Crisis Of War

{ XLVII }

Nico mumbles something and heads back to the table, taking a seat there as he goes through some papers again. 

'I have not because he didn't leave his room.' She rolls her eyes and heads over to me, grabbing my hand as I place the laptop on my side. 'Maybe you should.' 

'If he comes out of his room, I might.' 'This would be a lovely topic to talk about with a martini at the pool, don't you think?' Isabelle asks, getting up as well. 

They both look at me with bright smiles on their faces, but I shake my head. 'I have some shit to go through and-' 'You're still working on that hotel stuff?'

'It's not like I can just stop.' I state, trying to make it seem like the chain really needs me right now. 'Yes you can, it's like over eighty degrees out!' Isabelle exclaims. 

She's clearly excited to hang out and I like hanging out with her a lot, but I was just in the workflow. 

But Leya keeps her eyes on me, studying me for the things I'm not saying. 'And?' I sigh and smile at her.  'And it keeps me busy so I don't really mind.' 

'So you don't actually have to work, great! Come with us-' 'You two can go, but I don't really want to right now, maybe I'll join you later?' Isabelle's excitement fades and I keep my eyes on Leya. 

'Please don't overdo yourself, okay?' She asks, giving my hand a squeeze. 'I won't.' 

After a few glares at me from both of them, they leave the room and close the door. 

'What was that about?' I turn to the voice and grab my laptop as I head over to the table he's sitting at. 'What do you mean?'

'You're acting up?' Nico says, looking at me with a strange look on his face. One I can't place. 

'You're the one acting up.' Normally he's just quiet and observing, he doesn't intervene with other people's shit, yet here he was. 'I'm not the one trying to hide from my boyfriend.' 

'I'm not hiding from him.' He looks me dead in the eye, waiting for me to fold, but I won't. I'm not hiding from him. 'You're not talking to him.' 'Just because I'm not talking to him, does not mean I'm hiding from him, now can we please stop talking about me?' 

'Why?' He asks, amusement gleaming through his eyes. 'Because I'm not the one acting up here, you are.' 

'Well, can you blame me?' What? 

'What could possibly be your reason to act up?' He chuckles and shakes his head, trying to act like we're not having this conversation right now. 'Forget it.' 

'No, you started at A so you might as well say the rest of the alphabet. Tell me.' 

'There are too many reasons to count, Veah.' 

Something's up.

We haven't talked in a few days because we're both busy with all the work Rio is giving us, but still. 

I should've known when he asked if he could stay in here with me, but I was too busy with taking that phone call to even bother. 

'Start with one.' He inhales slowly and nods at me, before moving his papers to the side. 'Okay, right.' What is he doing? 

'For starters, the woman I want is sad because her useless boyfriend isn't paying attention to her.' Fuck no. 

'Don't call him useless, he just needs time to process it. And I'm not sad about it so don't even start with me.' 

He looks at me with anger in his eyes and takes a few deep breaths, 'Fine. Fuck. Then there's the fact that I would give that same girl my entire fucking soul just for her to smile again.'