One Heart

Nathalie’s POV

It took about two months until the house was completely finished, as along with fixing back up each of the bedrooms I had decided to make all the empty rooms into proper guest rooms, especially when Alex, Val and Jimmy frequently stayed over if we worked into the early hours. However throughout this time Rae could only be entertained by us for so long until she got bored, until finally, she got what she wanted.

“Don’t go too far out!” I called to Rae who was taking her first few steps into the water. This was the first time she had actually been to a beach; up in Phoenix the nearest to us was at Rocky Point in Mexico which was about a four hour drive, something Rae would certainly not be able to handle. She had way too much energy to sit still for an hour, let alone four.

After about half an hour she happily came bouncing back, allowing me to wrap her up in a towel so that she didn’t get cold. I know that was a strange thing to think considering the sun was shining above us, but I was a protective mother first and a rational thinker second.

Rae tugged on my arm, snapping me back to reality. “Can I have an ice cream?” Her eyes opened to the infamous puppy eye region, pleading with me. “Please?”

I pretended to think about it. “Hmm… I don’t know…”

Her bottom lip wobbled. “PLEEEASE?”

I smiled. “Of course you can,” I replied, picking up the towel she threw from her shoulders and resting it across the picnic basket I had balanced on my arm. With my other I reached out and took hold of Rae’s hand until we got to the small café on the beach, stopping and letting go to hand her a few coins. “I’ll just wait here, okay? Don’t go anywhere but the ice cream stand.”

“I won’t,” she promised, hugging my leg (since she couldn’t reach any further) before skipping off to get her ice cream. I kept watch on her from the corner of my eye as I turned and ordered myself a drink. From the other side I noticed a group of people all crowded around one table, and to my surprise, I knew them.

--

Brian’s POV

“I am not doing that!” I fell back on my seat, arms crossed.

“Why not?” Zack asked, looking genuinely curious. “You need to get laid Syn. When was the last time you got a girl into bed?”

“I think you need to ask, when did he last talk to a girl period,” Matt chuckled, scoring a high-five from Zack.

“So what am I, a frog?” Chloe huffed. “Nice to know my gender doesn’t seem to be applicable in this conversation.”

“Taken women don’t count.” Zack winked at her before pecking her on the cheek. “Especially not the beautiful one that I can call my girlfriend.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Flattery gets you no where Vengeance.” She turned so that her back was to him, ignoring his attempts to get her attention as she talked to me. “You know, Zacky does have a point. When was the last time you took a girl home?”

“You make it sound like I’ve never been with a girl,” I grumbled.

“I know you have,” Chloe sighed. “That’s not what I am getting at though. Ever since Nat-”

“I’m not listening to this,” I interrupted, moving to get up just to get stopped by Chloe.

“Look, Brian, I care about you, okay? I know what she did to you was wrong, but it is in the past, and you need to get over it. Take her for example.” She pointed to a girl leaning against the bar, sunning herself in the small stream of sunlight that filtered through the thatched roof of the open café we were in. “Would you consider her beautiful?”

I followed her gaze, looking at a girl who I couldn’t imagine to call anything but beautiful. Her body seemed to be sculpted to the image of every man’s ideal woman; she was slender but still had killer curves, had a pair of captivating blue eyes and to top it all off, was wearing just a bikini top and shorts, exposing a star chain tattoo that curled from her right hip to her left shoulder. Loose auburn curls coated her shoulders, framing the perfect girl that would make any guy proud of calling his own. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn that was Nat- but of course that was impossible. Then again I wished that any girl I saw was Nat.

“Well, yeah. I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I bet you can’t get her,” Zacky interjected, noticing the fact my gaze had lingered longer than I thought. “I’ll buy you a drink if you can manage it.”

I frowned. “You don’t buy the drinks, Chloe owns the only place we go and drink.”

He grinned. “Oh I don’t pay with money…” He trailed off as he leant over to Chloe’s seat, kissing her down her neck until she descended into a fit of giggles before looking back up at me. “So you up for it? Or do you not think you can?”

No one doubts the Synyster Gates pride.

“I’ll show you,” I grumbled, getting up from the table and moving across to the bar.

As soon as I did it I regretted doing so; even though they were poking fun, I really hadn’t been with a girl since Nat. Well, I have, but not properly, like in longer terms than one night.

There was no backing out now as I finally reached her side; up close you could see the flaws like the faded stretch marks staining an otherwise toned stomach while faint circles could be seen peeking out from behind a thin layer of powder. Despite this though, I still thought of her as beautiful- casually leaning against the bar next to her and saying the first thing that came to my head.

“Hey.”

--

Nathalie’s POV

“Hey.”

It was hard to not express my surprise at seeing Brian next to me; then again, it was hard for me not to just burst into laughter from his lame attempt at starting a conversation. I mean come on, ‘hey’? That was just lame. I really wanted to call him out on it but instead I just went with the normal approach, since I didn’t really want him to know I was back, even though this was pretty much the perfect opportunity to tell him. The fact he didn’t recognise me as soon as I looked at him made me wonder how much I really did change over the time I was gone. I knew Jimmy and Val had said I had changed a lot over the years, but I didn’t know it was to such an extent that none of my old friends- or ex-boyfriend- could recognise me now.

“Hello,” I greeted, glancing back at the table were the rest of the guys were currently cheering, apparently for him. “Did you forget your cheerleading squad today?”

He looked briefly back at them with a sigh. “I wish I could say no.” For a few moments neither of us said anything until his gaze slid across to Rae as I waved in reply to the one she gave me, almost unable to contain her excitement at the prospect of ice cream. “Is that your kid?”

“That’s my life,” I corrected softly, smiling as she was now pointing at the glass to the ice cream she wanted.

“She’s cute,” he mused. “How old is she?”

“She’ll be five in a couple of months.” I looked up at him. “Why do you ask?”

“Just curious.”

It wasn’t hard to figure out where that conversation was heading. “Curious or just wanting to know if I’m with someone?” I merely rose up my left hand. “Nothing there- now what are you going to do knowing that?”

He grinned sheepishly at me. “Ask you out?”

“To where?” From the look on his face I guessed he hadn’t exactly got that far yet. “You haven’t thought about, have you?” I turned to leave; I had humoured him for long enough. “I’m sorry, I better get going-”

“Wait.” His voice dropped as he shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sorry; I haven’t really done anything like this in a long time.”

Behind him I could see the others leaning on the chairs as if they thought that the extra few inches would get them a better clarity of hearing. “Did your friends have something to do with this?”

He looked back at them and instantly his whole presence seemed to drop as they all cheered, not helping him with his nerves in the slightest. It was quite a surprise to see him like this; I never saw this side to him, or at least I never saw it again after he first talked to me after the accident. I had almost forgotten he had this part of his personality, led to believe that his cocky stage persona had taken that over.

“They’re just trying to help,” he replied with a small smile. “They said it isn’t right that I’m the only single one in the group.”

I laughed. “A good looking guy like you is single? Or are you just a lady’s man and saying that?”

“I have to fight them off,” he chuckled, playing along. “I’m in hiding, you see.”

“You chose to hide not only in broad daylight, but on a public beach?” I pretended to look around. “I don’t see any of your hoarding female fans around. You’ve got some talent.”

“You know it.” He grinned. “So… Would you like to… well… go out some time?”

I paused, glancing over at Rae who was just exchanging the money I had given her for the ice cream, wondering what to do. What I eventually did answer surprised even me.

“Sure.”

Not even Brian looked like he believed it. “Really?”

“Do you have a pen?”

“Erm…” It was obvious he didn’t considering he was just wearing shorts, but seemed to try and look anyway before shaking his head, looking almost as if he had just lost his chance. “I don’t, sorry.”

For some reason there was a lipstick in the picnic basket on my arm, casting it off as a coincidence. Hell, maybe fate wanted me to do this?

I scribbled my number across the length of his arm, ending it with a kiss after I applied a coat of the lipstick on my lips. “Something to show to your friends,” I chuckled as I watched him touch the mark I had left behind. “You better actually call after all this fuss you’ve made to get it.”

“Mummy!” Rae waved at me from the stall, her cheeks stained in a light pink; the remnants of what used to be a large, strawberry ice cream. “I’m finished!”

“I’ll be there in a minute honey!” I turned back to Brian from Rae. “I’m sorry, I better go.” I got perhaps a few steps from the bar when my cell rang in my pocket, stopping momentarily to answer it. “Hello?”

“Just checking.” I looked back at Brian who grinned at me, taking his own cell from his ear and pressing a button on it just as my own caller ended the call.

I smiled. “I’ll see you around some time B-”

“Brian,” he interjected. I was glad he stopped me since I was about to say his name even though he technically hadn’t told me yet. Five minutes into a conversation with him and I already nearly blew everything.

“I’ll see you around Brian.”

He stopped me from leaving a second time with a simple touch of my arm. “You never told me your name.”

“It’s Nathalie.” I didn’t bother with making up a fake name since knowing me I would just forget what it was.

“Nathalie,” he murmured. I could tell hearing it again was hard for him, but also that he knew it was just a name, and it was just a coincidence the first girl he really attempted to get to know shared the same name as someone who broke his heart. Then again, he didn’t know any better unlike me.

“Is something wrong?”

“MUMMY!” Rae was clearly getting impatient now, even resorting to stamp her feet on the ground. “I want to go play in the water!”

Brian smiled at her antics, not realising that only a few feet away his daughter was standing. “I better let you go.”

This time, I faltered. “You’ll give me a call, won’t you?”

“MUMMY!”

“Of course I will.”

“MUMMY! I WANT TO PLAY!”

“Rae!” I sighed, shaking my head. “My little monster calls, I have to go. Goodbye Brian.”

It took him until I had picked Rae up in my arms and looked back across the café until he said his own goodbyes, looking almost as if he expected never to see me again… almost like that time back in Deviate all those years ago.

“Goodbye Nathalie.”