"Oh come on you big baby!" I giggle, stretching my arm out to shove my sandwich in Alex's face across the table.

He leans back in his chair, nose scrunched up. "Uh-uh." He shakes his head, acting like a child who's being force fed vegetables.

"It's not that bad," I try to coax him.

"Nope," he says, grabbing my wrist to push my arm back to my side of the table. "I don't do spicy."

"It's not even that spicy!" I counter.

Currently, we're sitting in one of my favorite restaurants in Nashville down on Broadway, per his request. After my birthday, we set up a couple of days for him to come visit me in Nashville. His plane landed late this afternoon.

"No." His answer is muffled by a mouthful of the barbecue sandwich he ordered.

"Don't knock it until you try it," I say in a sing-song voice, slowly extending the sandwich back to his face, persuading him.

He looks at the hot chicken sandwich skeptically before he huff's, giving me a mundane look. Hot chicken is a staple food here in Nashville and I'll be damned if he doesn't at least try it.

"Fine," he grumbles, grabbing a napkin to wipe off the barbecue sauce from his fingers and corners of his mouth.

He stares at the sandwich intently before cautiously leaning forward, taking the tiniest bite that mostly consists of the bread.

"Nuh-uh!" I call him out. "That was barely even a bite!"

"Ok, ok," he grumbles, rolling his eyes.

He leans back in and takes a bigger bite this time, not big enough for my liking, but I'll take it. Sitting back in his seat, he lets the food rest in his mouth for a moment before slowly chewing. His face instantly scrunches up and he shakes his head profusely, grabbing for his napkin. After he spits the food out, he quickly reaches for his water, downing half the glass.

"Oh my gosh!" I laugh, throwing my head back. "You are such a drama queen!"

"Am not!" he whines, voice almost indistinct by all the ice cubes in his mouth.

"Yes, you are."

"Whatever," he grumbles, panting. "You have no soul if you can handle eating stuff that hot," he jokes, making me roll my eyes.

He takes off the baseball cap he's wearing to wipe some sweat off of his forehead. Aside from the hot chicken, it is a hot summer evening and the restaurant has the windows open, celling fans twirling.

I mentally curse him for taking it off, revealing his famous dark locks. I do a quick scan around the room to make sure no one is paying attention. Hardly anyone is in the restaurant, but I don't want to risk anyone noticing him.

I was shocked when I picked him up from the airport without Milo insight. Alex admitted that he didn't tell anyone he was coming here and promised he would be fine without Milo or anyone tagging along. I know Alex is an adult and can do what he wants, but it still puts me on edge thinking about what would happen if anyone spots and recognizes him. That's why before going out tonight I made him change into some of Joe's clothes and wear sunglasses and a hat.

I have to admit, he looks pretty out of place in ripped black skinny jeans, a metal band t-shirt that he has no clue about, and some checkered sneakers. To be extra, I even forced him to wear a ridiculous fake lip ring Zack bought a few years ago. He went through this phase where he really wanted one, but was too chicken to actually get it pierced so he just bought a fake one. However, the lip ring is currently sitting on the table because Alex couldn't eat with it on.

Running his fingers through his curls a few times, he finally puts the hat back on backwards, hiding majority of his hair, and adjusts the sunglasses on his face.

"What next?" he asks as we leave the restaurant, placing the silver hoop back on the corner of his bottom lip.

"Want to just walk around?"

"Works for me." He smiles.

We spend the next few hours ducking in and out of shops and bars, looking around and listening to multiple bands play. I don't know if I've ever seen Alex so happy and care free. It's nice to see him be able to go out and be normal for once.

"Alex, we have to go in here!" I exclaim, pointing to the line dancing bar's big light up sign that's glowing brightly now the sun has gone down.

"Really?" He laughs, taking off the sunglasses and hooking them on the collar of his shirt, letting me see his beautiful light blue eyes.

"Yes!"

"I don't know," he says hesitantly.

"Oh come on! So you can do this," I horribly imitate some choreographed dance moves he does on stage. "But you can't do a simple two step?" I challenge, raising my brows at him.

He throws his head back laughing. "That was awful! I do not dance like that! But I can dance."

"Fine, lets prove it then." I playfully smile, leading him into the bar.

When we get inside there are a handful of people on the dancefloor all looking to the instructor at the front of the room. They're all dancing to a song she just taught the steps to.

"Hold on, let me get a feel of this first," Alex says, leading us to a table at the edge of the dancefloor, wanting to watch everyone else first.

After some stalling from Alex, I can't help but finally get up and go to the dancefloor when Luke Bryan's "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)" comes blaring through the speakers. I playfully shake my backside at Alex who is still sitting at the table, hoping he'll come dance soon. He laughs, shaking his head in amusement, beaming.

"Come on!" I yell, waving for him to come over and join in on the dance the instructor just taught for the last ten minutes.

A few seconds later, Alex finally comes to the dancefloor, standing next to me. It takes him awhile to get a grasp of the steps, but he eventually lets loose and starts to execute them perfectly.

A half an hour of dancing later, we're both exhausted, rushing to the bar for some waters.

"That was really fun!" Alex beams, cheeks flushed, after downing a cup of water.

"I told you!" I tease, taking a glance at my watch. "Oh!" I exclaim, quickly throwing back the rest of my water. "My favorite ice cream shop closes in thirty minutes. Let's go!" I hop off the bar stool and lead him towards the exit. The ice cream shop is a few blocks down, so I'm sure we'll make it in time.

Walking down the sidewalk, I can see on the next block there's a homeless man asking for change. Like every other big city, Nashville has a homeless population, so it's not uncommon to see some people out on the streets asking for money. However, this man in particular seems to be a little aggressive, directly going up to people, harassing them for money.

Alex must have notice the man as well, eyes squinting in his direction skeptically. I can tell he's hesitant about the man possibly approaching us.

When we get closer to the man, Alex slows down his speed, sidestepping behind me to put himself between me and the man. Falling back in step with me, Alex protectively grabs my hand, threading our fingers together as the man starts to approach us, being sure to block me from him.

"Hey, man, got any—"

"Nope," Alex quickly cuts him off, pulling me closer to his side as we pass the guy.

"Come on, man!" the guy shouts, but Alex doesn't say anymore, briskly walking away, flat out ignoring him. Eventually the guy gets the hint and stops harassing us, moving on to yell at the next guy.

"You ok?" I ask, Alex's hand still firmly holding mine, his sharp jaw tense.

"Yeah. Sorry," he apologizes with a sheepish smile, hand relaxing, but not letting go of mine. "When you grow up in New York it's hard to trust people like that. They're way more brutal up there and I guess it was just instinct to get a little defensive since he was aggressive."

"It's ok," I say, giving him a small, understanding smile.

Opening the door to the ice cream shop for me, Alex finally let's go of my hand so we can order and take our ice creams. Since the shop is closing in a few minutes, we decide to take them to go and walk around Broadway some more. Aimlessly walking around, I end up subconsciously leading us to the pedestrian bridge that overlooks the Cumberland River.

"This is beautiful," Alex comments, looking over the water and to the city that's all lit up.

"Yeah, it's one of my favorite spots," I admit.

We stay on the bridge for a while, enjoying our ice cream and each other's company.

"Excuse me," an older woman says, tapping me on the shoulder. "Do you kids know where the best souvenir shop is? We're looking to get my granddaughter a t-shirt." She proudly beams, her husband walking up behind her.

"Sure! My favorite one would have to be down this street here, and down the second road on your left. It has a big red sign hanging above it," I direct the woman.

"This way?" The woman points, unsure.

"Yep. I could walk you there if you'd like?" I politely offer, hoping Alex won't mind.

"Would you, dear?" she hopefully asks.

I look over to Alex and he smiles, nodding. "Sure," he says, grabbing my empty ice cream bowl and spoon to throw them in a nearby trash can with his. "Lead the way." He smiles, jogging back to me and putting his hand on the small of my back to usher me to go on.

On the walk to the souvenir shop, the cute old couple talks about their trip so far, excited to be exploring the city for the first time.

"Thank you so much," the woman says once we get to the shop. "You two kids are adorable together." She smiles, thinking Alex and I are a couple.

Alex's lip twitches up, finding the misunderstanding amusing while my cheeks flare up.

"Oh, we're not... you're welcome." I shyly smile, deciding it would be more of a hassle than it's worth to explain that we're not a couple.

The sweet old couple smiles and thanks us once more before going into the shop.

"Did you hear that? We're adorable," Alex playfully coos, a shit eating grin on his face.

"Shut up." I roll my eyes, trying to conceal my embarrassment.

I playfully swat him on the shoulder when he doesn't let up and he captures my hand, threading our fingers together once more, making my stomach flip again tonight.

We walk around some more until I feel him tug me into some random bar. When we get inside I realize it's a karaoke bar with a stage towards the back with an open microphone. There are five other people in the bar, no one utilizing the karaoke machine. They all look pretty wasted, and I'm confident they won't pay Alex any mind and recognize him in that state. They're all older anyway.

Alex drags me over to the stage, placing me right in front of it while he goes up to the machine, searching for a song. I can tell he's found the song he was looking for when he smiles brightly, quickly running up to the microphone before the song starts.

A very familiar guitar riff comes from the speakers and I can't help but throw my head back laughing.

This kid is unbelievable.

"So no one told you life was gonna be this way," Alex sings, pointing to me expectantly and I do the infamous hand clap to my favorite sitcoms intro song I introduced him to only months ago, Friends.

When the chorus rolls around, he pulls me up on the tiny stage and we sing it together, laughing, smiling, and dancing like idiots. Normally, this is something I would never dare to do, especially in public. But no one in the bar seems to be paying attention and something about Alex makes me feel completely comfortable, willing to let loose and have fun.

He's making it really hard for me to get over this stupid little crush...