Chapter 8

Zack's POV:

I don't know what came to my head when I kissed Nadia but the thought came with the moment. I had to shut her up because if she talked or pushed me any further, I would have confessed that I was actually jealous and I didn't want to. At least not yet. 

         Since the moment I saw her with Adam as she mentioned his name the night before, I somehow questioned myself "Why wasn't I the guy she was hugging? Why couldn't she trust me or at least be comfortable around me like she was with him?" I knew the answers of those questions but I didn't want to believe them.

        'Why did I suddenly start caring'  I sighed at myself. However, I have to admit that being nice with her like I was that morning when I put her in bed, it gave me an unfamiliar feeling in my chest, a feeling of warmth spreading through my body, which made me uncertain and confused on my own actions, and that was exactly what her eyes were mirroring 'confusion'. 

        The day was extremely boring since I had classes all day and Jasmine's stupid attempts to get me, they were adding to my sympathy towards her, layers of irritations since she couldn't get hints, words and actions I showed her to out of my way, especially that I was married to Nadia and I didn't want tabloids to feed from my mistakes.  

       My mind was elsewhere throughout the entire day. I kept thinking about Nadia and I couldn't get her out of my mind. Everything about her seemed surprisingly interesting to me out of a sudden; her flushed cheeks whenever I approached her, the way she took steps back every time I moved toward her and most importantly the way her chocolate brown orbs looked back at me, mirroring my own emotions. 

'What was happening to me?' I grumbled at myself, shaking my head lightly.  

         As the day reached its end, I was way tried to attend the last class so without hesitation, I said goodbye to my group of friends and went straight out of college and headed to a dinner near college that sold the best Pizza ever. Entering through the door, I was welcomed with the smell of cheese that invaded my nostrils.  

       I couldn't dismiss women's ogling eyes as soon as I lead my foot in the dinner. But like usual, I didn't spare them a glance because they only cared about looks and money therefore, I walked immediately to the cashier and ordered 'Chicken Pizza', 'Mozzarella" and '4 seasons' because I was not sure what Nadia would love to eat.  

         Paying for the Pizzas, some drinks and snacks, I took my way to my car feeling slightly happy that I was finally going back home and just chill out after a tiring long day. The traffic line was dreadful and annoying since it took me more than fifteen minutes to even start moving and another thirty minutes to reach the apartment.

         I stepped out of my car holding the food in my hands as I pushed the car's door with my foot and unlocked it. Collen greeted me and offered to help me but I declined and just asked him to press the button of the lift for me. 

       Stepping inside of the elevator, I tapped my foot impatiently on the ground because I was willing to see Nadia all day even though my heart still didn't accept the idea that I was warming up towards her. 

         The elevator came to a stop at my floor as I stepped out of it. I held the food in one hand in order to dial the code with the other one, I heard some noises from the house so I thought that maybe Nadia was watching TV but then I heard a male's laugh echoing in the background thus I immediately pushed the door open and hurried to the living room to face... Adam.

       Adam was sitting as if he owned the place, he put his legs on the coffee table while he tilted his head backward and sat comfortably on my comfy sofa. Nadia seemed very happy sitting closer to him than I wanted her to, which only made my anger boil in my veins as my hand was clenched into tight fists, madly. 

'But did he know that we were married?' I thought to myself as I glared at them, blankly. 

"Oh, what do we have here?" I simpered at them, dropping what I was holding in the kitchen then strode back to where they were seated. 

"Hey man, I only wanted to see how Nadia is doing" Adam grinned at me lifting his legs off the coffee table "I had to see how she is handling marriage life"

'So he knew that we were married' I got answers of my previous doubts. 

"I told you that there's nothing to be worried about" Nadia faked a smile as she grimaced at me to meet her in the bedroom.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" I walked toward her and handed her my hand to help her walk, which she took immediately and started following me. 

         Adam knew about our marriage so why was he invading our personal life? How could she put our arrangement under the train for him? Why was I so furious? I had so many questions in my mind that I wanted to ask as I was still angry and mad.

"What the hell were you thinking about? Bringing him to our house?" I hissed at her running my hand through my hair, annoyingly.

"My grandpa sent him to see how I am doing" She whispered even though there was no way that he could hear us.

"Then why didn't Mr. Mathew make you marry him instead?" I felt my hands turning into fists but I tried to hide them.

"How can I marry my own brother?" She snapped at me as I stood there staring at her as if she threw some sort of bomb on me.

"Your what? How happened? Wasn't he in Canada?" I gawked at her as my muscles relaxed a little bit as the realization hit me. 

I was furious for no reason. 

"Yeah he was in Canada" She nodded, sitting on the side of the bed. 

"Oh..." I found myself mumbling so I closed my mouth instantly.

"So I will tell MY LOVER to join us for dinner" She smirked at me as she stood up, slowly.  

"I guess, we should give him a show then" I smiled at her devilishly, wiggling my eyebrows.

"What do you mean?" She glared at me, putting her hands on her hips "Don't you dare" 

"I'll give you a sneak peek" I cornered her with my hands to the wall, I lowered my head to her face level and I blew at her face.

"Zack, I'm warning you! stop messing around" She retorted as soon as I walked back leaving her place to move. 

         Without leaving her any chance to react, I opened the door and walked her back to the couch,, still simpering at Adam who was glancing at us, with a huge beam on his face. As a matter of fact, I came to realize that he didn't look like Nadia, he mirrored his mother more, especially with his brown hair and green eyes.    

         Adam was worried about his sister, especially after he learned about her injuries. he bombarded her with questions about everything the doctor told us. He really cared about her, I could see it in the way his eyes softened every time she flinched out of pain. 

         Nadia and I, we insisted on him to stay for dinner and after a while he just gave up and accepted the idea. He was actually nicer than his sister. He was funny, spontaneous and pretty cool. I could see myself getting along with him perfectly. 

"So how did this happen?" He pointed at both Nadia and I "As far as I know, all you cared about was killing each other"

"Well, I guess your sister fell for my charms after all" I stared at her as her cheeks were flushed red.

"Yeah but don't forget that you're the one who confessed his love to me" She glared at me, hitting my arm gently.

"You confessed two seconds after" I lifted my shoulders in defense, holding her hand in mine while she rolled her eyes at me.

"Wow you really love each other" Adam stated, shock evident on his face.

"What do you mean?" Nadia questioned him, skeptically.  

"To be honest, I thought you were fooling us" He chuckled lowering his head, apparently ashamed "I thought that it's some sort of game you two were playing"

"What made you say that?" I found myself questioning, in order to avoid unnecessary troubles.

"You hated each other and all you could think of was finding ways to get rid of each other" He started laughing as if he remembered something funny "I even remember once you wanted to hire a serial killer to cut his head off" He pointed at Nadia. 

"Really?" I turned my head to face her.

"Adam! can't you just shut up" Her face was red like a tomato as she hit him with a pillow. 

"Now, she's the serial killer who took my breath away" I sat beside her and enfolded her in my arms as she rested her head on my shoulder. 

      Finding out that she hated me that much, it wasn't that pleasant and I somehow hated the annoying feeling that was messing with me. I had to mentally slap myself to take those thoughts out of my mind.

       Nadia seemed relaxed in front of her brother, she wasn't acting that she was happy since she was for real and I liked that. Staring at her as she was smiling and laughing with her brother, I couldn't stop the dreading questions that were running through my head 'What was I thinking about? Since when I cared if she was happy or not? Why did she look so appealing to me?'

        Dinner turned out to be so much fun, I had learnt so many things about Nadia, things which made me realize that she wasn't as bad as I thought. Adam mentioned what she did to Ann and Sam, she was the one who convinced her grandfather to offer them a room in their house when they were left homeless. And I have to admit that I was impressed. But then something caught my attention, Adam talked about Lara...

"Lara is saying hi" He took a sip of his juice "She wants to catch up with you"

"You know Lara?" It came out more as a statement than a question.

"Of course she was Nadia's best friend before going to study in UK" He answered me taking a deep breathe "I wish she didn't..." He started talking but Nadia cut him off immediately. 

"Adam, will you stay for more than a week this time?" She asked him, looking like she had just seen a ghost.

"No, I only had three days to spare so tomorrow, I'll be heading off again" He spoke sadly but recovered quickly "But next time, don't worry, you will not get rid of" He stood up, unrolling his sleeves and brushing his jeans "I better go, I will call you soon"

"We're expecting you to come back soon" I smiled at him genuinely as he offered me his hand to shake. 

"Yeah and please don't tell grandpa that I hurt my feet" Nadia said, slowly standing up as he approached her and embraced her tightly "I don't want him to be worried about me" 

"Don't worry about it, and please you have to meet mom, she'll be staying for two more days" He whispered in her ear but I could hear him perfectly. 

'What was Nadia's problem with her mother?' I thought to myself but I had no time to think about it since Adam jerked me out of thoughts. 

"See you later man and take care of her" He patted my shoulder before heading to the door, as Nadia and I, we followed him slowly. 

        He shook hands with me again then he engulfed Nadia in a tight embrace before bidding goodbye and walking away. As soon as he left, the idea of Lara, it prompted in my mind 'What did he mean by saying "I wish she didn't..."? Why did Nadia stop him? What happened?' I was confused but determined to find the truth one way or another.

Nadia's POV:

          Adam's visit was amazing because I hadn't seen him in what looked like forever and I couldn't count meeting him in college a meeting since we couldn't talk freely .I caught up with him but not as much as I wanted and I hadn't realized how much I missed him until that day when he appeared on my doorstep.

"Nadia, comment vas tu?" He stood there in all of his glory. 

"Good, why didn't you call me to meet pick you up from the airport instead of prompting at me like that in college? How could you skip my wedding?" I squeezed my hands to my chest glaring at him, faking my anger although I wasn't a bit mad at him. 

"Tu me manques" He moved closer and put his big warm hands on my cheeks "Longue histoire" He hugged me tightly to his chest as I wrapped my arms around his waist, then he started tickling my stomach. 

       I missed having fun with him but I knew that I would end up running after him and in my current state, I couldn't do so. Thus, I had to tell him about my feet and threaten him to keep it between us since grandpa would literally freak out if he found out. 

"You've grown up" He sighed at me when I didn't react to his tickles.

"I haven't but my feet are..." Before I could finish what I was saying, he was already on ground examining them.

"But grandpa didn't mention such thing" He stood up again staring at me, raising his eyebrows at me "How did it happen? And what did the doctor say?" He was then asking quickly and I could barely get a word he was saying.

"Grandpa doesn't know" I took a deep breathe "I hurt them with pieces of glass when I was cleaning and don't worry I am fine"

"Two days of marriage and you ended up like this?" He snapped at me almost yelling "Couldn't Zack get you a housekeeper?"

"We have one but you know me, I love cleaning my own mess" I found myself clarifying to Adam, trying to protect my stupid husband "Come on, are you going to stay here?" I gestured at the doorstep.

        Without adding another word, we walked slowly to their the living room and made ourselves comfortable on the comfy sofa, which I am starting to get used to. I guess I would miss it after a year. 

       Adam told me about his important exam which was the reason why he couldn't make it to the wedding. He felt really bad for skipping it since he was my big brother and he was supposed to be there for me but I reassured him that it was totally fine. 

'If the wedding was real, would I have felt the same way about him skipping it?' I wondered in a daze. 

       I learned that he was in a relationship with a girl: Alya, his eyes sparkled at the mention of her name as his cheeks were flushed red. I could see in his eyes that he was happy with her and that was all I could ask for, his joy. He said that she was two years younger than him and he met her in a Yogurt shop where she worked as an extra job. He showed me her picture and I gasped at it since she was extremely beautiful, she had shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes and a flawless white skin with dimples, adding to her beauty an undeniable charm.    

        After teasing him for a while about it, we just sat there talking about almost everything like we used to before he went to Canada until he decided to talk about mom, he said that she had spoken with him about my relationship with her and that she wanted to meet me before she could go back Chicago. 

       A part me wanted to meet her and be happy with her like the old days but the other part of, it reminded of the last time I accepted to meet her seven months ago, the day when she never showed up, it still hurt but I was so good in keeping my feelings that even Adam had no idea how much that incident affected me and it broke my heart into little pieces. 

        I shrugged off and tried my best to change the subject because I had no mood to talk about it, and Adam got the hint right away after sighing in defeat. After focusing on something else, we caught up for what seemed like an hour before we heard the door; I lifted my head along with Adam, to face an angry Zack who looked like he had seen a ghost.

        I don't know if Adam noticed or not but Zack was probably killing Adam in his stupid mind, and if looks could kill, Adam would be six feet under ground Literally. He simpered at us through gritted teeth in order to hide his anger but he failed miserably. 

         When we were in the room, he snapped at me as he clenched his teeth and fists and he kept running his hand through his hair frustratingly which meant that he was annoyed and angry.But I couldn't get the reason behind his anger, it wasn't like I fooled him or anything because nothing was going on between us and I hoped that nothing will.

'Really? Then why were you jealous when he was with Jasmine' My inner voice snapped at me instantly 'And why did your heart skip a beat when he kissed you?'

       I wish I could find some answers to my questions but I didn't. It was kind of true because my heart was running miles per second just by his presence and I couldn't control it as I couldn't stand seeing Jasmine around him. I only wanted to push her away even if I couldn't bear his presence because he controlled me and affected me and I hated it. Or did I. 

/*Stupid heart*/

       After telling Zack that Adam was my brother, he looked at me as if I had grown another head, he stared at me shockingly and he lost his words for few seconds before grinning mischievously like he had a plan in his useless mind. "I'll give you a sneak peek" He cornered me with his arms and started to lower his head to my face level and blew at me. 

I then got what his devilish smile really meant.  

       We went back to the living room and found Adam studying us intensely as if he was trying to figure something out but as soon as we sat down, he smiled at us genuinely then we continued our conversation like Zack didn't interrupt us.

         I had never thought that someday I would be sitting with Zack and Adam in the same room and actually have fun with them but it actually happened and I was surprised that Zack didn't do anything stupid and acted like we were happily in love; I also realized I hadn't seen that part of Zack before. The part of the funny guy who didn't want to get rid of me and who was enjoying my company. Or at least it looked like he was having fun. 

       After throwing a bomb on us by mentioning Lara in front of Zack, Adam left right away leaving me in a daze and uncomfortable situation with Zack. 'Couldn't he just close his mouth? Why did he have to mention Lara?' I kept playing with the fabric of my T-Shirt. As far as I knew, Zack thought that I harmed Lara back in highschool so I wanted to leave it that way even though it was quite the opposite.

       As soon as I closed the door behind Adam, I intended to just lay in bed and read a book or watch a movie. But when I reached my door after walking as quick as I could, I felt Zack's hands slid on my waist as he moved his face closer to my liking. 

"Where do you think you are going?" Zack put his head on the crock of my neck, his breath fanning my skin. 

"I... Want" I stuttered, closing my eyes for few seconds since he was affecting me and defiantly messing with my head so I opened my eyes immediately "Hey pull back" I tried to release myself out of his grip but failed miserably since he was pressed on my back strongly.

"Why for? I want to hug my new friend or even better my wife so I won't budge to move" He chuckled in my ear which made me more furious because my heart was racing the light because of him "I was thinking of practicing so next time, we'll give them a better show"

"Stop" I yelled at him, feeling outrageous since I hated the influence he had on me. 

"I brought some snacks, let's watch a movie" He moved back giving me space to let out the breath I didn't even realize I was holding "A scary movie maybe?"

"No way, I want to sleep" I opened my room's door and I was about to make a move when he