Chapter 22: Weak Knees

"Why don't you do it?" Harper asks, pulling a beer from my fridge and popping off the tab.

I scowl at the thought.

"No."

"Why?" She asks. "He was the one who asked you on the date...and the five dates following that."

"I am not doing it." I say simply, opening the fridge to grab for a beer myself, but I find it empty.

She took the last one.

With a sigh, I hop on my kitchen counter.

We went home after Julian's high school graduation and we have been home for two weeks.

Without classes to make me see Nathan, I have not seen him once in two weeks.

Two freaking weeks.

He said he works a lot, but I think that is a load of shit. We call all the time but he never asks to see me.

I want him to ask me to be his girlfriend. I mean, it has been like three months since we started dating.

But he has not. He has not even asked me to hang out.

"Why won't you do it?" Harper presses.

"Do you know he has never come to my house? He has never walked up to that door and knocked. I could live in a house with walls covered in knives, and he would not know."

She grimaces.

"Odette, if you lived in a house with a wall of knives...I don't think he would be that surprised. Besides, he picked you up every day in the snow. Did he really never come inside?"

A scowl takes over my face as I shake my head to her last question. "It has been two weeks. He has not asked to see me, yet the dates are good, so are they only good to me? Why has he not asked me out again? Why has he not asked me to be his girlfriend? Does he only talk to me so I can help him in French?"

"Why don't you...I dunno, stop me if I'm wrong-ask him yourself?" She says sarcastically. I scowl again.

"I will not."

"You're not angry?" Harper asks me quizzically.

"Oh, I am pissed. Was I just a fuck to him?"

"No." She says. "If you were, you wouldn't have gone on dates. You know, speaking of dates, did you know Mason and Brenda's three year anniversary is coming up?"

I stare at her.

"Obsédé." I mutter.

"What?" She asks.

"Obsessed." I say in English. "You are obsessed."

"I'm not obsessed." She scoffs.

"With Mason." I nod. "Which is why you hate Brenda."

She scowls.

"Everyone hates Brenda. She's so annoying. Nathan hates her."

"Nathan hates her because she has a high voice and is always nagging him about being single. Maybe Brenda can push him to ask me to be his petite amie."

Her faces screws up in confusion.

"What the hell is that?"

I stare at her.

"What is what?" I ask. "Oh right, you are American. Petite amie is French for girlfriend." I say, taking her beer from her hand. I sip it. "I miss talking in French." I frown.

"Brenda isn't going to push him towards asking you out. She's going to piss him off and make him not do it because if he does, she'll think he's going it because he told her to. Nathan is stubborn. You of all people know that. I mean, he did rip a cigarette from your hands, did he not?" She takes her beer back from me.

I run my hands along my face.

"I miss Nathan." I grumble.

"I miss Mason." She says. Her eyes light up. "Let's call them and ask them to hang out tonight!"

She picks up her phone and I snatch it from her hand.

"I am not seeing Nathan until he asks to see me."

"Fine." She says. "Then I'll hang out with them without you and I'll see Nathan without you. I can stare at his so-called sexy back muscles while you-" she cuts off at the sound of my phone ringing. I snatch it off the counter.

"Oh, speak of the devil and he shall appear." I pause. "Did I say that right?"

"It's Nathan?" She gasps, setting her beer on the counter, completely disregarding my last question.

"If this connard does not ask me out, I swear-"

"Answer the phone!" She shrieks.

"Lower your voice." I grumble, pressing answer. She gestures wildly for me to put it on speaker.

"Bonjour." I say.

"Hola." He says, and I feel my lips twitch into a smile.

Fuck him for being cute.

"You called?" I ask, looking at my chipped nail polish.

"Do you wish I didn't call?" He asks.

I fake a laugh and wait.

"Look...um..." he sighs. "I miss you." He admits. My eyebrows raise and I look up at Harper. She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. "And Mason and Brenda are going out tonight, and I just thought...well, Mason told me I should invite you..." he clears his throat. "So...do you want to come?"

My eyes narrow.

"I have to work." I lie smoothly.

Harper gapes at me and picks up a dish towel, flinging it at me.

I swat at it carelessly.

"Oh..." he trails off. "Okay."

"Okay." I say.

"Well...another time then, I guess."

"Okay. Bye."

"Um..." he coughs. "Bye."

I hang up quickly.

"What the fuck!" Harper shouts, looking prepared to slap me.

I shrug.

"He only asked me because he was told to. I will not say yes until he asks me because he wanted to, not because his friend told him to do it."

"You are the most irritating person I have ever met." She snaps. "Why didn't he invite me?" She frowns suddenly. I sigh slowly.

"Mason is dating Brenda." I say.

"I know that!" She snaps.

"So you can not want to date him." I shrug.

"I can want to date him...I just can't do it." She frowns. "Why don't you and I go out tonight instead?"

"And do what?" I narrow my eyes at her.

"I don't know! Let's wing it!" She says.

"Wing it?" I repeat. She blinks at me.

"Wing it...uh...bullshit it? Hold on." She puts up a finger. "Improvise!" She says.

"What does impr-voze..." I trail off, looking at her, frustrated.

"Give me a second."

She pulls out her phone and starts typing. A moment later, she turns the screen to me.

It is titled Google Translate and it says an English sentence, and then next to it is the French sentence.

"L'aile ou improvise. Ils signifient tous deux la même chose." I read aloud. I nod in understanding. The English version of this sentence says Wing it or improvise. They both mean the same thing.

"Understand?" Harper asks. I nod my head slowly.

"Okay, let's go out."

_____

We went to some club by the college and I was immensely unimpressed with their choice in music and the drunken men attempting to get me in their bed, so I practically dragged Harper back to my house and settled on the couch with Netflix and a tub of Ben and Jerry's.

That was three days ago, and Nathan has asked me to hang out every day, but I keep telling him no. I want him to beg.

"Odette, you're pathetic." Harper says. I raise my eyebrows.

"Pathetic?" I repeat. "What does that mean?"

"It means uh..." she thinks for a moment. "Pity?" She asks. "Sad. Pathetic." She nods.

I narrow my eyes.

"How am I pathetic?"

"You are so depressed because of Nathan and you've eaten four tubs of ice cream in the past three days! You're going to get fat!"

"I run in the mornings." I mumble.

"Yeah, once every three months!" She exclaims. I scoff loudly. "Next time Nathan asks to hang out, if you don't say yes, I swear to fucking god, I will shove my-"

The shrill sound of my phone ringing cuts her off and I glance down at it on the coffee table. Filling my mouth with another scoop of ice cream, I read the contact.

Nathan.

"Get whatever it was you were going to shove ready." I say with a wave of my hand. I swallow my mouthful of ice cream and answer the phone with my left hand, my right hand occupied by my spoon.

"You are going to break that boys heart." She hisses.

"You just want to hang out with Mason. I am going to say no until he literally begs. He can even show up here. I'm not giving in." I sneer, pressing answer and putting it on speaker. "Bonjour." I say casually.

"Are you home?" He basically demands.

"Uh..." I hesitate. "Why?"

"Odeletta, are you home or not?" He sounds kind of mad at me. I raise my eyebrows.

"I am home." I say.

The line clicks.

I snicker and toss my phone on the coffee table, filling my mouth with ice cream.

"You're such a connard." She mutters. I start laughing.

"Do you know what that means?"

"Google Translate says shithead, I think..."

"It means that but it also means a motherfucker." I say. I almost jump four feet into the air when somebody knocks on the neighbors door. After a moment, I hear the door close and sigh. "Loud neighbors-"

Somebody knocks on my door.

With an annoyed expression on my face, I get up and walk to the door, clutching my tub of Ben and Jerry's Raspberry Chocolate Chunk to my chest, my right hand clutching the spoon as my left hand grips my doorknob. I turn it.

My eyebrows raise when I see Nathan standing there. The moment his eyes land on my face, he walks into my apartment without asking.

"Nathan." Harper says, surprised.

I shut the door, amused.

"Welcome to my..." I bite my lip. "Crib, is it?" I fill my mouth with a spoonful of chocolatey raspberry goodness.

"Are you ignoring me?" He demands. I take in his outfit and I find my hands sweating.

He's a very attractive man. He's wearing a white button down shirt that strains over his muscles, his shirt rippling against his biceps. The white shirt is tucked into black dress pants and they're tight around him, gripping his butt in very fascinating ways.

He even has on black shiny dress shoes, a watch on his left wrist.

Nathan is the type of guy with a butt you just want to grip. His dirty blonde hair is styled to the side, his face is freshly shaven and his brown eyes pierce into mine. I want to grip his ass, run my hands down his muscles, and trace his sharp jawline, but I can't.

"Odeletta!" He says. Harper is wiggling her eyebrows at me behind her back, making an O with her right thumb and index finger, her left middle finger and index finger shoving through the O. "Are you even listening to me?" Nathan demands.

Shit, he is angry, and that is even more attractive.

I blink a couple of times. My mouth feels like it's full of cotton.

"Forget this, I'm leaving."

He's storms to the door, and at the last second, I dart in front of him, clutching my carton of life to my chest. He's standing right in front of me.

"What were you saying?" I ask, my voice low. He's so close, I can smell the scent of his shampoo and cologne.

He smells like heaven.

He's looking right down at me.

"I was asking you why you're avoiding me?" He says, and he turns around, walking further into my living room. My eyes immediately move to his back muscles struggling in his shirt, the way his back curves down to his- "Because I've invited you out for the past three days and you keep saying no! Mason pointed out that the accounting office you're volunteering in closes at six! I asked you to hang out at night and you said you had to work, but why would you have to work?"

I watch stupidly at the way his lips form words. Filling my mouth with a large spoonful of ice cream, I stare at him.

This is like watching a male model prance around in his briefs.

Fuck. I barely remember sex with him. It happened so fast. I don't remember what his muscles feel like under my hands. I didn't study his body so I don't really remember what it looked like, and I don't even remember the size of his-

"And then I offered to come over to your house and hang out and you said you were sleeping, but four hours later you were liking my post on instagram?" He continues to ramble.

I should've taken a picture of him naked, because this god in front of me-

"And then last night you said you were hanging out with Harper!" He throws his hands up. "You could've invited me to come!" He adds, frustrated.

The anger in his eyes soaks my panties.

"So today Mason, Brenda and I are going swimming and having a barbecue at the pool at our apartment, and I want you to come. So will you come?"

I vaguely remember telling Harper I wasn't going to say yes unless he begged.

I fill my mouth with another spoonful, watching as he lifts his arms to run his fingers through it, his muscles bulging.

Fuck, that's hot.

"Harper, you can come too." He adds, glancing at Harper and looking back at me. "Will you come, Odette?"

Harper puts her hands together and makes a pleading face behind his back, teasing me about how I said I was going to plead with him.

"I-" I cut off. My mouth feels like it's full of cotton.

Have I gone mute?

Swimming means he will be shirtless.

And wet. I gulp.

"I will go." I say, but my voice is breathy and I'm scared if I move from the door, my knees will give out and I'll fall.

"You'll come?" He repeats. I nod stupidly. And then he smiles.

Fuck.

I hear my spoon clatter to the floor and I look down at it.

I pick it up, stumbling past him to the kitchen to put it in there.

I put my ice cream in the freezer and walk back to the living room, standing a few feet from him.

"Okay." He says. "Do you want me to pick up?"

"What time do we have to be there?" Harper asks.

"Uh..."

He looks down at the watch on his wrist, and I stare at him stupidly, watching as a loose piece of hair falls into his eye. He brushes it back with his right hand. "It's...I guess some as soon as possible." He nods. "Do you want a ride?" He looks between the two of us.

"Uh..." I swallow. "Um..."

I'm struggling to speak English in my stupid state.

"Non." I say.

He looks at me.

"Are you alright?" He asks, moving closer to put his hand on my arm.

At the feeling of his skin connecting to mine, I almost fall.

My knees buckle, so I slowly move to sit down on the floor. He looks down at me, confused.

"We will drive." Harper says, her voice quivering with laughter she's trying hard to hold back.

"Okay." He says. He looks at me again. "Are you alright?"

I nod, resisting the urge to ask him to remove his shirt.

"Okay." He says again. He stands up. "I'll just...see myself out."

The moment the front door slams, Harper bursts out laughing. I let out a breath I did not know I was holding, falling backwards on the carpeted floor to my back.

"Oh god." I say. "Did you see him?" I stand up fast. "He's so attractive! Let's hurry! Maybe we will see him take his shirt off!"