The Way It Ends

13

I definitely drank more than I intended, with the way it's my third time in two hours sneaking to the coffee machine to grab an espresso. I'm still being as efficient as I always am just having to combat the entrancing siren call that is sleep. When I walked in with my wig in a (formal but messy) bun and sunglasses Bethany seemed to get a kick out of it. She went out of her way to increase the volume of her irritating words by several decibels. One day I swear to God, I'll receive satisfaction in ripping out every single 100mm mink lash extension. But for now, I'll just have to do with shooting her glares.

"NIA!" I see Nick walk to my desk with a cheery grin on his face. I love the guy but it's 8 am. He's bellowing as if we work in a nightclub.

"Nick, hush. Please. You're literally shouting as if you don't see me at least five times a week."

"I'M LITERALLY TALKING IN MY NORMAL SPEAKING VOICE."

"If that's your normal volume I'm a cow. You speak like Stoic from How to Train Your Dragon."

"I JUST THINK YOU'RE HUNGOVER."

"Well then do me the courtesy of lowering your volume so my ears don't bleed."

"Okay." Finally. "So how was your weekend?" He rests a palm on the edge of my desk and slouches, taking sips of his cappuccino.

"It was okay." I shrug, facing my monitor and mindlessly scrolling hoping Nick gets the hint.

"Well, didn't you go to that Halloween party?"

"Yeh, but I ended up leaving early. Wasn't really my cup of tea. Did you take Ellie trick or treating?"

"No, we actually ended up taking her to a friend's Halloween party. She went dressed as a vampire!" He removed the palm that was on my desk and dug into his pockets, grabbing his phone. After a moment, Nick showed me a photo of Ellie dressed like Draculara from Monster High. She was wearing purple lip gloss and her chestnut hair was fashioned into cute pigtails. A beaming, toothy was directed at the camera as she stood against the wall holding a hot pink pumpkin tub.

"Aww, she looks so cute!"

"I know. Anyways I'll leave you to it."

"See ya." I sit and stare at my monitor and my brain comes up blank. I decided to head to get water as a change. As I got to the doorframe, I saw Evan waving from my peripheral.

"Hey Nia." As he approached, he stopped just right in front of me. Looking down into my eyes, he wore a slightly cocky smile. He leaned on the doorframe with one arm and was holding some paper in the other.

"Hey Evan." I didn't know why but I felt myself growing bashful. I broke eye contact and looked at the black stilettos I just happened to be wearing. The way I looked at them was as if I hadn't dressed myself this morning.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. A bit tired but fine. You?"

"I'm doing better now that I've seen you." I start fidgeting with my hands as I feel an uncontrollable grin start to form. Evan lifts my chin, so his gaze meets mine. Is it hot in here? Pretty sure that bitch Bethany turned the heating up by like 10 degrees. I start to lose myself in his warm nutty hazel eyes.

"EVAN!" Nick. I swear that man has the worst timing. Evan's hand slowly drops from my chin.

"I'll talk to you later." I smile at him as he walks over to Nick who greets him with a bear hug. Inside I'm screaming. So close. We were so close. Doesn't Nick have work to do or something, I swear this man just treats the office as a social event.

I head inside and rummage inside the mini-fridge until spotting the water that I really needed. Twisting off the cap, I quickly take a long sip until my body temperature floats back down to normal.

----

Evan proposed for the three of us but as we were about to leave Nick got a call that Ellie was sick at school, so he had to leave to go pick us up. Now it's just the two of us. Evan suggested a new place that was within walking distance but not too far that the heels would cause blisters. Exiting the building, we began our stroll. Our bodies were in close proximity not too close but not too far. It's the time of year where the distinct lines between seasons blur and the previous begin to seep into the next.

The trees that line the pavement have become bare skeletons as the leaves that filled them with warmth, enveloping them in celestial autumnal colours have become a mush that people trod on. The weather wasn't yet to the point of adorning the extent of hats, gloves, scarves, wellies but the puff coats and trenches have become a common sight. Advertisements of the Christmas Markets and everything Santa-related is being plastered everywhere. God, I love November.

I felt Evan's knuckles slowly brush my own. I can't tell if it was deliberate or not since he's scrolling on his phone. I hesitantly let my knuckles graze his and his hand tenderly wraps around mine. I glance up and notice his eyes flash to our hands then back to his phone. His hands feel softer than I would've initially expected. Not ridiculously smooth like a child's but not that calloused. I relax my hand in his embrace after realising it was quite tense. Soon rather than later, we arrive at the café.

The kind lady brought us to our seats and took our drink orders before scurrying away. We took out our laptops since we both had a heavy load to do. I don't even know what's going on with work. So many businesses seem to be having issues as of lately. The silence was filled with the click clacks of our keyboards and brash scribblings of pen onto paper. The waitress placed our drinks down and we took that as a momentary break.

I began sipping on my glass of Pinot Grigio between conversation. Evan decided to bring up the Ishida's case as there is going to be some press-related ball situation which is going to be a large pain in the ass. We started to hear slight taps on the window, and both groaned when we saw slithers of rain. Out of all days?!?! The clouds had merged from a wispy heather to a frustrated gunmetal shade of grey.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Bethany makes her way over accompanied by her little posse of receptionists.

"Hey Moenia," At least that was what she was trying to say, "You are such a crazy girl!"

"What do you mean?" I set my glass down, folding my arms.

"The video!" She said worryingly pleasant.

"What video..."

"This one!" She shoved her phone in between me and Evan. A video of me dancing against Steve began to play and as I tried to grab the phone the bitch moved out of my grasp.

"Bethany stop the video!" I hastily whispered. During this, Evan stayed pretty much silent as we bartered back and forth. But as the camera began to focus on Cal he took the phone and turned it off.

"Bethany leave with your little posse otherwise I will smash your phone." He then shoved the phone back at her and she sauntered away looking all displeased. A weird silence ensued before I spoke up.

"It was on Saturday and didn't really-"

"Don't worry about it." He interrupted me, setting his coffee on the desk.

"Huh?"

"Well, I mean we're not together and just because we've been on a date doesn't mean you're mine."

"Oh."

"But I'm hoping we can explore the possibilities of changing that."

----

AUTHORS NOTE:

hola ninos! so bethany being a bitch like always and evan's proposal... (not literal proposal before anyone gets confused). also I'm going on holiday for two weeks in the christmas period so idk if ill be able to release chapters. most likely situation is that for the two weeks after, two chapters will come out per week instead of one. also the reason why i dropped to one per week is because i have my gcse mocks in a week but during christams break i may be able to prewrite a few and go back to updating twice a week! also welcome to all the new readers from tiktok -sage<3 (sorry that was a long note)

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