"We just talked, to be honest," I said, forking a piece of chicken into my mouth.

Emma nodded along, eating her own meal. After the sunset has finished, we were silent when we went back down, and never once did we mention that our hands were still clasped together the whole time. When we released because we had to go into the separate apartments, my hands felt cold without his but I just assumed that it was due to the fact that his body heat was no longer by my side.

Emma and Andy have already ordered food when I entered the apartment and although she didn't pry, I could see from her fleeting looks that she was curious. I sat her down when we got our meals and started telling about everything that happened with Adam, sparing the story about my ex for when we were going to fill the night with chatters before falling asleep.

Her brother sat opposite to us on the grey loveseat, also paying attention to what I was saying. He did need an explanation though for my sudden runaway move earlier when we crossed paths so I didn't mind.

"You fancy him," it wasn't a question like Emma's when she said the exact words to me, but it was a statement. I rolled my eyes, grabbing a throw pillow before chucking it towards his direction. He avoided with ease before shrugging, "Denial is the beginning of a person's road to acceptance."

"Why do people keep insisting that I like him?" I groaned, my fork stabbing my food, "I like him as a friend but what you're implying is that I have some sort of crush on him."

"Which you do," he told me, all confidence oozing in his voice, "I'll give you twenty-five quid if you never fall in love with him and a hundred if you marry somebody else sometime in the future. If you do fall in love with him and farther along, marry him, you owe me the same."

It was a huge gamble and I was thinking that the reason why he was so confident was because he already has a manageable income due to his writing. Even I don't know what the future entails, we don't know what happens and I can't possibly stop myself no matter how much I tell myself not to for the sake of money.

However, I missed the times when I was stubborn and didn't back down from a challenge.

"Deal."

Emma giggled next to me, shaking her head, "This is going to bite you both on the arse at the end."

"Not if I win," Andy smirked, finishing up his meal and standing up to go to the kitchen.

"Your brother is frustrating," I blew out, drinking my glass of water after eating the last bites of my food, "How can you live with him?"

"Let's trade siblings so you can find out," she laughed, crossing one leg over the other, "You'll take Andy and I'll take Sam."

My little brother, Sam, was the same age as Emma and even though I was fairly close with her, she and him get along better because they both claim that they were the black sheep of the family. I don't see them that way but there's definitely some kin shared between the two of them.

And speaking of the little rascal, I kind of do miss him. Mom was home often but she was constantly busy because she brings her work from the office while dad was out for the whole day and will come back just barely in time for dinner. It was usually just me and Sam; although we do argue a lot to the point it frustrated our mother on a daily basis, it was us against the world in most cases.

I remember when I rushed inside our apartment that the day when I broke up with Justin. I was a mess, to put it lightly. I sprinted into my room and continued to let out the sobs I managed to hold in on the way home. He knew instantly that there was something wrong but he never asked. Instead, he opened my bedroom door and sat next to me while I cried my eyes out. He was silent but that was the kind of comfort I needed at the time. He was also the one constantly worrying about me during my slump. I barely left the house, something I never did when I was in high school.

Uncle Levi came in with Aunt Janine trailing right behind him. They were supposed to come home a while ago but when they heard that I was coming and that we've already ordered our dinner, they gleefully decided to go out on a date night, both to the disgust of their two children.

They both made a spectacle of shuddering at the thought and that that was when my uncle left them with the magical retort, "When are you two moving out again?"

Their faces right after were hilarious to say the least; especially Andy, but he responded by saying that his move-out will just be transferring to the apartment on the other floor because he was still studying in the university.

"By the way Andy, we have a release date for your book so I suggest you start on the second one," Aunt Janine said, removing her coat and handing it to her husband in order for him to hang it. Andy walked out of the kitchen and nodded to his mother, swiping away a few stray pieces of his growing hair from his forehead.

With the thought that Uncle Levi just finished with his book – judging from the way Emma said it – and that Andy was well on his way to bringing out a new one, I had this unsettling feeling in my stomach. They were making progress while I was halfway to giving up mine hours earlier.

Uncle Levi saw the sketchpad that I haphazardly threw out of my bag earlier so that I could insert again the pages that Adam returned to me. Without an warning, he picked it up and I was prepared to jump and snatch it away but it was too late, he opened it and the pieces of torn up paper fell out.

So instead of leaping up to him, I dived down and grabbed the pages and shot him a sheepish smile. I was ready to be scolded for ruining such a precious object to him and his son but to my complete surprise, he started laughing.

I was left gaping when he closed it and placed it back down on the coffee table. Aunt Janine even let out a small giggle while helping me back up to my feet, "This must run in the family."

"It does indeed," my uncle said before a fatherly look dawned upon his features when he saw my worried expression, "Don't worry, I did that and even Andy did it. I'm going to be quite afraid if you didn't, it means that you're too sure of yourself and that you're not looking at it from a bigger perspective."

The papers were now clutched tightly against my chest, protecting them like they were my own babies. Andy snorted, shaking his head and going up to his room to get away from his slightly crazy family.

"We better go to bed as well, Sienna," Emma said with an encouraging smile, saying goodnight to her parents before dragging me up to her room, "Now tell me everything that happened during the video call."

No wonder she was so eager because most sleepovers I've been to was a competition of who can stay up the latest.

I recalled everything that happened, from my multiple failed attempts to when he revealed that he read my book, "Well, of course I was a bit shocked but let's be real, if my ex was a writer and suddenly came out with a book right after our relationship fizzled out, I would have a hunch as well," What got me grinning with happiness was when I told her that he asked if we should give our relationship another shot.

"He asked me though..." by this time, she was clutching her pillow and was prepared to let out an enthusiastic squeal, "And then I said no."

"I'm so happy for you!" she shrieked in enthusiasm, lunging forward to give me a hug but right before I was fully pulled into her embrace, she paused when my words finally registered in her head, "You said no?!"

If I wasn't too busy dwelling if my decision was sensible or not, I would have laughed at her reaction. She was baffled and maybe if I was my younger self, I would be the same. Wasn't this the one thing I've been wishing for since that day I broke up with him?

Well, I realized that it wasn't. The reason I rejected him was the same reason why I broke up with him.

Not yet, he knew that.

"I said no," I reiterated, slowly to get my point across. She pouted and allowed her eyes to wander, before settling her gaze outside the window. The stars peppered the sky, a view I need to remind myself not to take for granted because light pollution made it virtually impossible for me to see them back home.

But before there was night, twilight was there.

"I still don't get why you're so against the idea of dating Adam," she sighed, going back to her original position on the bed, "You're single, you're moving on, he's not bad looking, and I have this hunch that he likes you as well."

"As well?" I quipped with a raised brow, "And it's not that I'm against it, it's just that I feel like everybody's expecting it to happen and if it does, I want it to happen in my own terms."

Her eyes widened, her jaw slackening, "So you're open to the idea of you being in a relationship?"

My gaze went down to my hand and I remembered how it felt when it was in his grasp. I'm not going to fall into a spiel of how my fingers fit perfectly in-between his or yadda yadda, but I won't deny that my heart was racing and my face was red.

It was a mixture of being quick to be flustered and an underlying layer of knowledge that I freshly turned down Justin and he was in that slow recovery from his admiration over his best friend.

Because right now, we were in the middle of a huge puzzle piece that nobody knew what the complete picture looked like.

"Maybe," I tried to shrug nonchalantly, "But I'm not sure if I even want to fall for him in the first place."

All for the reason that we were on a delicate balance, it was as if we were dancing on an old hanging bridge that with one wrong move, the rope will break off. I've seen him do the pathetic tango with Heart and one thing's for sure, I don't want to be part of any of it.

And we have to remember, while I did say no to Justin, it didn't mean that I was ready to jump on another ship.

She eventually dropped the topic and we ended the night by getting ourselves mugs of hot chocolate and binge watching various movie before we finally fell asleep.

When we got down for breakfast, I almost fell into a crying fit when I saw the lineup of food that Aunt Janine had prepared. She claimed that she even looked for a fluffy buttermilk pancake recipe online in order to make me feel more at home. Having a steaming hot meal on my plate was certainly better than the mass-produced food served at the dorm.

"Sienna, get your laptop and the sketchbook," Andy told me when we were in the middle of eating. My knife and fork stopped midair so that I could glance at him questionably, "We're going out after this."

I exchanged a look with his sister before nodding, finishing my meal, and taking a quick shower before dressing up. Grabbing the things he wanted me to bring plus my wallet and phone, I followed him out of the apartment after saying goodbye to the rest of his family, "Can you tell me where we're going?"

"No," was his quick reply as he continued on walking, going inside the elevator then exiting the building. You know, Andy wasn't always my cup of tea but I trusted him. He understood me in a kind of level I had a hard time comprehending myself.

I thought there was going to be a cab that would be waiting for us but there was no vehicle in sight. He then continued to trudge towards the direction of the university and once again, I was confused as hell. It was doubled when he turned just as we were to go inside the gates of the school and kept on walking.

We entered a quaint café, its windows nonexistent and you would miss it if you weren't paying attention since the stores beside it had louder and larger signs. He entered through the glass door and I was intrigued by the interior.

It had some canvasses portraying different meals and coffee, at the very end was the counter with a remarkable neon sign showing the café's logo. What made it odder was the number of tables, there was a total of nine tables cramped in such a small space. Four of them could only seat a maximum of two and the other five was lined up by the couch stretching against the whole left wall. The space between the tables that created an aisle could only fit one person, making the trip towards the counter and out a one-way road.

There was a single person who was inside aside from us and the two employees at the counter. He had books filling up his whole table, his frappuccino pushed aside.

Andy waved at the person behind the register before he sat on one of the tables pressed against the couch and gestured for me to sit on the opposite side. Slowly lowering myself on the chair and placing my belongings down on the table, he quickly snatched the sketchbook before I could protest.

"Hey," I reached forward and gripped the edge of it, "Give it back."

He looked up and rolled his eyes, handing his wallet to me, "Go buy me a drink."

"Andy," I groaned and he had a look that demanded me to let go and do the task he asked. With an immature stomp of my foot, I pushed my chair back and went towards the counter.

The woman flashed me a warm smile but I couldn't take her that seriously with her plastic pink visor. I ordered us the same iced coffee just to get it over with, gave her the money, told her my name, and sat back down while I waited to be called.

"As far as I'm concerned, I will be twenty-five pounds richer soon," he smirked, plopping down the torn up pieces of paper that I still haven't taped back onto the book, "He's all that you write."

"Because aside from Julia, Meg, and your family, he's the only other person that I've bothered interacting with," I defended, inserting the pages back into the sketchbook, "So why did you bring me here?"

He reached into his messenger bag and took out his laptop, "I have a sequel to write and you need to make progress on your own book."

It dawned upon me that this was the café where Andy Kingsley wrote his greatest works. He almost sank into the couch as if he had been there a thousand times, one knee propped on the cushion while his other leg swayed around so I could hear his shoe hitting the floor. His concentration couldn't be disturbed even if I overdramatically waved my arms in front of him.

He proceeded to ignore everything else after he had gotten his coffee and I was grumpy to say the least. He was the one to drag me out of the apartment and now he had the audacity not to give me any of his attention.

Grumbling incoherently under my breath, I opened my laptop and checked out the last chapter I worked on. It was quite some time ago already so my memory of it was slightly hazy.

I took the papers and followed the arrows of the plot of the last chapter I've written. My eyes trailed around through the arrow I attached it to, I smiled at the small scribbly notes of the exchange that happened between me and Adam during the first time I went inside his apartment.

I could still remember the taste of that almost store-bought lasagna.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard for a while before I took a deep breath and pressed the first letter to a two-thousand worded chapter, the feeling of the keys under my fingers, my nail slightly hitting it causing a tapping sound to be produced.

I saw Andy glance discreetly from his work and a small chuckle escaped his lips accompanied by a shake of his head.

Smiling up to him, I placed my attention back onto my screen, our conversation was imbued in my brain that created a desire for me to write it down.

"And what makes you think I'm coming back."

When I said that, it was in a teasing tone since we barely knew each other then. It was a joke and I certainly had no idea what a development we would have gone through in just a week.

His reply, of course, was full of confidence and assurance that was accompanied by relaxed nonchalance that was still more trustworthy than most things conveyed in such a strong manner.

"I just have this feeling."

A feeling?

I took a pencil and I flipped the sketchbook to the first blank page. My hands moved on their own when I started drawing. I was nowhere near as talented as Emma, but I could easily draw beyond the stick figures.

So on the paper, I transferred the image etched in my brain. Of one bespectacled boy, whose hair stuck all around in places, whose brown eyes were so gentle and forgiving, whose expression were still as easily readable since the day I met him.

Of the boy who was miles away from me and the one I had to say no to because our lives were far different from the way we planned it to be.

Everybody got along with him so when Adam threw my own question towards me, that was my same reply.

Because he was the one that brought me free.

Andy glanced towards my work and his mouth suddenly pressed into a thin line. I scrunched up my eyebrows in confusion at his reaction, "What?"

"Nothing," he murmured, shaking his head and returning back to his work.

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Happy New Year everyone! Let's hope and pray that I'm better at updating during 2020.

Don't forget to vote, comment, and follow. I love you guys and I shall see you next chapter (I SWEAR IT'S NEXT WEEK).