"You are freaking me out a little now. It's been 20 minutes and you have not spoken a word. Are you trying to tell me something through telepathy?" he asked with a frown on his face.

Does he have the right to say those words? NO

Because I was freaking out. I did not know how to react and what was the best way to deal with this right now. I would always think things through, have plans A through Z and then think of a million more scenarios with all these plans failing. This was new to me.

"What do you want me to say? I don't understand. How can you like someone you just saw? How do you know what kind of a person I am? How can you tell me you like me? We barely even know each other and ..."

"I am not asking you to marry me. Hell, I have not even asked you out on a proper date yet. This is me just telling you to not friend zone or brother zone me."

"And I do not know what to say to that, ok. Until yesterday you were that guy who was going to marry Sasha. Now you tell me that she was never in the picture. How am I supposed to trust you to not tell Mini, that all of this was a joke and you are actually in love with her?"

He gave me an incredulous look and said "are you kidding me right now? Do you think all I want to do in life is to run around your friends and profess my love for them while using the other as a bait? Stop being stupid, Riya. This is one of those times you irritate the cr*p out of me."

"You are calling me stupid? You are stupid, your plan is stupid, and your face is stupid."

"How original" he said with sarcasm dripping from every word.

I was silent again, expecting him to burst into laughter and tell me this was all a joke any minute now.

"Can you please stop overthinking?" he asked with a look that yelled seriously?

"How do you know I am overthinking? Why do you talk to me like you know me?"

Ok he might be right about the overthinking part, but, that doesn't mean he can talk to me like he knows me.

"I don't talk to you like I know you. All of this would have been so much more easier if I had known what was going on in that complicated head of yours."

"I am not over thinking," I mumbled not having any response to what he just said.

"Really? I brought you a sandwich, a small tiny piece of bread and you avoided me for a month. I just said a two-page monologue about you and you expect me to think you are fine with it? I hear the cogs tuning at the speed of light inside your head."

He let out a deep breath again and said "you know what? Forget it, forget the banter and stop being childish. Here's my deal, you have no choice but to take it. Go out on a date with me. Let us get to know each other better. I know I want to know you, the you that is under all these layers of boldness, anger, sarcasm and humor. And if you want to give it a try we can go right now, or a week for today or a month. It doesn't matter. I don't want to force you into something, because I know it will not work in my favor."

Go out on a date with him? How right was that?

"Nick... I don't know ok... All of this is very very very new to me. I am just waiting for you to stand any minute now and laugh it off and call it a joke. It is all very strange and scary. I know that you are speaking in a very practical way, but I am not sure if I can do this yet. And why are you telling me all of this now? Where were you once we returned from the wedding?"

"I was dealing with something. There is this mess and I am still dealing with it."

"Is everything ok? Is it huge? You can make it better right? Is there anything I can do? Do you need help in anything? Should I..."

"Yes, I need to go out with me. Riya can we please focus on one thing at a time? First, I need to know what you think about me. Do you even like me?"

I opened my mouth to say something stupid, when he interrupted, "tell me the truth, I just told you everything you needed to know."

"It is difficult to answer that question. I have admired you from the beginning. I think you have achieved so much for your age, even though you sometimes look like a grandpa. You are very easy to talk to, I like how I can talk about dinosaurs and apocalypses without even making any sense at times. I am not scared of being judged when you are around. I can tolerate your taste in food, but you do have a good sense of music. You are not that bad to look at," he raised an eyebrow in my direction, so I had to accept some truth here too.

"Fine, I like your hair and face and eyes and the rest of you is also not so bad."

I love your long fingers I wanted to add but I was not going to creep him out just yet. It was eventually bound to happen but not now, if I could help it.

"I know the logical thing to do is think about the immediate future, but, that is not me. I over think, I analyze things more than what is considered normal. And I haven't had time to think it through or grasp. I need time to even react normally."

"I'd like to understand what you are saying but things seem quite simple to me. You like me, I want to get to know you, then why can't we just go out? What is the problem?"

The more you talk the more points you lose buddy.

"But, I will wait. Talk to me when you want to, just don't take too long. Anyway, what are you doing for your birthday?"

From there everything went back to normal. I shared my pastry with him and we watched The Big Short movie. He explained me parts of the story I had questions about and I told him the entire background of Steve Carell and Melissa Leo (he didn't ask, but I couldn't keep my mouth shut).

Suddenly something hit and i turned to face Nick who was sprawled on my couch, "How do you know Ryan anyway?"

"He's my cousin. Our mothers are sisters."

********

"Am I in trouble? Will you rip out my eyeballs if I come any closer?" Ryan asked with a very fake scared voice.

"Maybe, if you didn't get me anything from Germany," I said without looking him.

"I got you a truck load of salt" he said holding the chair which was on the other side of my desk and dragging it to sit beside me.

"What are you doing anyway? I have not been here for two weeks, don't act like you have work," he said inspecting my monitor to understand what I was working on.

"M&A department sent over the agreements of Martin's companies. I am reading them to put together points for your Thursday meeting."

"Lies. Anyway, walk with me?"

I wanted to say no because I knew what Ryan wanted to talk about but I did not want to cause a scene. I shared a cubicle with Kira, Jack and Sara and I didn't want them to know about my personal stuff.

We walked together towards the coffee shop that was not very far from our building and I was looking at the sky with despise, because it looked grey and cloudy.

I hated gloomy weathers and the rain that followed.

"Did you talk to him?" Ryan asked, getting straight to the point, to which I only nodded.

It has been two weeks since my conversation with Nick and ever since not a minute went by without me over thinking. I have not responded to his proposal to date and told him I needed time.

We spoke every night because I wanted to make sure he was ok. He just told me that he was in a mess but never really expounded on what kind of a mess it was. So, I wanted to be there for him if sh*t hit the fan.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked very carefully. I think he was expecting an outburst from me.

I shook my head in a no.

"Are you pis*ed at me?" I shrugged my shoulders.

He stopped walking and looked at me with all seriousness "Are you seriously going to give the silent treatment? It is worse that Mini already is mad at me after she knew what we did. And now you? I don't understand what is so wrong in what happened?"

"Really? You see nothing wrong? You do not think that Sasha or you have done anything wrong at all?" I was surprised to put it mildly. How can he say there was nothing wrong in what he did?

Mini called me on the day of my birthday and apologized a billion times and told me she had no clue of what Ryan or Sasha or Nick were plotting. She didn't have to say any of that, but she was just being Mini. Vivi on the other hand called me to yell at me when I messaged her about what happened. She asked me to grow some ba*ls and date Nick (which was not literally or figuratively possible to me, at least not in the near future).

Ryan and I continued to walk to the coffee shop and only after we reached the place I understood why we were there. Sasha was waiting for us at the back of the shop with nervousness written all over her face.

We walked in her direction and I willed myself to show no emotion.

She said hi the minute we were in hearing distance, but I did not acknowledge it.

Ryan took his place beside Sasha and I sat across them and we gave our orders.

"No, I do not see anything wrong. Nick was finally being normal and was interested in something that was not an algorithm or a script or a language. And I know the kind of person you are and helped him reach out to you in a way he will not be pushed so far away that there won't be a second chance. Yes and Sasha was just being a good friend when she was helping us. I don't see why you are mad at either of us or why you still have not gone out with little Nick."

Sasha looked at me expectantly and said, "I am sorry."

"Really" I said, at the same time when Ryan said,

"Why?"

~*~*~*~*~

Hello people!

Lot has happened in the past two weeks and it has been nearly impossible for me to write or post.

Let me know what you think of the chapter.

Until next time, stay happy.

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