Federal Affair

Chapter 22

"Nick and I strolled through the grocery store with two shopping carts. We picked items off the shelves in between talks of work, food, our favorite television shows, and yesterday's rendezvous.

"I promise I'll make it up to you," he said as we reached the freezer isle.

I grabbed a carton of chocolate peanut butter ice cream. "You better," I warned.

He closer to me where only I could hear. "Or what?" he whispered seductively.

It occurred to me I had yet to see him in his FBI uniform. I drifted into a daydream, imagining Nick in what I assumed an FBI agent wears, based on what I'd seen on TV.

"Carrie," he interrupted my thoughts. "Don't drool in public."

I smacked his arm playfully, continuing down the aisle.

When we'd finished adding to our carts, we checked out, rather quickly I might add, due to the cashier trying to flirt with Nick. I wanted to slap that stupid smile right off her underage face. To my surprise, Nick paid for my groceries and then proceeded to carry all my sacks to his car.

"Can you even fit all this in there?" I asked, staring at his small car.

"It may be basically a sports car but that doesn't mean it can't hold a load," Nick said, placing his bags in the trunk and mine in the backseat.

In the early morning light, he looked younger than he was. He appeared more carefree with his gleeful smile. I watched the cool morning breeze toss his hair around, blushing and looking away when he caught me staring.

"What did I say about drooling in public?" he chuckled.

"I can't help it that you're so hot."

We headed back to my house to put away the groceries. I put up the food while Nick made spaghetti for breakfast.

"Where'd you learn to be such a good cook?" I asked, impressed with the taste of his spaghetti. He'd added some special concoction of seasonings but refused to tell me the secret recipe.

"My grandma taught me," he smiled. "She used to come hang out with me every day after I got home from school cause my parents were always working. She'd make dinner for them a lot of times and teach me how to make whatever she was making. It was fun. I miss her."

"Where is she now?" I asked.

"She moved to Florida a few years ago," he said, twirling his fork in the pasta. "I've only seen her once since then. I've been so busy with work that it makes it near impossible to travel for leisure when I'm always traveling for work."

A thought crossed my mind and I looked up from my food with a frown. "Are you not here permanently?"

Nick sighed, looking out the window. "I'm here until we close this case but after that I'm sure they'll send me somewhere else across the country or bring me back to DC. One or the other."

"Can't you request to stay here?"

"I could," he said, slouching back in his seat. "But they probably wouldn't go for it. I'm still pretty new to this job so I do what my superiors tell me and that's about it. I don't really get a say in how shit goes."

I imagined having to fly across the country every weekend to visit Nick. Once in a while was okay. I didn't mind that if he was out of town off and on. But having to live in two different places several hundred miles apart, maybe even a couple thousand miles apart sounded like such a hassle to me. I wanted the luxury of seeing Nick every day. I didn't want to have to call him and ask if I could fly out to see him over the weekend. It just wasn't ideal.