.2.

“Hey sweetie, I’m going to work,” whispered Addison into Kiril’s ear.

“Hm, ugh, why? We don’t need money,” moaned Kiril. “No point, come back to bed.”

Addison laughed. “You make an excellent point. I should never go to work again."

“I second the motion.” Kiril reached up and yanked her down onto the bed, sprawled on top of him. “I think we should just stay in bed for the rest of eternity.” He looked at her, his brown eyes barely half-opened, and grinned.

Addison felt her heart melt, just a little. “You would regret saying that, eventually.” She made an attempt to get up, careful not to land her stilettos onto the sheets. “Kiril, I really need to go to work.”

“I just said you didn’t have to go,” whined Kiril.

Addison squirmed out of his grip, standing up and smoothing out her skirt and jacket.

Kiril looked admiringly at his wife. “You look sexy, babe.”

“Thank you. I’ll be sure to catch a lot of attention in the office today,” stated Addison dryly. “I’ll have to fight them off with a stick.”

“No stick necessary. Just hold out that left hand of yours to shake. That’s why the rock is so big, after all.” Kiril looked pensive for a moment. “Might as well take the stick along. It might not be enough to deter them.”

Addison smiled wryly, lifting her right hand up in salute. Her heels clicked methodically against their hardwood floors. Kiril looked after her until he heard their front door click shut.

Kiril mulled over the thought of asking Addison out, once more. He was splayed over his dismally small bed, a fixture in every dorm room on campus.

“Dude, you stare at that girl until your eyes bleed. What’s the worst that could happen? Just ask her out. She says no, you mope for a week, then you get over it. It won’t kill you,” advised David.

Kiril wasn’t so sure. It might kill him. Him, his pride, and his friendship with Addison. He didn’t understand her, but he was sure that sometimes, she could read his mind. She was the most perfect girl he had ever met in his life, bar none. He wasn’t even exaggerating. Addison was beautiful, Addison was smart, Addison was funny. Addison, in short, was everything, but he wasn’t sure if he was everything to her. Sure, they hung out all the time. She claimed she was nicer to him than she was to anyone else. David said that they had insane chemistry.

But Kiril wasn’t around Addison all the time. Addison had lots of guy friends. She had charmed them, and then made sure that they knew that she wasn’t interested. Not a single guy had ever turned down her offer of friendship. It was better to be around her sometimes than never at all.

Addison was a natural flirt. The words slipped out of her mouth without her having to think about it. Who was to say that she treated Kiril any differently than any of her other friends?

If he asked her out and she said no, he would be crushed. Their friendship would never be the same. Not because Addison would be awkward, since this sort of thing happened to her all the time, but Kiril would never be able to talk to her in the same way ever again. He’d regret asking, he would try to take it back. He would seem resentful. But worst of all, he would seem desperate. She would forever have the upper hand in their relationship, because she turned him down. He didn’t think he could handle that.

A knock sounded on the door, making Kiril jump in his bed.

“Kiril. Open the door. I know you’re in there. I need you to see something,” said Addison.

Kiril got up off his bed, careful not to get to the door too quickly, just to make sure she didn’t know he was excited she was there.

He opened the door, and mentally smacked himself for not opening it faster.

Addison was outside, wearing a sharply tailored black suit with a chiffon black top under her suit jacket, high-heeled pointy-toed shoes on her feet.

“What do you think? I’ve got an interview tomorrow, so I picked this out.”

Kiril made a circular motion with his finger. She promptly did a 360 turn in her heels.

A thousand different boss-secretary scenarios ran through Kiril’s mind. Even better, he wasn’t even the boss in all of them. “It looks great.”

“You sure? Work appropriate? Do I look like a respectable young woman? Would you hire me?” asked Addison nervously.

“Yeah, sure,” replied Kiril. He wished he could say more.

“Oh, God. ‘Yeah, sure.’ That is incredibly reassuring.”

She smacked him on the arm, then turned to run away before he retaliated.

“You look beautiful.”

Addison slipped, catching herself on the wall of the narrow hallway. She laughed, “I think I need some more practice with these things.”

Kiril caught up to her, blocking her escape with an evil grin on his face. “I’ll ignore that last transgression and forgive you.” He held out an arm. “We can walk around a bit. It would suck if you tripped onto your interviewer tomorrow.”

Addison smacked his arm. “Don’t say that. Bad karma.” She took his arm anyway, and they walked up and down the hall with little mishaps. She might’ve tripped a little more than she would’ve, liking the feeling of his arms coming around her to steady her, but he never would have known.

Addison felt like sometimes she needed to pick up more hobbies to keep her occupied and away from Kiril.

There was an invisible scoreboard for the two of them. If she went to go seek him out, she wouldn’t go see him again until he had come and found her and vice versa. She didn’t want to seem like she was more eager than he was to see the other, so she zealously kept track of the score.

Lately, the score had slipped considerably, out of her favour. She rationalized – he was busy with pledge. He doesn’t have time. He doesn’t sleep as it is, and you want him to make time to come and talk to you? What are you going to say to make it worth his while? Was anything she said worth his while?

She had decided yesterday that she would no longer bother to come and find him. When she did, he always had to leave the next second. He never tried to stay. He was always busy, even though she knew he made at least a little time for his friends. She figured this was his subtle way of getting rid of her. She wasn’t going to act like a stupid female anymore. It was time to let go. Hadn’t he given her enough hints?

She stepped up the stairs, hesitating when it came to opening the door to her hall on the third floor. After a moment’s pause, she opened the door, quickly walking to her door and slipping inside and sat down, desperately trying to ignore the door she had heard opening as she shut hers.

The knock came about 5 minutes later.

“Addison, you in there?” Addison briefly flirted with the idea of staying silent, or telling him she was busy, for a change.

“Come in.”

Kiril walked into the room, a sheepish smile on his face.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Addison replied.

“I haven’t seen you the past couple of days,” said Kiril.

“I could say the same of you.” Truth was, Addison hadn’t even been back in the hall for the past two days. She had stayed in the library, in the study rooms, at her friend’s apartments, avoiding her room entirely, except for 30 minute intervals when she would run back to shower and change clothes.

“You haven’t been around.”

“I was busy.” Her heart swelled so quickly she thought it would burst. He had noticed she was gone. He noticed when she wasn’t there. Maybe he even missed her. Hope was a difficult thing to eradicate.

“Do you have class?”

“No, I’m finished, thank God.”

“And…did you eat lunch?”

“No, I just got out of class.”

“Perfect, let’s go get lunch.” He got up from his perch on her bed and headed towards the door, looking back once to make sure she was following him.

Addison sighed. Every time she pulled away, he pulled back. She couldn’t help it. She couldn’t pass up the chance to be close to him. “Ok, where do you want to go?” she asked.

“Well I was thinking we could go off campus, I’m so sick of campus food. You won’t believe what I’ve had to do for the past couple of days. I’m not technically allowed to tell you, but I trust you, you know…”

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