AMB~she~OUS

THIRTY EIGHT

"I don't think this is healthy." I scrunched my nose at the street donuts in my hand.

"What? The amount of chocolate on those or the fact that we bought them on the street?"

"Both." I grimaced at the amount of chocolate dripping off of the donuts. We had walked half the block before Nick dragged me to a street stand.

"Try it, he makes the best donuts in the country." He enthusiastically gestured for me to try, stuffing his face with his own.

Just watching Nick scuffle down his like a starved man had me bursting into laughter. I was seeing different new sides of him every day, suddenly the trip didn't seem like such a bad thing.

"What are you waiting for, all the chocolate is going to melt away."

"Okay okay." I said bringing the large donut to my mouth.

The chocolate hit my tastebuds first and it wasn't anything out of this world. It was when the bite was sliding down my throat that the test really settled in.

"Ugh, what the fuck is that? Aw, that tastes so awful." I managed to spit out only a quarter of the bite, the rest was on its way to my stomach and I could feel the nausea building up.

"Dramatic much?" Nick snickered beside me.

"What do-- this tastes awful, I mean what's wrong with all the donuts in the world? Is it some new recipe that's trending?" First, it was those horrendous donuts from that shop back home, now this.

Nick's seemed fine because he had gulped it all down in two bites. Now he was looking at me all offended like I had insulted his favorite thing in the world. The look on his face was outlandish and almost had me erupting into fits of laughter, the only thing stopping me was the fear of throwing up in the middle of the street.

"You're hurting my feelings here, that was like my favorite snack on the planet." He spoke with a little sulk in his voice.

I scoffed at him and passed the remaining donut to him.

"Here, you can have this as well if you think it's so great."

I watched him take a small bite and glare at me.

"See I told you it was awful, you're even glaring at how bad it is."

"I'm glaring at how dead your taste buds must be to say something so foul about these delicious treats."

I didn't think anything was wrong with my taste buds, everything else tasted okay except for these awful desserts.

"Maybe your palate isn't as refined as mine." I snickered his way and picked up my pace.

"Wait, what was that?" I heard him call out.

I ignored him and his attempt to catch up to me, an involuntary smile making its way to my lips.

                                   ***

"What, why are you staring at me like that?"

"I'm just curious." Nick said on our way back to our hotel rooms after we got back to the resort after the most interesting late-night stroll.

"You should know by now that I hate ambiguity, just tell me what you're curious about."

It had been an extremely long day and a longer night, I was beyond fatigued at this point. All I wanted was another hot bath and a first-class trip to dreamland. I frankly did not have the energy for one of Nick's vague statements.

"Sorry but sometimes I enjoy the look of annoyance on your face." He chuckled, his steps halting in front of my hotel room.

"Okay, bye." I waved dismissively, I wasn't having this.

"Wait, I'll be serious now." He blurted out, his body moving in to block my way.

I rolled my eyes at him, I don't think I had ever rolled my eyes so much before I met him.

"This morning I gave you a free pass to ask me whatever you want. Why haven't you used it, is there really nothing you're curious about?"

There was a lot I was curious about. I was curious about him, what he did in his spare time, what his life was like before he came back to the States. What he liked, what he didn't like. I was interested in all the smallest details about him.

But I knew better than to let myself become too interested.

"No, not really. You're not that interesting."

A few different expressions flashed on his face till it settled on indifference.

"Nothing at all?" He tried again.

I pondered on it for a second and realized that there may be one thing I was curious about.

Nick's relationship with his father. Come to think of it, nobody around had ever brought it up and I was never concerned enough to ask Craig about it.

But right now the perfect opportunity had presented itself and there was nothing better than getting first-hand information from the horse's mouth.

"Your father." I spoke out breaking the minute of silence.

"What?"

"Your father. I want to know why you dislike him so much, what did he ever do to you?" I asked.

A look of annoyance quickly took over his face at the mention of his father.

"That's two questions."

"Are you going to answer one?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"No. Ask me anything but that.". He said, swiping his hand through his hair, a clear act of frustration.

That just made me more curious. What the hell was he hiding? What happened between them?

"Too bad, that's the only thing I'm curious about. Are you going to go back on your word? After all, you did say I could ask you anything."

It wasn't my fault he had made a promise he couldn't seem to keep.

A loud sigh escaped from Nick's lips, a mixture of utter frustration and irritation.

"Fine." He snapped all of a sudden.

"Fine?" I couldn't stop myself from sounding amused, why was he acting like I had held a gun to his head?

"I have a few meetings tomorrow and it may take the whole day. Have dinner with me and I will answer your question then."

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