you don’t understand how happy i am that nick is 1. openly loving on his bf and 2. in a spot where he feels safe and comfortable to share this with us, given how this fandom reacts to any of them mentioning someone they’re remotely interested in.
nick deserves so much love and i’m so happy he’s found someone that can give him that.
➟ 💿 content warning: suggestive, sexual tension, mentions of cheating, yearning, still burning slowly
➟ 💿 summary: you and chris stay up late by the pool chatting and getting to know each other on a more intimate level
dividers by me !
song I listened to while writing this chapter:
Bizarre Love Triangle
chapters: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
➟ 💿 read this blurb here for more context
[ click to return to series overview ]
As your last night in Georgia unfolded, your plan to stay back in the hotel room and journal or read was suddenly interrupted when your phone buzzed. It was an incoming text from Chris, inviting you to join him for a little nighttime swim:
"Wanna go for a dip in the pool with me?"
Normally, you'd stay in, decline his offer, but the allure of sharing such an intimate setting with him and finding out how his conversation with Amber had gone was too tempting to say no to. Another appeal was that you were secretly dying to see him shirtless. You texted him back:
"Sure. Be down in 10."
You threw on a skimpy white bikini, one that showed just enough skin, trying to convince yourself that you weren't looking for a reaction from Chris by wearing it. You watched the floor number descend as you stood in the elevator, your towel draped over your arm and your heart thumping in anticipation.
You spotted him down by the pool, already in the water with a beer bottle in hand, the Blue Moon label facing you. He looked serene, completely lost in thought, staring up at the blanket of stars overhead. You took a deep breath before approaching him, feeling your stomach flutter with both excitement and nervousness.
Before you could greet him, he noticed you across the way out of the corner of his vision. His blue eyes met yours before flicking over your body, a fleck of hunger in them. His tongue slithered out from behind his pink lips as he wet them, that same look you'd spent the entire elevator ride down convincing yourself you weren't yearning for.
It was the second time you'd seen Chris look at you like that, and well, you liked it.
"Hey," he smiled, taking another sip of his beer without taking his gaze off of you.
"Hey," you replied, sitting down by the poolside, dipping the bottom half of your legs in the still water. "Thanks for the invite."
"Thanks for comin'." Chris hoisted himself out of the water, sitting down beside you at the edge of the poolside, bringing a puddle of water with him.
"Where's Matt?" You asked, glancing around the pool area and the lobby, wondering where he could be if not out here or in the hotel room.
"He's probably off smoking a joint by himself. I invited him, too, but he was acting kind of weird and moody. You know how he can be." You did know, and you liked Matt for it. He got into weird, introverted moods just like you did.
You nodded. A beat of silence followed while you mustered up the courage to ask Chris about the phone call.
"So, uh, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard that Amber called last night," the words tumbled out of your mouth, not completely sure what you wanted him to answer in response.
He rolled his eyes, scoffing. "You wouldn't believe it. She wants me to take her back."
Your heart sank in a way that you didn't imagine it would. You'd had a hunch. What other reason would she have called Chris so late at night? But hearing your suspicions confirmed was a strange feeling.
"What exactly did she say?" You halfway regretted the words as they slipped out. A part of you didn't want to know. He looked over at you, wondering whether he should tell the truth or not.
"She was really convincing. Telling me how sorry she was. How she threw away a good man for the heat of the moment and how she regrets it. Telling me how much she misses the sex..." he lowered his voice. "Honestly, I'm glad she's in another state because I don't know if I would've been able to stay strong if she was throwing herself at me in person."
You swallowed the lump in your throat. A part of you was trying to push that thought out of your head - Amber and Chris having sex. It made you sick to your stomach to think about.
But when you slowly started to imagine yourself in her place, the thought not only became tolerable but kind of hot. You glanced back up at him and shook your head as if literally trying to shake the image out of your mind, worried that he may be able to tell what you were thinking.
"Chris, you can't take her back. Remember how she treated you? Plus, there's no chance she tells her friends and family that she was actually the one who cheated. They're all just gonna be looking at you sideways anytime she brings you around."
He sighed, the tension falling from his heavy shoulders. "You're right. But it's complicated."
"What's complicated about it? She fucked another guy while the two of you were supposed to be monogamous," you told him, giving him a more serious look. You hated watching a guy who seemed to be so confident fall victim to his toxic ex girlfriend trying to weasel her way back into his life, and you hated that he was even considering taking her back.
Chris took a sip of his Blue Moon before he glanced back over at you like he wanted to listen to you, but you could tell there was a lot going on behind his blue eyes. You didn't want to pry, but you wanted to know.
"I still think you deserve better," you told him, flirtatiously snatching his beer out of his hand and taking a swig of it, breaking up the seriousness of the conversation. He smirked as you handed it back and lowered yourself into the pool, the initial sensation from the cool water shocking your system.
"Cold?" Chris asked, watching your reaction.
"Maybe. You gonna get in?" You wondered, trying to keep your teeth from chattering. "Or you gonna leave me hanging?"
He set his beer bottle down by the poolside, a challenging grin spreading across his face. He jumped in after you, accidentally splashing you as he did.
"Hey!" You exclaimed, splashing him back.
"Do it again. I dare you," Chris playfully threatened.
You cocked an eyebrow, giving him a smug look before slamming your hand down on the surface of the pool and giving him a face full of chlorine water. You turned away, swimming to the opposite end of the poolside.
He shook his head like a dog who'd just gotten a bath. "Oh, you're asking for it now," he chuckled in response, sloshing more water in your direction as he swam after you before he tackled you, coming up from behind you and picking you up in his arms.
You squealed, trying to get away from him but not really. You loved the feeling of his hands on you. You'd been craving that feeling since the night the two of you had gone dancing together. He hesitated for a moment, the sexual tension between the both of you almost palpable before dunking you under.
You resurfaced seconds later, giving Chris a look of shock. "Watch it, Chris," you snarked at him, still giggling, slicking your hair back with your hands and squeezing out the excess water.
"What are you gonna do about it?" He teased, swimming away from you so you couldn't retaliate.
"Don't test me. I'll get you when you least expect it," you threatened, smirking at him.
The two of you waded around in the pool in silence, taking in the atmosphere of the night, the only sounds were the lapping water, the whoosh of the distant cars on the highway, and your heartbeat that you swore Chris could hear from six feet away. The air was still sticky and humid despite the sun having set hours ago, and it clung to your skin.
You were just starting to get used to Georgia, and the three of you were leaving tomorrow.
Chris finally broke the silence. "I'm not gonna take Amber back, ya know."
"Better not," you said, giving him a look. "But clearly there's a part of you that wants to, so why is it so hard for you to let go?"
Your words hit harder than he expected. He took his time processing the question before speaking up again. "It's just sometimes it's better to be with someone shitty than to be alone."
"I mean, you rarely spend the night alone, Chris," you snarked back, giving him a look.
He laughed. "I just want to find my forever person. As corny as that sounds."
"What kind of girl do you think your forever person is like?" You asked, laying on your back and floating on the water, trying to detach yourself from any expectations about what his answer might be.
"Well, in my head, she makes me laugh. She's smart. She calls me out on my bullshit," he smiled to himself. "She's introspective, but always knows how to get me out of my head when I need it. And she's as passionate about music as I am."
You refrained from pointing it out, but he was describing you.
"What about you? I know you've casually dated around, but I've never seen you get serious with anyone." He turned the question back around on you.
"I like my alone time too much, Chris. I don't have a type or a checklist or anything, but if I'm gonna commit to someone, they would have to be so fun to be around that I'd rather spend time with them than be alone."
"Well, you came out of the hotel room for me," Chris pointed out.
"Yeah, you're not the worst company in the world," you joked, giving him a playful wink.
The two of you laughed, throwing harmless flirty comments back and forth all night, but there was definitely a spark there, and you both felt it.
Before you knew it, the two of you were inching closer towards each other in the pool, and your voices were growing lower and quieter. You noticed Chris' gaze kept flicking between your sparkling eyes and your full lips, and you caught yourself doing the same.
"You know, don't take this the wrong way, but you should show off your body more," Chris commented when the conversation had shifted to clothing style and the things you wished you could wear but probably never would because you didn't think you could pull them off.
"Oh?" You gave him a cheeky grin. "You think so?"
"I just mean, you're really beautiful, and you have a nice body. You could absolutely pull off anything you wanted to wear," he clarified, hoping he didn't sound like his typical fuckboy self who just wanted to see you naked even though he absolutely did.
"You're not so bad yourself," you told him, your eyes flickering down to his arms and his chest.
You felt a magnetic pull, drawing the two of you closer together. You didn't fight it this time. The two of you stared deeply into each other's eyes, your noses just about to touch when Matt's familiar voice sounded. "There you two are."
In unison, you both whipped your heads around in the direction his voice came from, now giving Matt your full attention and slowly putting distance between yourselves.
"Hey, Matt. What's up?" You asked nonchalantly, your cheeks turning pink.
"Yeah, bro. What's up?" Chris chimed in.
"Do you guys have any idea what time it is? It's almost 1 a.m. You realize we gotta pack up early tomorrow, right? We're playing a show in Tennessee in less than 24 hours."
You glanced down at your hands, realizing how pruned and pale-looking they were. It dawned on you in that moment that you and Chris had been at the pool for hours. "Oh, shit. Is it really that late?" You wondered aloud, climbing out of the water and searching around for you towel.
"Yeah, it really is," Matt replied, narrowing his gaze at the two of you. "Was I, uh, interrupting something?"
"What? No? God, no. Don't be ridiculous. We just lost track of time. That's all," you shrugged, slipping on your flip-flops and draping your towel around your shoulders.
"Yeah, I was just filling her in on the Amber situation," Chris replied, following you out of the pool and taking his empty beer bottle with him.
"If you say so," Matt answered, shrugging.
You and Chris shared a glance as Matt turned around, heading back into the lobby, but it was unreadable. You couldn't tell what he was silently saying with his eyes. It was either, "We can't let this happen again," or it was, "God, I wish he hadn't interrupted us."
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