It’s 6:30am, and I’m up and dressed way earlier than I need to be to get to work on time today. I’m currently lying on my bed, waiting for Nick to get out of the shower. I heard him get up a while ago and head out for a run, so I dashed in the bathroom while he was gone to make myself look as attractive as is possible at this time of morning when you are me, before hurrying back to my room. I heard him get back and get in the shower, so now I’m just waiting until I hear the water shut off so I can go grab my breakfast, moments before he goes for his, so we can bump into each other.
I hear the water shut off so I hop off my bed, grabbing my phone before making my way to the kitchen. I pop the kettle on and drop a couple of slices of bread into the toaster before hopping onto the worktop where I begin aimlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed, just to look busy and to make this seem natural.
‘Good morning,’ I say brightly as Nick wanders into the kitchen, running a hand through his damp hair.
‘Bloody hell,’ he says, jumping. ‘I didn’t expect you to be awake. Has someone died?’
I laugh.
‘Oh, you’re so funny,’ I say flirtatiously, although I don’t think he was joking.
‘Don’t take the piss, Ruby. I’ve got a busy day ahead of me and I had a late night.’
‘Fun night with Heather?’ I ask, jealously suddenly hitting me like a ton of bricks.
‘Yeah, it was great, thanks. We went to this place near the station called Planet.’
As my toast pops up I realise that it’s burnt, testament to how often I use the toaster. Still, I hop down and begin spreading Nutella on it – after scraping as much of the black off as possible because I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that burnt food gives you cancer.
‘The only place I know with a spacey sounding name down by the station is Saturn,’ I tell him.
‘Yeah, I’m not talking about the god-awful nightclub where you and Joey go hunting for prey. Planet is a vegan restaurant.’
‘Ergh, does she make you go to vegan restaurants?’
‘She doesn’t make me go anywhere,’ he tells me. ‘I do it because I care about her.’
‘Give me a double cheeseburger and a big slab of chocolate any day,’ I tell him, raising my toast to my mouth. I’m not used to eating so early in the morning, and while Nutella on toast sounded like a good idea on paper, I’m not sure I can stomach it right now – I don’t think the fact I ate two and a half double chocolate muffins for my dinner last night is helping matters.
‘So why are you up early and eating breakfast?’ he asks me as he prepares his usual bowl of cereal.
‘What? I get up early sometimes,’ I protest.
‘Except you don’t,’ he interrupts.
‘And breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you’re always saying so, and you’re pretty smart.’
I think I’ve done well, dropping into the conversation both the fact that I listen and a compliment, but Nick just stares at me blankly.
‘Piss-taking, again. I’m going to eat this in my room.’
‘I wasn’t –’ I call after him, but he closes his bedroom door behind him.
Shit, I really was trying to be nice to him. What I’m forgetting is that we’ve spent the whole time we’ve known each other driving each other crazy, constantly at one another’s throats – it’s no wonder he finds it weird that I’m suddenly trying to be nice and flirty with him. I’ve spent so much time taking the piss out of him, why would he expect anything else?
If I want to get anywhere with Nick, I’m going to have to seriously up my game. It’s not enough to just suddenly start being sweet to him, I need to show him that I’m worthy of him…now how the hell am I going to do that?