When Zac says he wants to walk home with me I don’t tell him I was going to get a cab. I’m really tired but I felt bad for having said he’s an asshole. Yeah, he might have come down and said ‘hey I’m sorry about the way I left…’ and explain to me what had happened, but who am I for him? No one. Besides, he actually did it now.

So, apparently, I was wrong.

However, I’m not going to act like an infatuated teen just because he said he saved a guy’s life. I’m definitely glad he did but that doesn’t change my opinion about the opposite sex.

‘What does he want from me? If it is just a one night stand that he wants, why bother to come here and explain why he left? Maybe he does have a heart? But does he like me? I can’t deny there’s an attraction between the two of us. But how much? I don’t want a one night stand. I don’t want to take the risk to like him too much. What if I start getting too close and he doesn’t want to see me anymore?’

“Hey?” 

“Oh, um yeah?”

“Did you hear what I said?”

“Oh, I’m sorry I was thinking about something really important I gotta do tomorrow,” I blurt, feeling my cheeks getting warm.

“I asked you if you like sushi, this one’s great if you want we can get some to-go.”

“Oh, I actually love it.” I smile realizing I didn’t eat. And when I look at the little Japanese restaurant, I suddenly feel really hungry. “Um, sure let’s go get some.”

Zac grins and for a moment I’m tempted to kiss him, but I quickly push that stupid thought away. “Ok you are warned, I can eat a lot of it!” I tell him just before stepping in.

He chuckles. “Me too.”

I smirk delightedly. “We’ll see.”

We got a bunch of Sushi, maybe too much. The paper bag that contains the different boxes with Temaki, Nigiri, Maki, and Sashimi of various kind feels pretty heavy, and when we step out of the very small restaurant we stare at each other for a second and then we both start laughing. A good, long laugh that makes our eyes watery.

“Ok, can you resist till we get home?”  he asks with a sincere smile. His expression seems suddenly more relaxed. His forehead looks smoother, like if we had just broken the last boundary between us.  Our minds have just naturally connected, and for the first time since I met him, I feel that the invisible, metaphorical veal we have been wearing to protect ourselves from the unknown has vanished. Something as silly liking the same food and having bought maybe too much of it has made us laugh like thoughtless teenagers, and the tension between us has suddenly disappeared.  Now he looks even hotter than he was. I see him with different eyes.

‘Maybe it could work’

I grin. “I don’t know!”  I mumble before laughing again. “I’m so hungry!” 

“Ok let’s run.”  He grabs the sushi bag.

“Hey! Wait!”  I squeal, my arm stretched as he starts trotting on the sidewalk.  My feet hurt but I don’t care. I haven’t had fun for such a long time.

He keeps pulling me to him as he keeps running, and I laugh and I whine as I try to avoid crashing into the people passing by.

“Zac wait!” I mumble laughing. “You are crazy!” I add, keeping up with his pace.

“Come on Grace! What about all the treadmill you do at the gym?! You should be well trained” He yells increasing his pace.

“But I mostly walk on that!”  I whine chortling.

 I ran trying to keep up with him, but I’m always a little behind, our hands still tightly gripped, are getting warm and damp. I squeak and laugh like on a rollercoaster. Keeping an exhilarant smile on my face. But I my lungs start burning.

“Please, Zac stop!”  I yell. “Seriously,” I add, panting and chuckling.

He glimpses back and realizing I’m really out of breath he stops. I instinctively bent and place my hands on my knees, breathing fast and hard.

“My God Zac,” I groan, chuckling between big gulps of air. 

He’s catching his breath too, but he seems to be much more in shape than I am. He stands before me and when I recoup and stand, we smile and panting, we spontaneously lean forward and start kissing in the middle of the sidewalk.

A fervent avid kiss that makes me feel dizzy. Our tongues duel avidly and I fell butterflies fluttering in my chest. Goosebumps run all over my skin. This kiss is simply incredible. The tension is gone and for the first time, I feel there is more than simple sexual attraction between us.

‘Maybe this could really work.’

He delicately pulls away and grins slightly. His eyes seem to glow. “I’m starving let’s go have some sushi at my place.”

I smirk biting the corner of my lip. “I can’t wait,” I mutter staring directly into his magnetic eyes.

As we stroll up on the sixth avenue, my phone vibrates. I instinctively grab it from my pocket and when I slide the screen my heart jumps. The little circle icon, that notifies when someone sends me a message on Facebook, pops up. I blocked the mother fucker twice and I thought he got tired of creating new fake accounts just to send me those damn creepy messages. I’m baffled and angry.

“What’s up?”  Zac asks when I abruptly stop walking, shocked from what I’m reading.

‘Grace, Grace… Why? You can’t do that.  I’m the only one, and I am the right one for you. Our time is coming soon… You can’t like him.  You can’t Grace! You should be mine!’

I suddenly feel overwhelmed by anger and frustration.

“You motherfucker,” I murmur looking at nothing ahead of me. “You damn motherfucker,” I raise my voice a little, and then I start screaming out of control. “Who the hell are ya!? What do you want from me!!???” I scream loudly.

An old lady looks at me with a compassionate glance while Zac holds my arms with both hands. “Hey, hey, calm down… What happened, Grace?” He groans.

I’m too tired and angry to keep it cool. I start sobbing out of control and as Zac hugs me, I lean my head on his chest wrapping my arms around his waist.

I release all the frustrations I’ve been accumulating for months and I let myself go completely, crying in the middle of the street, refuging in Zac’s reassuring and cozy embrace.

“It’s ok baby. It’s all good,” he murmurs tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. I keep sobbing on his sculpted chest. His shirt is moist with my tears and my saliva. 

“I’m sorry,” I manage to say between a sob and another.

“Shhhh,” he whispers against my forehead, gently cuddling the back of my neck with his fingers.

I slowly calm down and suddenly I hear someone roaring. “Ma’am, are you ok? What’s going on here?”

“Yeah everything’s fine, thank you,” I hear Zac saying.

I draw back from his torso and I see two police officers staring at us quizzically.

“I asked the lady, are you ok?”  The cop prompts me.

For a moment I’m tempted to tell him about the stalker, but unfortunately, I know he won’t be able to do anything legally, so it’s not even worth mentioning it.

“Yeah, I’m ok, sure!”  I mumble.

The officer pauses eying us skeptically.

Zac glares at him and I’m afraid he may do something stupid.

“She just told you she’s ok, so goodbye,” he groans pulling me to him.

“Sir? Where do you think you are going? I’m not done with you. May I see your I.D.?” The man in uniform groans cupping the gun on his belt with his right hand, while his colleague stands right behind Zac.

‘My God this is pure paranoia!’

Zac chuckles and looks away before looking back at him, slowly shaking his head.

“Sure,” Zac mutters clenching his jaw. I know he’s about to lose it, and he’s blatantly trying hard to keep his temper under control. 

‘Sir?” I call. “I know you are worried about me and I thank you with all my heart but seriously, I’m fine.” I smile, feeling my tears drying on my cheeks.

“Then why were you crying?” He pierces me with his icy eyes.

I chuckle. “That’s funny actually.  I was crying because my fiancée just asked me to marry me.” 

With my side vision, I notice Zac’s eyes widening before a slight grin springs on his face.

The chubby police officer seems suddenly taken aback. He looks at his colleague who smirks seemingly amused by my reply, and then back at me and Zac. He takes a couple of seconds to elaborate what I have just told him; then he smiles shaking his head.

“Why didn’t you tell me in the first place?”  He asks almost apologetically.

“I tried to tell you I was alright Sir,” I mumble.

He shakes his head letting out a half grin. “Congrats to you guys,” he groans. “I was just doing my job,” he says patting his colleague’s shoulder before they walk away, keeping on patrolling the street.

“So, I am your fiancée and I just asked you to marry ya,” Zac groans amusingly.

I let out a half chuckle.  “I saw your expression when he kept asking questions and it screamed trouble, so I had to come up with something.”

He grins and pouts his lips. “I have nothing to hide. I just really hate when this shit happens. Ya know? We told him you were ok, and he insisted.”

“I hear ya Zac, but he was really just doing his job.”

“I know, I know…” He groans. “By the way, you are not ok, what happened before that moron interrupted us?” he says. “I didn’t ask you to marry ya and you were fucking crying. Wanna talk about it?”

I sigh. “Yeah, I’m sorry to have lost it that way. I’m really stressed out by many, many things,” I tell him all in one breath.  “But what made me explode is this fucking message.”  I blurt showing him the screen of my phone.