Passionately Obsessed

Chapter 9

NINE.

"Is everything okay?" Taehyung asks with a chuckle over the line.

"Mmhmm, she washed up and fell asleep on the couch." I say, watching Mirah's peaceful form in front of me.

"Thank God she called us." He heaved a sigh of relief and I find myself agreeing with him.

We stay quiet for a bit and then what Yoongi said started getting to me. "Hey, do you want to grab something? I missed lunch." I throw a glance at my clock swiftly.

"Just the two of us?" He questions and for some reason I start tensing up, wanting to back down instantly.

It had been more than three years since I've been with someone and I've never had to be the one to initiate the dates or be the one to make the first move. So this was a first for me.

"Um, I could wake Mirah up and maybe we could all grab dinner." I say, smacking my forehead the next moment.

"Oh, sure." He lets out a little hesitantly. "I'll pick you guys up."

"Actually, I think I'll drive." I bring up, being completely sober for the first time in a while. "I think it'll be good for me, finally going behind the wheel." I say and Taehyung simply encourages me.

After we were done discussing details, I go over to Mirah and wake her up.

"Hm?" She groans a little, looking up at me.

"Do you want to have dinner?" I ask and her eyes instantly light up, sitting up straight the next moment almost as though she had been waiting to hear that question all her life.

"Yes, please."

. . .

I sat behind my wheel, a little nervous for some reason. "You okay?" Mirah asks me as she sat next to me.

"I haven't really driven ever since the DUI." I say, staring at the steering wheel. I place my hand over it and she notices how my fingers trembling.

"Hey," she places her hand over mine as she looked at me. "Breathe." Was all she said as she took in a deep breath, wanting me to do the same. "You got this." Her voice is sweet and comforting and with another deep breath, I nod, starting the car.

I start off really slow but she's still cheering me on. "You can go a little faster, but that's up to you!" She taps my thigh with a chuckle and I laugh after her.

"It's only a block away, going a little fast is okay, right?" I ask and she nods.

"Yes it is." She smiled brightly and I had never noticed how her teeth were perfectly aligned like in those dental posters.

A few dreadful minutes of my driving goes by and we finally reach. "You did it!" She chimes the moment after I park and I giggle, getting a little flustered.

We make our way out, towards the diner and that's when Taehyung greets us. "Oh, he's here too?" She asks and I nod.

"Is that a problem?" I question with a frown and she shook her head almost instantly as we approached him.

"Took you long enough." Taehyung teases as we sat down.

He sits next to me in the booth, with Mirah across from us and the closeness between us gets that familiar feeling to pool up within me.

"Um, maybe we should order." I look at the menu and Taehyung waves over a waiter towards us. In seconds, the waiter leaves after taking down our orders and the sizzling of our foods could be heard from the kitchen.

"So," the three of us were a little awkward, all of us still getting to know one another. "You won't believe what happened to me last week." Taehyung starts off the conversation, sharing with us how his colleagues had created an intervention for their boss, almost getting all of them fired.

The table's immersed with laughter but I tense up the moment I feel his hand on my thigh. I throw a quick glance his way, noticing how he was still deep in laughter, almost making it seem casual.

Is he flirting? He's flirting. This is flirting. It's happening. I tell myself. Have fun, Yoongi said 'have fun.' So have fun. I convince myself to loosen up.

I try leaning towards him but for some reason my body is frozen in spot, his hand still on my thigh and he finally pulls away. I take in a deep breath, wanting to excuse myself from the table but before I could peep a word, Taehyung jolts, his knee hitting the table and Mirah and I flinch with shock.

"Is-"

"There-there's a jukebox!" He cuts me off as he tries shifting our attention, pointing across the empty diner. "Nina, could you follow me and pick a song?" His eyes are drilling into mine, as though he was trying to say something else but I couldn't get it.

I simply agree, walking over to the jukebox with him while Mirah stayed at the booth, eyes now glued to her phone.

"Oh, they have Tom Jones!" I say as I looked through the list of artists they had but Taehyung pushes onto my waist, against the wall and I gasp.

"Taehyung?" I try moving a little but he pushes me onto the wall even further.

"Don't, she can't see us here." He whispers, head peeping from behind the wall as he looked back at Mirah for a second.

"Why don't you want her to see us?" I ask, hoping he wouldn't hear the tremble in my voice.

"I think she's into me." He says and I pause for a second.

"What?"

"She was rubbing her leg all over mine." He chuckles with a shy smile, a little embarrassed for some reason.

"Really?" I breathe out, wondering what this would make of our situation. "Are you sure it wasn't an accident."

"Oh, I'm sure." His eyes go wide.

"Well, do you want to go for it?" I ask, not knowing what else to say. I also wanted to know if I had read him wrongly but he shakes his head almost instantly. I feel relief wash over me but only briefly.

"I have someone else in mind." He lets out, his eyes still focused on Mirah, making sure she didn't see us talking.

"Oh." My mood drops tremendously. "Then I guess you could let her down gently?" I suggest, fingers picking at the hem of my shorts, not being into the conversation any longer.

"I really don't want to ruin the friendship. Don't you think it's nice, the three of us. Like a little trio in those sad AA meets." He nudges me and I simply nod.

"Um, our foods here. We should go."

He notices the shift in my mood and before I could walk away, he pulls onto my form and my back meets the wall once more.

"If I haven't made it clear, that someone's you." He whispers, looking down at me. He sees my baffled form, a subtle smirk pulling against his lips.

"Oh." My mood doing a 180 flip.