An Impossible Attraction

Chapter eleven

Tracy led Nathan to her bathroom, “sit down,” she pushed him to sit on the toilet before opening the cabinet to bring out her first aid box. She turned to him again and seeing his bruised face, she sighed, “you won’t be going to school tomorrow, you know? If you don’t want your girls wondering what happened to you because you don’t look as handsome as you always do.”

Nathan grinned and regretted it immediately as the cut on his mouth stung him, “ouch.”

“Yeah,” Tracy nodded, “there won’t be much of grinning now,” she mocked before opening the box and bringing out cotton wool and iodine. “This is going to sting a little,” she warned as she dipped the wool with iodine and then bent in front of him to clean his wound. Nathan stiffened and shut his eyes, grunting softly.

“You know,” Tracy continued, “that was a good punch you got there. You were able to make Gary’s nose bleed with one punch, I’m impressed,” she left him and walked back to her box, “not every guy can do that,” she smiled.

Nathan chuckled and again regretted doing that, “damn, this hurts,” he said.

“Yeah,” she agreed, “there won’t be much of chuckling or grinning or smiling or laughing for a while.”

Nathan smiled, sucking in the pain, “not if you are the one funny, I can handle a few pain,” he winked.

Tracy smiled while shaking her head softly, “I really don’t know what to tell Lucy when she sees you tomorrow.”

“Ah, teenagers’ gets into a fight once in awhile,” he shrugged, “she doesn’t need to know how.”

“True, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it,” she went back to cleaning his wound, “promise me Nathan, you are never getting into a fight with Gary again. Christ, you need to see how that guy beats people up in rings, I would hate to see you as one of his victims,” she placed her hand under his chin and turned his face left and right, looking at his cuts and bruises with a sad face, “and you had such a flawless skin,” she pouted.

Nathan smiled, for some reason, he loves it whenever she praises his skin and it was something she does a lot, “it’s just a bruise Trace, it would heal.”

“I know,” she sighed, “you should just take a shower as well,” she placed her hand on the hem of his T-shirt and pulled it up and out of his sleeves, only to freeze when she had it out. Staring at his full flexed muscles, she couldn’t stop herself from gulping; her eyes stuck on his chest and then slowly goes down to his packs.

“Trace?” Nathan called softly when she said nothing. She had been staring at him for a bit longer than necessary, something she has never done before and he doesn’t know how to react to it.

Hearing him say her name, Tracy glanced up at him and was captured in his ocean blue eyes. Nathan was spellbound as well and he couldn’t stop himself from reaching forward and tucking some strands of her hair behind her ear. His action woke Tracy up and she avoided his gaze immediately just as she felt her face heating up. She stood straight immediately and turned her back at him, “hurry up with the shower, I-I- I will be in the bedroom, no, I mean,” she shut her eyes and took a deep breath, “I will be unpacking in the bedroom, not like be in the bedroom and be waiting for you or something like that just…” she stopped when she noticed she was rambling, “take a shower,” she added and ran out of the bathroom before she would embarrass herself further.

Nathan stared at the door she scurried out of in surprise, what just happened? He wondered, it was the first time he was seeing her ramble or stutter. What’s wrong with her saying she would be in the bedroom? Not understanding what just happened, he stood up to take a quick shower, putting the incident at the back of his mind.

Tracy stepped out of the bathroom and placed her head on the closed door. f**k, what just happened? Why did I react like that to Nathan? Goodness me, did I just blush because of Nathan? Nathan! She couldn’t believe it, she glanced at the door when she heard the shower running and for one brief moment, she imagined the water running on that body, that smooth, flawless skin and then… “Oh my God, Tracy,” she whisper shout at herself before leaving the bathroom door and going to the bed, “what the hell is wrong with you, this is Nathan, Nathan that we are talking about here,” she felt the need to remind herself.

What was happening, why would she think about him having a shower? She growled in disgust at herself for her shameful thought and decided to put it behind her as she grabbed her duffel bag and started unpacking. She was back to normal by the time she heard the door open and she turned to him and regretted doing that immediately.

Nathan was standing by the door with a towel round his waist, his hair was dripping wet and there were beads of water on his perfectly sculptured chest down to his really nice packs. Tracy gulped as she followed a bead of water from his neck bone to his waist line and watched as the towel swallowed it. “Trace?” Nathan called softly and her eyes went back to his to see confusion in them.

Tracy gulped and glanced away from him sharply, “um…um,” she licked her lips, “that was a really quick shower.”

“Yeah,” he replied with a frown on his brows, “are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine. Of course I’m fine,” she chuckled nervously, “um…I’m done unpacking, I will just go down and fix dinner for us. Are you hungry?”

“No, but I will really love to have a taste of your pork ribs, you promised to make them on Sunday night.”

“Yeah, yeah, I did,” she replied, avoiding to look at him, “well, I will go down and make it now and you put a shirt on, okay?” she smiled and was out of the door before he could say something.

“Okay,” Nathan said at the now closed door. Once again, he wondered what was going on but then shrugged it off and went to the wardrobe to find joggers and vest shirt to wear. When he went downstairs after drying his hair and without combing it, Tracy was busy in the kitchen and he stood by the door and admired her.

After some seconds and she still hasn’t noticed him, he tiptoed towards her and glanced at her cooking pot above her shoulders. “Wow, that looks…”

“Nathan,” Tracy shouted in shock before placing her hand on her chest and panting, then she turned to glare at him only to stop short seeing how he looked like a model that just walked out of a photo shoot with his disheveled hair and body hugging vest that shows off his biceps and abs. “Nathan,” she shouted, “I told you to find a shirt.”

“This is a shirt,” he touched his vest, staring at her in confusion.

“It’s showing off your biceps and body tone.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“You have polo shirts up there, why aren’t you wearing any of them?”

Nathan frowned, “I don’t understand Trace, I normally wear these types to sleep and you never seem to have a problem with them.”

Tracy shut up when she heard him, that’s right, she doesn’t, so why is she having a problem with it now? “you know what it’s fine, but don’t sneak up on me again like that. Jesus, you almost gave me a heart attack,” she turned back to her cooking, glad to have something else to look at but him.

“I just wanted to say that it looks and smells delicious, besides I stood by the door for a good fifty seconds, it’s not my fault if you didn’t notice me earlier.”

Tracy rolled her eyes and ignored him. He lingered for a while in the kitchen before taking an orange juice from the fridge and leaving. Tracy heaved a sigh of relief when he was gone, wondering what her problem was, she used to love to have him around in the kitchen before, why does she want him gone tonight? The f**k is wrong with her this night in fact? What is her problem with him wearing a vest shirt? But why does he have to look so good with his disheveled hair? Why does he have to have such perfect body? Why does he have to…? “Alright Trace, that’s enough,” she shunned herself softly and forced herself to concentrate on her cooking. All the while wondering why she was paying extra attention to him tonight and why he had to affect her so damn much.