What I Expect

Common Interests

My love is so cruel, I cannot believe how he neglects me. Here I am sitting, perfectly ready to be smothered in cuddles in his bedroom while all Akefia can do is type his stupid dissertation. Each clink minutes apart and painfully slow. "When will you be done?" I whine, flopping my head onto his shoulder. He sighs, reaching up. I get excited, thinking he's going to close his laptop and give me his full attention. Instead he just brushes my hair from his face and continues.

"You're the one who keeps telling me to focus on work," he rolls his eyes. Nevertheless I keep pouting at him and he can't resist me (or it annoys him too much) so he ends up finishing the paragraph he's on and closing the laptop. He tosses it down the end of the bed and turns to me. His stare is a bit too 1000-yard for my comfort. "Well. You wanted my attention and you have it,"

"Yey," I slide across his lap and cuddle against his chest. He lies against the headboard just letting me move around on him to get comfortable. Eventually I'm straddling his lap, facing him with my head buried in his shoulder. It'd be difficult if we were lying down. My feet wrap around him from the back while he picks up his phone and casually scrolls on tumblr. Our university has its own LBGTQ+ tumblr account with the staff who run the Diversity Society and he follows them and likes most of their posts to show support. 

We cuddle and talk crap. "Oh, the second season of Final Space is out,"

"On Netflix?" I ask. 

"I mean it's a Netflix show but uh..." his eyes shift away. Oh right. He pirates it. "Wanna watch?"

"I haven't seen the first season though, would I be able to follow it?"

"No way - too much to take in. You need to watch the first season," he whistles with sheer admiration for the complexity of the show. He's already reaching for his laptop and pulls up Netflix. I turn my head to watch which isn't sustainable for my neck but it'll work for now. The scene begins with Gary floating aimlessly through space, his oxygen running out. I'm on the edge of my... lap seat... from the very beginning!

I end up lowkey loving the series and super excited for the next episode. I totally ship Gary and Avocato and Avocato better get resurrected somehow in the second season. Maybe I just keep Akefia around cause he introduces me to fun shows?

Nope, it's definitely the love.

Akefia gets an idea. "Can you ride a bike?" He asks.

"No," I sigh. I never learned. I can use a motorcycle but I've never been able to ride a bike. I tried once, when we got to the hospital. A surprising similarity between Europe and Egypt is using bicycles for transportation, to commute and things. But I never had my own bike and only a brief time to learn. "Why?"

"Oh, they have a place in Domino Park you can rent them for an hour. Tandems and stuff, it's pretty romantic," Akefia tells me. "Maybe in the summer, we can,"

"Maybe," I agree. I realise that as the weather improves and summer approaches I'm losing time with Akefia. The sand timer is slowly running out to the point when eventually, he'll leave. He can move on with his life and leave me behind. I want to ask what he's planning on doing once university ends but I'm too scared to. He hates personal questions and although I have many I don't want to annoy him. I don't want to seem like an insecure asshole trying to hold him back from his life. That's not who I am and I won't let it be who I become.