Falling For The Nerd

New York

              We landed at JFK airport at half past eleven. I had spent the entire flight either watching Melissa read (A Stranger's Watching by Mary Higgins Clark) and listening to the latest Maroon 5 album on repeat. We collected our luggage and walked out. Mike was waiting for us at the exit. He put his phone into his pocket and waved to us. Melissa walked up to him and gave him a bear hug. I too hugged him and we introduced the others. Mike and Leo seemed to immediately find some weird brotherly bond. We piled into the car, somehow adjusting. Melissa in the passenger seat, me, Gwen and Leo in the row behind and Jake and Amber at the back. Mike asked us about our flight an Amber immediately took the opportunity to tease the uniform of the crew and tell everyone how this one lady's eyeliner was smudged. We all just ignored her.

                The traffic was unbelievable. We spent almost half an hour in slow moving, bumper-to-bumper traffic. The radio was playing some pop song and I absent mindedly nodded my head to the beat. "You like this song?" Gwen asked me. "What? No, not really. It's the first time I've heard it." I replied. "Okay." Gwen said and lip-synced the chorus. "This song totally describes Amber." Gwen said. "What about me?" Amber said from the back. "We were just saying how absolutely annoying your voice is." Leo said with fake enthusiasm. "Whatever." Amber said and went back to talking to Jake while Gwen and I laughed at the obvious friction between the two. Twenty minutes later, Mike parked in a compound and a doorman helped get our luggage into the elevator. We checked into the hotel, dropped our bags and Mike drove us home. We used the elevator and got off on the eight floor and we entered their apartment. It wasn't very big, about as big as Melissa's place back home.

            "Hey you guys!" Remy greeted us and hugged us all. She gave us a tour of the place. Two large rooms- the first one occupied by Remy and Mike. It had white walls with wooden furniture, so it gave a very home-like feel. The second room was being prepared for the baby-the walls were still white, but furniture was being moved in. "You don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl yet?" I asked Remy. "No not yet. You can check at about 18-20 weeks, I've just started my fourteenth week. We can check by the end of the month." Remy replied. "Cool." I said and Remy smiled. There was a third room, smaller than the rest, like a store room. "We wanted to have a guestroom, but this room isn't big enough. So maybe once the baby is a couple of months old we'll be moving to a bigger flat. Or maybe even a loft apartment." Remy said and Mike nodded. "Isn't property expensive here?" Gwen asked, coming out of the smallest room. "It is, but we've been saving for a while." Mike said, "By next year, we should be able to afford a loft." "That's so cool. I always wanted a loft apartment." Leo said. "Okay. I think you should see the kitchen and then we can have lunch." Remy said and we followed her to the most amazing kitchen I've ever seen.
                There were entire shelves dedicated to chips, nachos, salsa, chocolates, biscuits and every other sweet fantasy. We sat around the dining table and had lunch. Remy had cooked some awesome pasta for us with vegetables on the side and garlic bread. We ordered ice cream for dessert-one tub of chocolate and one tub of banana caramel (for Remy).

                We spoke about college and other things and at three, Mike offered to drop us back to the hotel. I would've loved to spend some more time with Remy, but everyone else was exhausted and relaxing in the hotel room sounded like a great idea. Everyone said goodbye to Remy. I stayed behind. Once everyone else was done saying bye to Remy, I hugged her tight. "See you at the beach." I said. I got into the car and Mike drove us away.

              Once we reached the hotel, we collected our room keys. We had three rooms on the tenth floor- 1009, 1010, 1011. Each had an amazing view of the city. After we saw the rooms, I held the three keys in my hand and said, "Let's randomly draw the keys. So that we don't have any fights about who got which room." I said this because I could sense a fight coming between Leo and Amber, who were both eyeing the same room. Melissa looked at me and gave a slight nod. "Yeah. That'll be good. Like a lottery." Melissa said, eyeing Amber who was glowering at Leo. She too noticed the growing tension between them. "Fine."Amber said and reached for a key, at the same time as Leo.    
                Unfortunately, they reached for the same key. "Let go of the key, Rivera." Amber said. "No way. Why don't you loosen your grip on the key, Mortez?" Leo said in a challenging tone. His face was calm, but he had a tell. Whenever Leo got pissed, he would start biting his cheek. I noticed it and glanced at Jake who was watching Leo with a scared face. His message was clear, no way I'm stepping into this fight! At that moment, Gwen huffed, stepped between the two and said, "If you two don't stop fighting, we'll lock you up in that room till you sort out your differences. Maybe even make you both roomies." Gwen ended with a pointed stare to me. I realised she wanted me to back her up. "Um...yeah. Gwen's right." I stopped and Melissa said, "Either you guys share the room you both so desperately want, or you step out of the draw. Let your roomies pick." Leo immediately sent Jake forward to take the key he was holding when Melissa took the key away. "This room is out of the running. Choose between the others." Melissa said sternly. The key Melissa had taken was for room 1011. Jake drew the key for 1009 and Gwen took the ker to 1010.