My eyes wouldn't open. I was so comfortable, warm and cozy. It also smelled really good. An scent that felt familiar. A mixture of cologne, aftershave and fabric softener.

I made a low sound as I stretched myself when I felt something hard pressed against me. I opened my eyes slowly, finding the torso of Nico beneath me.

"Good morning." Nico chuckled in a sleepy voice.

"Oh my god." I jumped at the realization that I was hugging him. I wasn't even resting an arm around him innocently, I was fully wrapped around him like a koala. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You looked comfortable. I didn't wanna wake you up." He half smiled, raising his arms to stretch up. Just like yesterday, his T-shirt lifted up, showing part of his stomach. I lowered my eyes and quickly gazed up, feeling the warmth spread all over my face.

"How long have you been awake?"

"I don't know." He rubbed his face. "Five minutes? Maybe more."

"What time is it?"

"Are you in a rush?" He asked amused. "Calm down, Cara. You look stressed."

"I'm fine." I tried to relax my shoulders.

"It's still early." He showed me the time in his phone. 9 am. I never slept that much in the mornings, but last night I was so comfortable. I hadn't slept like that in years.

I blamed it on the bed. It was surely pretty expensive.

"Wanna go have breakfast? Maybe go for a walk? It's cold but the sun is out." He said glancing outside the window.

"I think you should save that money." I suggested. If anyone knew about saving and economizing it was me.

"Well, there's nothing to eat in here." He said, as if there weren't other options.

"Let's go grocery shopping, it'll be less expensive." He looked at me weird. "Come on, you guys need to start cooking. Eating out is super expensive. That money you have now could last a little longer if you'd make an effort."

"Okay, mom." He smirked. I rolled my eyes. "I still wanna walk though, I need to move my legs."

"Sure."

"I'll have a call with the manager of the magazine I've been working for these past few months, I think they'll have something for me while I keep on looking." He rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Great. See? We have plans for the future. That's good. Come on, let's move." I stood up from the bed and approached the window, watching the beautiful day ahead of us.

"We?" He asked with a smile. "Okay, bébé. Too much energy for me, let me have a shower first."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nico noticed the little things. He was thoughtful. He payed attention to details like that. When I got something on my shirt, he unconsciously took it off. He sometimes pushed my hair gently out of my face, and helped when I was wearing a hoodie and the hood was inside out.

Right now, it was my pendant. He turned it so it faced him and smirked. "You know, you talk in your sleep."

"What did I say?" I asked, honestly terrified. Sometimes I said incoherent things, but I was too embarrassed to have said something I could regret. Last night I fell asleep with a burning sensation down my core and maybe I dreamt something too steamy to have been sharing a bed with a friend.

Nico chuckled, still looking at me. We were in the middle of the fruit and vegetable aisle. People passed us by and we were just there staring at each other. Nico was leaning on the cart when he cocked his head pensively. "You were saying something about a plane ticket. I think you were dreaming you were at the airport." He narrowed his eyes. "Although you were saying something about a really cute and tall guy with dark, curly hair." My eyes widened. "You wanted to go to Paris to see him but you had the wrong ticket. I think you wanted to see me, Cara Belinsky." He said in a teasing tone.

I resumed my walk. He followed me right away, with that stupid grin on his face. "You're kidding, right?"

"Okay." He laughed. "Maybe I'm joking about the cute guy part.... But the rest is true. You wanted to go to Paris to see me."

"You drink milk?" I said pointing to the cartons.

"Yeah. Almond milk." He pointed to one in the lowest shelf and I grabbed it for him. We continued walking. I couldn't even speak. I was too embarrassed. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

I shrugged, feigning to be distracted. "I told you, I only went once and didn't leave the hotel, maybe it's my subconscious mind wanting to go again."

"Or maybe it's your subconscious mind wanting to see me." He grinned.

"You're insufferable." I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, come on. Just admit it."

"Admit what?"

"That you like me." He stated. I stopped in my tracks. Oh god, was it that obvious?

Before I had time to speak, he kept on talking, continuing to walk down the aisle. "You love spending time with me, I can see it in your face."

"Bread?"

Nico grabbed my arm and stopped me from walking, making me turn to face him, an amused expression on his face. "Why can't you just say it?" He approached his face to mine. I was tall but he towered me, I needed to look up so I could stare into his eyes. His eyes flicked down to my lips for a second. "Repeat after me. Nico,"

"Nico." I whispered, too hypnotized by his blue eyes.

"I like you." He smiled.

"I... like you." I said, out of it.

He quickly pressed his mouth against my cheek, really close to my lips and ended the kiss with a silly smile. "See? That wasn't so difficult." He turned fast, leaving me petrified in the spot. "I like oatmeal bread." He started saying, as if nothing had just happened. "Although I also like rye bread. I kind of like that it's dark..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weeks had passed since I last saw Nico. He got a job at the magazine and he had been working until late at night. My schedule could also be sometimes erratic, so we never happened to meet. He was also working in a project for an exhibition. He said it was private so I didn't wanna ask much. All I knew it that he was painting. From time to time he would send me a picture of his hands covered in paint and even his nose.

I was glad that he was happy. He still needed to find a smaller place. Luca had offered to pay rent until Nico could pay it on his own, but he didn't know when that could be. Maybe that exhibition he was preparing wouldn't be as successful as he imagined. That was the life of an artist, you never knew. Uncertainty accompanied you in every step of the way.

Other days, like today, he had shootings for the magazine. He had to photograph models, and that made me a little anxious. He was surrounded by beautiful people and who knew if he wasn't sleeping with half of them.

Nico was like that, sexual, carefree. He didn't care about what people could think, he didn't care about having sex with people he didn't know. He just cared about having a connection with that person and having fun.

Why couldn't I be more like him?

Oh, wait. I knew why.

It was Saturday morning, my coach wanted me to train for a couple of hours so I could master my new choreography.

"You were great today, Cara. Keep up the good work." My coach high fived me and I walked out of the rink. I wiped my forehead with a towel and drank some water.

I almost spit it when I saw the unrecognizable dark curls. "Good morning."

I couldn't keep the smile that came to my face. The butterflies that fluttered in my stomach making me feel lighter all of a sudden.

"Good morning."

Nico walked down some steps. He had gotten a lot better these few weeks. You wouldn't see him flinch in pain or limp. Most times it was hard to notice. "Don't I get a hug?"

"I'm sweaty." I scrunched up my nose.

"Mhm. Just how I like it." He joked as he engulfed me in a big hug. My face was almost at his level since I was still wearing my skates, so I rested my chin on his shoulder and sniffed his hoodie. I loved his scent.

"How long have you been here?" I asked pulling apart. I sat down on the bench and he did too, as I started to take off my skates.

"Ten minutes." He shrugged. "Did you have plans today?"

"No. Why?"

"I was hoping to give you my birthday present today." He smiled.

"Oh. I totally forgot." It was true, my memory worked like that.

"It's not much, don't get too excited. But I think you're gonna like it." He placed his hands inside his pockets and sucked on his bottom lip.

He was nervous.

"Okay." I breathed out. "I need to have a shower. Can we go get something to eat first? I'm starving. Or was it part of the plan?"

"Not really." He half smiled. "We can go wherever you want."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nico updated me on his life, I tried to push it and talk about the models and the people he worked with, to see if he could tell me anything juicy that would no doubt hurt myself, but I guessed I preferred to know. He thought I was interested in modeling since he believed I had all the qualities needed. I told him my mom wouldn't be happy about it. They'd offered me a few times before, specially in the competition world, sportswear shootings and things like that. But for some reason, that reason being my mom, I always declined.

"I'm scared." I whispered.

"Why?" He laughed. We were in a dark hallway since we hadn't managed to find the switch. He had guided me through this really old and tall building in the city.

"I don't know. I still don't know what we're going to do."

We went up some more stairs until I was pretty sure we were at the top. By this point he walked behind me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "The lift was fine the other day. I wasn't planning on walking up so many stairs." He laughed breathlessly. He pointed to one of the doors. "It's here." He got out the keys and opened the door slowly, sunlight hit my eyes almost instantly.

When I got used to it, I stopped squinting. "Wow. What is this place?" It was a huge room. It looked like an apartment but there were no walls and it was empty, except for all the cans of paint on the floor and the numerous canvases covered with sheets.

"It's my studio. I rent it to a coworker, so he gives me a pretty great discount. Here is where I let my ideas flow." He walked all along the room and I followed him. "These big windows are great for lightning, and the fact that it is empty helps clear my mind."

"What are those over there?" I asked, pointing to a mess of sheets.

"That is my recent work." He smiled.

"Can I see it?"

"Nope."

I scrunched up my nose at him and he laughed. "I love it." I said after a while, not really knowing why he wanted to show me his studio if he wasn't going to show me any paintings. Now it was just an empty room.

"Well, let's go." He said, and started to walk towards the door again. I followed him but before he even opened it, he began to laugh.

"What?" I asked. This guy made me feel like the dumbest girl, sometimes I swear I didn't get him.

"Did you really think that this was the surprise?"

I blushed.

He might have sensed my discomfort since he pulled me into a tight hug. "Oh, come on, I told you it would be fun! Did you have fun just seeing this?" He asked, still amused.

"Mhm, not really." I said, embarrassed.

"Come here." He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the end of the room, where a big white wall was.

"What is this?"

"This is a canvas." He smiled at me. "We're gonna paint."

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Hey guys! Hope you're doing great 😊

It's pouring here so I decided to finish the chapter and update. Hope you liked it!

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