Runaway

Chapter 9

Author's note:

Warning: short LGBT material

Enjoy it!

-

Brian shook his head in disbelief, while Marina just stood by the door, her jaw sticking to the floor. Nikki waited patiently for their reaction.

„Wow. I think I need time to digest this," Brian said suddenly. She was watching his body language. He didn't seem angry or upset.

„Okay...can we, please, start from the beginning?" Marina asked, walking to her.

Nikki sighed, trying to put the story together in her head. Then, she explained everything to them. From her failed engagement in Seattle to Daniel's sad story about Sofia. Eventually, she admitted she had been feeling a certain attraction towards the tall man for quite some time now, which, somewhere along the way apparently culminated in her falling for him. Marina and Brian took their previous positions again, staring at her, with their jaws on the floor.

„You never mentioned that you were engaged."

Nikki sighed again, lowering her gaze to the floor.

„I'm sorry. I came to Naples to escape from Darnell. I didn't want to remember everything again."

They exchanged glances again. Nikki noticed they were doing this a lot.

„Why have you chosen to tell Dan of all people?" the Latina asked.

„I told you I have feelings for him. It's easier to talk to someone you have feelings for. Besides, I knew he would never tell me what's bothering him unless I somehow show him he could trust me."

„This won't end well. Nikki, if he told you all about Sofia then you know he feels. You shouldn't have let your feelings go so far."

Marina interrupted Brian with a raise of her hand.

„Wait...maybe this isn't such a bad idea," she said. „Dan trusts her. She means something to him."

The blond man rolled his eyes.

„Yeah, he friendzoned her. Marina, you know him well," he tried to convince her. „He's still madly in love with Sofia and I highly doubt this will change anytime soon. At the moment he seems to be numb. He has no feelings for anyone. Nikki, don't go this way, please. You'll achieve absolutely nothing, except to be hurt."

Marina snorted, looking at Brian angrily.

„If you haven't noticed yet she has achieved more in a month than you and I in a year. Dan never talked to us about Sofia. Why are you killing her hopes before she even made the first step?"

„The first step is already made, Marina. She admitted her growing feelings for Daniel to herself and us. I'm just trying to be a good friend and save her from another broken heart. It seems like you haven't heard anything she said before but Nikki came here to forget exactly that...a broken heart."

Nikki felt like she was in a movie. Brian and Marina were talking about her like she wasn't standing next to them. She negotiated with herself whether she should meddle in this very heated discussion?

„It looks like you don't want them to be happy. Are you perhaps the one who had feelings for the „wrong" person, so you want to make a circle of all this?" she yelled at him, upset. Her last words seemed to wake Nikki up and made Brian pause. The man was shocked and simply couldn't believe the words coming from Marina's mouth.

„Stop! Both of you!" the dark-skinned woman ordered, very annoyed by their behavior. „First...Marina, you know that your last statement doesn't make any sense. Brian and I are just friends. Second...there's something else. Isaiah, the waiter from my hotel kinda asked me to go out with him. He seems to like me."