All You Need Is Love

Chapter 9

*Nicole's POV*

"You're fucking joking!" my best friend Lucy yells through the phone. "You finally met someone?"

I can tell by the look on her face that she is absolutely shocked by my words and is by no means faking her reaction.

I nod my head and blush, absolutely embarrassed down to my core from not ever having a conversation remotely close to this one.

"Well," Lucy continued "keep talking! I haven't waited for this moment forever just for that to be the only thing you tell me! What's he like? Is he cute? Where did you meet? Oh my God, are you finally going to have s-"

"Woah!" I say, feeling myself turn an even deeper shade of red than before. "Calm down!" I say with a laugh. "One question at a time."

"Okay, well is he cute?" she asks.

I begin to bite my nails out of nervousness, knowing that she and I have very different taste in guys from one another.

"Well," I say cautiously. "I think he's cute."

Lucy sighs "So he's ugly."

I scoff and give her the death stare through my screen. "He's not ugly!" I say, almost sounding like a whining child.

"Well, do you have a picture of him?" she asks.

"No." I answer quietly.

"Then, he's ugly until I can see him and make up my own mind." She says with a cackle.

"Lucy!" I say, trying to stop her from picking on me.

She rolls her eyes "Well, based on your history of crushes, I'd say the hottest was Mr. Eden and even he was a 6, maybe a weak 7.5 on a good day. Plus, he was like 40- ew. Hey, that reminds me- how old is boy toy of yours?"

I widen my eyes and bite the insides of my cheeks to prevent myself from showing any facial expression. I'm at a crossroads here.

I can either lie to Lucy and save myself from her scrutiny or tell her the truth and get her honest advice. Of course, neither options sounds good to me. I was honestly hoping this question wouldn't come up. I know I can trust Lucy, and she would never out me to my parents, so where is the harm in being honest?

"He's..." I take a moment to ponder my word options. "Older."

She raises her eyebrows at me "How much older?"

I bite the insides of my cheeks again before letting the words fall out "29 years."

Her eyes immediately widen and her jaw hits the floor. The look on her face is of utter disbelief- I've never seen her look at me in such a way before; a mixture of fear and disappointment.

"Nicole... you gotta be fucking pulling my leg right now." she says placing a hand over her mouth.

I don't say anything, I just look down and begin to pick at the skin around my cuticles to avoid eye contact with her.

I hear her sigh "How did you meet him?" she asks me.

I don't even dance around the subject this time. At this point, I just want this conversation to be over with.

"Remember how my Mom signed me up to meet with a therapist?" I ask her.

She nods her head slowly.

"Well," I continue. "He was the therapist she signed me up to see."

Lucy shakes her head in disbelief. "No way." she says "No fucking way!"

I nod my head "I'm telling the truth, Lucy." I say.

"Do your parents know about this?" She asks me with raised eyebrows.

"No, but if things get more serious, I'll bring it up." I say.

"How do you think they'll react?" she asks.

"I don't know," I answer "We've never really talked about this stuff. I feel like my Dad wouldn't care, but my Mom might care enough for the both of them."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asks

"I mean she's made it pretty clear that she doesn't approve of age gaps. Every time she sees a couple in public or on TV that clearly has some years between them, she automatically assumes the guy is a pervert." I say wearily.

"Well is he like that?" she asks in a watchful tone.

"He doesn't seem like it. Actually when I kissed him, he pulled away because-"

Lucy interrupts me. "Wait, wait, wait- you kissed him?"

I bite my lip and raise one of my eyebrows "Yeah... I did." I say with a chuckle.

"Oh my God, Nicole! You really had your first kiss with him?" she says as a huge smile spreads across her face.

I nod my head and laugh. "Yeah, I did."

"Oh my God, this is so cute! I really hope he ain't ugly though, Nicole I swear if he is I'm gonna-"

I cut her off "Lucy, remember I said I think he's cute."

She smiles. "Yeah, I guess that's all that should matter."

Silence fills the call for a few moments until Lucy interjects.

"Nicole?" she says. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." I say with a smile.

"Are you happy?" she asks me.

And for the first time in a long time I can honestly say the word:

"Yes"