Undercover

Winter Terms

Nate was grateful that his teammates did not notice Bina. It was late and he didn't have the nerve to handle their mouths.

The team mainly discussed end-of-semester things and shared their concerns of the winter terms, so his head could be free for the meantime.

He left home almost at midnight, after the group celebrated their victory in the local pub.

For Saturday, Nate made plans with Bina to meet at his house. They planned to sumbit the first half of the project and start the preparation for their first exam.

Bina arrived while Nate was having a brunch with his family, who were interested in the entity who saves their son's diploma.

He welcomed her in and the two immediately went up to Nate's room, hiding her from the eyes of his sister and his mother.

A few hours of refining and going over final details ended with a confirmation of the project submission, to which Nate opened a champagne and they had a cheers.

***

The following week was intense in terms of studying, and it ended with the first exam of the semeter on the Monday after.

Nate and Bina met after the exam ended, compared their answers and supported each other.

Each of them headed their own way to rest after the intense three hours.

Nate decided to pamper himself with new outfits, as a sign for his upcoming freedom.

He went to the city's shopping center, there he bought himself a pair of jeans and some polo shirts.

When his very basic shopping session ended, he went into a nearby cafe to have a nice warm cappuccino and just relax.

Good job Nate, now you can simply only exist for the rest of the day!

Enjoying his time, a stack of new magazines fresh from the morning stole his eye, as he could clearly see its black and white cover, featuring a topless lady covered with chocolate.

What the hell...

He grabbed the magazine to take a closer look, swiping the pages to the number the cover points to for the catalogue and promo. There he found a huge two-pager of a masked girl sitting sensually mid air with her lips apart sliding her tongue outside to taste the pouring chocolate on her.

Nate closed the magazine and took it with him to the car. He drove all the way to the bar Danny works at and parked just in front of the entrance to instantly hop inside and find Danny.

Nate spotted him at his natural habitat, behind the bar table with all the bottles around him. The place was empty as it was still in the process of opening before the everning, and Nate shouldn't have been there too.

Danny saw the mad spirit charging at him.

"We are closed." He said with disrespect.

Nate slammed the magazine at the countertop near Danny.

"What is this?!" He demanded.

Danny looked at the cover and chuckled.

"A very nice cover. You like it?" He provoked Nate.

"Danny are you f*****g ill?"

"No, I'm good, thank you." Danny kept on doing his job.

"This is not a photoshoot, this is f*****g porn!" Nate shouted at him, luring the eyes of the other workers at them.

Danny left his doings and addressed Nate in person, "Keep your voice down. It's not your dad's place."

"Explain yourself, mister best friend."

"What is there to explain? You brought here some random magazine with a random hot lady on it, what does it have to do with me?"

Nate glared at him. "Random... Do you actually believe yourself?" He let out his anger. "You reprimand me for accidentally having my company around her, but you are knowingly pushing her into your sick ideas."

"Why do you even think it's her?" Danny sneered.

"Please, I can recognize this body from kilometers!"

Nate soured his face and covered it with his palm as he understood what slipped through his mouth.

Danny, on the other hand, gaped at him and formed an insulting crook from his lips.

"Don't tell me... That's the supermodel!" Danny put on a wide smile, generous to the extent of exposing all of his teeth. "Unbelievable..."

"Is she not?" Nate tried to pull himself out of the pit he dug himself.

"Dunno'. Tried asking her?" Danny enjoyed scattering more salt on Nate's wounds.

Nate was pissed off. I hate him.

"She would really like to be one, though. This session is on you, idiot." Danny added.

What did he just say? Nate tilted his head as he realized the meaning of Danny's words.

"Me?" Nate smirked. "Now that I think about it... She actually said she had someone to impress." He provoked Danny back.

"Yeah right..." Danny tried to cancel his argument.

"She wouldn't mind otherwise, right?" Nate added.

Danny glared at him with a losing face. "She had to impress herself." He murmured.

"Thank you Danny, you just made my day!" Nate left the place and hurried back to his car, to avoid parking fines.

Because of me... i***t.

Because of me?

Nate blushed slightly to the thought Bina might actually favor him more than she shows.

***

The winter terms passed one by one almost unnoticebly as the students' schedule was full and busy.

The day of the last exam was a celebration day for both Bina and Nate. They made an appointment for the evening at a local famous restaurant, an experience that was very new to Bina, especially without Danny.

It's almost a date. Bina was dressed in a gentle burgundy woolen knee-legnth dress hiding dark leggings underneath and black oxford heels on her feet, and all wrapped under a black formal coat. Of course, as usual, a free mane of curls is a free soul.

She is used to dressing up for evenings, but not for such with Nate.

Nate also appeared with a fancy set of his own gray tailored pants and a black buttoned shirt that fitted tightly on his chest and arms.

That's the definition of handsome, Bina couldn't ignore the candy to her eyes.

They had a nice dinner during which they talked about recents events, and when it ended they headed to the park nearby for a relaxing walk.

It began with extreme silence and with Nate peeping at Bina at times.

Do your magic Nate!

I can't hold her hand. Can I?

It's cold, I will pull her close to me.

...She is not even complaining it's cold. Awkward.

"You look pretty." Nate said evetually after the whole discussion with his inner self.

Bina glanced at him shyly. "Thanks. You look good yourself."

"I like your hair. Why won't come like this more often?"

Bina felt very flattered and it could be seen on her face. You don't meet a man who likes curls every day.

Nate was satisfied from her response to his words.

"Curls draw too much attention, that's exactly what I don't need." She said.

"Actually..." Nate did not respond, as she continued. "It was also one of the reasons I didn't want anything to do with you. The attention."

Ouch.

"Do you regret it?" Nate's voice hardened.

"Regret what?" Bina asked innocently.

"Meeting me."

"No!" Bina panicked a little. "Definitely not... I didn't mean it to sound like that."

Certainly, it did not convince Nate, who was already hurt by the initial revelation.

"It's just that..." She continued, "You come in a bundle, you and the attention. I feared the latter."

"I probably don't feel that as much as you do, hard for me to relate." He admitted.

"Yes, you just post your shirtless stories and disappear, so you definitely can't feel that." Bina laughed at his bad habits.

Nate went from the tortured face he had straight into a delighted and silly one.

"You follow me?" He asked interested.

Bina did not respond, but grinned restrainfully.

"You definitely follow me!" He exclaimed happily.

Bina nodded in defeat but kept her joy.

"I've never seen you in my followers."

"Yep, a combination of a very banal username and a very banal photo, without any additional identifying data."

"What is it? I will follow you back."

"No way. Less attention, remember?"

Nate narrowed his eyes in a militant expression. "Fine, I'll go over the list and find it myself."

Binna giggled. "You have thousands of followers! There's no way you can recognize me like that."

A quick thought about Bina's last modelling photographs came to Nate's mind and left his eyes lingering on her while still walking.

"You have no idea how I easily can."

Oh no. What did I just say?

Bina returned him a challenging look, ignorant of his aloud thinking origin.

They stopped by an isolated bench roofed by some trees, and with a sharp change of the topic, Nate also gave his resolution. "I am glad we met."

They looked at each other, each of them unsure of what to do next.

Nate reached his hand towards Bina's hair, and took a group of hairs forming a curl to play with.

"You probably don't know, but curly girls hate it when people touch their hair." Bina remarked calmly.

Nate pulled back his hand and lowered his face as an act of apology.

"Is there anything you don't hate about me?" He asked. Although he expressed it humorously, a hint of sadness could be found in his question.

Everything. Bina thought, but did not answer.

"It's easier to name the things I hate rather than those I like."

Bina hid a signifact feeling of excitement and avoided eye contact with Nate, hoping that her saying won't have any negative effects.

Nate gazed at her smitten, deciphering the words between the lines. What does that even mean?

"You can touch my hair, I'm okay with that." She added to break the ice.

Nate grinned softly and messed Bina's hair with both hands in determination.

"Don't you make me regret it!" Bina escaped his grip and fixed herself back.

They started to head back towards their meeting point, where Nate offered Bina a ride home.

Bina refused, though. "I can get home on my own. It already looks too much like a date."

Ouch, ouch, ouch.

"Ashamed of being seen around with me?" Nate asked cynically.

"No, just trying to prevent unnecessary questions." Bina stated back. "For you and for me."

Nate, collect youself now. This is ridiculous.

"Bina..."

Bina was looking out for her bus and noticed that it's arriving to the close station.

"Oh, that's mine. Thanks Nate, It was a great evening."

She hesitated for a moment before she streched herself to hug him, and he lowered himself to cooperate.

"For me too."

Nate released her and watched her running to the bus, seeing it moving away and leaving him still in his place.

You are a loser, Nate.