PART 2 OF CHAPTER 76

. . . . . .

"Oh, Jesus! I am so sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was---Chris?"

Chris recognized that voice almost instantly because not only had he heard it one too many times but it belonged to a certain friend of his. "Eddie? My God, what are you---what are you doing here?" Chris exclaimed as he pulled Eddie in for a big hug.

"I could ask you the same thing! Though, not really because you live in this city," Eddie laughed, clapping his hand on Chris' shoulder. "How've you been?"

Sebastian breathed out a sigh of relief as soon as he noticed that Chris was very much engaged in the conversation he was having with Eddie, so much so that he was practically oblivious to Anthony sneaking off into the restaurant to talk to the receptionist. Paul silently thanked Eddie by sending him a grateful smile and a nod.

"Is that---?" Eddie gestured towards Paul as he looked back and forth between him and Chris. "Is that really Paul Rudd in the flesh?"

Chris chuckled at Eddie's sudden realization, nodding as he got them both acquainted with one another. He still hadn't realized that Anthony was nowhere in sight and that Sebastian was texting away on his phone.

"No way," Paul said incredulously. "You can't possibly be fangirling over me when you practically blew everyone, especially me, away with your performance in The Theory of Everything!"

"Yeah, but you're Ant-Man," Eddie said enthusiastically, his face now breaking out into a huge grin. "The Ant-Man!"

"Hey, hey! Look who I ran into," Robert cheered from a distance, causing Chris, Sebastian and Paul to look over.

Jeremy, Scarlett, Chadwick and Lizzie were all walking towards them and Chris couldn't bite back the smile that was fighting its way on to his lips. Not only were Paul and Sebastian's worries allayed but so was Chris' doubts.

Guess they really were running late, Chris thought to himself as he wrapped his arms around his friends.

As soon as everyone was well acquainted with one another, Chadwick piped up by mentioning that the Russo brothers were running a little late. "They're stuck in traffic," he explained.

Everyone nodded in understanding before Robert suggested they all head in to grab a seat and perhaps order some drinks while they waited. Just as Chris was about to ask Eddie to stay for dinner, the latter walked up to him and apologized.

"Sorry, brother. I'd love to stay for dinner but I've got somewhere else to be right now," Eddie said with an apologetic look in his eyes. "We really should find a day to catch up."

"We really should," Chris chuckled, nodding as he moved to give his friend a hug.

"See you soon, my friend," was Eddie's last words to Chris before the former broke into a sprint to get to his car in a nearby parking lot.

. . . . . .

"God, Jen. Could you drive any faster?" Naomi chuckled nervously, throwing her friend a side glance as her nails involuntarily dug into cushion of the passenger seat.

Jen was practically whizzing through traffic as if she was being chased by someone who was hot on her tail. In all honesty, the girls wouldn't actually be in this situation if only Jen had remembered to feed her cat because by the time they got to her house, her poor cat was already whining for food.

"It's my fault that you're running late---"

"It's just a date," Naomi interjected just as Jen made a left turn. "Actually, I wouldn't call it a date since I'm only going for Andrew's sake. You're lucky he's a sweetheart, Ems."

"Love you tons, Nay!" Emma chirped up from the backseat of the car, blowing her friend a couple of kisses.

Brie, on the other hand, had been furiously texting someone ever since they left Naomi's apartment. Even though she wasn't exactly sure who she was texting, she did know that it had to be important, seeing as Brie had her eyebrows pulled together.

The drive was pretty quiet for once because Jen said she needed to concentrate on driving and getting Naomi to the restaurant, save for the soft tunes that were flowing through the speakers in her car and the occasional discussion between the four of them on whether Emma should get herself a dog.

"I can already tell that our pets are gonna be the best of friends," Jen said confidently, sparing a glance at Naomi who was nodding at her.

"Oh, don't be so sure, Jen. For all we know, they might hate each other," Brie jested, earning a hearty laugh from Emma and Naomi as Jen feigned a scowl.

While her friends were still discussing on Emma's decision on getting a dog, Naomi felt her phone buzz in her lap and she couldn't help but unlock it to see what it was. It was an Instagram notification, informing her that Chris had just posted something on his Instagram story after not being active for a while.

Naomi found herself hesitating a little, wondering what it was that he was sharing after being inactive for a few weeks. A part of her was telling her that it was probably just a normal post, perhaps one of Dodger or his friends, but a part of her was tormenting her with something more heart-wrenching.

Did he find someone new---someone less problematic, someone who was more straightforward with their feelings, someone who'd love him without hesitating?

A silent sigh left her lips as she tapped on the notification, watching as her screen took her to her Instagram page. The second Chris' story popped up, Naomi released the breath she didn't even know she'd been holding in.

It was a video of Sebastian and Anthony having one of their many banters on a casual Sunday evening. She giggled at their antics, shooting Chris a direct message as she began to reminisce about all the times they spent together---just her, Paul, Robert, Anthony, Sebastian and Chris.

The last time they all gathered for a meal together was right before she and Chris left for Georgia---right before everything went south, right before everything went down the drain, right before all the misunderstandings, miscommunications, heartbreaks and disappointment.

"Texting a certain someone who's been on your mind lately?" Emma's voice sounded from behind, startling her a little.

Naomi sighed, not knowing what to say in that very moment. Not a minute ago was she assuming that Chris might be seeing someone else---and she had no idea why she even thought of it. It was wrong of her to assume such a thing because she shouldn't have in the first place, not when she was the one who got mad at him for assuming that she was dating Ben.

She knew assumptions were the mother of all errors---her dad had made sure to embed that in her mind ever since she was in high school---but the thing is, assuming the worst was somehow better in its own twisted way because when you assume the worst and it turns into reality, the disappointment that will follow suit won't swallow you whole or consume you from within.

It won't impair you.

It won't maim you.

It won't cripple you.

Instead, it might just sting a little.

"I just happened to be looking at my phone when he posted a video on his story," Naomi said, looking away as she did so because she knew that her friends would be able to tell that she was lying if they got a good look at her face.

"Sure you were," Brie said playfully, smirking at her.

"I really was," Naomi replied, forcing out a chuckle.

Jen let out a sigh before sparing Naomi a quick glance. "You don't have to lie to us, Nay. We know how you still feel about him."

Naomi chewed the inside of her cheek, casting her eyes downwards before averting them to the buildings they were passing by. She knew there was nothing she could hide from her friends, and they were right.

They were absolutely right about everything.

"I still love him," Naomi mumbled under her breath, thinking that her friends hadn't caught on to what she said when in actual fact, they did.

They heard her, loud and clear.

. . . . . .

"Are Joe and Anthony still stuck in traffic?"

"Actually, Chris. . . Anthony is right here."

"God, Mackie. I didn't mean you," Chris groaned playfully, knowing that his friend was just trying to keep the conversation going.

It'd been fifteen minutes since they arrived at the restaurant and apparently, there'd been some misunderstanding and miscommunication between Robert and the restaurant's receptionist.

According to Chadwick, the receptionist had accidentally keyed in the wrong date---rather than keying in the 21st, she'd placed their reservations on the 31st instead.

Sebastian suggested they call the Russo brothers to tell them that their reservations were messed up and if they should all head somewhere else for dinner. Anthony, on the other hand, suggested they all head back to Robert's place and order dozens of pizzas. Paul was all for Anthony's idea but once he earned a side eye from Robert, the poor guy immediately went along with Sebastian's plan on ringing up their directors.

"They're not taking any of my calls," Sebastian said, shoving his phone back into his pocket.

The receptionist was nice enough to offer them a table that could only seat two people, seeing as the larger tables were all reserved for other customers.

"Chris, why don't you take my seat?" Jeremy said as he rose from the chair, gesturing for Chris to take it.

"No, no! I'm good---"

Before Chris could even finish his sentence, Scarlett was already shoving him towards Jeremy's seat. "Sit."

Lizzie was right behind them, placing her hands on Chris' shoulders to force him to take the seat. "Down."

Chris honestly had no idea why they were so adamant on him taking Jeremy's seat but just as he was about to ask them why they were all acting so weirdly, a familiar voice resonated through the entire restaurant, making him turn around in his seat almost instantly.

"Please, please, please promise me you girls will stop setting me up on blind dates from now on. . ."

Chris felt his breath hitch in his throat and his heartbeat begin to quicken as soon as he caught sight of her.

"Naomi?"

The petite woman stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she heard her name leave the lips of the man she loved. She quickly averted her gaze from Jen to the man before her, her mouth now hung agape as her eyes darted from him to everyone else in the room.

"What are you doing here?" Naomi asked with a huge smile on her face as she jogged up to him.

He met her halfway, taking three quick, long strides towards her. His hands immediately found hers, the smile on his face now matching hers as they beamed at one another. The little glint in their eyes could hardly be missed by their friends because it was so incredibly conspicuous---from their change in tone to their body language.

They were still very much in love with each other, and everybody knew it.

"The Russo brothers called us out for dinner, with a few of my other cast mates but they're all apparently stuck in traffic," Chris explained, lightly swaying their interlocked hands from left to right absentmindedly.

Naomi furrowed her eyebrows, turning back to look at Jen, Brie and Emma. "But there wasn't any traffic on our way here though---"

"Can we get the menus, please?" Jen called out to one of the waitresses, cutting Naomi off as she flashed them a quick smile.

"Jen, what are you doing?" Naomi asked with confusion etched between her brows as she looked to Emma and Brie who were grinning madly at her. "I thought you said we're here for a blind date."

"A blind date?" Chris' eyes widened with curiosity and shock, his crystal blue eyes now boring into hers as regret washed all over Naomi like a bucket of ice cold water.

Naomi mentally slapped herself for carelessly letting that slip, especially right in front of him. "Yeah," she said sheepishly, slowly slipping her hands out of his. "I'm, uh, actually supposed to be here for a blind date with---"

"You!" Brie and Robert exclaimed from behind them, startling both Chris and Naomi.

"It's Chris, Nay," Emma said, grinning at her friend. Naomi shot her a puzzled look, not being able to fully comprehend what was going on. "Chris is your date for the night."

Naomi looked from Emma to Brie to Jen and then back at Chris who was equally as confused as she was. He had no idea. "W-what?"

Chris turned around to look at his friends, his eyes pleading with them to tell him the truth---that this wasn't all just a joke. "Guys?"

Paul was the first to break away from the group, taking two strides towards Chris who towered over him. "There's no Marvel dinner tonight, pal. There never was," Paul chuckled, clapping his hand on Chris' shoulder.

Chris blinked a few times as he tried to process everything altogether. "You're telling me that you guys planned the whole thing? From the moment you guys came over to my house to the semi-awkward car ride to the receptionist telling us that she mixed up our reservations with someone else's?"

Anthony nodded enthusiastically, balling his hand up into a fist and bumping it against Sebastian's. "Oh, and Eddie was also in on this plan. That's why you coincidentally met him earlier on," Anthony added with a smirk plastered on his face.

Brie walked up to Naomi from behind and gently placed her hands on her shoulders, gaining her attention immediately. "Everything before this was all just an act," Brie said, offering Naomi a half-apologetic look as soon as she turned around. "We couldn't tell you because we wanted it to be a surprise---a genuine surprise for the both of you."

"Robert rang us up about a week ago to plan this whole thing," Jeremy piped up.

"We knew you guys would probably only decide to face each other after a year or something even though you guys were probably already dying to talk to each other," Jen interjected, rolling her eyes because that really would have happened.

"Jen's right," Sebastian said, nodding in agreement. "Especially you, Chris. You'd probably only muster up the courage to even talk to Naomi only after a year and a half or something. Meeting each other would probably only happen after two years."

Just as Chris was about to protest, Anthony interrupted him by raising his eyebrows and giving him a pointed look. "You know it's true, Chris. Don't deny it."

"And you, missy," Emma said, pointing a finger at Naomi. "The same thing can be said about you. You'd probably only talk to Chris and tell him how you really feel---in person, not over text---after two years! And we're not exaggerating because you should know that we're right about this."

With their mouths hung agape, both Naomi and Chris looked to one another before releasing a defeated sigh together. They knew their friends were right---they were so right that it scared them. If they hadn't intervened, that probably would have been the outcome in the end and then their almost relationship would have probably dwindled down into nothing because both of them were so terribly afraid to make a move.

But they knew they had to get rid of this horrible habit of theirs if they wanted their happy ending. They had to discard it, eradicate it even.

"SURPRISE!"

Everyone in the room jumped a little at the sound of their other friends pouring into the restaurant. It even startled the other customers who were already there, dining in.

Robert rolled his eyes at his friends as they made their way over; Mark had a bunch of red, pink and white balloons in his hands, some of which had the words 'I love you!' scrawled on its rubbery surface, Chris Hemsworth had two bouquet of roses in his hands while Tom Hiddleston ran in after them, empty handed with his face all flustered.

"Mark, Chris, what the hell are those for?" Scarlett asked, trying her best to stifle her laugh.

Mark looked to Chris while the latter looked over to Tom who was still panting. "Oh, we're a bit too late, aren't we?" Tom asked sheepishly as sudden realization dawned on him.

"I told you we didn't need to get them balloons and roses!" Mark said in a whisper, looking over to Chris Hemsworth. "Hemsworth here spent way too long picking those roses."

"Well, you couldn't even decide on which balloons to get them," Hemsworth bit back, annoyed. "I mean, how hard is it to choose a few balloons?"

Chris and Naomi were the first ones to burst out into a fit of laughter before everyone joined in, their eyes crinkling with joy as their tummies began to ache from all that laughing.

"Anyway," Robert announced, clapping his hands together to snap them both out of their thoughts. "We're gonna go," he said, slowly making his way towards the door, "while you two stay put and order some food and talk because we didn't set this blind date up for nothing."

A giggle slipped past Naomi's lips, drawing Chris' attention to her as a smile began to crawl its way on to his lips. Naomi's eyes found his, their smiles never fading as Chris drew in a gentle breath, brushing the back of her hand with his thumb in the softest way possible.

"Also, we know that this blind date isn't exactly 'applicable' to the both of you since you two have already met but there's no harm in pretending as though you haven't met yet," Paul said, throwing them a wink.

"Paul's right, especially since you guys weren't exactly honest with one another about your feelings," Sebastian added, offering the pair an apologetic smile as he earned a nod from everyone in the room.

Naomi and Chris looked at their friends sheepishly, their cheeks reddening by the second because they knew full well that they were right---they could treat this as a fresh start in their relationship because God knows they needed it, especially Naomi.

"Plus, we all know you two have had your fair share of unsuccessful blind dates in the past but we can leave that all behind now. Why? Because you guys have each other now and I'm one hundred and one percent sure that this blind date will be the best blind date you've ever been on," Anthony said with a confident look on his face.

Naomi grabbed a hold of Chris' hand and pulled him into her side, their shoulders now brushing as she tiptoed and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "I think we should stop telling them everything from now on," she jested.

Chris turned to look at her, his eyes now boring into her brown ones. "Agreed," he whispered, his mouth now dangerously close to her ear. Naomi could feel his breath fanning against the shell of her ear and just as she was about to peer up at him, Chris leaned in to plant a chaste kiss on her temple.

Naomi was sure that her friends, especially, hadn't missed the blush that crept up her neck because even she could feel how hot her cheeks have gotten. Chris was still gazing at her when he noticed the way she ducked her head a little, not the least bit bothered by her hair flopping into her face as she tried to fight the smile that was threatening to etch its way on to her lips. He chuckled lightly to himself, loving how she wasn't even trying to pull away from him after that little kiss he gave her.

He wasn't sure if he was just being a little too sensitive but he felt her shuffle a little closer to him, her head now grazing the dress shirt he was adorned in---and he absolutely loved it. He absolutely loved how close they were right in this very moment.

"Well, seeing as it's a blind date," Chris trailed off, moving to put some distance between himself and Naomi. He stood before her, a genuine smile plastered on his face as he extended his hand. Naomi looked at it, puzzled at first before she finally understood where he was getting at. "It's nice to finally meet you, Naomi."

A hearty giggle slipped past Naomi's lips, allowing Chris to relish in the sound of it after having not heard it for the past few months.

When he first met her, he had no idea that she was going to become his favourite person so quickly---heck, he didn't even know that she'd end up being his most favourite person in the entire universe.

And slowly but surely, her laugh became his favourite sound, her perfume; his favourite scent, her voice; his favourite lullaby, and her heart; his most favourite thing about her.

He was head over heels for her, now more so than ever. Though he was sure he knew pretty much everything about her, he knew that there were certain things he still had yet to know---and that was okay for him because she was a beautiful enigma he so desperately wanted to unravel.

"It's nice to finally meet you, too, Chris." She beamed at him with a beautiful glimmer in her eyes that resembled the stars that scintillated in the night sky. Her smile was as bright as the moon and stars combined, and not only did it light up the entire room but it also brought inexplicable joy to the man before her, setting the butterflies in his stomach loose and making his knees buckle.

"You know, I feel like we've met before," Chris jested, his smile now a playful one.

Naomi pressed the back of her hand against her mouth, stifling a giggle. "You sure you didn't see me in your dreams or something because I'm a hundred percent sure we've never met."

"Oh, is that so?" Chris raised his eyebrows in amusement. "Well then, could I probably interest you in dining in with me right here, right now? We could talk over dinner and get to know one another."

"Yes," she nodded in response to Chris' question as her face broke out into a huge smile. "Yes, you may."

The smile on Naomi's face never faltered once that evening. If anything, it only grew wider and wider with each passing minute that her cheeks were starting to hurt already but she didn't care because she loved everything about this evening.

Hearing Chris talk about the things he loved was such a blessing to her and she absolutely adored that little glimmer in his eyes whenever he rambled on about all the things he loved and hated, and if she was being honest, she could listen to him for the rest of her life and not get bored because she loved him.

She truly loved him.

And he truly loved her.

And that was more than enough for the both of them.

(   T H E   E N D   )

---
a/n; and that's (officially) the end, folks! a long author's note will be coming your way in a few days' time so, if you have any questions regarding this book & its characters or whether there's going to be a sequel or anything at all, feel free to write them in the comments down below (i promise i won't bite!) & i'll be sure to have them all answered in the note i'll be posting! ❤

ps. if you guys are still interested, i have an epilogue in the works & it'll involve some pretty cute (unseen) pics of chris & naomi 👀