You & I

"You drive like my mom."

"As long as I don't look like her."

"Hey! My mother's a peach," Zack frowned.

"She's a very handsome lady." Chris replied, hiding a smile.

"Yeah, well your mom's..." After a moment of silence Zack gave up with a sigh. "I can't even joke about your mom. I love her."

"Can we change the topic of conversation before this gets weird?" Chris threw a glance at his friend before looking back to the road. "You know, I think this is the most time I've spent with you since you got here."

"What are you talking about dude?" Zack asked dumbly, "I'm crashing at your place."

"You're always with Tara," Chris grinned, "So what's going on with you two?"

"Nothing," Zack said. "I think she's insanely hot, but she's playing hard to get."

"Maybe she just doesn't like you."

The sound of Zack's laughter filled the car. "All the girls like this," he pointed to himself.

"Yeah, sure."

"You're hardly one to talk." Zack scoffed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you've got a thing for Grace but you do nothing about it."

Chris broke his fix on the road just long enough to give Zack a disbelieving look. "I do not have a thing for Grace." He exclaimed. "Why would you even...she's my friend!"

"I think he doth protest too much." Zack shrugged. He thought Chris was putting on a good show, but he was ready to believe it. He tried a different approach. "How are things with that Melanie chick?"

"Her name's Melody - and I called it quits."

"Why? She seemed ok. A bit high maintenance but pretty enough to make up for it."

"You're such a douche sometimes," Chris rolled his eyes. "I finished it for a number of reasons. Mainly because I'm not 25 and I don't really see the point of fooling around with someone I don't have genuine feelings for. She would have just gotten hurt."

"So you're suddenly getting all deep and serious?" Zack raised a brow. Definitely the way he wanted the conversation to go.

"No. Maybe. What's with all the questions?" Chris shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The conversation on the surface seemed to be moving away from Grace, but he knew that look in Zack's eye and it was never a good thing. The guy was like a dog with a bone when he had hold of something.

"Have you ever pictured your ideal woman?" Zack asked.

"No."
- Chris had, quite often. As most people do, and more and more as the time passed.

"You haven't thought about what she'd be like?"

"What's with you today?" Chris asked with a frown. "Usually you only want to talk about boobs, beer and sports."

"Come on, humour me."

Chris pulled into an empty space beside the apartment block and switched off the ignition. He didn't get out of the car right away, but he didn't turn to face Zack either. "Fine," he sighed in defeat. "I guess my ideal woman would be someone who's funny. She has to have a sense of humour so she can fit in easily with my friends and family. Witty, but a bit quirky too. And she'll be smart, not like a brain surgeon smart but able to hold a conversation. She'll be cool about going to events and stuff with me, but she'll also be cool with just hanging out in her pjs. Oh and she has to like East - that's a deal breaker."

"Do you know anyone like that?" Zack asked with a knowing smile.

Chris paused only to humour his friend. He could see what Zack was trying to get at.
"Sandra Bullock?" He said finally, getting out of the car. Zack followed suit and waited to the sidewalk while Chris took a small box from the backseat.

"What's in the box?" Zack asked curiously.

"Something for Grace." He avoided Zack's eye, knowing exactly how it sounded. "It's just a snowglobe ok? Nothing special. I found it in some random store and I remembered that she has a collection of them in her room." Chris was getting agitated. He knew that the best way to drop the subject was to just shut up now, yet he couldn't stop himself. "I don't like Grace in that way. I think she's cool and yeah, she's cute but we're just friends."

"I never mentioned Grace," Zack held up his hands innocently before pressing the buzzer for Grace's apartment.

"Yes you did you!"

"I was only joking bro. Good to know though, because she has a boyfriend now."

"I don't think Jackson's her boyfriend. They've been on like, two dates," Chris said casually.

Zack shrugged and lead the way up the stairs. "According to Tara they're always talking on the phone or hanging out. Defo couple territory."

Chris said nothing. He was thinking about how Grace had changed lately. She seemed on edge some of the time and he would be lying if he said it didn't bother him. She would have moments of what he had come to know as 'pure Grace', but the rest of the time it was obvious she was holding something back from him. It was starting to grate on him.

"I don't trust the guy, he's too nice," Zack said as they came to stand outside the apartment door.

"That makes no sense." Chris said. It made perfect sense.

They knocked and after a minute of muffled sound inside, Grace threw open the door with a huge grin on her face. There was chocolate on her chin from the muffins she and Tara had been making. They had clearly been eating more than baking.

'Ok,' Chris thought to himself as he stood there, 'just because she was kinda adorable did not mean that he liked her.'