Blackbird (18 page)

When she’d finally had enough and was exhausted
after nearly three hours of surfing, they went back to Nate’s and ordered in.
Claire was too drained to even drive and since Nate couldn’t drive, either,
they had pizza delivered.

“How come you never told me about this place
before?” Claire asked, making
herself
comfortable on
the daybed.

His apartment block had its own rooftop terrace
with a barbeque, bar area, and daybed.

“I’d forgotten about it until you mentioned how
good a balcony would be in my apartment. Then I remembered this place.”

“You don’t come up here often?”

“I used to, but not lately.”

Claire looked back at him, confused.

“The staircase to the roof isn’t exactly something
I desired to climb after breaking my leg.”

“Oh, yeah.
I forgot about
that for a minute. How’s it all going, anyway?”

“Good, pretty much back to normal.
Except of course not being able to drive.
That sucks.”

“Not when you have me to drive you around
everywhere,” Claire replied, grinning.

“True.”

Nate picked up the pizza box and put it on the
side bench. “Speaking of which, what do you want to do now?”

Claire sighed. “Can we stay here? I’m spent, and I
don’t really feel like driving home. It’s such a nice night out. Let’s stay
here, talk a bit and see how we go.”

It was a nice night out. The sky was clear and the
cool breeze cooled them in the humidity.

“Fine.
But what happens
if it rains?”

“Then we’ll get wet and dry ourselves off. It’s not
a big deal.” Claire grabbed his arm and pulled him to lie down next to her.
“Come on! You’ll be fine. I’ll protect you.”

Nate coughed. “I doubt that,” he said, giving in
and making himself comfortable.

He looked up at the stars, wondering to himself why
he’d never done this before. Admittedly, the last time he’d been up here, he
was drunk Fortunately, only one other resident on his floor had access to the
rooftop and they were an elderly couple who barely left their apartment, let
alone go to the rooftop. Body corporate had regular cleaners that would make
sure the area was kept in good condition so he never had to worry about it.

 Apart from his mates, Claire was the first
woman he’d ever let see the rooftop terrace. Then again, he’d never thought he
would ever want a girl to be up here. How things had changed.

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

Claire stretched out her body beside him and
yawned.
“Anything.
Anything at all.”

***

Claire’s eyes slowly
opened,
the sound of a buzzing ringtone in her head.

What the…?

The annoying ringing continued. Her eyes squinted
in the morning sun. She turned her body towards the sound, groaning. Nate was
lying next to her, sleeping soundly, without a shirt.

Now that’s something to wake up to in the
morning.

The ringing, however, was not something good to
wake up to. She searched for the sound and found it coming from Nate’s phone in
his pocket.

She carefully placed her hand inside his front
jeans pocket to retrieve the phone. Her movements were slow and calculated. She
didn’t want to wake Nate. But just as she wrapped her hand around his phone,
Nate’s hand grabbed her wrist with speed.

“What the hell are you doing?” Nate asked in a
raspy voice.

“I…uh-”

Thankfully the ringing from Nate’s phone
interrupted her explanation. She quickly manoeuvred her hand to release his
grip, grabbing the phone from his pocket and handing it to him. “Either answer
it or turn it off,” she demanded.

Nate grabbed the phone from her hand and held it
to his ear. “Hello.”

Nate’s body instantly tensed at the sound of the
other voice on the phone. Then he leapt up off the bed and picked his shirt of
the ground.  He held the phone to his ear, quickly talking, “Yeah, sorry,
I’m up on the rooftop. No, I’ll come to you. Okay, give me two seconds. Bye.”

He hung up, putting the phone back into his pocket
and throwing on his shirt faster than she’d ever seen him.

Claire stared at him in bewilderment.

He started for the door then stopped abruptly and
turned towards her. He looked at her in deep thought.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” she
asked.

“That was my sister. She is standing outside my
apartment with my mum…”

“And…”

“And you’re here. If they see you…”

Oh, so this is how it was going to be.

Claire vented, “You don’t want them to see me
because you’re embarrassed by me or something?”

“No!
No, not at all!”
Nate replied shaking his head. “It’s just, well…”

“Well…”

She watched him take in a breath that may have
just drained him of any air left in his lungs. When he let the breath out his
mouth opened to speak, then quickly closed. His head hung low. “You’ll be the
first.”

“The first…”

His head was still bowed as his eyes met hers.
“You’ll be the first girl I’ve ever introduced to them.”

“Oh.”

He really must be a ladies’ man. 

“Oh,” he copied.

“If you don’t want me to meet them,
it’s
fine, Nate, I don’t have to.”

“No, it’s not that. I want you to meet them, I
really do. I just don’t know if you want to meet them.”

Claire thought about that for a moment.
Would
they not like her? Or were they not very nice people?
Claire recalled their
previous conversations about Nate’s sister and mum, no alarm bells. She didn’t
recall ever being told they weren’t nice people. In fact she was pretty sure he
had a good relationship with them. Then why wouldn’t she want to meet them…

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because…They are going to think that something is
going on between us. You’re the first girl they have ever met, and you just
slept the night with me on the rooftop.”

But there was something going on between them,
or there wasn’t? Was there? No, there wasn’t.
Maybe?

“I’ll just explain to them that you’re my friend,
we hang out sometimes, you teach me how to surf, etcetera.”

She jumped off the bed, straightening her crumbled
blue beach dress.

“Are you sure?” Nate said, looking at her with a
frown.

Claire walked over to him and smiled. “I’m
positive.” She clutched his bicep in her hands. “Let’s go meet your family.
I’ve always been interested in meeting the person that created you.”

“Uh, gross.”

“Not like that!
You and your
dirty mind, Nate Williams!”

“Now you sound exactly like my mother.”

Claire playfully slapped his arm as they walked
towards the exit.

He grinned. “Bed hair really suits you.”

Suddenly she remembered she was about to meet his
mum and sister and she looked like she’d just gotten out of bed…
well,
actually, she had done just that!

Crap!

She froze, quickly letting Nate’s arm go and
brushing her hair with her fingers.

“You look fine, I was only joking,” Nate reassured
her.

She pulled her hair up into a loose, messy bun and
prayed she looked at least half decent.

They both walked down the stairwell in silence.

Nate looked at her and smiled. Either he was just as
nervous or he thought the fact Claire was nervous was entertaining. She didn’t
have time to analyse it because within a couple of seconds he’d opened the door
and they were standing face to face with Nate’s mum and sister.

For what felt like an eternity they all stood
there staring at each other.

“Oh!” Nate’s sister spoke first, the biggest grin
spreading across her face. “Did we interrupt something?” She giggled.

“Mum,” he said then looked at his sister and
frowned. “Emily. This is Claire, a good
friend
of mine.”

“Well this is a surprise,” Nate’s mum said
excitedly. “I’m Debbie, Nate’s mum.” She held her hand out. Claire took it and
shook it gently.

“Friend, hey?”
Emily
questioned, still smiling at the situation.
“Nice to meet you
Claire,
friend
of Nate’s.”

“Will you be joining us for breakfast?” Debbie
asked.

“Well-”

“I’d love to,” Claire interrupted, Nate smiling at
his mum.

Debbie was nothing like what Claire had expected.
If you lined a bunch of women up in a row and had to guess which one was Nate’s
mum you wouldn’t have guessed in a million years it was Debbie.

She was a lot shorter than
Nate,
in fact she was shorter than Claire. His height must have come from his dad
because Emily was also tall.

Claire thought judging by Nate and his dad’s
surfing stories that they would resemble a surf-y kind of family, dressed in
beach clothes and skin tanned from the sun. But Debbie was dressed in casual,
cotemporary clothing, knee length white cotton pants and a sleeved red shirt.
Her skin was fair and her brown hair was cut into a bob just below her ear. She
looked normal. If normal was the right word? Okay, maybe she just looked normal
compared to Nate standing next her. He was nearly twice her size, tanned skin
with his tattoos out for show.

Emily looked similar in age to Claire and was
dressed in a high-waisted black skirt with a loose teal-coloured top. She
topped it off with matching handbag and pumps. Claire assumed they were the
three hundred dollar ones she’d been eyeing off months ago.

This girl knew her fashion all right.
 

Strangely enough, Claire’s own fashion sense had
changed over the past few months. She used to be very much into fashion and
went with the trends easily. She rarely went anywhere without makeup, heels,
and lip-gloss. Yet here she was with Nate wearing a casual dress, no make-up,
no heels, and definitely no lip-gloss.

Things have undoubtedly changed.

“It’s settled then, we can all go to breakfast
together,” Debbie said happily. “It will be great to get to know you, Claire.
You are, after all, the first girl, or should I say woman, Nate has ever
introduced to us.”

“So I’ve heard,” Claire replied, tugging Nate’s
arm as they walked towards the building’s lift to take them to the ground.

Nate looked down at her, and it wasn’t Claire who was
nervous anymore, it was Nate.

And so he should be
, she thought to
herself. She was about to find out interrogate his mum with questions about
Nate. She quietly giggled to herself as she stepped inside of the lift with the
others.

***

Debbie, Claire and Emily were in a
fit of giggles when Nate spoke up, annoyed by their laughter. “I think that’s
about enough stories for one day.”

“
Aww
, but I love hearing
about it,” Claire said, pouting at him.

“It was seriously one of the funniest things I’ve
ever seen!” Emily said, wiping tears from her eyes. “You sung the shit out of
that song, Nate. Best ever cover of ‘Jessie’s Girl’ I have ever heard! And I’m
not the only person that thinks so. If I remember correctly you had every
thirteen year old girl’s panties in a twist over it.”

“I guess I should be thanking you for it, Mum,”
Nate snapped.

Debbie’s hands shot up in surrender. “Me? What did
I do?”

“You let your son get up on stage in front of hundreds
of people and sing a song for a girl that was years my senior. I was bullied
for weeks because of it.”

Claire rolled her eyes. “I’m sure. I actually bet
you were
swooned
over for weeks by girls wanting to
date you.”

A smile crept on Nate’s lips. “Maybe…”

Claire looked at him, laughing. “And so began Nate
Williams:
Mr.
Casanova.”

“Now if I had known that letting him do that would
make him into the Casanova he is today, I probably wouldn’t have encouraged it;
however, then I would have never had the chance to meet you, Claire,” Debbie
said, smiling at Claire.

“Touché,” Claire said, picking up her juice glass
and nodding it in Debbie’s direction. She turned back to Nate. “Will you sing
the cover for me one day?” Nate shook his head. “Then again, you probably
wouldn’t be anywhere near as good as someone I know,” she teased.

“You’re not talking about that Tristan kid are
you?”

“He’s not a kid, he’s probably as old as you, and
yes I am.”

“Tristan?”
Emily said
looking between Nate and Claire in confusion.

“Tristan Woods,” Claire replied not taking her
eyes from Nate’s.

“As in-”

“
The
Tristan Woods, yes,” Claire smirked.
Nate’s face was still as hard and serious as ever.

“Oh-My-God!”
Emily
squealed.

“Yeah that was my first reaction when I found out
as well,” she said, turning to Emily to see her looking like she was a long
lost puppy who’d found its owner.

“You.
Are.
So.
Lucky,” Emily said,
taking her time with each word.

“Yeah I thought I was at first, but then I found
out my sister and him are pretty hung up on each other. Pretty sure they’ve
found their forever and always.”

Nate cut in, “Have you found
your
forever and always?”

She looked back at him.
Had she?

“I…”

She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t really
think about forever and always, her mind was usually in the now. She never went
into relationships hoping they would end up together forever. But the more she
was around
Nate,
the more she changed her idea of what
a relationship should be. Suddenly everything that made sense to her didn’t
anymore. Suddenly she wanted more.