Getting Under Nathan

37: "The first round is on me."

Chapter 37 - "The first round is on me."

**Dedicated to The_WildFlower because she managed to see the bigger picture with regards to Pedro's actions and she also said she can't find one thing she doesn't like about this story! Pretty much one of the biggest compliments I could get (though not sure I agree!) 

After our first Spanish lesson of the week, Pedro hesitantly approached me.  

"Hey," he said cautiously. "Look, I completely understand if you don't want to talk to me-" 

"Can we, erm, discuss this elsewhere?" I requested, glancing around the room and seeing all the people who could potentially overhear. During my break up with Matt, I'd been the centre of a lot of gossip, and I really didn't want to be in that position again. If people heard that Pedro had kissed me, then we'd become the talk of the Spanish department for certain.  

"Sure," he agreed, visibly relaxing as we joined the mass of people filing towards the exit. "Do you want to grab coffee? And I don't mean that in a date way...I just meant, you know, we could go and buy some coffee...I could still pay though because I really don't-" 

"Pedro, will you please stop babbling?" I muttered under my breath. "You're making this ten times more awkward than it needs to be." 

We finally made it out of the seminar room and began to head towards the campus bar. Pedro was just oozing awkwardness, to the extent where I almost began to feel sorry for him. Then I remembered what he'd said to me, and how we'd been talking about Nathan just before he attempted to kiss me. That was a bad move on his part regardless of any feelings involved.  

"Okay, so I sort of prepared a speech, well not really a speech but I prepared what I wanted to say to you so I can try to explain my actions and...look, I know it's not going to excuse my behaviour this weekend but I at least want you to think less badly of me than you probably do right now." 

As we sat down at an empty table, Pedro was fidgeting like crazy and I knew I had to let him speak and get everything off his chest. This wasn't being put on and it made me realise that Pedro was obviously feeling awful about what had happened and maybe his intentions weren't quite so callous after all.  

"Okay," I said quietly, picking up the drinks menu just so that I had something to play with. I'd fully intended on having a mature conversation with him, but Pedro was being so awkward that it was starting to make me feel awkward too.  

"Okay," he said, clearing his throat and straightening in his chair. "Firstly, I want to apologize again. I know that doesn't take back what I did, but I honestly regret it so much. I knew you'd got a boyfriend, and so it was disrespectful to you, not to mention very tactless considering we'd only been discussing said boyfriend an hour before." 

"Nathan," I said quietly, not looking up from the drinks menu. "He's called Nathan." 

I saw Pedro nod. "Nathan," he repeated. "I also know I offended you when I made the comment about some girls in relationships wanting someone to keep them occupied when they're away from their boyfriend. In hindsight, that was such a stupid thing to say, because I know you're not one of those girls and that's part of the reason I like you so much." 

He suddenly cut himself off, looking alarmed. I glanced up from the menu and saw him scraping a hand through his hair with a troubled look on his face.  

"Shit," he mumbled. "That bit was meant to come later on. Fuck, I've screwed this up now." 

I sighed, putting down the menu and pushing it away from me. "Okay, Pedro. I can tell you feel bad about this and I don't want to lose your friendship. But if you can't be just friends with me then we need to seriously consider where we're going to go from here. So, cards on the table. Be honest with me."