More Than Words

“You better be hungry, because once I got cooking, I couldn't stop.” Nick said as he entered the room with a tray overflowing with different breakfast foods.

“Wow, Nick.” I said, sitting up. “You really didn’t have to do this.”

“I wanted to.” he said. “Besides, you think this is all for you? We’re sharing.”

“So selfless.” I said, chuckling. “And here I thought you were doing something for me.”

“Oh, I am. Doesn’t mean I can’t benefit from it as well.” he said, winking at the end of his sentence.

I looked down at the tray and saw a plate with two pancakes next to a plate with two pieces of French toast, a plate of hash browns and two pieces of bacon.

“The bacon is for you.” he said. “Just because I don’t eat meat doesn’t mean you can’t.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “It doesn’t make you feel bad or anything for me to be eating bacon?”

“Nah.” he said. “I don’t get nauseous unless I’m like, surrounded by the smell. Just don’t take me to the meat market.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I said, smirking. “God, I don’t know where to start. You’ve made so much food.”

“Well, I’m going to start with a pancake, if that’s okay with you?” he said, picking up a fork and knife.

“Sounds good to me.”

We stayed in bed, me with my back against the pillows and Nick sitting perpendicular to me, with his back against the wall, as we slowly ate our way through the feast that Nick had prepared.

We talked about anything and everything, just trying to get to know each other better and laughing whenever one of us brought up a funny or embarrassing moment. The shop didn’t open today – something my mom had started. Sunday was for family, and even though everyone at the shop was close enough to be considered family, Mom wanted everyone to be able to be at home. This meant Nick and I had the whole day to talk and bond and it was a good thing, too. I don’t think I would’ve wanted to leave the bed I was currently sharing with Nick, even if the shop was opening.

As we spoke, a particularly embarrassing story came up about a past crush of mine, who had found me buried under a mountain of books on the ground of the shop.

“Well, how was I to know that if I leaned over that far, the whole bookshelf would empty itself on top of me? You should have seen this boy’s ass – you would have leaned over to see it, too.”

Nick burst out laughing, shaking the bed and causing me to laugh as well, knowing how ridiculous the story was.

A cloud moved outside and the sun shone through the window, lighting up Nick’s face and making him glow even more than his smile already did. His eyes caught the light and sparkled with his laughter, showing that they really were blue, not black, and making them seem like they were bottomless pools of water.

I could seriously see myself falling for this guy, I thought, realizing for the first time how close we’d gotten after less than a week.

No. Stop it. You are friends, got it? Just because he’s funny, intelligent, sweet, and a fantastic cook and is living with you does not mean you have any right to fall for him. He works for you, and he is so out of your league, it’s not even funny.

“What did he say?”

Nick’s voice broke me out of my internal admonishment. “What?”

“Your crush. What did he say when he saw you sprawled out under a pile of books?”

“Oh, well, at first he laughed, but he ended up helping me up and put away the books with me. He was very good at alphabetizing.”

“And I suppose that’s a necessary quality in a potential boyfriend of yours?” Nick teased.

“Well, of course.” I said, going along with it. “How else is he supposed to help me out with the shop?”

“Oh, you just want to be able to see him bend over when he’s restocking shelves.”

“You caught me.” I said, smiling. “What about you? What qualities does your perfect guy have to have?”

“Well, I don’t really have a list…” Nick said. “But I guess he’d have to be willing to stick around through it all. He’d have to be relatively intelligent, caring… He’d have to make me feel special, you know. But to be honest, I’m not exactly looking.”

I can’t pretend that that didn’t depress me a bit. I mean, it was discouraging to hear that the first person to make me feel something in a really long time say that he wasn’t really looking for a relationship.

“Yeah, me neither.” I replied. “Carly keeps trying to set me up with different guys but… I don’t know. No one in New York City cares enough to come out here and I don’t want to always be the one making the trip. And I have to be here, for the shop.”

“Well, you know what they say.” he said.

“No, what?”

He looked at me, his eyes searching for something in mine. “Well, that once you stop looking… that’s when you find that person you’ve been waiting for.”

I smiled, my rational brain telling me not to be so silly, but my emotional side winning and allowing me to just feel absolutely elated that he could possibly be talking about me. “Well, maybe we’re both about to find that special someone. Be on the look out, he might pass you by if you’re not careful.”

“Oh, trust me.” he said, looking me in the eye, causing butterflies to swell in my chest, and the next words he said didn’t exactly cause that feeling to go away. “I’m not letting this one go.”