Though she gladly lets herself lean against his finger, the pull of something stronger than gravity now tickling every part of her body, and as his dark gaze appears closer and closer, she doesn't fight it, closing her eyes.

"Nate?!"

Whatever light bubble or burning steam that has been surrounding them, it's frozen at the sound of the gasp, and it crumbles down as they immediately jump away from each other.

Nate needs a few seconds to recognize the familiar voice, and it's only when he meets his best friend's wide eyes that he realizes what has happened, or more exactly what has almost happened.

"We were wondering where you were! The break is almost over and you're never late!"

"Um, yes, I'm coming." Nate tries to keep a steady voice, quickly getting up. "I was just..." He looks back, but there is only an abandoned bouquet left on the concrete steps, and he loses his breath watching the door closing slowly.

"What did I just interrupt?" Darrell lifts an inquisitive eyebrow, once again pulling him out of his daze.

"Um, nothing, I was just... she was crying and I comforted her." Nate follows his friend, glancing one last time at the empty steps.

If it wasn't for the bouquet and his friend's questions, he could believe he's all dreamed it, and he's still left with the impression that it's been one of her angelic apparitions, the light sound of her crystalline laugh still echoing inside.

"Really heroic of you!" The sarcasm is as evident in Darrell's tone as in his smirk. "You were pretty close for 'comforting'!"

"No." Nate scratches his nose, a gesture his best friend knows very well, and he desperately tries to avoid his gaze. "You're imagining things!"

"Hmm." Darrell nods, his blue eyes still squinting inquisitively. "Who's this chick anyway?"

"I don't know... She works here as a cleaning lady." Nate heaves a loud breath,  trying in vain to quieten his heartbeat still resonating loudly in his ears, as the almost-kiss and now Darrell questioning are making each bang louder, pushing him on edge. "Why do you make it a big deal? I told you it was nothing," he almost snaps.

"I'm just worried. It could have been a big deal. What would've happened if I didn't come in? Or if it was someone else who saw you?" Darrell sighs. 

This is probably the first time it is this way: Darrell lecturing Nate, and not the contrary.

"Listen, I'm your best bud, I would never tell on you, but if someone else..." He sighs for the third time, and it's almost as if the suffocating smoke chasing Nate was now invading his friend, even inside the air-conditioned hallway. "I don't want you to get executed."

Nate gulps at Darrell's blunt words. He's used to his best friend's outspokenness, but he prefers it when it's about playful or casual matters, and he doesn't need him to remind him. His own worry, guilt, what-ifs, and torments are already eating him alive.

"You don't have to worry. I told you it's nothing."

Though inside there are many things overwhelming him, and he is glad to arrive in the locker room – though he has no idea how they've got there – joining their colleagues and ending the conversation.

***

"Wow, you look tired!"

"Merci! Nice to see you too, Andy!" Anastasia squints her eyes playfully at her friend. "I haven't even taken two steps in your office that you're already telling me I look like hell!" She fakes to be offended as she puts her bag on the small desk only cluttered with a computer. After all, he doesn't need anything else for this kind of work.

"No! You're always gorgeous. I'm just worried." Andy gets up from his chair, his tall figure a head taller than Anastasia as he gives her a quick hug. "You work too much!"

"Oh, please, can everyone stop with this..." she mutters, her features instantly tensing, but she quickly hides it as he furrows his eyebrows at her annoyed mood. "And you, how are you?"

"I'm fine, quiet like always," he replies, his tone not as cheerful as his words.

"And Khloe?"

"Fine too." He shrugs, as there surely hasn't been anything new happening in their life since the last time she's seen them for their weekly game night.

Anastasia, she, can't say the same. There has been too much happening, and her best friend must sense it as he leans closer.

"And your future husband?" The way he is wiggling his eyebrows makes her avert her gaze down.

"Er... fine, I guess..." It is her turn to shrug, though hers is much tenser, and sensing his questioning look following the mindless movements of her fingers, she quickly adds, "I don't really wanna talk about him now." 

He thankfully understands, not insisting, as a true understanding best friend, and changing the subject instead, "By the way, why are you here, usually we meet at the shelter?"

That's true; they always meet directly at the shelter, every Saturday. That's actually where they have met for the first time; Anastasia has just moved in here, and he has been the first one to talk to her, not minding her 'weird' accent. From then on, they have become best friends. Helping the most disadvantaged has been their first thing in common, and even if they are very different, it has instantly clicked.

"Oh, I thought 'why not change'." She glances around the room, searching for any detail in the narrow space that could catch her attention, and mostly, allow her to avoid her friend's widening eyes. But except for the green jacket hanging against the wall, there isn't much to look at in the gray surroundings, and she is quickly brought back to Andy's caramel eyes with his playful gasp.

"You, changing your habits?!"

Sometimes she regrets that her best friend knows her that well, and she can only resign herself in a sigh.

"Okay, I have something to ask you..." 

This is the moment she can still turn back and forget this mad idea. Yet after everything, can she really? The same urge that has led her feet here, to the Matchmaking service, is pushing the words out. 

"I was wondering if you could... calculate the compatibility between two random people..." She suddenly finds a great interest in the tiny strap of her bag, twisting it between her fingers almost as much as her stomach is knotting right now.

"Who?"

"Me and a guy... Nathaniel Johnson..." Even his name sounds forbidden between her lips.

"So, let me get it straight: you don't wanna talk about your future husband, but you want me to calculate your compatibility with another man?" Andy's brows almost rise to the top of his head, half intrigued and amused, half shocked by his friend's out-of-character behavior.

"So can you, or not?" she asks flatly, really not at ease with the subject, neither with the burning rush it brings back on her cheeks, and she probably shouldn't even have brought it up.

Curiosity and stubbornness might be great qualities in a courtroom, but they could also lead her there into the dock. 

"Of course. I can, I'm the best!" 

Luckily, her best friend is nothing like a merciless judge, and like he proudly reminds her with his chin up, he is indeed a computer genius, although he doesn't resemble a nerdy geek either. With his tall figure, caramel narrow eyes and skin, he looks more like a Hawaiian surfer, and that's only when he gets near a computer that people realize how much of a geek he is.

Anastasia knows it for long now, like she is sure she can trust him; that's why she is here, yet her hopeful smile barely gets to form that it is already fading when she looks up and meets his devious smirk.

"But that doesn't mean I will."

"Oh, come on!" She tries her best puppy eyes, not having other real arguments for a plea.

"I don't know... you know, it's illegal..." He pretends to think, rubbing his chin to hide the amused smile he is barely containing. "Maybe if you tell me why it's so important..."

"No," she replies immediately, almost too immediately.

"Too bad!" He puts his hands up, his smirk widening as her frown is deepening.

She doesn't want to tell him; she can't. Yet in front of the mischievous sparkle in his eyes, she knows he won't compromise, and the curiosity is tickling her more and more through the knots in her stomach. Her hand wraps around her scales pendant as she is weighing the pros and cons, though her decision is already taken with the lost taste of coffee and something else that she hasn't been able to erase all day.

She just needs to know, and then she will move on. Once again, she tries to keep some rationality through her madness, and she exhales a deep puff of air. "Okay, but you gotta swear you won't tell anyone."

Andy's smirk falls with the seriousness of her tone and look.

"I swear." He holds out his pinky to her, and the shake of their pinkies looks more solemn than any handshake sealing a treaty between two leaders.

It surely also appears more secretive when she looks around the small room, making sure they are alone, though another person probably wouldn't fit in, as there is barely enough space for the desk and the both of them. She even glances nervously through the glass door as if people would read on her lips.

"So?" Andy impatiently draws her attention, her strange attitude only making the curious twinkle grow in his eyes, while for her, it is the knots in her stomach that are getting bigger.

She takes a deep breath, trying to find the right words to put it, but there isn't any that makes it sound less serious. So she lets them out in a quiet mutter, which is already echoing too loudly in the small room. "I... I may have given my first to this guy."

"Your 'first' what?" Andy asks, searching for her eyes, and he immediately gets the answer with the eloquent and embarrassed look she gives him, or maybe it is already written with the rush of blood boiling her cheeks.

"What?!" His eyes almost pop out of their sockets. "You, you had sex?!"

"Shh!" She realizes there are indeed words that sound even more serious, and Andy's loud voice is ringing in her ears as she frantically looks around. "Do you want me to get arrested?!"

"You're joking, right?" Andy's quieter chuckle doesn't help either, and she can only shyly shake her head no, the lumps in her stomach climbing up her throat as she doesn't know what to think of her best friend's reaction.

"Oh. My. God." He sits down dramatically, true to form.

He takes some time to process this bombshell, and then quicker than his computer, he restarts, "You gotta tell me everything!"

"Er... no!" She winces awkwardly, the burn definitely not leaving her cheeks.

"Okay, not 'everything'. But how Miss 'I never break the law, I don't even cheat at board games' did THIS?!" 

The sparkle of curiosity in his eyes isn't what she would have expected, but she should have known her extravagant friend wouldn't be content with this little information; their curiosity is at least one of their few things in common, along with their determination.

"Okay, but first you calculate the rate."

"Yeah, yeah." He winks and starts taping away on his keyboard.

He is fast; there is no doubt as she hears the clicks of the keyboard faster than the second ticking, yet her heart rate is even quicker as she realizes what she has asked, what she has confessed, what she has done.

"OMG!! I understand why you broke the law!" The snicks of the keyboard have stopped, along with her heart upon Andy's loud gasp.

She peers over his shoulder at the computer, and there he is, those chocolate brown eyes haunting her day and night for a little bit more than a week. In the pic, Nathaniel is wearing the same serious expression as last night on the stage, along with the same uniform fitting him perfectly, and his flawless face is highlighted by the flash of the camera. Everyone looks either like a psychopath, a zombie, or a misshapen robot on their ID photo, but not him, one more thing that could cast doubt on whether he comes from heaven or not.

"Do all the soldiers look like that?! Because I think I might come see you at your work too!" Andy wiggles his shoulders, pulling her out of her daze.

Only him could lighten the atmosphere after such a confession, and she laughs lightly as he glances back at her, his gaze sparkling even more.

"I don't know," she whispers, realizing she hasn't really paid attention to anyone else since she has crossed this tenebrous gaze, surely because her mind is always clouded with a burning steam, and she quickly tries to shake it off again.

"And the rate?" She nods towards the screen, the tickling curiosity in her stomach turning into an anxious prickling in her throat when she finds those chocolate eyes again.

"Patience!"

He types a little bit more, her heart resuming its erratic pace, and soon, Anastasia's picture appears next to Nathaniel's.

Even the photos don't seem compatible, she notes, seeing her pasty face and squinting eyes, the flash of the camera not easy on her.

"49%," Andy announces at the same time as the numbers show up between the pictures.

Her stomach drops with the number. She has known it. First, they come from different social classes, so it isn't possible, and then, they are very different: he is brave, sophisticated, and he is forming the perfect couple with his wife, while her, she is more simple and down-to-earth, with so many things in common with Fergus.

The numbers are perfectly justified; they never fail, as her parents would say. Yet it doesn't make them easier to swallow.

"So now, explain everything." Andy brings her out of her upsetting and realistic reasoning, and it is the moment she has to dig back into the memories, though they aren't that far actually.

"Er... do you remember my first day at work last week, when I told you I got stuck in a steam room?"

He nods, his eyebrows creasing, as he probably can't see the link, and she still doesn't understand either.

"Yeah, your mom was worried sick."

She winces with his words, the guilt never letting her a moment to breathe.

"Well, I didn't get out by myself. He saved me." She smiles, remembering how heroic he is and their conversation about it.

"Et puis, I don't know... it happened... we were alone... hot and sweaty..." Her gaze gets lost in the memories. "I still can't comprehend it... but I know that if I could go back in time, I'd probably do it all over again." She widens her eyes, taking in the thoughts she has spoken out loud, maybe a little too mindlessly, but also the weight that has come out with them. She trusts her friend anyway.

"And after?" Andy asks eagerly, more captivated than if he was watching a thriller.

"I ran away."

Seeing Andy's eyes grow even larger, she continues, "We heard voices approaching. He quickly got out and I don't know if he came back or not because I escaped by the other door."

She lets out a sigh, trying to put her memories in order as, even if her chest is lighter, there is still this suffocating steam always chasing her. "I thought I would never see him again, but I saw him at the Ceremony last night." She gulps the sourness appearing in the back of her throat. "With his wife."

"OMG!" Andy punctuates, his eyes still as big as saucers.

"And we almost kissed again when we ended up alone for a moment... yesterday... and today." She winces as more burning embarrassment rushes to her cheeks, unless it is something even hotter?

"It's like every time he is near, I can't think straight, and my body is drawn to him." She lets it all out with a big breath, and the words out loud still sound shocking, even if they have been swirling around her head for a few days now.

"Wow!! And how was it?"

"Seriously?! That's all you got to say?" She is the one widening her eyes this time.

"No, you're fucked up figuratively and literally! But that, you already know." He shrugs, putting a handful of nuts in his mouth – from where he has taken them? She has no idea.

"So? You broke the law, it better have been good!"

"It was more than good. It was amazing and... intense." That's the word for those tingles she can't forget, but when she realizes what she has just said, even if only in a murmur, she quickly pulls herself together the best she can. "But this is not important. I gotta forget him. We're not compatible, and I have Fergus who is perfect for me." She isn't sure who she is trying to convince as she shakes her head. 

"The compatibility isn't everything. It doesn't make attraction: you can be compatible, but that doesn't mean you'll be attracted to this person," Andy says, and in his tone, she can't hear he isn't talking only about her.

"No, but the law is," she replies sternly what all her lessons are based on, though her hand doesn't reach for her pendant this time, and Andy's grim nod makes her words and their weights fall heavily in the silence following.

She doesn't know what to add after everything she has revealed, except what she repeats one more time, "You gotta promise me to not tell anyone." Her nervous hazel eyes search for reassurance in his, and she finds it in his easy smile.

"Of course! You're my best friend! Plus, without you, we wouldn't be enough for the board games nights!" he adds playfully.

She sticks her tongue out in reply, still thankful for his loyal friendship and cheerful attitude, although it isn't enough to lighten the weight on her stomach.

So, now we got to know a little bit more about what happened in that steam room, though I think we all had guessed, hadn't you? 😉

What do you think of Andy? Darrell? And their advices to their friends? 😊

Let me know what you think in the comments, vote if you liked this chapter, and don't forget to follow me and add this book to your reading lists/library, so you can be the first to know when I update the next chapters coming... *wink wink*

PS: 'Puis' is a French word that means 'then', and 'merci' = 'thank you' it's your little French lesson of the day 🤓