Friends and Marriage

Chapter 2

At Tana's House, the three friends ordered takeout and soon settled into a movie marathon. Irina seemed content to cuddle with Bruno for some reason, and Tana was glad to see Bruno didn't mind. After all, Irina had previously taken longer to heal after heartbreak. Most times, the load of reassurance that "not all men are bad" fell on Bruno's shoulders.

As Tana watched the movies, her mind couldn't help but wander. Bruno had been friends with them the moment he spotted them at graduation. He was from a different campus in their B University. He was the best in his class, graduated with a first class honours in Civil Engineering, and never quite dressed like am engineer. He looked more like a lawyer instead.

He came bounding over and suggested they become friends immediately. He liked their outfits, and said he wished he had more female friends. The two giggled, Tana knowing that for her degree program as a beautician, she had too many women already. It was nice to have a few males around.

Irina had a business management degree, and did not mind seeing such a smartly dressed man asking to be friends. If anything, she matched his energy and proceeded to rope in a quietly protesting Tana into thousands of selfies.

At some point, Tana stopped resisting and just went along with her friends. As an introvert, she quickly tired out when she had too many unfamiliar people and faces to deal with. So having those two helped her more than she dared to admit.

Bruno's dating history was interesting. He was open to experiencing everything... something that Tana admired and feared in equal portions. He would chase, and be chased, he had loudly declared. However, he had told the girls that if either of them was still single by 35, he would marry them in a heartbeat, and find the other one someone from his friend circle to marry.

Irina had just turned 35, and Bruno was a year younger. He had been extremely nice to both of them, and kept reminding them that he was single, and so were they. Irina had initially shoved him in Tana's direction, but after her break-up with Johnny, she had needed his comfort more than she had cared to admit.

'Why is he so cute?' She wondered, watching Bruno run his hair through Irina's dark waves. She knew the feeling, he had done it numerous times to her too when she was having problems falling asleep. Or crying over her difficulty with love and money and work. He had comforted them and they in turn had done the same for him. He had the fairest hair they had ever seen in a Spanish man. If anything, they initially thought he was from a Nordic country when they first saw him running over to them.

He didn't have albinism either.

He was their golden retriever. One day, he would be married to either one of them. None of them was dreading it, as Bruno was clean and meticulous, and they had already confirmed he was straight. However, he was sometimes considered vain and too honest. He also had a different fashion sense in comparison to his mates.

Tana sighed, slowly nodding off as the movie ended. Bruno was already yawning quietly as he did not want to wake Irina up.

"Want some hot chocolate?" She whispered and he nodded gently. She smiled, mobilising herself and making her way to the kitchen. She started the cooker, then poured the ingredients into the pan and soon had three chocolatey cups of goodness ready. She brought them through and just as she had guessed, Irina was awake.

"How did you know?"

Tana smiled, her eyes lighting up in mischief. "Honey, I always know."

They all immersed themselves in the hot drinks, sighing in unison as the heat spread slowly throughout their bodies. They felt better relaxed and had a short chat, and decided to turn off the television as they wanted to catch a few winks of sleep.

Bruno held them both close to him, and somehow they dozed off together. For some reason, it just felt nice to have time together that way.

Tana's last thought before she fell asleep was how long this would last.