ALL THE STRINGS ATTACHED | COMPLETED

07.

THEODORE.

"Woah, woah, woah. Someone's shining so bright today, I think I need my sunglasses."

"Shut up, Alex." I tried to avoid his teasing by swinging round in my chair till my back was facing him, face stuffed into my phone.

But who was I kidding? My smile was so wide that the corners almost reached my ears.

Alex is a great guy and all but he can be a little too observant for my liking. Heck, he could even sniff out if something wrong with his husband. And Nathan's walls are pretty thick to put it into perspective.

"Theo, I've known you long enough. I have never seen you smile like how you are now," he swung my chair around and used his fingers to draw circles in front of my face.

"In all honesty, you're creeping me out man."

I nudged him away with my elbow, phone still in my hands. "You're thinking too much."

"And how do you know what I'm thinking of?" he provoked, a slightly sinister smile on his face. "Unless I'm correct without even guessing."

"What are you going on about?"

"You," his index finger went straight for my face as he bent over my desk. "Are crushing on someone. Hard."

I waved him off. "Pfft, as if. I'm destined to remain single, remember?"

He stood upright, folded his arms and tapped his right thumb and finger on his chin. "At this rate, not for long."

"You're over-thinking things."

"Then you must be under-thinking. I'm gonna bet you one-hundred dollars you'll have a status upgrade by the end of the year." Man, did he sound confident. December 31st was merely a few weeks away at this point.

"Impossible." My voice shook a little, for some reason.

I packed up and headed out, ignoring Alex who continued to tease me like no tomorrow. My footsteps a little lighter than some time back and I started to notice how to flowers bloomed. How the the evening sky had beautiful shades of orange, yellow and purple.

God, Theo. You seriously sound like a girl who got struck by Cupid's arrow.

My phone buzzed. I lifted it up and saw the notification on the screen.

———
Daniel:
I know you're looking at it. Stop staring and start walking.

Me:
What are you talking about?

Daniel:
A hopeless romantic like you would definitely put everything down to admire the colours in the sky right now.
______

I bit my lip as I tried not to smile like and idiot in public. Hopeless romantic? Now that's a term that I wouldn't mind getting used to.

Daniel has definitely started to warm up to me over the past few weeks. We have been texting more often and even ate out together.

I have started to notice small little things about him. Like how he would drink from his water bottle if he's trying to avoid answering something. Or how he would sometimes seem to zone out after our conversation (and here I thought only I did that).