If It's With You

016- Weeks of bonding

Muna

As I dried the dishes and fixed them on the rack, I tried not to think about Nicklaus not making it for the meal. He had confirmed he wouldn’t be a minute late, but texted me thirty minutes later, saying he wouldn’t make it because Ashley needed him.

It was okay, and I wasn’t mad at him. Okay, maybe a little sad.

Of course, Nicklaus had other friends before I met him and if it was Maya, who needed me, I would miss a meal with anyone just to go be with her.

After washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, I sauntered to my bedroom and climbed onto the bed. I checked on Maya, but upon finding out she was at work, I went on and called my mother. I missed her so much.

After a long minutes of phone call with her, I picked up a book I got from the bookstore a few days ago and continued reading from where I stopped. I wasn’t a big reader, but I love a good romance fiction with some sprinkle of mystery and plot twists. Fifty-eight pages in, I had yawned a few times. The book was good but I was already feeling sleep crawl up my body, and before I knew it, I fell into a deep one.

The night broke into the next day and many coming days turned into nights. Just like that, I and Nicklaus went through three weeks of being so busy. While Nicklaus spent some of his days working late at the office, and some coming in before the sky turned dark, I was busy with a lot of new and old routines of mine.

The new content I created had kind of brought new traffic to my channel. It was the ‘Girl Talk Wednesday,’ where I had talk time with my subscribers, venting about some awkward or mind-blowing things I had witnessed in this city. I had also been pretty occupied planning the new merch I was about to drop. But in all of these, it had been weeks of me and Nicklaus squeezing out time to build our friendship, over something that had become our routine dinner.

It was nights of us strengthening our friendship bond over packs of pizzas. I found out that Nicklaus loved his pizzas the same way I loved mine, which for no reason made me happy. There were also plates of pasta, fried chicken, tacos and the rest. There were nights we ended up drunk, well, it was more like I ended up drunk since Nicklaus never drank and when I asked why, he changed the topic like I wouldn’t notice.

But the only thing being strengthened wasn’t our bond. My heart and body had become so aware of this man, the familiar feelings that always engulfed me, each time his fingers brushed against mine. Then, the flutter in my heart each time he pulled his face closer to mine, mixing up the air flowing in and out of us. Sometimes, I wondered if he did feel something too.

There was always a smile on my face each time the photos of him making weird faces, flooded my DM. And Sometimes they were just random photos of me he took. Just like the one I was staring at right now, as I walked towards the entrance of my apartment building, with my other hand occupied with the groceries I bought.

Nicklaus– Some of the meme-worth faces you make.

I chuckled as I swiped to the next one. “Stupid,” I muttered under my breath and glanced ahead of me. They were photos of me he got from my recent vlog.

Nicklaus– What are you up to, hope you are not busy getting lost again.

I chuckled as my finger ran across my keypad. Just because I got lost a few times, and called him to come to help me out. Now, Nicklaus wouldn’t let it go.

I paused in my steps and typed out. Me– Too busy doing grocery shopping to get lost.

Continuing in my steps, I was about to push the lobby door open when I heard my name from behind.