To Get There

Chapter 15

Serkan's POV

My house without Eda looked empty.

The trail of her perfume that softened every environment, her hips that swayed from side to side of the rooms, her hair ruffled by sleep on my chest.

God, I missed her.

I sat in the chair in front of my kitchen counter, contemplating a silence that I once loved with all my heart.

Before she entered my life completely.

Now I just wanted my ears to be filled with the sweet, tender laughter that she would give when something amused her, or just when she could take the pout out of my face.

I just wanted to listen to her words in the middle of a dark night, until she had her eyes heavy from sleep, only to let my skin be covered by the chills that only her voice could evoke in me.

The annoying ticking of my wall clock marked the notes of that silence that made me feel alone but the sound of my phone was able to interrupt the flow of my thoughts.

Thrilled that it might be a phone call from Eda, I grabbed my phone and swallowed it bitterly at the sight of the number of Efe imprinted on the screen.

"Serkan, abi! I'm almost under your house. Do you want to have a beer together?"

I cleared my voice, masking my brain suspended in my thoughts just before.

"Hey Efe, are you back? Have you already gone to Eda's place?"

I asked as if it didn't interest me at all, nonchalantly.

"Yes, I left Selin there who had to talk to Eda. 'Friends talk', I don't want to get into this stuff, I'm already afraid so much! Are you okay, Serkan? How have these days been at work? Did my sister give you trouble?"

Oh, she did.

By the way, I was happy that Eda might have found in Selin a friend to talk to even though I was really hoping that I wasn't the focus of their conversation.

Besides, ours was a secret arrangement, right?

"You can come up to my house, I have two beers in the fridge. Hard day at work, I don't want to go to some pubs."

Efe grinned, not imagining a single part of what Eda and I had experienced that day.

"Open the door, I'm here, brother!"

I found Efe already at the door of my apartment and he almost jumped on me and hugged me.

"Hey, we haven't seen each other for three days. I'm not your girlfriend hugging me like that."

Efe chuckled and hung his jacket on the hanger.

"I am happy Serkan, and when I am happy I can not help but hug everyone. My best friend in particular!"

I smiled while shaking my head and opened the two beers as promised, sipping the ice of the liquid in my mouth.

"What makes you happy?"

I asked, with a thin line of voice, somehow whispering.

"For years, I've always been an asshole to girls, I'm aware of that. But now with Selin, I feel the need to look for her eyes at all times, to smell her around me, to..."

"...to seek her hand, her touch, in every moment."

I concluded Efe's sentence, gaining a surprised look at him who raised his eyebrows.

"Cheesy phrases from romantic comedies, do not make yourself delusional Efe."

He smiled, breathing a kind of sigh of relief as I imagined that he believed that I could feel the same feelings for someone.