Friend-Zoned (Friend-Zoned 1)

I relax my grip on his neck, frown into his face and ask, “Where have you been?”

I must look pathetic because his face softens. He holds under my butt with one forearm and puts stray hair behind my ear with the other. His face shows he doesn’t want to end our friendship. In fact, there shines some intense emotion. But I can’t name it.

Hooray!

He looks me in the eye and says, “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I was snowed under. ” His soft face smiles into mine and I want him to kiss me again. My eyes lower and I feel my heart beat faster.

Nat yells out, “Will you two get a damn room already?” I look over to the counter and find Mimi and Nat smiling like a pair of clowns at me. Nat waves her fingertips daringly.

I mock-scowl at them and boom, “Get back to work!” Nik’s face moves to my neck and feel the puffs of breath as he laughs.

He lifts his head and grins saying, “I think you said you wanted sushi today. ” I nod. He whispers, “What my girl wants, my girl gets. ”

My heart skips a beat.

He means you’re his friend and a girl, dumdass.

Oh yeah! Of course he does. I wasn’t at all thinking how nice it would be being Nik’s girl.

Not. At. All. Nope. Not even a bit.

I say, “I should get my purse. ” I let go of his neck but he doesn’t set me down. He holds me like a weigh about as much as a paperclip. And it’s nice. Really nice.

He quips, “You know you aren’t paying so you don’t need your purse. ” He grins at me then looks to Nat and Mimi and inquires, “You girls want sushi?”

They both nod and look at Nik like he’s oh-so-dreamy. My friends have been replaced by robots.

I roll my eyes at them then turn back to him and utter, “You can put me down now, Nik. ”

He nods his head to the side and raises one brow, “I could. But I don’t want to. I like you in my arms. ” He says the last bit on a whisper and my core spasms. Surely he’s not referring to the other night.

He ran out of the room like it was on fire. Only he left me in the fire.

No, definitely not.

I chuckle and slap his shoulder and whine, “C’mon Niki, I’m hungry. ”

He reluctantly sets me down and puts an arm around my shoulder. He turns to the girls and says, “We’ll bring you back sushi, girls. See ya. ” He lifts his fingers as a goodbye and drags me out of Safira without my purse.

We walk along, my arm tight around his waist the other resting on his belly, his wrapped around my shoulder. It feels so right.

I love this. It’s totally natural.

We walk silently to the sushi bar. I dread talking about what happened. We’re seated at the bar and watching out for things we like on the conveyor.

It’s time. I don’t look at him when I begin, “So, Saturday night was pretty intense, huh?”

He stiffens beside me. He sighs and says, “Yeah, about that, I’m so sorry Tina. I don’t know what came over me. I…”

I cut him off with a fake laugh, “It’s fine Nik, really. Let’s just call it curiosity between friends. Now that it’s out of our systems we can get on with our lives, right?” I glance over at him and I become confused.

It looks like Nik is in pain. His brows pull in, his eyes are unfocused at my shoulder, and his lips turn hard. He quickly removes the look and plasters on a smile. His eyes still hard.

“Yes. Sure. I’m still very sorry. ” He says softly, almost mournfully, “It won’t happen again. ”

It won’t happen again.

Why is my heart silently breaking if all I want is Nik’s friendship?