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Niam - Until Next Time

"It's for you," Josh mouths with his hand over the phone. Niall looks at him confusedly but walks over to his area anyways. Josh shrugs his shoulders and hands the phone over before walking away.

"Hello?" Niall asks questioningly. "Niall! Hi it's Liam. I thought I wasn't going to be able to reach you but you said you were picking up your roommate and I hoped I would catch you before you left. I forgot to pay you! I hope you don't think I did that on purpose I am so sorry I can pay you now. I can drive up there or something." Niall finds himself smiling unwillingly before speaking. "Liam it's fine. I put the change that was owed in the cash register. It's fine." Liam huffs out a stubborn sigh. "That's not right. I feel horrible. I'm coming up there." Niall quickly interrupts. "NO!" He looks back to see Josh looking at him questioningly. He lips a 'sorry' then focuses back on the phone. "Sorry, no, Liam it's quite alright. If you drive here I'll have to wait longer. It's fine. Just promise to order here again and you can give me a nice tip or something." The line is silent for a second and Niall thinks he's said something wrong. "Okay. I promise," Liam says cheerfully on the other end. Niall smiles. "Yeah?" Liam chuckles. "Yeah. Thanks Niall. Have a good night." Niall hangs up the phone and turns around to see Josh staring at him, waiting to hear answers to unsaid questions. Niall purposely ignores his guessing looks. "So you ready to go?" Josh huffs loudly. "So you're really not going to tell me who that was? I could feel you blushing from across the bloody restaurant." Niall smiles at him before walking toward the doors. "I'll be waiting outside." Josh rolls his eyes and finishes cleaning up his area. Niall walks to his car and wonders when Liam will call next.

It's been about two weeks and Liam has called Rubio's every single day. Literally every day. That can't possibly be good for his workout regimen but Liam doesn't seem to care so Niall won't either. Of course there have been a few days where Niall wasn't working and Liam would call. According to Josh and about two other co-workers, Liam would ask for Niall and if he wasn't there, he wouldn't order. Josh kept pestering him about who kept calling so Niall eventually told him after taking Liam a pizza for the fifth time. Josh seemed intrigued in the whole ordeal and wanted to know every detail of each encounter. There really wasn't much to tell. The second time Liam called, Niall told him to start paying with a card and told him to start calling close to 7 p.m. because that's when he got off. So that's exactly what Liam did. Since Liam began paying with his card, Niall never had to come back to put money in the register; he could literally stay as long as Liam allowed.

The first four or five visits had been them getting to know each other more. He found out Liam has three sisters and no brothers but they live with his parents, who are about 130 miles away. He runs 2 miles every other morning before classes. He used to only run 1 mile but with all the new pizza entering his life, he up'd his routine. He used to only work weekends at the hospital but starting this week he does the 2pm-6pm shift three times a week which is perfect because he's usually starving by then and that's where Niall comes in. He even gives Liam his employee discount sometimes. After the sixth visit, Niall was pretty comfortable. So comfortable in fact that Liam would leave the door unlocked for him and he'd just come iand make his spot on the couch comfortable. They'd watch the telly, play video games, do karaoke; it really didn't matter because they were enjoying their time together. It's when Liam called at the beginning of the third week that Niall knew things would be a little different.

"Papa Rubio's Pizza how may I help you?" Niall asks in a rushed tone. Today had been incredibly busy and Niall was just ready to be off. All he wanted was to lay in a bed and rest. "Niall. Hi" Niall perks up at the nervousness in Liam's tone. "Liam? Hey are you okay?" He can hear Liam's even breathing on the other end. "Yeah I'm okay. How are you?" Niall relaxes a little and smiles to himself. "I'm alright. A bit knackered. How was work?" Liam laughs lightly. "Long day actually. Would you mind coming over for a bit when you're off? I'm cooking and...I just...I thought I'd ask is all." Niall feels his heartbeat pick up and all his tiredness is pushed aside for a second. He takes a few even breaths before speaking, sure to give nothing away. "So you're tired of my pizza already then? And to think, I put so much love into them! I even named one after you, you know?" Liam laughs at that which makes Niall smile before he realizes he hadn't answered the question. "But yeah, sure. I'll be there. What ya makin?" Liam rattles some pots and pans before answering. "Chicken Spaghetti. Ever had it?" Niall smiles pleasingly. "It's only my second favorite food ever. I'll be there around 7:30. I've got to go. People at the front." They say their goodbyes before hanging up the phone and Niall wouldn't be able to hide his smile the rest of the night if he tried.