The Headturner

The Talk

Chapter Fifteen - The Talk

Anne hardly got any sleep that night. Every time she fell asleep, she had a confusing dream which started with Tyler, then his face would get morphed into Adam's and she would wake up covered in sweats. She finally had managed to fall asleep when the first rays of sunlight entered her bedroom. She closed the curtains, covered her face with the pillow and went to sleep. At 11 a.m., her phone buzzed. She ignored it for first two times but when it rang for the third time, she had to pick it up. It may be an emergency.

"Adam?" Anne was shocked to see his name in her caller ID. After all, they had not talked at all after Adam had dropped her off.

"Yeah... Did I wake you up?"

"Yeah... No... I was just getting up myself." Anne lied.

"Okay lazybum, we are hanging out at Neil's place today. Get ready, I will pick you up in an hour."

"What? I'm not even awake yet."

"Okay you have extra fifteen minutes."

"But..."

Click.

Anne let out a loud groan and forced her out of the comfy bed. She cursed at her phone again and dragged herself to the bathroom.

She did not even get to dry her hair as Adam showed up at her door. She could hear his car and ran to the door before he could ring the bell.

"You're dripping." Adam snickered.

"You're early." Anne replied and took him upstairs.

"Well, that's a first."

"What?"

"You have never taken me to your room yet."

"That's because I am not ready yet." She went to dry her hair and when she got out of the bathroom, Adam was flipping through the magazines he found, clearly looking at the models.

"Ahem" Anne coughed and Adam looked up at her with dimpled smile. "If you're done checking out the models, can we leave now?"

"I wasn't looking at the models, I was uh... looking at the dresses." Adam lied through his teeth and Anne punched him in his arm and pulled him out the door. "Yeah right! And I'm hungry now and since you are the reason that I didn't have time to eat, guess who is making me breakfast?"

"Lady, look at your watch. It's already noon and you want breakfast?"

Anne shrugged and got into his car.

"Okay, I won't cook you breakfast but we can go somewhere to grab a bite. At least you are eating now."

Anne sent Adam a death glare at that comment and tuned the radio and closed her eyes.

"Oi, sleepyhead. We are here." Adam pinched her cheek.

Anne swatted his hand away and continued sleeping. She had dozed off in the car.

"Does the sleeping beauty need a true love's kiss?" Adam puckered his lips and made a smooching sound. Anne jumped up in her seat and looked around. They were outside a cafe.

As if on cue, her stomach growled with hunger.

Adam laughed and said, "We gotta feed the beast."

After drinking coffee, the drowsiness had subsided and they went to Neil's place. When they reached, they found Tanya and Neil fighting over the remote. When they saw Anne and Adam, they turned to them and crossed their arms.

"Where have you guys been?"

"Lazybum here was not ready yet."

"Will you stop with the name calling? Mr. Hungry over here had to stop for a doughnut." Anne lied.

"Yeah, like they will believe that."

"We totally believe that." Neil and Tanya almost said in unison and all three of them burst into laughter while Adam pouted playfully.

Tanya added, "And if you want to call Anne anything, call her the man-eater. She has been quite popular with the boys lately." She went ahead to hug Anne. "Oh Annie, I had so much fun on the date. Thank you for taking me with you."

"What date?" Adam and Neil inquired.

"It's nothing guys, it was just a stupid hangout kind of thing actually..." Anne tried to clarify.

"No, it was a date. Except I was there as an extra baggage. But Tyler was totally cool with it. He is so hot, right Annie?"

Anne was feeling so awkward talking about it but Tanya never took a hint. She went on describing all the cool stuff they did, praising Tyler all along.

"Sorry, I gotta take this." Adam gestured to the phone in his hand and excused himself.

"But we didn't even hear it ring..." Tanya ended up saying it to Adam's back.

"So, who is this Tyler?" Neil asked Anne in a serious tone.

"Well, I met him the other day at the mall and we just went out, all three of us, to the fun-park. It wasn't even like a date." Anne explained.

"From the way Tyler was looking at you, it was totally a date." Tanya interrupted.

If she didn't love Tanya so much, Anne could have strangled her. She was spilling all the beans and making Anne uncomfortable.

"Uhhh Tanya, could you bring us all some cold drinks and snacks from the kitchen?" Neil said to Tanya so that he could talk to Anne.

"Yeah okay." Tanya walked to the kitchen and Neil gestured Anne to sit next to him.

"How much do you know about Tyler?"

"I know enough to go on 'just a date' with him." Anne was getting a little bit annoyed with Neil acting like a father-figure she never had in her life.

"Just be careful. I don't want you to get your heart broken."

"You guys were the ones placing bet on me, remember?" Anne almost said it out loud.

"What do YOU know about love anyways? You never have even been in a relationship, let alone a serious one." Anne ended up saying.

"I know you don't know this but I did love someone once. It was a long time back, but I was really serious about her. In fact, I have not forgotten her even to this day."

Anne stared at Neil in disbelief but he seemed pretty serious.

"Trust me, I have never been able to forget her or let anyone replace her. I have tried really hard but still am as crazy about her as I used to be."

"What happened? I mean between you two?"

"Well, she moved on, and I apparently can't."

"I'm so sorry Neil, I didn't know. You always seemed so happy-go-lucky that I never imagined you had a broken heart."

"Yeah, I don't show it and don't talk about it with anyone. You are the first person I am talking to like this, because I know you won't make fun of me or talk about my stuff with others."

"I really won't."

"It just.... I know how it feels to have my heart broken... and I would not want it to happen to anyone. Let alone one of my friends."

"I won't. I am not involved with him deeply. I don't even know him that well yet. We are just getting to know each other."

"My point exactly." Neil patted her shoulders and went to the balcony where Adam was looking ahead at nothing in particular.