I will never be the same without you...

Chapter 10

Song: Milky Chance, "Stolen Dance"

After I left Zen in my apartment, I had the busiest and craziest day in a long time. Eventually, the whole week turned into a chaotic mess. Thankfully, Zen and Zol made up fairly quickly, but not without further involvement from the rest of the family and me. I was endlessly answering texts and phone calls discussing the fine points of their relationship, which ended up using the small amount of spare time I had that week. When I got to the office that morning, our main server was down, and the phones were ringing off the hooks. I grabbed some coffee, checked in with my boss and went to work. It was all hands on deck for a couple of very long days. As soon as things were back to normal, I had to prepare for my trip. I barely had time to eat or sleep in order to get ready. I made it to the station with only minutes to spare. I realized I had forgotten my phone only after I had hopped on the train.

This gave me a respite from the family group chat. Unfortunately, I didn't have Saifah's SNS information and had no way of contacting him without my phone. Damn! He was going to think I was a jerk. The weekend was busy and by the time I was on the late train back, I was beyond exhausted. I checked my phone as soon as I got home and found a million messages from my family, a few emails from work but nothing from Saifah. My heart sank that he hadn't reached out. I dragged myself to bed feeling downright mopey. I woke me up the next morning to my phone buzzing, almost fell out of bed in my urgency to get it, and thinking it could be Saifah

— (Zol) Thank you for pushing me to talk to Zen. We had a great conversation and realized we were both behaving like dumbasses. You were right, we needed to talk. Thank you for being there for us. I love you. 💖💖💖

— (Zon) ur welcome. Love u too 😊

Dumbasses who don't talk to each other.... Hmmm, I could start to see a pattern. A pattern between Sai and me. Maybe I needed to follow my own advice and just talk to him. I got up with a new spring in my step. I was so nervous and excited about what I wanted to do that the day felt like it would never end. I left as early as I could, got a cab downtown, and invited him for dinner. I waited nervously for him in the lobby and by the time he was walking towards me, my hands felt like ice. He looked amazing in tight dark blue dress pants, a light blue shirt open at the collar and a leather jacket. I had to remember to shut my mouth, and not embarrass myself. I couldn't help smile at him.

I was rubbing my hands together as we walked to the restaurant when I realized he was looking at me.

"Are you nervous?"

Whaaaaaat? How did he know???

"Hmm, no. My hands just get cold sometimes."

"I remember that they do when you're nervous." He grinned.

Oh crap! Why does he have such a good memory.

"Ah ah... yeah, I guess I used to. No, the AC in your lobby is just really cold."

He looked at me again, but didn't say anything more. We kept walking in silence, and I made an effort not to fidget. Once at the restaurant, we sat down and ordered a couple of beers. I looked at him,

"I'm glad you were free. It's much nicer to catch up over food."

I smiled at him and he smiled back.

"Me too. So tell me about your crazy week."

"Crazy is an understatement!"

I recapped my week for him and asked him questions about his. We kept on chatting easily throughout the meal. The food was as lovely as the company. I picked up the bill this time and told him next time was his. His smile widened at my comment.

"Yes, next time is definitely mine. Where did you park?"

"Actually, I took a cab down. It's too hard to park around here"

"Can I drop you back off at your office?"

"Ok, that would be nice. But isn't it out of your way?"

"My apartment is in that part of town so it won't be much of a detour."

We walked back to his car and got in.