find me

14. your scent

east-side Manhattan, in line in front of a coffee stand

"I'm telling you. I've never slept better in my life! I swear... hi there, one black Americano, please! Yes, small please." She smiled and took a step aside, letting the person behind her order next.

"I don't know man, it's weird." Maria said worriedly on the other line with a deep frown, holding the phone in between her head and her shoulder while unloading the dishwasher. 

"What do you mean?" Natalie said, handing some cash to the old man, whom mindlessly took it and placed in the cash desk, forgetting to even count the amount of money handed to him.

"I mean..." She hissed, opening the top drawer next to her and tidying up the clean cutlery. She held a knife in her hand and frustratedly waved it in the air. "I mean that you had  literally just decided not to fuck each other, even though you obviously want to... and then proceeded to sleep together! It's weird!" She sighed finishing her exasperated rant. 

"We didn't exactly sleep to-"

"You know what I mean Nat, you slept in the same bed!" She cut her off, annoyed. Natalie knew exactly what she meant, she was acting dumb in the hope to preserve some dignity over what happened, but Maria wasn't really having it.

simultaneously in the booth of a diner, somewhere outside Brooklyn

"I don't know man, I'm not exactly the best person to ask when it comes to relationships." Steve shrugged, looking at his friend with a confused frown. He moved around the table and sat down next to Bucky, handing him a big bottle of ketchup.

"We're not in a relationship. We're just friends." Bucky stated coldly, making direct eye-contact with both Sam and Steve. They smiled condescendingly, nodding their heads, and glanced at each other: whatever you say, Buck.

"Sure, pal." Steve replied, patting him consolingly on the shoulder while giving Sam a half smile.

Bucky took the bottle and shook it angrily a few times, before pouring some of the dense red substance on the hotdog in front of him.

Sam scoffed amusedly at Bucky's attitude. "You know, maybe you'd be more believable if you hadn't just told us that you slept together." Sam pointed out showing off a big smirk.

Steve raised his eyebrows and widened his eyes in a warning look, silently telling him to 'shut up'. Sam narrowed his eyes and mouthed a 'what?'. Before Steve could mitigate what his friend had just said, Bucky grunted in annoyance.

"For the millionth time-"Bucky started raising his voice, exasperated.

"Brooooo." Sam shut him off immediately "Sleeping in the same bed is sleeping together. Period. The end. Finito. Get over it."

"So what? Friends can't sleep in the same bed? Com'on, ,am! Don't give me that bullshit." Bucky outsmarted him, starting to get mad.

They wouldn't understand, nothing could compare to what they had. They wouldn't understand.

back in Manhattan

"Look..." she started almost whispering in the phone "Nothing happened. We just slept."

"Ok, fine. Then who took the decision?" Maria said, placing her phone on the counter on speaker and taking out a few pans from the dishwasher and hanging them on the wall.