#ILoveYou #YouLoveHer

#JustLikeOldTimes

Tia

"Hi," Mich greeted me, as I sat down.

"Hi, bitch," Cosmo added. I don't really understand how, when and why bitch became a term of endearment.

"It's been a while... You look good," I responded to Mich.

"Thanks. You too... Thinner," Mich said.

"Thanks..." I trailed.

"How are you?" Tia said.

"Good. Well, I'm back."

"How long are you staying this time?"

"For a while. Actually, I moved back. So you'll be seeing a whole lot of me again."

Oh. Seeing a whole lot of Mich with Nate.

"My company just started a branch here, and I'm managing it," Mich explained. "My office is just around the corner."

"She's a big shot General Manager now," Cosmo added again.

"Awesome," Tia replied, trying to sound enthusiastic.

"Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about Nate-" Mich started.

Cosmo snorted.

"Before he arrives," she continued while giving Cosmo a teasing don't-interrupt-me glare.

"What about?" Tia asked quickly.

She doesn't want him back now, does she? She already rejected him four years ago, and then moved away.

He went after her and that didn't end so well, because Nate came up miserable and started partying and drinking way too much for his own good. I even had to pull him out of... desperate situations... sometimes.

But he got over that. He got over her.

"I told him about your dad's Bible Quiz," Mich said with a grin.

"What?" I asked.

"And he's into it," she added with a playing-cupid-is-the-best look, and Cosmo is sharing the look.

I was about to reply, but Nate arrived.

Nathaniel

"Hi," I said to Tia and Cosmo.

"Guess what?" Mich asked. "Tia said I look good," she answered her own question.

Cosmo coughed and murmured, "Of course."

"Really? Are you blind?" I teasingly asked Tia. "She got fat," I corrected.

Mich puffed her cheeks at me and I can't help but poked her cheek with a finger. Old habits.

"Who even pokes people in real life?" Mich asked Tia as she waved my hand away.

"Rule of thumb, Nate, don't tell a girl she got fat," Tia replied.

"You got thinner," I complimented Tia.

"Thank you, but you already told me that," Tia said with a smile, while Mich pouted.

"Look, the squad, back together again," Mich said, while raising her glass of ice tea in a mock toast.

Tia laughed.

"Thank you Tia and Cosmo for being here as loyal members of the squad. If it was just Nate and I, then that will be a date," Mich added, as Tia frowned ever so slightly. "And neither of us can stand each other long enough to sit through a dinner," she finished with a grin.

"Yes, protect me from her," I said to Tia. "Take the menu away from her before she order anything else. She is determined to spend all of my money tonight it seems..."

"To make up for all the dinners that I missed over the years," Mich said as she beckoned a waitress.

"She orders for a party all the time," Cosmo said.

"And I had to finish all her leftovers."

"And that's how you got fat," Mich replied as she poked my arm. She laughed. "I was expecting you to be soft as a marshmallow. Tia, you got to feel his arm. He has biceps!"

"Everyone has biceps, Mich," I replied.

"When did you start working out?"

"Since you left," Tia replied for me. "He wanted a caterpillar-butterfly moment," she added.

"Really?" Mich asked. "Now, why would he do that?" she added as nodded towards me.

I shrugged, even though I can feel Tia fixed her eyes intently on me.

"We missed you," Tia changed the subject. "It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back," Mich smiled at Tia.

"It'll be just like old times," Cosmo added.