Twisted

New taste

Make sure that the walls you build to protect yourself do not turn into a prison.

I read that lucky quote inside my food after a long walk through The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"Helen!! What did you say to Mechelle O'Neill?!?" Nickolas exclaimed excitedly to my face as I was biting into my burger.

"Could even you tell me what you said?"

"Wait, Nick," I said, sipping my coca.

"You see, Nick, I'm enjoying my food," I said calmly, as he rolled his eyes at me while still staring at me with his puppy eyes.

"Well, I said I'd consider it."

"What!!"

And he yelled, directing everyone's attention to us in the outdoor restaurant.

"Helen, sign up. It is a new lifestyle"

"Nick, I can't wait for this month to be over. I'm dying here; I need to reclaim my introverted self."

"Helen, please accept my apologies. But it's not the kind of life a girl your age would want. You have an incredible job and the opportunity to settle down in an incredible city and build a career and life here. You must seriously consider that irreplaceable offer."

Wow! His words gave me goosebumps.

"Are you a native New Yorker or have you just spent enough time here to get to know the city well?" I tried changing the subject, and it worked.

"No, I was born in Nevada, but my father worked in New York. So my mother raised me until I was six years old." He bite his sandwich.

"What happened after you reached the age of six?" I cocked my brow. I realised after a while that I had touched an open wound. I should not have asked.

"My father wanted to take us on a vacation to honor his promotion at work, but we got into an accident and they died."

I put down my fork and stopped chewing. I gulped it down hard.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that, and you weren't required to respond."

"It's all right, Helen. It's been a long time, and I've grown accustomed to saying it aloud...."

Following their deaths, my aunt became my guardian. She moved me to New York to live with her and my granny. She married after a couple of years..

I chose to stay with my grandmother to avoid leaving her alone, as well as to give my auntie and her husband some privacy. She deserves it."

"Wow!"

"Yeah," Nick laughed.

"How old are you, Nick?"

"How old are you, Helen?" He was making fun of me.

"You tell first."

"Twenty-two," he said, captivating me.

"Twenty-five," he exclaimed, his shocked expression glowing.

While sipping my Coca-Cola, I smiled.

"25!! How? It does not suit you."

"And you look like someone in his fifties, and it doesn't suit you."

I laughed after he remained silent for a few moments.

"Joking,Nick. You also appear to be young."

"Your sense of humour is a minus ten."

"You, who are so sensitive."