Her Bundles Of Joy

Chapter 5

As Nicole headed to the beauty salon on that beautiful New Year’s Eve morning, the young woman realized that she never once stopped to contemplate the fact that as soon as September 1st came around, the years would just rush by and next thing you know, it was already January and you were starting all over again. Nicole decided she’d call it the ‘Ber Effect’. The moment the year reached the ‘ber’ months—September, October, November, and December—it suddenly fast forwarded to the following year.

It felt like it was yesterday that she’d met Evan. It was amazing how they’d hit it off from day one. After that night in the pizzeria, the pair had become friends and they’d meet once a week to have lunch together. Whenever she was in town, Brandi would tag along and the three of them would have a lot of fun together. Nicole had never had rich friends before, and even though Brandi and Evan never tried to rub their wealth in her face, she sometimes felt slightly embarrassed for not being able to afford the same lifestyle that the two of them had. Still, their bond had grown stronger each time the three friends met and Nicole couldn’t be happier. She’d become Brandi’s official backup dancer in New York on top of being a dance instructor at the studio. Nicole still couldn’t stick to one job only as she owed her landlord quite a lot of money, but everything was telling her that soon she’d be able to work exclusively with Brandi. Nicole couldn’t wait for the day she’d be able to quit her job at the dance studio. Terrence was being a bigger asshole than ever and for some reason Danielle had grown distant. Nicole didn’t know what had happened, but her best friend (or was it former best friend?) barely paid her any attention.

On the other hand, Nicole was glad that she’d gained two new friends. Brandi was like a professional best friend, she was always there to listen to Nicole’s problems, she always knew how to cheer her up. No matter how busy the singer was, she always dedicated some time to her friendship with Nicole. The latter was skeptical in the first month, she couldn’t grasp the concept of Brandi Harris so desperately wanting to be her friend, but she soon found out that the truth was that the singer only had two real friends prior to Nicole: Jenny, her manager, and Evan. When Brandi met Nicole, she was in a dark place in her personal life, feeling lonely and depressed. She saw a saving boat in Nicole’s personality, and that’s why she’d done everything in her power to become friends with the young dancer. Nicole felt really bad knowing that Brandi was so alone in life, and it was this fact that pushed her to get over herself and open some space in her heart for Brandi’s friendship. Nicole realized that she actually had a lot in common with the singer, they both felt alone sometimes.

Evan, however, was usually quite reserved about his personal life. Sure, he spoke about his past, his high school days, but the older man never spoke about his present. Nicole didn’t understand why he was holding back, but whenever the word ‘parents’ was mentioned, Evan’s demeanor would change and he’d change the subject immediately. In spite of him never telling Nicole about family, she figured that, just like her, he couldn’t count on his parents. Nicole noticed how she, Brandi, and Evan were so alike in that department. The three of them felt lonely, and perhaps that was why their friendship had grown so strong in such a short time span. More importantly, over the past three or so months they’d created a beautiful and genuine support system among themselves.

Try as she might though, Nicole couldn’t stop herself from developing feelings for Evan during this time that they’d grown closer. She didn’t know what it was about him that had captured her attention, and most of all her affection. Leon had tried for months to get Nicole to even spare him a second glance, yet she never quite saw him as a potential boyfriend or even a simple hook-up. Evan, on the other hand, didn’t even have to do anything and Nicole was already crazy infatuated with him. Ever since the day she realized that she liked the blonde man as more than a friend, their weekly meetings had become the highlight of the dancer’s weeks. Nicole hadn’t said a word about it to anyone, however. Dani barely spoke to her these days, so she couldn’t share this piece of information with the Latin woman. Leon was out of the question for obvious reasons. And then there was Brandi. Nicole knew she could tell her current best friend about her feelings for Evan, but she didn’t want to give Brandi the pleasure of knowing that she’d been right at the beginning of their friendship. The dancer would never hear the end of it if Brandi found out that Nicole had indeed been more than just physically attracted to Evan that first night in the pizzeria.

Nicole didn’t know what to do about her feelings. Evan had been nothing but a sweetheart the last few months, but that was probably because he was a very nice and polite gentleman. It wasn’t like he was giving Nicole any sort of special treatment. Maybe he treated every woman the same way he treated her. Evan probably opened the door of his car to every woman he gave a ride to. He probably took all his female friends out to nice restaurants or to the movies. He probably held their hands while sitting very close to each other and watching horror movies together. He probably spent hours on end talking about everything and nothing with every friend that he was close enough to.

Yet, Nicole had never seen him doing any of those things with Brandi…

The dancer didn’t want to fool herself into thinking that she was different from the other people in his life. Certainly, he wasn’t that friendly with Brandi, but that was probably because the latter wasn’t into ‘sappy sh*t’, as she would say herself. And that was why Nicole had decided it was better to remain silent about her feelings and pretend they didn’t exist. If she lied to herself enough, her brain and her heart would eventually take a hint. If she told herself she wasn’t in love with Evan in the slightest, then she wasn’t. That was it. End of story. Surely every woman probably felt the same butterflies she felt around the man. He was extremely handsome, after all. Every woman’s heart must skip a beat whenever their hands touch. Every woman’s breath must get caught in their throats whenever Evan got too close. Yeah, that was definitely normal and completely understandable.

Nicole certainly wasn’t the only one to not be able to sleep in excitement at the prospect of joining Evan for a New Years party at his apartment in a few hours. Other people were totally freaking out over their outfit, hair, and makeup. Yep. Everyone probably wanted to impress the blonde man as much as the dancer wanted to. Nicole couldn’t be the only one. It wasn’t weird for a friend to want to catch her friend’s eye. It wasn’t unusual that a woman might want her friend to stare at her all night long…everyone did that, right? This friend might even end up wanting to kiss her when the clock struck midnight…Kissing on the lips was a completely normal custom among friends…right?

Yeah, Nicole, in South Africa, maybe.

Ignoring her sarcastic subconscious voice, Nicole entered the only salon she’d been to in New York. Miriam was an incredibly talented hairdresser and the young dancer considered herself very lucky for having found this woman amid the uncountable number of beauty workers in the city. Nicole trusted Miriam to do anything with her hair. If the older woman suggested that she had to go bald, Nicole would do it without a second thought.

“Miriam, I have an emergency. I need you to make me look good for a party I’ll attend tonight. Like, seriously good. Can you do it?”