Naila walked down the road, to the parking, with Luke. "Dinner?" She asked him. She wanted to break that silence between them.
"Let's go," he said. "How about pizza tonight?"
"I would love that," she agreed.
The two remained silent, scorlling through their phones as they ate the dinner. "Do you think the cheese is too much?" He asked her in between.
"I felt that too," Naila replied and went back to scrolling again.
"Do you wish to see something?" He asked her.
Naila looked up, keeping the pizza slice down, back on her plate. He asked for her phone. She unlocked it and gave it to him.
He shared the pictures and videos and handed the phone back.
Naila was shocked to see her pictures. She liked them all. "I did not know you were clicking," she said.
"Candids are great," He said.
The two finished the dinner quickly and headed home.
"Finally. Holidays," she felt so relieved.
"Eat more, sleep more, rest well," he reminded her. She nodded happily to it. "Even if I'm not around," he added in the end. Naila looked at him, her smile fading. She knew what he meant exactly. She looked down and faked a smile, hiding her thought.
"When are you leaving?" She asked.
"27th probably," he replied. "You have holidays till New Year?"
"Yes till January 2nd," she answered.
"That's great," the two walked into the house. "Goodnight then," they greeted each other and walked into their rooms.
She really did not know how to keep the conversation with him. She unlocked the phone and looked through the pictures. It looked really good. Her trying to catch the snowflakes. The video of out it had come out well too. He appeared to have edited it. It looked really great. And another video was her performance from couple of hours back. She felt so happy at that moment.
Naila quickly undressed, took a shower, and changed into pyjamas. She then walked to the kitchen to drink some water and she ran into him.
Luke has no shirt on and wearing only the jeans, drinking water. Naila immediately turned around. 'What am I doing?' She then asked herself. 'Walk back, drink water,' she told herself. 'Why are you acting weird?' She kept arguing with herself.
Naila turned away from him, deliberately avoiding his gaze as she reached for a glass.
"Do you want warm water?" Luke asked.
She glanced at him briefly before nodding, her eyes dropping to the glass almost immediately.
"What happened?" he asked, taking a step closer.
He knew perfectly well what was wrong. Himself. He had noticed the way she avoided looking at him, how her movements had grown a little too deliberate, how she seemed determined to keep herself occupied with anything but him. But knowing the reason didn't mean he intended to make things easier for her.
"Nothing," she replied.
She took a couple of steps back until the counter met her hips. "I'm good," she added quickly.
Luke watched her for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then he moved closer.
He placed a hand on the counter beside her, then the other on her opposite side, leaning in just enough to make her acutely aware of how little space remained between them.
Naila went still.
It wasn't that he had touched her. He hadn't. Somehow, that made it worse. She was suddenly conscious of the distance between his face and hers, of the quiet that settled around them, of the fact that he seemed in no hurry to move.
She fixed her gaze somewhere near his shoulder.
"Are you?" he asked softly.
Naila looked up before she could stop herself.
His eyes were already on her.
For one brief moment, neither of them said anything. Then she looked away, her fingers tightening around the empty glass.
Luke's gaze drifted to her hair. He reached towards her, and Naila's attention snapped back to him at once.
He paused just long enough for her to notice.
Then he gently plucked a tiny strand of thread caught in her hair.
"Got something here," he murmured.
He held it out between his fingers, but his eyes remained on hers.
Naila looked at the thread. It was such a small, ordinary thing from her towel. There was no reason for him to be standing so close, no reason for him to take his time withdrawing his hand, no reason for her to feel as though the moment had stretched far beyond what it should have been.
And yet, she couldn't seem to find the right words.
"Thank you for the pictures and the videos. It looks good," Naila said suddenly.
She then reached for the thread, but instead of taking it immediately, her palm came to rest against his chest.
For a second, she forgot why she had reached out at all.
She could feel the warmth beneath her hand. Luke's gaze flickered down to it, then returned to her face.
He didn't say anything at first but then whispered in her ear. "That's because, you are pretty photogenic," It tickled Naila.
The silence after it was somehow more unsettling than a teasing remark would have been.
Naila withdrew her hand as though she had only just realised where she had placed it. Taking the thread from his fingers, she gave his chest a light push.
"Move," she muttered.
Luke looked at her. And he noticed her neck line.
He stepped back without protest, though the faint curve at the corner of his mouth suggested he had noticed far more than she wanted him to.
"So," he said, his voice returning to its usual ease, "the water?"
Naila stared at him.
He was asking about water. As if he hadn't just made her forget what she had come into the kitchen for in the first place.
"Right," she mumbled, turning away.
She filled the glass with warm water, watching the steam longer than necessary before finally lifting it to her lips. Then, determined to put an end to the strange awareness that had settled beneath her skin, she drank it in one go.
The warmth travelled down her throat, but did little to steady her.
She set the empty glass on the counter.
Behind her, Luke remained where he was.
She could feel that he was watching her, though she refused to turn around and confirm it. She busied herself with the tap, rinsing the glass that didn't need rinsing.
"You know," he said casually, "you did not have to drink it that fast."
Naila shut off the tap.
"I was thirsty."
"Of course."
Something in his voice made her close her eyes for a brief second.
She turned to face him, ready with a sharp reply, only to find him looking at her with an expression that was quieter than before. The teasing was still there, but beneath it lay something she couldn't quite read.
For once, he didn't add anything.
And somehow, that was worse.
Naila held his gaze for a heartbeat before looking away.
"I'm going back," she announced.
Luke nodded and shifted aside to let her pass.
As she walked by, her shoulder brushed his arm. It was barely a touch, accidental enough to mean nothing.
Neither of them moved away quite as quickly as they should have.
Naila kept walking.
Luke let her go without another word, his gaze following her for a moment before he looked down at the tiny strand of thread she had left on the counter.
He picked it up, turning it absently between his fingers.
Then he smiled to himself.
He wasn't entirely sure when teasing her had stopped being enough.
And he suspected she wasn't, either.