𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐳𝐞 | 𝐧. 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐫

𝟖 | 𝐠𝐚𝐛𝐢 & 𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐨

𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐯

A week later I'm waiting outside of Gabi's building to pick her up for go-karting. It's half past twelve and the sun is shining, people walking up and down the streets enjoying the weather. The whole drive here, the nerves were getting the best of me and as much as I tried to calm down, I couldn't. Seeing as Jack is the only one of the guys who knows of my plan to hang out with Gabi today, I called him to see if he could give me some advice and a pep talk.

"Nico, you're being ridiculous. You've been talking to Gabi for almost a month now, from what you've told me, you guys have even sat and chatted at the cafe near the arena, so why does this make you nervous?" Jack's tone ends in curiosity, wanting to know why I'm feeling the way I'm feeling right now. "I don't know Jack. Something just feels different about today, but I can't put my finger on what it is."

"Nico listen to me when I say this, you're a great guy with an even greater personality. As long as you act like yourself, and you don't put on a facade, you're both going to have a great time." Soaking in what Jack says, a sense of peace and calm comes over me, automatically bringing me to relax. "Thanks, Jack, look Gabi is walking over here. I'll update you when I get home later." Jack tells me to have a great time and wishes me luck before hanging up. In a split-second decision, I fly out of my car and head over to the passenger side to open the door for Gabi.

Gabi must've been in her little world, since she jumped a little, not having expected me to run over to open the door for her. "Nico, you scared the living daylights out of me." With a hand over her heart, she takes her other hand and hits me in the arm. Faking a pained expression, I open her door before rubbing where she hits me, "Oh stop it Nico I didn't hit you that hard." She calls my bluff, but we both end up laughing. Closing the door, I jog over to my side of the car and slip in. Looking over at her, she puts on her seatbelt and I notice that she's wearing a Beatles crewneck with ripped jeans and a pair of Vans.

"You like The Beatles?" Pulling out from where I was parked, we started our drive to the go-karting place. She looks down at her crewneck before looking at me, "Yeah I started listening to them when I moved here. My boss at the diner is a big fan and she plays their music constantly. Nodding my head, she decides to initiate small talk.

"Have you ever go-karted before?" Glancing over at her quickly before looking back at the road, "No this is my first time so it's gonna be a lot of fun. What about you? Have you ever go-karted?" She lightly smiles at my answer, but almost seems to hesitate on what she's going to answer with.

"I haven't either. Let's just say my parents were allergic to fun." A slight frown makes its way to her face before she quickly recovers, and a smile replaces the frown. "Even though we've never done this before, I know that I'm gonna win, just you wait." Gabi quickly changes the subject and obvious confidence is radiating off of her.

"Oh, we'll see about that Gabi 'cause I'll be the one winning just you watch." I shift my gaze to look over at her lightly laughing as we stop at a red light. "Should we make a little wager?" I nod my head, agreeing to make a wager on the go-karting.

"How about the loser pays for the winner's coffee for a month?" Gabi's face contorts into one that is looking for agreement on the wager. "Yeah sure let's do it, but I'll make sure to send you my usual order so you have it on hand." She makes a bored, serious face, "Ha ha. Very funny Nico." The rest of the ride is spent with us dishing out friendly banter back and forth until we make it to our destination.

We get out of the car and I let her walk ahead of me, but once we make it closer to the door, I rush to make it there first, holding it open for her. "Thank you." A kind, gentle smile rests on her face as we're both hit with a rush of warm air coming from inside, walking towards the counter. Once we register and sign the necessary waivers, we head over to the go-kart area where only a few other people are waiting to get started.