They got into his car and made their way to get her a blueberry flavoured ice cream.
"What're you going to do with that much ice cream?" Nick asked surprised at how many buckets of ice cream she picked.
"It's so we don't have to comeback everyday." She said, adding more flavours to the basket Edward, Nick's chauffeur, held.
"Is it even healthy? And why ain't you picking chocolate flavours?" Nick asked.
"Why so many questions mister?" She said with a smirk. "Besides I'm not a fan of chocolate ice creams. C'mon let's move it now. I'm done here, and very hungry."
"Well I like the chocolate ones." He picked a bucket of the chocolate cookie ice cream and put it in her basket.
She pulled him towards the counter. Before she could get her Debit card from her purse, she saw a black card being placed on the counter. She turned to look at Nick with a surprised look.
He looked at her surprised face. He scoffed to himself and smirked. He took his card and pulled her out of the ice cream inn. Did she think he'd allow her pay? Not even in her wildest dreams.
*****
They sat in a classy restaurant, waiting for their order to be brought.
"Thanks for the ice cream", she said speaking for the first time since they left the ice cream inn.
"Anytime."
"So...", she said trying to break the now uncomfortable silence. "How long have you been friends with Ben, and how long have you known him? Oh and how you guys met."
Nick chuckled and said, "that's a lot of 'how long' questions."
The deep baritone in his chuckle made her feel giddy. She couldn't help but smile at him.
"I've known him for six years now. We've been friends for close to six years also. I'm sure Ben would know exactly how long. That's his specialty. We met back in the university. We weren't exactly friends at first sight. We were roommates in freshman year. I'm sure Ben would have told the story better than I ever would."
She gave a hearty laugh and said, "He said you always got in trouble and he'd always have to save your spoilt ass."
His look was priceless. "He said that?"
This made her burst into laughter. People in the restaurant turned to look at her. "Not exactly that way."
"Funny", he tried to pull a straight face but the corners of his lips kept twitching. "What about you?" He asked taking a gulp from his wine.
"I've known Ben for close to 11 years now. We met at central park in New York city. I was playing with my girlfriends at that time and some silly guys came over to bully us. At that time we were barely in our teens and this knight in blue jeans and a t-shirt saved our toys from being taken away from us."
"And that knight was 'Benjamin Wales'. Sounds like him, totally not surprised."
"True", she smiles. " He became my crush after that. Funny how time flies. I even introduced him to my father."
Nicholas moved uncomfortably in him seat. The atmosphere was getting uncomfortable for him. He didn't like the direction of the conversation but he wanted to find out more about her feelings and relationship with Ben.
"Do you still have a crush on him? Or is it something worse than that now?" He was proud of himself when his voice came out nonchalant. His heart had a different rhythm to play though.
