Chapter 7

Nadia's POV:

      Checking some of the notes that one of my classmates sent me that morning while Zack was taking his shower, I looked around the silent apartment and realized that I actually missed it, even if I was gone for two days only, and I wondered what would happen after the year is over. 

'Would Zack and I, stay together despite our arrangement? Would our old feelings step in the way of the new ones? Will we always find the peacefulness we build for ourselves in these last few days?' I started questioning myself as usual.   

      So many questions kept floating on my mind, which only caused me a dreadful headache without even finding an answer to any of my worries; therefore I pushed the annoying thoughts to the back of my mind, and intended to focus on the test I had. 

I need to major, I had to in order to earn my spot in grandpa's company. 

      I never really counted on the notes of others, I always liked to get my own ones in order to avoid understanding wrong information and sometimes the bad handwriting of others; but since I skipped the last two courses, I was behind the others so I had to understand everything alone and memorize all of the equations in less than an hour.

      Fifteen minutes had passed by and Zack hadn't showed up yet, and I started wondering of what was holding him back in the shower. Nevertheless, my thoughts were interrupted by the clicking sound of a camera, which made me turn my head instantly to the direction of the sound.

      Zack was staring at me with an amused expression covering his face, and he was holding a camera in his hands. It was a professional camera. I waited for him to say something, anything, but he didn't, he just kept gazing at me as if it was the first time he ever saw me, and I would be lying if I said that I didn't like it just for a bit. 

"What are you doing?" I broke silence that settled between us, taking my glasses off and putting the laptop aside.

"Obviously looking at you" He answered me as a matter of fact, still locking his gaze in mine "Do you mind?" 

"No but you seemed as if you saw me for the first time in your life" I grinned at him, gesturing at the empty place beside me on the sofa.

"It's because you look extremely beautiful with glasses and I have never noticed this fact before" He threw himself beside me, throwing his left arm around my shoulder "That's weird" 

"Hum, but how came I noticed that you look so so so handsome with your glasses on" I told him, turning my head slightly to wink at him "Why don't you wear them more often?"

"Because you'd kill women's race and I can't bear seeing you behind bars" He feigned a horrified look, while I just burst out laughing at his stupidity.

      Whilst trying so hard to catch my breathe, Zack was extremely silent and kept looking at me strangely, which made me kill my laughter immediately and turn all of my attention to him since I was pretty curious to know the reason behind his sudden stares and weird lounging glances. 

"Why are you looking at me this way?" I questioned him, shifting on the sofa until I was facing him, one of my legs intertwined with his. 

"Explain more" He was trying to hide his amusement but he failed miserably since the twinkle in his eyes, betrayed him. 

"You somehow zone out in the middle of the conversation" I tried to put my thoughts in convenient words but ended up blabbering. 

"I can't help it" 

"Help what?" 

"Admiring you" He spoke, huskily, moving his face closer to mine in less than a second "Every detail of your face, I'm memorizing your features" 

"Why would you memorize them?" I was once again trapped under his charm and I couldn't even escape it. 

Not that I wanted to...  

"They're perfect" His eyes fell on my lips then went back at my eyes again "I'm thinking of skipping the test because I really want to kiss you, but if I do, we'll stay here all day, doing more interesting stuff than passing a test" He whispered then buried his head in the crock of my neck and kissed the spot behind my ear. 

     The moment those words left his mouth, my face was hotter than the sun's heat, and it probably looked as red as a tomato from my embarrassment. He obviously noticed what I was thinking of since his hands reached my cheeks after he moved his head away from my neck, and started torturing my skin with the small but so gentle strokes his fingers were making. 

       I wished I could stay there all day at that position where we were all alone in our own world, away from people, their problems and hate, but I knew that not all dreams were meant to come true, that's why, I brushed my lips against his in a brief kiss and pulled away immediately before he could protest. 

"We don't have enough time to spare" I gave him my back and continued reading the notes but I felt like he wasn't even concentrating on the notes, so I stayed still and ordered him, sternly "study"

"I like you when you're acting all bossy" He kissed the top of my head, wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled closer to him "I just needed the right motivation" 

"But I can't focus on anything" I stated as a matter of fact, wearing a big grin on my face. 

"You just have to live with it" He started drawing circles on the fabric of my shirt, torturing me. 

He'd cause my death someday.

      Shaking my head at his stubbornness, I tried my best to concentrate on the screen but I failed miserably since the feeling of his breathe fanning my skin and his hands on my stomach, were sending goosebumps all over my body and so many feelings erupting my chest, most of them are of happiness and cheerfulness. 

        I wondered if Zack could really understand what he was reading or it was just me who was struggling to keep my entire attention on the screen; nevertheless, after a while we had to get going so we just locked the door and headed to college in his car as he insisted a lot that he missed his baby girl, feigning my tone when I told him the same thing a while ago. 

He could be a child sometimes, but I loved him. 

'It was becoming easy on me to say it' I confessed to myself, happily. 

       Throughout the car drive, I obliged Zack to stop talking while I just read the remaining equations out loud; he grumbled at me at first, telling me that I was behaving like his mother but then he just gave up and started listening carefully, barely making a comment or two about my professionalism. 

      The moment we parked the car in the university's parking lot, I felt like it had been a long time since I last stepped my foot on its ground because even though its students weren't all nice to me, I lived so many funny and great days there, learned a lot of things, and most importantly, it was the place where I fought the most with Zack.

        If we didn't fight as much we did, we wouldn't have the bound we had, we wouldn't be Zack and Nadia, we would be something else, more boring, and I thank god that Zack was there that day in the gym when I was fighting with Lara, it was faith who made our roads cross that day. 

      Hand in hand, we walked through thousands of students who weren't looking at us like they used to before, they were just throwing glances at us as we passed by, but never gazing at us for more than two seconds, great improvement, and I couldn't be more thankful to that since I could finally walk around comfortably. Maybe they got used to seeing us together and the gossips were finally over. 

"Good luck" I tuned in my heels and faced Zack as soon as we reached the classroom's door. 

"I know what you are going to say" He twirled my hair in his fingers "We won't sit together since I would be distracting you, and you won't save the world" He laughed at his own stupid joke.

"You're not being funny" I glared at him, rolling my eyes and making sure that my smile wouldn't betray me as usual.

"You know I love you, right?" He demanded, and I nodded my head in agreement "So I want to ask you for a favor" He poked the bridge of my nose.

"Ahem" I snorted at him since he only told me that he loved me to get something in return "I won't do a thing for you"

"Even if I take you somewhere special later?" He lifted his eyebrow at me in challenge.

"I am all ears" I spoke, professionally, giving him all of my attention because his surprises were always surprising. 

"I want something really easy" He bit the corner of his lips, seductively.

I knew exactly what he wanted...!!!

      My cheeks flushed red at his request since sharing a kiss in public and initiating it were different things; although I didn't give the slightest care of what the others thought of me, I was still uncomfortable when it came to public affection because I believed that what happens between a couple, should always stay between them.

      Nevertheless, I intended to mess with his nerves a little bit like he always managed to mess with mine, so I just lowered my head in embarrassment for few seconds in order to catch my upcoming laughter, then I lifted it and just stared at his eyes, without making a move. 

      Grandma always told me that keeping eye contact with grandpa always made him follow her commands, requests, and grandpa also admitted that he could never refuse a thing she ever asked for after an eye contact session. That's why I wanted to test my luck.

      The way Zack was looking at me, was making me lose my own battle since it was doing wonders to my hearts, and I was about to give in to his lounging stare and just give him what he wanted from the beginning. I guess I wasn't like grandma and he wasn't like grandpa after all.

      At certain moment, I was so lost in his eyes that I unconsciously started leaning down and was about to brush my lips on his, but then my grandma's words suddenly came back to me and brought me out of my daze, back to reality. Then, I grinned at him devilishly and  stepped back.

"I want to go to see grandpa" I requested, gently.

"Okay, I will take you" He retorted, immediately.

Wow, it really worked.

"Come on, let's go" I stepped on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek "We'll be late"

"What was that for?" He grumbled at me when I started walking away. 

"What was what?" I feigned innocence and kept marching. 

"You totally fooled me" He ran after me and tried to keep up with me "Was this some kind of magic, cause you totally tricked me" 

"Honestly?" 

"Absolutely" 

"Grandma used to tell me about her her magical trick to get grandpa under her spell, and I just tried it with you" I admitted honestly. 

"Aha, so that's what your grandpa was talking about!" He stated as a matter of fact. 

Grandpa? What did he tell Zack? 

"What did grandpa tell you?" I questioned, my curiosity started to have the best of me. 

"Nothing, what he should stay between us" He shrugged his shoulders, kissed my forehead then added "Good luck, we'll meet here in an hour and a half" 

       I greeted my group of friends as usual and took my seat in the second raw. The professor entered, gave us papers and required us to spare twenty minutes only to pass the test, which was totally not enough, knowing that he gave us forty questions. However, I saw the answers of half of the questions in most of the notes, and I answered the others from my personal knowledge when I was trained in grandpa's business.

      The course after the test was so boring that I was desperately fighting the urge to sleep and my thoughts kept wandering to what Zack was doing and where he was going to take me as promised. I was literally dying from curiosity. 

      The moment the teacher dismissed the classroom, I went out and met Zack outside, then hand in hand we decided to visit grandpa then go the surprise Zack was trying to hide so badly; and even my tries to seduce him to speak up, didn't work, he just closed his mouth and kept smiling at me, knowingly. 

      Grandpa was so ecstatic when he saw me entering the house, he just hugged me so tightly that I almost choked on my own saliva, then Ann was on the verge of tears and she scolded me for staying away for more than a week without even calling or even texting, and I immediately felt bad for what I did. 

I couldn't talk because they'd notice how lonely and sad I was. 

       And lastly, Sam ran immediately to Zack's open arms and embraced him, telling him how much she missed him while I stood on the side, kind of shocked at the bound they shared and built in a short while. Impressive. After sharing her moment with Zack, she finally turned her gaze to me, ran into my arms and buried her head in my stomach. 

      Sam was obviously still taken aback from what happened to Jake since they were best friends and did almost everything together, that's why I had to try my best to cheer her up, at least for an hour or two. She really needed understanding, she was still young to face something that hard. 

       Although I knew that Zack prepared something for me and I promised that we wouldn't stay long, he didn't complain a bit when Sam literally begged me to stay longer and I accepted without even asking him. 

Since when I became that comprehensive when it came to what he really wanted? 

      By time we left grandpa's house, it was about 3 pm and I thought that Zack was going to take me home but he didn't, he took a different way and refused to tell me where we were heading. Therefore, I just kept my silence and tried to enjoy his presence. 

'Wow, I was really losing it' I pointed out to myself mentally, and just stared out of the window. 

       We left the city behind and we were heading on a road that I knew by heart, a road that I spent most of my days on with mom before, then all alone after mom went to Chicago. Why was Zack taking me to my own little secret? A secret that only grandpa and few other people knew about? How did he know about it?  

"Why did you take this road?" I questioned, kind of shocked and amazed at the same time "Where are we going?"

"I'm taking you to a place where I shared most of my days with mom" He answered me, proudly, a genuine smile covering his face, and he added "I'm taking you to my own little secret" 

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/*So I hope you like this chapter*/ 

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/*Thanks already*/ 

/*So, this is when I decide when to publish the next chapter, but today, I really don't know since I'm going through so many things at once: Exams and mom's sickness*/ 

/*Mom is sick and is lying now in the hospital and intended to stay there for few weeks, where I am finishing this chapter! That's why I will try my best to write despite the lack of time because I am taking care of the house and my studies at the same time*/ 

/*Thanks for understanding and please pray for mom, she really needs your prayers*/