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I woke up to my shrieking alarm clock, sore and nauseous, the next morning. I looked at the time and nearly shit a brick. "Fuck you Nick Stevenson!" I swore under my breath. Quickly thinking, I grabbed the phone and dialed my best friend, Avery's, cell.

"Hey chica," I said after she greeted me.

"Lara?" I could hear Avery shuffling papers around in her office over the phone. "Where were you? You were supposed to meet me at the coffee shop two hours ago for breakfast."

"I know, I know. I messed up. Look, tell the boss I can't come in today," I said a little too quickly.

"Lara, it's Friday. I was hoping you could help me with these returns and files before the weekend."

"I know and I'm sorry. Have Don help you out."

"No way, I'll drool all over him and you know it. I'll soak all of the papers!"

"So? Invite him over to your place to iron them out. Besides, it's about time you do something about him instead of always wondering what if." I could picture her smiling on the other side of the line.

"No excuses," she said changing the subject. "Why can't you come in? Is this about Nick again? You know, girl, you've been talking about him an awful lot lately. Does he have another girlfriend now and he's too busy with her to be with you?"

I grinded my teeth. "Actually, something a little different happened, but I can't tell you now. Maybe later."

She gasped. "You had sex!!"

"Shh!! Quiet will you?!"

"Fine, fine, okay? You win. Listen, I'll get Sandy to help me with the files. You need to get your rest." I could hear the teasing in her voice.

"Get Don," I urged. "You never know. Maybe you'll get a little action from him."

"Like you and Nick? I doubt that."

I sighed. "Good-bye Avery."

"Bye, Lara," she said, and with that we hung up.

A few hours later I felt well enough to go out and run off my frustrations. I mean I did have the whole day to myself. Having only an orange and some water for a late breakfast, I headed out the back door and ran for three miles. I felt very refreshed and was eager to get home to take a hot bath. I grabbed the morning paper from the front steps on my way inside and worked my way upstairs. I took off my shoes, socks and T-shirt, and drew myself a bubble bath. Faintly hearing music from my room, I pushed the door open and stopped dead in my tracks, dropping my shoes and the paper on the floor. There stood Nick, standing on my bed in nothing but his boxers and one of my bras, singing his heart out to the radio.

"Nick!" I screamed in shock.

Alarmed and suddenly aware of his surroundings, he jumped off the bed and turned the radio off.

"Ah-hem." I motioned towards my bra, which he still wore, but now I noticed there was something inside of the cups. I walked over to where he was sitting and took out one of the "boobs". It was a balloon. I looked up at Nick and his face turned red. "What's in this?" I demanded.

"Pudding," he said matter-of-factly.

I questioned his answer. "Yup, just like in the movie Now & Then," he grinned.

"Nicky," I calmly said, leaning over in front of him. "Now, I know you have some problems and there are some great doctors out there, but if you ever need to talk to someone, you know you can always come to me." He smiled, but instead of replying, his gaze wondered a little south. Following his eyes, I noticed that he was staring at the cleavage showing out of the top of my white sports bra. "Nick," I sighed, realizing he was hopeless, "please leave." Standing up, I walked out of the room. Closing the bathroom door behind me, I stripped off the rest of my clothing and slowly sat down in the warm, bubbly, bath water.

Seconds later, just as I relaxed, the door opened and Nick's head poked through. "Lara?" he asked, with his big baby blue eyes looking into mine. Seeing that I wasn't going to attack him, he entered the bathroom and sat down on the toilet seat wearing a pair of shorts, but no shirt. Even though we've both seen each other naked before and there were bubbles all over me, I still felt uncomfortable at him looking at me.

"I'm sorry, Lara," he apologized, looking at me with his big blue eyes. I just sat in the tub hugging my knees to my chest. He tried to take my hand, but I pulled away. He sighed as he sat down on the floor by me and gently touched my face. "You know, Lara, you really should harden yourself to the idea of being worth looking at."

I smiled at this and he smiled back. "So you haven't had good relationships, who does?" I opened my mouth to protest, but he placed his fingertips on my lips before words could come out. "Listen, you are beautiful. Just because Kevin doesn't notice you, does not mean that you're worthless. He's the worthless one for treating you like this." A single tear caught in my eye.

"Thank you, Nick," I said. Taking a deep breath, I cupped my hands in the water and splashed some on my face.

"Anytime, my dear." He leaned over and kissed my forehead. "Now, give me a hug!" There went my charming best friend.

"Nick! I'm bathing," I pointed out.

"So? Come on, it's not like I have never seen you undressed before." I couldn’t help my self and I gave in. I leaned over the edge of the tub and we embraced in a friendly hug. He held me out at arm length, opened his big mouth, and said, "Although I must say I like your body a lot more now then when we were in the sixth grade."

"Bastard," I said, splashing water at him.

"But you love me, don't you?" he taunted.

"Well, Nick, that only depends on one thing."

"What's that?"

I pointed down at his drenched shorts. "How well you can hold your bladder."