What The Hell Happened?

9

Nadia: Hey.

Ethan: Hi.

Nadia: You look fuckable.

I looked over at Nadia to see her smirking, then I typed back.

Ethan: Thanks... you look pretty fuckable yourself too.

She peeked over my computer. "Don't return his compliment yet. That he's the first to chat you up doesn't mean you need to kiss his arse. He's a corny individual so you already have the upper hand."

"He really is a corny individual,"

Ethan: I take that back. You look terrible.

Nadia: Don't you find chatting a bit boring? How about I have your phone number so we can talk instead.

Ethan: Sure, 345-

She stopped me. "No, no, no. Don't give him your contact yet. He might be a psychopath. You don't want such a person as a potential date."

I sighed. "Thanks."

Ethan: Sorry, my coach says you can't have my number.

Nadia: How about we meet up someplace, yeah? I could pick you up.

Ethan: Thanks but I'd prefer to meet you someplace.

"Atta boy. You didn't fall for that trap."

"How did you get so good at this?"

She smiled. "Three flopped relationships taught me."

Nadia: Sure. How about this West Life? It's a hotel. Downtown. They serve sushi.

Ethan: Okay.

She put her phone down, groaning. "No. You choose. You don't know what his motives are in wanting to meet up inside a hotel. He could want to drug and take advantage of you. Always choose the location."

Ethan: On second thought, I'd prefer somewhere else.

Nadia: Just tell me where.

Ethan: How about the Krusty Crab on Powell street downtown?

"Good. That's a good place to spend an evening. And it's public too."

Nadia: Okay. What about Saturday evening at 5?

Ethan: Sounds good.

Nadia: Looking forward to meeting you. See you then.

"Well, that wasn't so hard."

"With time you'd get used to it. Just be the one in control. Make the decisions."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"How will I know that the guy isn't a bad person?"

"Make the best use of your instincts since you can't be sure a one hundred per cent. Get his full name, run a background check too. If you want I'd do it for you, that's if you're sure you want to go out with him."

"You'd do that for me?"

"Of course, what are friends for?"

I pulled her closer for a hug and when we drew apart, I handed her back the laptop. "Guess I better be on my way now."

She followed me to my door. "Remember all I told you about. Don't agree on anything if you're not sure. If you find any guy legit, do tell me. I'd check him out."

"Thanks, Nadia."

"Sweet dreams, Ethan."

When I arrived at the library the next morning, Samantha was waiting for me. She looked like she'd been up all night, crying her eyes out.

Dang!

Even though I could guess correctly what might have happened, I asked nothing less. "What happened?"

"Oh Ethan, you were right about Griff. He was cheating on me with my sister!"

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"No, you don't understand. What hurts the most isn't the fact that he cheated. What hurts is that he'd done it with my very own sister. I never believed she'd do that to me."

After letting her vent for an hour, I finally said. "Well, now you know these things. Ever heard of the serenity prayer."

"You mean praying for the strength to accept the things we can't change? Yeah, my father taught it to me a long time ago."

"Yes. That's the thing. I'm still working on that myself, but really we have no choice to accept the things we can't change. All we can do is try our best to move on."

I smiled, realizing that I was basically giving Samantha the same advice Nadia had given me. It felt easier giving out that advice than adhering to it.

On my way home, I felt strangely at peace with myself than I'd been for a long time. I decided to treat myself to something good so I picked up some frozen chicken from King's Plaza and bought a new erotic book which I planned to read while relaxing right after I watched Netflix. I was getting excited about it.

I live a terrible life.

When I arrived at the apartment, I quickly placed the frozen chicken into the preheated toaster oven. It would take thirty minutes to thaw and that would give me enough time to rid myself of the day's grime, shave and read a little.

It was honestly the most calming bath I'd ever taken as I immersed myself in the soothing bubbles. After I got dressed, I treated myself to the new book I'd bought. It was purely erotica and featured a threesome romance with explicit s*x scenes and vivid descriptions of s****l parts. I didn't normally read such dirty stuff, but back in the plaza, I couldn't take my eyes off it. It had practically called out to me with its cover and now I couldn't get enough of it. Falling asleep while reading the fifth chapter, I awoke to the sound of the smoke alarm, and the smell of burning meat. Putting on my slippers, I ran to the kitchen to find my toaster oven on fire.

Panicking, I grabbed a bowl of water but before I had the time to dump the water on anything, my door burst open. The next thing I knew, Gideon was charging at me with a fire extinguisher and yelling at me to step back.

It all happened so fast, I couldn't keep up. I just stood nearby, watching him put out the flames.

When the fire was finally put out, Gideon and I stood in silence, watching the charred remains of my brand new toaster oven. The metal table looked a bit charred too but the damage was mostly contained to the oven.

I wheezed from the smoke.

"What the f**k!" he cursed, still staring at the disaster.

"I'm so sorry. I'd pay for whatever was broken - "

"How did this even happen?"

"Frozen meat...it burned."

"No. I meant how did it happen? What were you doing?"

"I was reading a book when I fell asleep - "

"You were reading on the bed?" he gritted out furiously. "You were reading on the bed while you were cooking something that almost burnt my dad's building down?!"

"Wait. I can explain - "

Gideon began to charge toward the bedroom.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To see what book you were reading."

Oh, God. No!

Bummer. Too late.

He'd picked up the book on the bed. For some reason, my heart was ramming faster against my chest as the minutes trickled past.

After he'd taken a long, long look at the title, book cover and had flipped through a few pages, he turned to me slowly and laughed maniacally. "Interesting. Really fantastic. The apartment was in flames while you were in here reading about three men who were getting off on each other? Isn't that messed up, huh?" He scoffed before he set the book aside. "You little fucker."

I couldn't even decipher what had just taken place right now. All I wanted to do was put on a tough face and tell Gideon to go f**k himself but I knew I was at fault for what happened.

"I said I was sorry. I fell asleep. Now can we talk about more important things."

"What would have happened if I hadn't arrived with the extinguisher?"

"I was about to put out the flames before you came in. You saw me with a bowl of water."

"What if you hadn't come out of the room on time and your kitchen was half burnt, huh?"

"That never happened so let's stick to the facts we've got okay?" I crossed my arms, turning away.

He snorted and began to go around, opening all the windows. Still reeling from guilt and shock, I followed him around like a lost puppy.

"The apartment needs air. It's not good to breathe in this smoke."

"Tell me something I don't know." I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, it'd do you enough good to drop the sarcasm, okay. Look, I'm trying to help your s**t arse. If my dad finds out about this, you can kiss this place goodbye and you and I know you'd have nowhere else to go."

I remained silent at this. Okay, Ethan. Now's not the right time to be stupid. "I'm sorry."

"Get dressed and come over to my apartment. Give the smoke sometime to disperse."

"I could stay with Nadia - "

"Trust me when I say she won't hear you for s**t. She's a deep sleeper."

And with that, he was gone with the fire extinguisher.

I ran into the room to pick up my phone and follow suit, feeling stupid when I looked myself over in the mirror.