Friend-Zoned (Friend-Zoned 1)

I feel Nik’s shake with laughter and he agrees, “Yeah, babe. She is. A big one. ”

We stay quiet for a while and hold each other. Nik breaks the silence.

He whispers, “I would never, ever hurt you like that, Tina. If I ever thought I was going to cheat on you, I’d break up with you. But I don’t want to cheat on you. ” He strokes my hair and continues “You’re my life. Nothing is more important to me than you. But I was there and I know what you think you saw. And it looked very bad. I’m sure if I’d walked in on you and another man in the same position I’d probably kill the guy. ”

Oh, thank god!

He understands!

He wipes under my eyes and I lift my face to look at him. When his eyes reach mine I gasp.

I shriek, “YOU’RE HURT!”

His already scarred eyebrow is swollen and stitched. He has little cuts on his forehead and his elbow is bandaged up.

He cringes and says, “Yeah. About that, I called a guy to replace your store window. I kinda ran through it. ”

My belly warms and my heart squeezes.

I whisper, “You ran through a wall of glass to get to me?”

He looks miserable and nods. He whispers back, “I thought you were hurt, baby. I’d trek through the fires of hell to get to you if I had to. ”

I lean forward, hold his jaw with my fingertips, and kiss his lips softly.

My lips quiver as I whisper against them, “I love you so much, Nik. I was so hurt. I thought you didn’t want me anymore. ”

He pulls me close and kisses me deep. He pulls away and replies, “I know, baby. I’m so sorry you were hurt. I guess people have it out for us. But I love you. ” He pecks my lips then continues. “The whole point of love is to trust someone with your heart and pray they don’t break it. It’s about faith in each other. I gave you my heart when I told you I loved you which means I’m giving you power over me. ”

I bury my face into his neck and breathe him in.

I never thought of it like that before. I guess I hold the same amount of power over Nik as he has over me. Love is sacred. A gift from one person to another. Love binds people together, no matter how different they might be.

Is it scary?

Hell, yes!

But if we never did the scary things in life we’d lead awfully boring lives.

Take the chance.

But I might get hurt.

Yes, you might. But maybe you won’t.

Yeah.

Maybe I won’t.

Chapter Twenty-four

The secret life of Tina

It’s been a little over a week since Sissy made her play for Nik.

Yesterday was Monday and I felt a little sick. But I dragged my butt to work as most people do.

I ended up getting through half the day of moping around and sniffling before Meems and Nat sent me to Nik’s office with a note.