Someone Exactly Like Me by Debbie Cromack
10
Nicco
Destiny comes down the stairs wearing jean shorts and a tan T-shirt. Even with wet hair and no makeup, she’s beautiful.
“Good morning. I made coffee and started some scrambled eggs,” I say, stirring the eggs with a spatula. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Good morning. No, not at all. Did I wake you?” she asks, getting a mug that says, “Salt Water Cures Everything” out of the cabinet.
“No, I woke up on my own. I heard the shower running and didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye so I started breakfast. You have quite a collection.” I smile, nodding at the mug.
She grins. “My mugs make me happy.”
I stop scrambling the eggs and pour coffee into her mug.
“Thank you.” She scoops in two teaspoons of sugar then adds creamer. “Do you want toast with your eggs?”
“Sure. I made enough for you. Are you hungry?”
“Starving,” she says, taking a loaf of marble rye bread out of a wooden bread box.
She puts two pieces of bread in the toaster and gets butter from the refrigerator. Then she takes two plates out of the cabinet and silverware from the drawer. Once she has everything out, she lifts herself to sit on the countertop and sips her coffee.
“Ah. You make a good cup of coffee. What time is your meeting this afternoon?”
When I look at her to answer, her nipples capture my attention. The water from the ends of her long hair has darkened her T-shirt around her breasts and caused the fabric to cling to them. Catching a quick glimpse of the outline of her nipples and curve of her breasts makes me stir in my pants.
Lowering the heat on the eggs, I press down the toaster button, and stand in front of her. Placing a hand on either side of her, I lean down so we’re face to face. I have to see if she shows any signs of attraction to me.
“Two o’clock.” I look directly into her eyes and don’t move, hovering in front of her.
Her pupils expand as she sips in a tiny breath of air.
As I rise and step away, I see teeny bumps covering her arms. Hmm, maybe she does feel something.
“Oh good,” she says, taking in a deeper breath. “Then you’re not risking running late.”
“No.”
The toaster pops up the toast and I put them on a plate then insert two more pieces. I scoop eggs onto the plate with toast and set it next to her. Hopping down from the counter, she butters her toast, and waits for me at the small dinette.
During breakfast, she shares with me a little more about Vance and I’m excited for my meeting with him today. After we finish eating, I help her clean up and know it’s time to let her get to work.
As we stand in her foyer, she looks up at me. “We haven’t scheduled time for me to interview you yet. Do you think we could do that soon? I have some of the structure laid out now and still have some location research to do, but I’d like to start creating the meat of the story.”
“Do you have your questions ready?”
“Not all of them. I’ll be doing that today.”
“Okay, how about when we go to the beach tomorrow, you can ask me your questions?”
She nods. “That’ll work.”
I linger, not wanting to leave, but knowing I should. I give her quick cheek-kisses and turn toward the door.
“Nicco.”
“Yeah?” I say, turning back to face her.
“I — uh, thank you,” she says, one thumb looped into her pocket and the other hand pointing to the kitchen, “for breakfast. That was very nice of you.”
“You’re welcome. I’m a pretty good cook.” I cock my head to the side and smile.
“And —” She rubs the back of her neck. “Thank you for taking care of me yesterday. I appreciate it.”
“Of course. I’m glad I was with you. Although I don’t think I did much to help.”
“But you did. I…” She hesitates. “I feel safe with you.”
My heart swells. “Good. I’ll always keep you safe.” Stepping toward her, I tuck her damp hair behind her ear and wrap my arms around her, pulling her into me. She smells like citrus and vanilla. Pressing her into me, I feel her breasts against my chest and yearn to touch them, with my hands, my mouth. I love how she feels in my arms.
Releasing her, I stare into her beautiful eyes. Fuck I want to kiss her.
Breaking the moment, she steps back and folds her arms across her chest. “Let me know how it goes today.”
“I will. Eleven tomorrow?”
“Great. I’ll see you then. Good luck.”
I walk out the door and, as she closes it behind me, it hits me: I want to break my own damn rule and kiss her.
My brother, Marco, should be done with his photography job and I want to check in with him to see how it went and also to tell him what’s been going on with me. As soon as I get back to my hotel, I sit in the chair on my balcony overlooking the city, light up a cigarette, and call him.
“Hey, how’s it going? You’re home now, right?” I ask.
“Yeah, bro. Hey, how’s your vacation? How’s L.A.?”
“I have so much to tell you.”
“Yeah? Tell me.”
“The Fendi shoot went great. Candi was incredible as usual.”
“That’s good to hear, man.”
“Yeah, yeah. At the shoot, I met Candi’s best friend, Destiny. It turns out, her mom is in the industry and, not only does she know people, she set me up on interviews with some of the big guys for representation here in the U.S.”
“No fucking way!”
“Yeah. I had two interviews on Monday and I have one more later today. It’s fucking unbelievable.”
“That’s incredible. Let me know how it goes today.”
“Yeah, I will.”
“What else have you done there? Did you drive around and start getting familiar with places?”
“Actually, I hired a tour guide.” I blow smoke into the breeze.
“A tour guide?”
“Yeah, I made a deal with Destiny. Actually, we have two deals going.”
“Okay, now I’m curious. What are these deals?”
“She’s an author. She writes romance books. And right now, her career is having a hard time. So, I asked her to show me around L.A. and told her I’d pay her for her time since it would take away from her time writing. She needs the money.”
“That was generous of you. And the second deal?”
“Actually, it was the first deal. When I learned what her mom did for a living, I suggested she connect me with her, that’s how I got the meetings. In exchange, I told her she could base her next book on me and tap into my social media following since they’d probably like her books.” I take a long drag. “The interesting thing is, the next day, she offered to let me back out of my end of the deal because she said she wants to earn her audience, not just sponge off me. I admire her integrity and honesty.”
“I’m sorry, did you say you admire her?” he asks, his voice raising.
“Yeah. We made a deal that will expose her to the millions of women who follow me and that would probably explode her career. Once she was sober, she basically turned it down.”
“Okay, I admit, that’s admirable. I’ve just never heard you say you admire something about a woman before, except Mamma, that’s all. It caught me off guard.”
“Yeah.” He’s right. A quick scan in my head through the women I’ve dated and none of them had half the qualities Destiny has.
“So, what’s she like, this Destiny?”
“She’s pretty great. I’ve never met someone as kind as her. Does things for others without wanting anything in return, purely from the kindness of her heart. The one day, she was taking me to the Hollywood sign, but needed to stop by the hospital first. We watched a soldier get reunited with his wife for the birth of their first child. She set it up.”
“Wow, that’s pretty amazing.”
“She is. She’s also very compassionate.”
“Yeah?”
“And she’s fuckin’ beautiful, man, but she doesn’t even know it.”
“Should I ask if you banged her yet?” He knows me well.
“Nah. I’m not saying I didn’t wanna fuck the shit out of her when we first met, but no.” In an attempt to smother my amplifying craving for her, I take a long drag. “First, she’d never have sex with me and second, there’s no way I’m good enough for her. She’s worth more than just a fuck, way more.”
“Do you have feelings for her?” His voice raises again.
“No. She’s just nice. I like her. I like hanging out with her.”
“That’s why I’m asking, shithead.”
“No, man. You know I’m not going there. Not for me and not for her. I’m not gonna screw her up.”
“Look, I love you. But I gotta call you out. It’s time to let go of the Ana-bullshit and move on. Do you really want to be single and alone for the rest of your life?”
“No, but look, even if I wanted to see if there could be something between me and Destiny, it would never work. My career is taking off and I’m traveling a lot doing movies and singing at concerts. What kind of dating life is that when I’d be gone most of the time? Nah, she deserves more than I could give her.”
“Okay, it’s your life. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Yeah, it’s cool. Someday I’ll settle down.” An emptiness sags my heart as I say the words, fearful they’re a lie and I’ll never have what he has, an incredible wife, a son, a family. Maybe my one chance was my last chance. My chest hurts when I think of Ana. “Okay, enough about me. How was your shoot?” I stamp out my cigarette.
“Hey, before that, Franco misses his Uncle Nicco. You should come for a visit when you get back.”
“Yeah, I’d like that. I have another brand shoot when I get back, but I could come after that.”
“Great, Angelina and I would love to see you.”
He tells me about the photo shoot he just did and, when we hang up, I go back inside and lay on my bed. All I can think about is Destiny and my conversation about her with Marco. As much as I’m attracted to her and I’m captivated by her beautiful heart, I like her too much already to risk messing with her life.