I can honestly say that I have
never had a female friend before. I like it; I like you.”

“Me too. Hey, just a suggestion,
but if you don’t want to give people the wrong impression about us, you might
want to let go of my hand.” She giggled.

Holy hell! I didn’t even realize I
was still holding her hand. I pulled my hand back quickly and sat up straight.
“Sorry,” I said. It had actually felt nice to hold her hand. Too nice. It
seemed to fit perfectly in my hand. I was becoming a total girl.

“When is your next game?” Chelsea
crumbled up her napkin and set it next to her plate before grabbing her beer
and sitting back, obviously ready for a change of topic.

***

As Chelsea drove me home, I
couldn’t help but think about her earlier confession, clearly given by
accident. How does someone like Chelsea make it through her whole life without
having sex? How is that even possible? It’s not like she wasn’t attractive.
Well I could tell you one thing; I was going to make damn sure my soccer
buddies didn’t take advantage of her. 

“Do you want to come up?” Chelsea
pulled up to the curb outside of my building.

“I don’t think so. I’m tired, and I
…
we
have to be up early,” she stressed.

“Ugh, don’t remind me. Six miles,
right?” I groaned. “Chelsea, do you know CPR?”

“Yes, why?”

“I just wanted to make sure you
could save me if I collapsed from your brutal workouts.”  I chuckled. “Are you
sure you know how to do it? We could practice mouth to mouth. Just to be safe,
of course.”

“Goodnight Nick.” She laughed as I
got out of the car.

I leaned in before closing the
door. “Goodnight Chelsea, and thanks for hanging out with me. Hey, if you
change your mind, I’m in apartment # 630.” I grinned.

“See you in the morning.” She
smiled a gentle smile that I felt right in my chest. I almost wanted to wrap
her in my arms and just hold her. Damn, I seriously needed to get laid.

Chelsea

He’s going to kill me, not the
other way around
, I thought as I pulled away from his place. I was finding
it harder to not cross those platonic lines with him. Shit, I can’t believe
that I went and blurted out that I was still a virgin. I was such an idiot.

Nick had not reacted how I would’ve
expected him to. I could totally see him giving me a hard time about that
little morsel of information, but instead he had been so kind. My stomach
fluttered as I thought about the way he hugged me after the game. And how he
had held my hand at dinner as if it was so natural, before I opened my big
mouth and basically told him to let it go.

I loved being with Nick, sometimes
too much. Although the kiss that initially brought us together was earth
shattering, what we had built since that night was so much better. He was my
friend, and I had found that as an adult, it was sometimes hard to find true
friends—people you could truly count on to listen or make you laugh—to
basically accept you for who you are. That is what I had with Nick in just the
short time we’d known each other.

***

It took me several minutes to
register what I was seeing after I turned the corner. The flashing lights were
everywhere. Two fire trucks lined the street right in front of my building.
Three ambulances were parked and appeared to be giving attention to several
people.

I heard the knock on my window.
“Ma’am, you’re going to have to turn around.” A tall policeman pointed back the
way I’d come, as I rolled down the window.

“No, wait! That’s my building. What
the hell happened?” I couldn’t wrap my head around the entire scene.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. If you want to
park in that parking lot across the street, we are going to need to get some
information from you.”

I parked the car and walked, almost
in a daze, to where the policeman had told me to report. The entire left side
of my building was smoldering with occasional flames that seemed to lick out of
the windows. I glanced to the right side of the building, where my own
apartment was located, and even though I couldn’t see it from the street, it
appeared to be untouched at this point. The chaos was distracting. People ran
all around, trying to help or find out about their own apartments.

“Do you live here, ma’am?” A petite
woman with a clipboard smiled softly at me.

“Um yes, Chelsea Anderson,
apartment number 3-1-9. Can you please tell me what happened?”  I continued to
watch the firemen running in and out of the building, and I prayed that
everyone had been able to get out.

“From what we know, one of the
apartments on the second floor caught on fire. Fortunately, the occupants were
able to get out and call for help before things had gotten too out of control.”
I nodded, and she continued, “We are setting up a temporary shelter at the
elementary school down the street for the residents to go to tonight.”

“Can I get some things from my
apartment tonight?” I had a feeling that was not going to be possible, but I
thought I’d ask.

“I’m sorry, you won’t have access
to your apartment until the fire is contained and the building is inspected. It
may be a few days. Do you have somewhere to go tonight, or are you planning on
using the shelter?” she asked as she flipped the pages on her clipboard.