Dan was still awake watching TV when Nadia plodded out of her room and went into the kitchen. “Go to sleep,” she told him after pouring herself a glass of water from the tap. Dan ignored her all together. His thoughts were strictly focused on what the future held for him. He couldn’t decide between quitting the band and canceling the rest of the tour so he could take care of Jack.
“Dan? Can you hear me?” Nadia asked when she walked past him. He snapped out of his thoughts and stared at her blankly. She sat down beside him and added, “What’s on your mind?”
“A lot of things,” he replied, absently flipping the channels with the remote.
“You wanna tell me about them? Get them off your chest?” she said.
Dan shook his head, “No.”
“Are you sure? Because you look really tense and worried,” Nadia observed. “I’m a really good listener. I might be able to help, you know.”
“Okay,” Dan sighed. “I don’t know what to do. Jack’s mom wants me to take care of her, and I want to take care of her, but I don’t know what to do about Savage Garden. I want to cancel the rest of the tour dates, but then I also wanna leave the band. I can’t decide on what to do.”
“Damn, you really love your cousin, don’t you?” she replied. “Whatever you do, don’t leave Savage Garden. Just go on hiatus. Take a long break and take care of her then. When she gets better, you can record another record and start touring again.”
“I guess I was too preoccupied to see that point of view. Thanks, Nadia,” Dan said as he relaxed on the couch for the first time in a long time.
“You’re welcome,” she thoughtfully answered as she got up off the couch and headed to her room.
She had just snuggled into her bed when Dan yelled, “Nadia!”
“Go to sleep, Dan,” she shouted back.
“But I need to talk to you about something else.” Dan walked into the room before she had time to reply.
Nadia sat up in her bed and asked, “What now?”
“Hypothetically speaking, how would you feel if you caught your best friend kissing your cousin?” he asked.
“Is this about Jack and Darren?” she questioned.
“How did you know?” Dan replied. “Just told you, didn’t she? I should have known.”
“Do you want my opinion or not?” Nadia retorted. Dan shut up and listened. “I think she’s old enough to make her own decisions without your help. You gotta stop butting into her life and let her live it the way she wants to. You also gotta look at it from her perspective. You need to step into her shoes for a while and see what she sees. Think outside the box, Dan. It’ll help you throughout your life. Trust me.”
“What do you mean by thinking outside the box?”
“I’ll give you an example. Say you and I were attracted to each other and liked each other the way that Jack and Darren like each other. How do you think Jack would feel about us? She’d feel the same way you do about her and Darren. You see what I mean?”
“For once, I get it.”
“Good, now go to sleep. I’m sick of being interrupted on a night where I really need my sleep.”
“I can’t sleep,” Dan said.
“Why not?” Nadia whined.
“Because I’m worried about Jack,” he replied.
“Then what do you want to do?” she asked.
“Could I sleep with you tonight? I know it sounds kinda crazy, but I always used to do that with my mom when I got freaked out about something.” Dan sat down on the bed beside Nadia as she scooted over. “Thank you.”
“Don’t even think about trying anything,” she warned, moving as far away from his as possible. He only got closer to her and took her side of the bed. His arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her close. “Dan, I’m gay.”
He quickly pulled away from her and said, “What?”
Nadia laughed as she turned towards him. “I’m kidding. I just wanted to see your reaction.”
“Oh,” Dan nervously replied.
“You know what I wanna do?” Nadia seductively asked. He shook his head. “I want to test my theory. I’d like to see how Jack would feel if she saw us together.”
“And how do you think you’re going to do that?” Dan replied.
“Like this.” Nadia rolled on top of him, pinning his arms and legs to the bed. She placed a soft kiss on his lips and smiled. She pulled her shirt off to expose the soft, golden skin of her upper body. “Do you know how long it’s been since I last had sex? Two months.”
“Try two years,” Dan said as he reached up to cup her breasts in his hands.
“I know what you want,” she teased, pulling his hands away.
“You know what I want, but how do you want it?” he asked.
“Kinky,” Nadia answered. She stood up and pulled two blindfolds out of her nightstand. “Somehow, I find not being able to see each other very exciting. I love surprises.”
After tying the blindfold around his eyes, Dan whispered, “Nadia.”
“Just follow my voice,” she whispered back. Their hands found each other in the darkness, then it was their lips, and finally their bodies. After blindly making love with just the use of their hands, the two fell onto the bed after their last climax. They pulled off their blindfolds and stared into each other’s eyes, emerald green meshing with chocolate brown. Nadia wrapped her arms around Dan’s neck and kissed him then rested her head on his chest.
“That was definitely the best sex I’ve ever had,” he commented, holding her tighter.
“The feeling is mutual,” she replied.
~~~~~~~~~~
Dan woke up the next morning feeling awkward. He had never slept with someone after knowing them for less than half a day. Crawling out of bed, he gathered his clothes from the floor and quickly put them on. He wasn’t ready to face Nadia that morning. Her experiment didn’t work as well as they had hoped. Their relationship was definitely going nowhere.
Dan left the apartment around eight that morning careful not to wake Nadia in the process. He went straight to the hospital looking for Darren. They found each other outside of Jack’s room. “Morning,” Darren cheerfully said.
“I’ve gotta talk to you,” Dan seriously replied. “I’ve got a big problem on my hands.”
“What’d you do?” Darren immediately asked.
“You remember Nadia? Well, we kinda got a little too close last night.”
“How close?”
“We slept together.”
“You what?” Darren shouted. “Oh, my God! Dan! Are you the stupidest man alive?”
“At this moment, yes,” Dan shyly answered. “It was such a mistake. This morning I realized that our relationship would go nowhere, and now all I wanna do is avoid her. I even snuck out of the house before she woke up just so I wouldn’t have to talk to her.”
‘I’m such a fool,’ Darren thought to himself as Dan kept explaining his situation. ‘I should tell him about what Jack and I have done. Maybe after all this is over, I can, but then he’d definitely kill me. Shit! I really screwed things up this time.’
“What am I supposed to do now?” Dan was asking when Darren snapped out of his thoughts.
“Sooner or later, you’re going to have to tell her,” Darren reasoned. “It’s wrong to leave a girl hanging.”
“And when did you become an expert on relationships?” Dan retorted. Darren glared at him. “Look, I’ll make a deal with you. Help me cut ties with Nadia, and I promise I’ll never say anything about your relationship with Jack.”
Darren took the deal into consideration. Maybe, hopefully, this would mean that Dan would be okay with his little wild night with Jack. “Okay,” he finally said. “Just as long as you promise you won’t try to kill me if we do anything more than kissing.”
“I promise,” Dan eagerly answered.
“Okay, give me Jack’s number.”
“Why?”
“So I can call Nadia and tell her.”
Dan pulled out his cell phone, skimmed through his phone book, pressed the send button, and handed it to Darren. “Hello?” came Nadia’s sleepy answer.
“Nadia, this is Darren,” he replied.
“Oh, hi,” she uneasily replied.
“Dan, being the chicken that he is, wanted me to tell you that last night was a mistake and that he wishes he had never slept with you,” Darren bluntly told her as Dan listened in horror.
“What the fuck! We just had the best sex ever and now he wants to dump me?” Nadia screamed. Darren pulled the phone away from ear blinking as he tried to get back his hearing. “That little bastard! How could he! And having his friend tell me? That is suck bullshit! I can’t believe this! Where is the little dickhead!”
Dan grabbed the phone from Darren’s hand and turned it off. “That was horrible! I can’t believe this,” he said. “I feel like shit.”
“Then I guess this isn’t the best time to be telling you that Jack’s in surgery again,” Darren replied.
“Why didn’t you tell me when I got here?” Dan angrily asked.
“Because you were preoccupied with Nadia.”
“What’s the surgery for?”
“They’re going to try and repair her broken vertebra. The doctor said her spinal cord is resting on a sharp piece of bone, and that if they don’t remove it quickly, it might sever the nerves and completely paralyze her,” Darren explained.
Dan leaned against the wall and let out a heavy sigh. His nerves had definitely been rattled that day. First it was with Nadia, and now with Jack. “How long is it going to last?” he questioned.
“Somewhere between four and five hours,” Darren said.
“Come on, let’s go get breakfast. Hopefully that’ll clear my head,” Dan suggested as he pushed himself off the wall and began walking down the hall with Darren.