Ready or Not

Chapter 7

The bright morning light shines in through your curtains and you open your eyes, but you are not quite ready to face the day fully. You reach over to your bedside table to look at the time on your phone and realize that you had turned the phone off completely before bed. You power up the phone and see that you have all kinds of messages from your dating app. In all honesty, you don't want to deal with any of it. You just want to go back to how things were before Namjoon plowed into you on his bike. You see that the time is 10:08 AM and think, "It's time to get up."

You decide to start the day with cleaning your apartment and getting your laundry together. With your laundry basket full of whites, you bring it down to the basement of your building where the washing machines and dryers are. You put on a load of whites and return back to your apartment. Then you start your methodical cleaning process. Cleaning takes about two hours or so. By the time you get down to the basement, your washing is done. Putting a load of colors into a washing machine, you put the whites into the dryer. Deciding to get cleaned up yourself, before leaving to go get groceries, you jump in the shower. By the time you are out, it is a little after noon. When you check your phone you see that Namjoon had texted you.

Joonie:
Is it alright if I come by around 12:30?

You:
Joonie, I'm sorry I didn't see your message until now.
It's fine. I know that it's 12:15 now, so if you are still interested in going food shopping with me, 12:30 will work.

While waiting for Namjoon to show up, you continue with your mundane Sunday afternoon chores and make a shopping list. When you are about halfway done with your grocery list you hear your door buzzer go off. "That must be Joonie." You buzz him in and when you hear a knock at your door, you shout, "Come in, it's open!"

He says, "Hi Buttercup," as he comes through your front door, closing it behind him. When he rounds the corner from the front hallway, he sees you sitting by the dining room table.

You look up at him and say, "Hi, Joonie, you are right on time." When you get up out of your seat to greet him, he wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you in for an embrace. This is exactly the kind of behavior that you promised yourself not to misinterpret as something more than a friendly gesture. Returning the embrace briefly, you pull away, but he doesn't let go of you. You say, "Are you ready to get going?"

"Yes, sure. Do you want to take my car?"

You ask, "You drove here?"

"Yes. Too cold for a bike ride. Besides, where would you put the groceries?"

You reply, "I don't need much."

He says, "C'mon, Buttercup. I'll drive you."

"Okay. Thank you."

The two of you get downstairs and into Namjoon's car. As you get in, you remark, "This is one fancy car. Must have cost you a fortune."

As he pulls away from the curb, he reaches over and holds your hand in his and says, "This was my college graduation and graduate school acceptance gift from my parents."

"They must be so proud of you."

"I guess so."

As the conversation comes to a bit of a lull, you feel your cellphone buzzing in your back pocket. You pull your hand out of Namjoon's grasp and pull out your phone. When you open it up, it's a text message from Warren.

Warren:
What are you doing now?
When can I see you again?

You:
I'm on my way to the grocery store with Joonie.
He was good enough to volunteer to help me with my chores today.
After this, it'll be a couple loads of laundry and prepping for next week.
And of course, sitting around doing as little as possible until bedtime.
LOL