TEN

It was evening and Natasha was sitting on the couch, her legs folded with a bowl of popcorn on her thighs. Her gaze was wholly concentrated on the television as she occasionally reached into the bowl to throw an handful of popcorn into her mouth.

Diane was at the dining table at the far end of the living room. A couple of files were spread out in front of her. Her head was buried into them as she tried to sort them out.

Malvika descended the stairs and walked towards Natasha. She slumped into the seat. “Hey,” she muttered. Natasha simply gave her a nod and turned back to the television. Malvika reached out a hand and dipped them into the bowl. She packed an handful of popcorn and threw them into her mouth.

Natasha turned to glare at her. “Thief.”

Malvika rolled her eyes. “Is Nicholas back?” she asked.

“No. Where is Jenny?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere in her room, maybe,” Malvika replied.

The doorbell rang and Rachel ran from the kitchen to open it. “Welcome sir, welcome ma’am,” she greeted.

Malvika and Natasha sat up as soon as they held her greet. They looked at each other expectantly and grinned. There was drama on the way and they were here for it.

Nicholas and Ashley stepped inside the house. Ashley sat down on a sofa and kicked off her heels. “Rachel, take this to Nicholas’ room,” she ordered and Rachel obediently complied.

Nicholas removed his cap and dropped it on the table with a loud thump. “Gosh,” he muttered, combing through his hair with his hand.

While Diane stared longingly at him, attracted to the way he slowly combed through his hair with his hands, Natasha let out an amused giggle at how obvious his pink and purple hair was under the bright florescent light. “I kind of like your hair like this,” she said giggling. “It’s cute.”

Nicholas scowled at her. “Shut up. Where is Jenny? She’s supposed to tell me if she saw the footage.”

“Wasn’t Ashley supposed to check with her?” Malvika asked pretentiously and with inwards glee.

“Yes, but Jenny told me to go and meet Nick on set,” Ashley chirped in her annoying high pitched voice.

The sound of running footsteps were heard on the stairs. Nicholas turned towards the stairs and saw his sister hurrying down. “Gosh, Nicholas! You won’t believe what happened today! I got stuck in the bathroom!” she yelled.

Nicholas raised a brow. “What?”

“I got stuck in the bathroom,” she repeated, standing akimbo.

“Wow. What happened?”

“I don’t know but the door refused to open,” she said, her confused. “It felt like someone locked me in from outside. Gosh, it was the most frustrating thing that ever happened to me!”

“So how come you are here?” he asked, taking his seat beside Ashley and putting his arm around her to draw her close. He was unaware of Diane’s piercing gaze on him.

“Well….” She hesitated, a frown across her face.

Malvika spoke up with a cheeky smile, “I helped her.”

“Ohhh,” Nicholas nodded slowly.

Jenny scowled in Malvika's direction. “Whatever.” She turned to Ashley. “Ash, where the fuck did you go to?! We were supposed to go through the CCTV footage together!”

Ashley gave her a confused look. “You asked me to meet with Nicholas.”

“What are you talking about? I did not!”

“You did. You sent me a message.” She brought out her phone. “Here it is.”

Jenny went through the message and shook her head frantically. “No, no, I did not.”

“So, are you saying I’m lying? Of course you did! This is the evidence.”

Jenny brought out her phone and frantically searched. Her eyes widened when she saw the message. “But I did not!”

“Calm down,” Nicholas said, standing up. “Jenny, did you give your phone to anyone?”

“I’m not…..wait, Ash, you came to ask for my phone this morning.”

“Me? I did not!”

“Yes you did. It sounded just like you and you asked for my phone. You also asked for my password.”

“No!” Ashley shrieked.

Natasha covered her hands from prying sight with a pillow and pinched Malvika’s thighs while stifling a giggle.

“You did! You said you wanted to use my phone then, you asked for my password!”

“I did not!”

“You….”

Nichikas stood up with a deep sigh. “That’s okay,” he stated. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“But….” Jenny started.

“I said it doesn’t matter!” Nicholas replied sternly. “Jenny, did you get any clue?”

Jenny shook her head. “No. I didn’t find any suspicious video.”

Diane noiselessly sighed in relief, averting her longing gaze from Nicholas and keeping her head down as she looked at her papers.

Nicholas heaved another sigh. “Let’s eat first.” His gaze trailed to the dining table and he saw Diane sitting with her head bowed. “Oh, Diane, I didn’t see you there.”

Diane raised her head and frowned at him. She packed up her book, stood up and stalked angrily towards the stairs.

------------------------------------------------------

Diane rolled around on the bed, unable to sleep. She shut her eyes tightly, wishing sleep would overtake her but she was still aware of her surroundings. She swore under her breath as she sat up on the bed. She reached for the wall and pressed the switch. She blinked rapidly as light flooded the room.

Looking around the bright room, she sighed in frustration, slamming her pillow on the bed multiple times.

She hated this.

She hated that all she could think about was Nicholas. She hated that all she could focus on was the shape of his body, his soft, silky hair, the way he blinked his eyes when confused, the long strides he took while walking, his husky voice that sent her body tingling.

How he loved Ashley in a way he could never her, Diane. That hurt the most.

Diane sighed. She swung her feet off the bed, towards the floor and pulled herself up from the bed. Sluggishly, she wore her flip-flops and moved towards the door. She quietly opened it and walked out. She walked down the stairs and headed to the kitchen. Tracing her hand on the wall, she found the switch to the bulb and pressed it on. Then, she walked to the freezer, opened it and started to raid it.

She was so busy pulling out the biscuits, cookies and chocolates in the freezer that she didn’t hear the footsteps coming behind her.

“What are you doing?”

“Ahhhhh!” she shrieked, jerking up and whirling around. Her shoulders sagged in relief when she saw Nicholas resting on the door frame with his arms folded. She placed her palm on her chest. “Oh God! You scared me!” she exclaimed, staring at him.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, I couldn’t sleep, so I came here to eat whatever I can find,” she said, turning to gently closed the freezer. “What about to” she asked, trying not to sound as anxious and self-conscious as she felt. She picked up the cookies and chocolates that she had gathered in a large tray and brushed past him back into the living room.

“Oh nothing,” he replied as he walked after her. “I also couldn’t sleep.”

“Great. Bye,” she replied, falling onto the couch, with the tray tightly held in her hand.

Nicholas ignored her words and slipped into the space beside her. “You are not going to eat all that alone, are you?”

“Oh, I can if I want to. I’m just going to eat as much as I can.” She said. She picked up a packet of cookies, ripped it open, picked one and bit into it. Hesitatingly, she held it out to Nicholas. “Here. Want one?”

“Of course,” he replied, picking one of the cookies and shoving it into his mouth. “You know,” he began as he chewed. He waited to swallow the cookie before continuing. “Ashley never eats all these stuff.”

“Hmmph,” Diane gave an uninterested snort. “Really?” she asked in a calm, bored tone. If he wanted to talk to her, then talking about Ashley was one of the worst ways to start.

“Yeah, you know she’s a model and she needs to be in shape,” he said, reaching out to pick another piece of cookie.

“Well, then, I feel sorry for her.”

“What? Why?”

“She’s missing out on all these deliciousness and thrills,” Diane replied. “I mean, isn’t it thrilling waking up in the midnight for the purpose of eating junk foods?”

Nicholas stared at her, his lips stretching into a wide smile. “Right?!” he concurred, laughing quietly.

Diane felt herself staring into his smiley face and smiling herself. His smile and laughter was so contagious. And he was even more handsome with that smile lighting up his face. Diane’s hands twitched as she it itched to touch and stroke his face.

“Hey, wanna watch a movie?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“Uhn?” she blinked twice. “Uh, yeah, yeah, sure.”

He smiled at her, stood up and headed to the television. After switching it on and setting the movie up, he walked back towards her and sat down. They both gazed at the television, reaching out once in a while to pick a cookie or a bar of chocolate.

“You know, if it were Ashley we will be cuddling by now,” Nicholas told her jokingly.

Diane faked a laugh. ‘Oh please,' she thought, rolling her eyes. 'like I want to hear all about your relationship with Ashley.’

She fought hard to concentrate on the movie but how could she when Nicholas’ arm kept brushing hers, making all the hairs on her body stand; when his thighs kept coming in contact with her; when all she wanted to do was grab him by his head and kiss him as long and as hard as she could. But she couldn’t do all those things. Having him so close beside her was messing up her mind. She involuntarily let out a small groan.

Nicholas glanced at her. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Uhn, no….nothing. I’m just a little bit tired,” she replied, faking a yawn at the end.

“You want to go and sleep?”

‘Sleep? Hell no!’ she thought to herself. “No, no. Actually, I want to finish the movie.” Finish the movie? More like she wanted to continue sitting with him in the semi-dark room, with his body touching hers occasionally.

“Okay.” Nicholas three his arms around her shoulder making her gasp lowly at the contact. He drew her closer and made her rest her head on him. “Here. See you can relax and still watch the movie.”

Diane grinned, glad that he couldn’t see her face. She sighed as she inhaled his scent, all her senses suddenly aware of him. She loved the feel of his arm around his body and she snuggled closer to him, their bodies molding perfectly together.

Whatever it was that made Nicholas act like this, she had no idea. All she knew was that she loved it and would revel in it for as long as she could. She knew it wasn’t going to last long. So, she planned to enjoy it for the meantime.

She sighed softly, feeling calm and soothed by his hands and body. She closed her eyes, a wide smile on her face.

And drifted off to sleep.