'i'm nervous.' says zara as she sits in the passengers side of dele's car.

he is currently parked in eric's drive but zara is getting extremely nervous about meeting his best friend.

'hey don't be nervous, it's only eric.'

'he's your best friend! what if he doesn't like me? i have to make a good impression if i'm seeing his best friend.'

'don't worry he's gonna love you, you're both gonna be great friends. trust me on this.' says dele with a small smile before leaning in and kissing her.

'you okay now?' he asks quietly.

'yeah.' she replies.

they both get out of his car and walk towards the front door. dele rings the doorbell before quickly wrapping his arm around zara's waist. a few moments later, the front door opens revealing eric.

'dele! zara! welcome!'

'hey eric, this is zara.'

'no shit sherlock, why do you think i said welcome zara.' he says making zara laugh.

'it's finally nice to meet you eric.' says zara with a smile.

'you too! you don't even realise how much he talks about you.'

'oh really?'

'yeah he's always going on about you in training. zara is so beautiful zara is so funny zara have my kids zara this zara that.'

zara suddenly looks at dele who's going bright red of embarrassment. he can't even deny it because it's true.

'shut up!' says dele embarrassed.

'aw look at little delboy going bright red! anyway, come inside.'

• •

a couple hours have passed and zara feels completely relaxed at eric's. he's made her feel right at home and he's really easy to talk to. they are all currently sat on the sofa in the living room watching a film. zara is currently curled up next to dele, his arm around her. but suddenly they are interrupted by dele's phone, he frowns and takes it out his pocket.

'sorry babes but i have to take this.' he says to zara who quickly moves out the way to let him stand him. she sits back up while dele goes into an another room to answer his phone.

'he really cares about you, you know.' says eric suddenly.

'huh what?'

'dele, i mean. he's always talking about you in training, it started to piss us off but then we realised we've never seen dele like this for someone before. i mean i've known dele for four years and he's never been like this. i've seen girlfriends come and go but you're different.'

'i know you're officially together and i'm not just saying this because dele's my friend or because you're here but he's just genuinely so much happier. in training he's happier during games he's happier, just in general really. even though you've only been part of his life a couple of months, you're good for him and he's good to you. he's fallen for you big time zara, he won't say it directly but he has.' says eric with a smile, she just looks down at her hands and smile.

hearing all this has made her extremely happy. she doesn't tell dele the way she feels about him because she's scared. she's get of getting too attached to someone then it suddenly all turns to shit. she has never felt this way about anyone before and she's scared of this new feeling that she's feeling.

the feeling of falling in love.

suddenly dele walks back into the living room, putting his phone back into his pocket.

'so that was-' dele starts to say before zara gets up and rushes towards dele, throwing her arms around him and kissing him.

'what was that for?' he says taken by surprise as she looks at him with a smile plastered on her face.

'i'm ready.' she says.

'to what? leave?'

'no you idiot! to take our relationship to the next level.'

the next level for them was officially being a couple. to call each other boyfriend and girlfriend. you may call it lame or childish as they're in their earlier twenties. but they're just two young people who like each other and don't want to fuck their relationship up.

'oh! right well, i wasn't quite expecting that. are you sure? like i know we've spoken about this and i've told you we don't need to rush-'

'i'm sure dele.'

'well if you're a hundred percent sure then let's do it. but you have to give me time so we can do something special first.'

'oh dele please don't.'

'please baby you never let me do anything special for you. let me do it, this one time.'

'no i know you. just because you're rich you think you can go overboard.'

'come on please just this one time. i'll do something casual but special.'

'no.'

'yes.'

'dele no!'

'um zara yes!'

'are you just gonna stand there and argue all night in my house or?' says eric suddenly still sat down on the sofa watching them.

'fine just don't go over the top. promise?'

'promise.'

'good.' she says with a smile before quickly kissing him and going down the hallway do the bathroom.

dele just walks back towards the sofa and sits down next to eric, grin plastered on his face.

eric just looks at him with an eyebrow raised.

'what?' asks dele.

'when are you going to tell her?'

'tell her what?'

'you know exactly what dele.'

dele just looks behind him quickly, making sure zara isn't there.

'look i don't see the point of telling her. we're both in a good place right now and i don't want to ruin it.'

'you should't lie to her. she deserves better.'

'i'm not exactly lying, i'm just not telling the truth.'

'dele don't. if you don't tell her the truth soon, it'll come and bite you on the ass. and everything you have now will be gone.'