Page 45 of Big Nick Energy
‘I don’t get you,’ I tell him sullenly. He looks at me, confused. ‘You’re offering help but you’re also making digs at how I go about things.’
‘I’m not. All I’m saying is if you’re going out dressed like a sad wet bear then plan better. Pack an umbrella.’
‘I’m a reindeer,’ I say, pulling up my hood so he can see my antlers.
He says nothing but gives me a look that tells me he finds my need for fancy dress ridiculous. I even wore UGG slippers for authenticity. Some would applaud the commitment.
‘Well, even reindeers don’t do Christmas on their own. Santa needs a whole flock to pull his sleigh.’
‘A herd,’ I reply. ‘Reindeer herd. It’s a flock of sheep.’
‘Or seagulls.’
‘Mine-mine…’ I caw.
‘Finding Nemo.’ He got the reference. But he doesn’t laugh despite my rather brilliant impression of a sea bird. I look over at him, hands firmly on the steering wheel, clenching it tightly.Why are you so tense, so humourless? Because this is an inconvenience and I seem ungrateful?Maybe I need to break the surliness and just accept his offers of help.
‘What are your trucks like? Are they roomy?’ I ask him.
‘We’ve got white vans with decent load dimensions,’ he says seriously.
‘Will it have this?’ I ask him, pointing to a Santa on the dashboard that wriggles his hips every time the truck stops.
‘That’s not mine, it’s Noah’s. He thinks it’s funny,’ he says.
‘It is, no?’
‘No.’
I look over at him.I am thankful you’re here, I really am but it’s supposed to be the happiest time of the year.I grab his towel and unzip my onesie a little to expose my neck, drying as much rain as I can down to my cleavage. However, as I do, the truck brakes suddenly and I feel the pull of the seatbelt against my shoulder.
‘Bloody wazzock!’ Nick shouts out angrily. The combination of his volume and the sudden jolt of the brakes makes the hairs on my arm stand on end but there’s something about that word too. I laugh. It’s something you don’t hear these days. But when did I last hear it? On a phone. A man. A man who delivered a Christmas tree to my nana. A really big Christmas tree. Oh my.You?
TWENTY
‘Oh my God, did you fall in a river or something?’ Nick asks as I walk through the door of his apartment. He stands opposite me, giving casual and relaxed vibes in grey joggers and a hoodie, bare feet on the floor. I have no idea how I look but it’s not relaxed. It’s sodden and damp, a cold in my bones and veins. After the other Nick helped me transport my books, we returned to my car and he and Noah waited with me until the AA man (Larry) eventually arrived and told me my car was dead as a doornail which I told him was a very timely Dickensian reference that no one else got. Anyway, the car and I were towed to a garage and then I called an Uber and came here because Nick invited me round for dinner. I think the Uber driver might charge me for flooding his car but I’m so done with today. I need somewhere warm, somewhere I can collapse. Somewhere with a towel.
‘I’ve had a day. My car is dead, I was stranded and…’ I moan.
‘Why didn’t you call? I could have helped?’ he says, sounding concerned as he ushers me inside and takes my handbag which seems to have absorbed all the rain.
‘You were at work. I had to wait for the AA. Just… nightmare.’
‘I could have sent help. A car maybe? I can’t leave a reindeer stranded at Christmas.’
See? He could identify the onesie. He has not batted an eyelid that I look like a big matted soggy mess. He comes over and straightens my antlers. ‘Did you get your books delivered?’ he asks, disappearing into a room off the kitchen to get a laundry basket. I nod, not divulging how. It was the other Nick who flew in to save the day but I’ll admit since realising he was the very abrupt man I spoke to years ago about the ridiculous Christmas tree he gifted my nana, that there’s a strange feeling there I can’t shake. He was rude, so rude, and even though he’s now offered to help me with the book drive, I can’t get over the extremes of his personality. ‘Here, put all your wet things in here and I’ll throw what I can in the dryer.’
Because here is someone who has just showered me with kindness since we’ve been re-acquainted. I know him much better. I exhale deeply to be in the warm, marvelling at his domestic efficiency and his desire to help. I immediately feel the warmth of his underfloor heating on the soles of my feet as I remove my socks. ‘Shall I just strip here?’ I ask him.
‘Well, I won’t complain… let me get you a robe…’
He disappears again as I try and undress, peeling my onesie off me. He returns with a dark-grey fluffy robe and wraps it around me, kissing me on the forehead. ‘I must look a state,’ I say, looking down at my knickers that have gone completely transparent.
‘You’re freezing. Come with me…’
He reaches down and takes my hand, leading me to his bathroom where he starts to run a bath, pouring in bubble bath. I sit on the edge, watching him. As he glances over, I can see him smiling there and I feel incredibly warmed by the fact he doesn’t care what I look like. I can show up at his doorstep and he’s brought me in and taken care of me. It harks back to a timeat university where we’d revel in joint hangovers and crawl to lectures looking our absolute worst. His bathroom has a window overlooking the Thames and I watch as the rain calms and the river twinkles from streetlamps and boats passing through.
‘I was going to order in food tonight but you get first dibs. What do you fancy? Something warm? Soup? There’s a good ramen place nearby?’
