The Truth Is...

“Alright, you and me and some fancy restaurant tonight, how does that sound?” James asked Claudia the minute he dropped into the passenger seat of her SUV. She turned her head to look over at him as she put the car in drive and her blonde eyebrow raised so he explained, “It’s your birthday you nerd.”

She let out a laugh, “Yeah, I know, Lucca wants to go out tonight.”

“But?” James asked her, this time it was he who raised an eyebrow.

Shrugging Claudia explained, “I’m too damn old for that now.”

Laughing he reminded her, “You’re only a year older than me.”

“Yeah well, mentally you’re in your early twenties so…” Claudia told him with a grin on her face that made him let out another laugh as she came to a stop to pay for their parking at the airport. Once she was through that and merging with regular Nashville traffic Claudia asked James, “Would it be okay if we just had a low key night in? Order in dinner or something?”

“You don’t want to go out?” James asked her, he was a little surprised because they always went out for dinner on her birthday.

Nodding she explained, “I’m just exhausted and honestly, a night in on the couch with a movie sounds way better than going to some crowded, stuffy restaurant… we can go if you really want to though.”

With a smile he told her, “No, it’s your birthday. Ordering in and watching a movie sounds great to me.”

“Great.”

“So I think I found a house I really like.” James told Claudia and she turned to him in surprise as she came to a stop at a four way intersection.

It was just barely July, truthfully James hadn’t been one hundred percent sure that Vegas wasn’t going to turn around and flip him for someone else so he had been leery about house hunting but once July first passed without him going to another team he felt a little more secure and ready to start looking for a place to live for that coming season.

“And?” Claudia asked him, watching as he pulled his phone from the pocket of his jeans.

“I’ve got pictures and stuff we can look at when we’re home.” James told her with a smile, adding in, “I think you’re gonna love it.”

“Did you put in an offer or anything?” She asked him curiously.

Shaking his head James said, “No, I wanted to see your opinion, plus I also have to ask my mom what she thinks because it’s not like I’ll be decorating the place.”

Claudia let out a laugh and James watched as she tilted her head back just the slightest, elongating her neck, her puffy pink lips parted just the slightest and he had to physically shake his head to knock himself out of whatever trance he had put himself in.

He practically jumped out of the car when Claudia pulled it into the little driveway in front of her condo, opening up the back to grab his bags before he met her around the front of the vehicle. She flipped through her mountain of keys for the right one as they headed up the walkway to the door and that was when James asked her, “Who are you getting flowers like that from?”

Claudia looked up and stopped walking in surprise at the sight of two vases sitting right outside of her door with flowers in them. They were wrapped in plastic, probably a delivery tactic because there was no way flowers as fancy as those were not done and delivered by a florist. She shrugged, “Probably Lucca and Colin.”

So when they reached the door James picked up one and Claudia grabbed the other and he took a peek at the car sticking out of the middle of the bouquet as Claudia unlocked the door. He asked her, “Who the hell is Ryan?”

Claudia turned to face him, brow lifted, “My neighbor, why?”

James’ eyes scanned the card again as he read it out loud, “‘Happy birthday, how would you feel about dinner Sunday, pick you up at seven?’”

Her cheeks flushed, “Oh.”

James watched as she reached over and plucked the card from its stick stand and read it herself, he watched as the corners of her lips turned up into a small smile and he swore he could feel his blood start to boil. His voice was a little harsher than he had intended for it to be when he asked her, “Are you seriously gonna go out with him?”

She didn’t even look up from the card as she shrugged her shoulders and she said, “I don’t know… maybe.”

He clenched his jaw and nodded his head curtly, putting the vase down on the counter a little loudly as he asked her, “Who are the other ones from?”

She finally managed to tear her eyes away from that stupid card in her hand to look at the card on the second bouquet and she told James, “Lucca and Colin, like I said they would be. They’re very predictable.”

Again he simply nodded his head and waited for her to put the second vase of flowers down on the counter next to the other ones before he told her, “I have your present, by the way.”

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” Claudia told him as she tossed her bag onto its spot on the counter by the pantry.

He knelt down at his suitcase, unzipping it so that he could pull out a box, he handed it to her and then his cheeks flushed as he told her, “I didn’t have the chance to get a card, just so you know.”

She smiled, “That’s okay.”

He motioned her forward, “Open it.”

So she set the box on the counter in front of her and pulled the top off to reveal a hard shell case that looked like a deeper version of a briefcase. She glanced over at James with a quirked brow but he simply watched her with a smile, using a hand to wave her forward. So she popped the clasps at the top of the case and pulled it up and open, finding it filled with foam that had cut outs for what appeared to be camera lenses because right in the middle was a brand new lens.

Claudia turned to him in surprise and he asked her a little timidly, “Is that the right one? I was pretty sure it was but then I got nervous that it wasn’t.”

It was the exact fisheye lens she had been wanting for months. She told him, “This is way too much.”

He shrugged, “It’s not.”

“James, I know how much this cost you.” Claudia reminded him, and James simply smiled back at her.

“Just let me do something nice for you for once. You’ve been taking care of me for years, and especially over the last month and a bit so just… let me return the favor.” James told her, and when it looked as if she was going to argue with him he knew what would shut her up so he said, “Besides it’s not refundable anyway.”

She rolled her eyes, a smile on her face as she turned back to the case and pulled the lens out to inspect it. He watched with a smile as she reached for the camera sitting a foot away from here, she never seemed to be without one. Claudia carefully took the lens on the camera off, placing it in the case in front of her before she popped the fisheye lens on and turned the camera to James, making him laugh.

As she snapped a picture with it he couldn’t help but watch as she pulled the camera from her eye and inspected the image on the screen with a smile on her face.

Hah, suck on that Ryan.

Hours later, when James returned with their food for the night, because he wasn’t about to let either of them spend seven dollars for delivery, he found Claudia sitting on the floor with her back against the couch. She had her laptop open on the coffee table in front of her but James couldn’t tell what she was doing on it so he closed the door gently with his foot, slipped out of his shoes and approached her in the living room with their bag of food.

Once he sat down next to her he looked over at the computer screen and smiled, telling her, “Those are great.”

Claudia glanced over at him before she looked back and the pictures that she was going through and she told him, “Yeah, they’re for Colin and Lucca.”

James reached out to tap one of the keys on the keyboard to go back to a picture she had gone past quickly, he wanted a better view of it. It had been taken in front of the famous I Believe In Nashville mural downtown, Lucca was tucked into Colin’s side and they were pulled apart just enough that they could look each other in the eyes, large smiles on both of their faces.

Claudia told him, “That one is my favorite.”

The rest of the pictures were a mixture of landscape, buildings and pictures of Lucca and Colin, all varying from black and white to full color. He told her, “These are gonna look great on a wall in their place in Denver.”

Claudia nodded her head as she closed her laptop and told him, “Alright, I’m starving.”

“The birthday girl has spoken, we shall eat now.” James told her with a wide grin as he spread out their dinner across the coffee table once she had cleared her things off of it.

Claudia laughed and told him, “You’re a dork.”

Once he was done spreading their food out she handed him a glass of wine, taking a drink from her own as James told her, “I prefer ‘nice guy trying to make sure his best friend has the birthday she deserves’, jeez.”

Again she laughed.



Claudia rolled onto her stomach in her bed when her phone buzzed on the nightstand next to her. It was almost ten, she had been lying in bed, awake, since nearly nine. The message that had interrupted her blissful morning was from Lucca and it made her laugh.

‘Just got off the plane in Denver… I hate this city already.’

‘Give it a chance, I’m sure it’s not that bad.’

‘It’s probably not but a) it’s not Nashville and b) it does not have a Claudia Lefevre.’

Claudia couldn’t help but let out a laugh at that.

‘You’ll be fine, besides, I can always come visit! Maybe I’ll just avoid the awkward ‘am I moving to Vegas or not’ topic by just moving in with you and Colin in Colorado.’

‘I would not be opposed to that frankly. How was your birthday by the way?’

‘I got asked out on a date for tomorrow.’

Claudia wasn’t surprised when her phone buzzed with an incoming call from Lucca almost immediately.

When she answered Lucca was quick to ask, “James finally asked you out?”

“No… it was my neighbor.” Claudia told her, adding in, “Ryan, from two condo’s over.”

“Ooh, the cute one.” Lucca stated, a wide grin on her face no doubt, and when Claudia chuckled she asked, “Are you gonna go?”

“I think so… I don’t know.” Claudia said, sighing before she continued on, “I’m still so confused over all of this stuff with James, honestly.”

“I think you should go on this date. Claud you’re never gonna know if you two can get past this if you don’t try. If you go on this date and you have a good time then great but if you go on this date and all you can think of is James then I think you have your answer babe.” Lucca told her.

Claudia asked, “Why do you have to be so smart and insightful?”

With a laugh Lucca asked her, “You wanna tell Colin that?”

“I’m serious, you always know the right thing to say.” Claudia told her, stretching her feet out underneath the covers as she arched her back to try to stretch it too. She supposed she should probably get out of bed soon.

“And I’m serious. Go on a date with the guy, see what happens. I know you’re still hung up on what happened between you and James but Claud you deserve to be happy.” Lucca told her softly, and Claudia sighed. Lucca then asked her, “What’s the big issue? It’s not James, is it?”

“No, it’s not him. It’s just… I don’t know that I want to possibly get involved and close with someone when I’m thinking about leaving this summer.” Claudia told her, and that was when she realized she hadn’t ever spoken to Lucca about her ideas for that coming fall. So she told her, “By the way, I forgot I never mentioned this before, but I’m thinking of moving.”

“I figured when you said the whole Vegas thing and moving in with us... so Vegas huh?”

She hesitated and said, “Yeah…Maybe... I don't really know."

“Oh boy.” Was the first thing Lucca said, and that was followed up by, “Are you sure that’s something you really want to do and it’s not just you wanting to do it because of James?”

“It’s mostly because of my dad, it’s close enough that I could drive there whenever I have down time and it would be nice to be closer to my brothers… but also, work has been kind of slow here and I know from firsthand experience it’s anything but slow there.” Claudia told her, adding in, “I thought about it at first because of James but the rest was because of me.”

“Well, seeing as I am no longer in Nashville and am already far away from you and wouldn’t really be affected one way or the other by this decision I say do what makes you happy, follow your heart and all that Hallmark crap.” Lucca told her and Claudia let out a laugh at that. Claudia heard Colin on the other end of the line, his voice muffled, and then Lucca told her, “I’m being told to get off of the phone and help with directions, because apparently someone doesn’t know how to use Nav on his own. Talk to you later.”

“See ya.”

Claudia dropped her phone onto the comforter spread over her stomach, dropped down onto her back and stared at the ceiling, thinking about Lucca’s words. She wondered if Lucca was right about the date thing, that maybe going on a date with someone so different from James would get her mind off of him. James had made it perfectly clear to her that he didn’t want her in that way and Claudia was, admittedly, afraid that a date with someone else would only make her want him even more. Still, Lucca was right, she would never know until she tried it.

So she picked up her phone again and scrolled through her contacts, finding Ryan’s close to the bottle, in a mix of James’ teammates so she was careful to select the proper contact and opened up a new text message.

What did she even say?

She knew she had to thank him for the flowers, but how did she say yes to dinner tomorrow naturally after that, without making it look like she was trying too hard to type something cute, or clever? She wasn’t good at this.

So she drafted a message, read it twice, shook her head and deleted it before starting over, and she did that twice before she finally found one that she thought didn’t make her sound like a total idiot. She hit send before she could convince herself otherwise.

‘Hey Ryan, thanks for the flowers, they were beautiful. I’ll see you tomorrow at seven.’