“Who do you buy a slip to impress, Abby? Who’s the one who takes it off?”
Who the fuck decided it was a good idea to give this man skills in debate? As if he needed another weapon in his arsenal.
“...my boyfriend.”
“Exactly,” Nick declared triumphantly. “And as your boyfriend, I’m saying that you should definitely go with the blue!”
He reached again for the mouse, but I twisted it away.
“Well given that you’re my fake boyfriend, I’m not entirely sure your opinion matters.”
“Oh really?” His face lit up with a grin, as he shifted closer to me on the cushion. I bit my lip, but the giggles still leaked through. “Is that the way you want to play it? Give it here!”
“No!” I squealed, doing my very best to keep the computer out of reach.
It was no use.
In an act of desperation, I made a wild leap to freedom—only to get instantly captured by his arms. Then he lunged. Then came the tickling.
“Nick—don’t! You’ll break it!”
I would have said more, but his fingers were relentless and I soon lost my breath to waves of uncontrollable laughter. It was torture! I wriggled and gasped and writhed, trying to break free, but his arms created an inescapable circle around me—pulling me tightly against his chest.
“Surrender!”
I shrieked again and doubled over, clinging to the computer like it was my whole life. His chest shook with silent laughter behind me, but he showed not an ounce of mercy. His legs wrapped around mine as his fingers dug into my sides. When my head fell back on his shoulder, gasping for air, he took the opportunity to gleefully bite the side of my neck. Even when the laptop slipped free onto the ground, he continued with his crusade.
It wasn’t until I was sitting squarely in his lap, my hands trapped in his own, that the two of us came to a sudden stop.
Our laughter faded awkwardly, then quieted completely as the air between us became abruptly tense. Neither one of us had mentioned the rather enormous line we had crossed the previous evening. Neither one of us had even come close.
Nick loosened his grip as he made a concerted effort to try.
“Abby, listen—”
But it was at that moment that he put his foot down—unknowingly—right on top of the fallen computer. There was a tiny crunch, as the screen splintered into a million pieces.
That’s one way to break the ice...
The two of us stared down for a long moment, both frozen in surprise, both wondering what to say. Then Nick’s face lit up with sudden inspiration.
“Don’t worry—we can just go online and buy another one!”
Chapter 13
AND SO THE HOURS PASSED.
Considering the fact that Nick had never done ‘normal’ in his entire life, I have to say that he took to it quite beautifully. While I retrieved his computer to finish my shopping, he flipped on the television, and under my guidance, began an old school Netflix fest. After taking a full twenty minutes to read the descriptions of every show, he settled—rather ironically—upon Stranger Things, and it wasn’t long before I abandoned my shopping entirely to w
atch.
“I still don’t understand,” I murmured a few episodes later.
By now, the sun was hanging low in the sky, but we had yet to move even an inch from our original positions. Truth be told, we had yet to blink.
The buzzer rang. I buzzed the pizza guy in and opened the door. I didn’t want to miss a minute so I ran back to the TV set.
“Why doesn’t she just tear the whole house down, if he’s in the walls?”