Happier.

14. faithful girl

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Mumford and Sons serenaded them throughout the majority of the car ride. 

But she didn't care. She missed this truck. She missed these British himbos and their banjo strumming. And most of all, she missed sitting here with him. 

As devastating as the night turned out to be, there was an emotional pleasure in being in this truck with Eli again. It wasn't months or years since they've last seen each other, but it felt that way. So much had seemed to happen since the last time either one has touched or kissed the other. 

"How are you?" She asked him. "Y'know, with your dad and everything?" 

He gave her just a soft glance before looking back to the road, then shrugged nonchalantly. "Um... It was weird, I guess. We never met, and he already had gotten married and had other kids."

"Oh..." 

"Wanna know somethin' crazy though?" 

"What?" 

"He got two kids, his youngest son, he went and named Elijah." 

Then a stupefied expression befell over Greta. "Are you serious?"  

And Eli chuckled. "Shit crazy, right? So the whole week I was over there, I was uncle Malik." 

"Malik?" 

"Yeah, it took some gettin' used to. But I didn't mind it." 

But smirking, Greta glanced back up at him. "I like that name. At least now I can say I dated a Malik." 

"Didn't think that was so prominent on your bucket list." 

"Yeah, it was like top 5 for sure," She giggled. "Right behind finally staying at a gym for longer than five minutes, or sleeping an entire night without either getting too hot or too cold." 

They laughed for a little while longer afterwards. Then absentmindedly, Greta laced her hand over to Malik's freer one. Her fingers slipped in between his with little to no effort, and she found relief when he clasped them in. "I missed you." She said to him softly. 

"I missed you too." He said back to her. 

After a while, they reached the building to her loft. Greta didn't have to wait too long to have the door open for her once Malik stepped out the truck and helped her out of it. It made her smitten, but she didn't want to admit just how much. "So where is he?" He went on to ask. And Greta grimaced as she figured just who he was wondering about. 

She didn't lie. "I wish I knew. A friend maybe. Some side piece, I'm not sure." 

"Are you sure that's what you want?" 

"It's a compromise, Malik," She explained. "Things are complicated, sure. But he'll be back, I know that much for sure."

"I hate that for you." 

"I don't need you to hate it. It's what I'm trying to work at." 

"But is that what you even want?"