You set your knife and fork down gently and fold your hands in your lap, resisting the urge to stretch your arms up. That would be impolite.
Dan isn't finished his food yet, and neither is Phil, so you wait for both of them to clear their plates. Shortly, they finish.
"Thank you," you say. "I'll pay you for the takeaway, hold on and I'll get my purse." You get up from the table and go to get your money, but a warm hand clasps your wrist gently, stopping you from walking away.
You turn around as Dan releases your hand, his cheeks slightly pink.
"Sorry," he apologises. "But you don't have to pay for anything. It's our treat, right Phil?"
"Absolutely," Phil agrees. "Don't worry about paying, Y/n."
"Oh, well thank you very much!" you say gratefully, smiling at both of them. "Well, I'm going to clear up the plates, then."
"Oh no you don't!" Dan says threateningly, getting up from his chair and reaching for the plates. However, you get them first, piling them up on top of each other and speed walking away to the kitchen. You don't go too fast (you don't want to drop the plates and break them).
Dan laughs at you and follows you out of the door, trying to grab the plates from you in little snapping motions with his hands, kind of like a dinner plate crab. You pull them in closer to you so he can't get them and laugh. The plates aren't very messy, so you don't really worry about getting sauce on your clothes.
A few moments later, you reach the kitchen, setting the plates down on the worktop above the dishwasher.
Dan comes in behind you, shouting "Boo!" at the top of his voice. It doesn't scare you though, as you heard him.
"Nice try," you say sarcastically, putting on an overly sympathetic expression.
"Go away," he replies, rolling his eyes. "You know your way around our apartment really well, did Phil give you a tour or something earlier?"
You don't want to say yes, because what if Dan asked Phil about it later and he found out you were lying? No thanks. But if you say no, you'll have to think of a good reason. Come on, brain. Think...
"No... I think I have a slight photographic memory," you reply, shrugging your shoulders.
"Really? That's so cool!" Dan says in awe. "I wish I had a photographic memory... like it would be amazing to just see something and then remember it. Is that the right way to put it? I'm not really sure... sorry - I'm rambling again, aren't I?"
"Yeah," you admit. "But it's cu-" You stop the sentence, just about to call his rambling cute. He looks confused at you suddenly cutting off your sentence.
"What were you going to say?"
You panic. "Cucumber!"
You could have chosen ANY other word, Y/n. Cucumber? Really?
"My rambling is... cucumber?" Dan asks, starting to smile.
"Uh, yeah," you reply, smiling awkwardly and turning away from him to load the dishwasher with the plates (and to avoid further awkward eye contact).
Dan starts laughing suddenly. It starts off as breathy chuckles, then gets louder and more frequent as he starts to laugh, bending over slowly.
You don't laugh with him, in the fear that it would come out too forced sounding. Instead, you smile, waiting for him to stop. He does stop eventually, straightening up and wiping the corners of his eyes, a grin still present on his face.
"I'm really sorry, Dan, but I have to get going now. I have an angry mum to attend to," you say jokily, although it's no joke that she's annoyed with you.
For a second, you think you see a flicker of disappointment in his brown eyes, like when you mentioned you were leaving before. "Oh, okay," he says flatly, his grin disappearing as quickly as it had come. "Do you want me to walk you over to your house?"
"It's just across the road," you point out with a laugh. "But yes, if you like."
You're glad you said yes, as Dan's expression brightens once more.
Once you've gathered all your things - most of which is in your handbag - you go back into the lounge to say goodbye to Phil. He's sitting on the sofa cross legged, on his laptop.
"Bye, Phil," you say at the doorway, waving awkwardly at him. However, he sets his laptop aside and comes to hug you instead, not pulling away from it until you do.
"Thank you for the takeaway, again," you say with a smile.
"You're welcome. It's the special 'first time guest' treat," he replies, chuckling quietly.
You smile at him once more, then go out into the hallway with Dan, who hands you your coat and walks down the stairs and comes out of the front door with you.
There's a short silence, and for a moment you can only hear your footsteps. As you cross the road together, Dan says, "So, what do you think of our apartment?"
"It's really nice!" you reply truthfully, stepping up onto the pavement. "It really suits your personalities, I think."
Dan chuckles softly. "Yeah, I guess it does."
You look up at your house, sighing under your breath, then look back at Dan. "I'll see you later, yeah?" you ask.
He smiles. "Of course."
Suddenly, it occurs to you that you didn't ask him what he said to you in German earlier. "You know when we were playing twenty questions earlier?"
He nods.
"What did the thing you said in German mean?" you ask.
He looks confused, and shrugs. "I didn't say anything in German. I said 'hello' in French, maybe that's what you're confused about."
You furrow your eyebrows. You're certain Dan didn't speak any French to you, and that he spoke German. You don't question it, however - but you're going to 'investigate' later, using Google.
"Oh, sorry. I got mixed up," you say. There's a slightly awkward silence. You look at Dan, silently wishing to hug him. You plaster on a smile to cover up your nerves and hold your arms out, hoping he gets the message.
Luckily he does, pulling you into a hug, his arms around your waist. The contact sends tingles up your spine. You can hear his breathing and his heart beat, both irregular and quick (probably like yours, too).
You pull away first, afraid that you might be making him uncomfortable. He smiles awkwardly at you, his cheeks slightly pink.
"Bye," you say, almost inaudible. You hope Dan heard you.
"Goodbye," he replies, with another smile. With that, he crosses the road again, waves at you, then disappears into the apartment block.
You let your eyes linger on the closed door for a bit longer than you should, suddenly realising that it's cold, and you need to get inside. You unlock the front door of your house, step in, then close it behind you, exhaling deeply as a large smile breaks out across your face.
You walk to your room with a bounce in your step, feeling giddy and light hearted. You close the door, flop down on your bed and to put it simply, fangirl. Then you check your laptop, ignoring Facebook once again and instead clicking onto Google Translate, setting it to translate German into English.
What did Dan's German words sound like? You rack your brain, trying to remember. It definitely started with something sounding like 'ik'.
You type that into the box, and a suggestion for 'ich' comes up instead. You use that.
What did the next word sound like... 'mach'? 'Mak'? 'Mug'? You can't remember exactly, but try each of those options.
did you mean: mag? the mechanical translator questions after you put 'mak' down. You use its suggestion once again.
Now, the last word. You vaguely remember it sounded like... well, like a rude name for a body part. Was it 'deek'? Hm.
You type 'deek' into the box. Seeing as Google doesn't recognise that word in German, no suggestions come up. You try the... body part name instead, and 'dich' comes up as a suggestion. You use that.
Now you're left with 'ich mag dich'. You click on the 'translate' button, and the sentence translates into English. As you read the words, your breath hitches.
I like you.
Maybe you typed in the wrong thing. Even if you didn't, Dan must have meant it platonically. Right?
Suddenly feeling overwhelmed with exhaustion, you put your laptop down, close your eyes and fall asleep.