The restaurant Lucas had chosen for the date was big and crowded. It was a simple pizzeria with white walls and old tables. Music played in the background, muffled by the chatter and laughter of many voices.

"Lucas and I are going home after this," said Carolina, making her boyfriend frown. "But you guys should enjoy the night. Go take a walk in the park. It's so beautiful at night."

Giovanni shifted uncomfortably in his seat and took another bite of his slice. Even Alice seemed uneasy. She glanced at him, but he was looking elsewhere.

"We're going home too," Alice said, making her friend roll her eyes.

"Nooo! You need to have fun, you two. You've done nothing fun in ages."

"We do plenty of fun things," Giovanni argued, "individually."

Carolina shot him a look. She had spent the last weeks trying to get Alice to tell her what happened between them, but all she got was a quick complaint about how their New Year's kiss was a mistake. It sounded wrong to her. She knew Alice refused to make another mistake in her love life, but the way she was blocking Giovanni made sense.

"Ali-" she started.

"I'm going to the bathroom." The pink-haired girl shot up and walked away without looking back.

Carolina opened her mouth to protest, but closed it at once. That dinner was not going the way she had hoped. Sighing, she took another spoonful of her chocolate mousse.

"There's an issue here, Gio," she said after a while.

"Definitely," Lucas scoffed.

She kicked him under the table lightly and then turned back to Giovanni.

"You're going to take her to the park, and make up some beautiful love confession, and then you kiss her. Deal?"

"No."

She hit the table with both hands and let her back hit the chair. She couldn't even look at him, shaking her head in plain disappointment.

"Why not?"

"She told me we were just friends and better remain like that."

"And you believed her?" she argued in a high-pitched tone.

"Carol," Lucas warned, nodding towards the people staring after her outburst.

She waved her hand in dismissal and pushed her chair closer to the table, closer to Giovanni. They had to reach an understanding before Alice came back.

"Gio-"

"Would you stop it? She said she just wants to be friends and you know what? I respect it. I won't chase her against her will and ruin our friendship."

"Your friendship is pretty much all ruin," said Carolina. "Let's lay our cards on the table. She likes you — don't you dare deny this — but last time she liked someone, it went wrong. She's afraid. That's why she is lying to herself. You like her too. So, man up and tell her how you feel."

Giovanni nodded in understanding. "No."

"Oh, fuck you."

Lucas eyed him for a second. He was lost in the conversation, unaware of what it was all about, but he could grab onto some details.

"You're afraid too, aren't you?"

"No."

"What are you afraid of?"

Alice reached the table and sat by them, making it impossible for Giovanni to answer. It made the other couple exasperated. The double date was being a complete disaster.

"Gio has just agreed to take you to the park." Carolina smiled at her friend, but the girl only frowned. "Didn't you, Gio?"

He glared at her. "Sure. If Ali wants to."

Alice sighed, looking between them. "Yeah, sure. Why not?"

Carolina clapped her hands together. "Wonderful!"

After dinner, Lucas took his girlfriend back home, intending to stay over, but she quickly shooed him away. Nicole had stayed home, crying over ice cream, since she came back from New York, and Carolina wanted to be there for her.

She walked inside the house on her tiptoes, shoes in hand, and closed the door with a gentle click. The room was dark, the only source of light being a lamp at the corner and the TV playing Law and Order.

Carolina dropped her shoes by the door and walked towards the small sofa, sitting beside the nest of blankets that was Nicole. The blonde didn't bother to look up, but pushed the blanket closer to her so that only the top of her head was visible. Her eyes were glued to the screen.

"How was your night?" she asked, reaching for her housemate's shoulder.

Nicole shrugged. "He came by earlier." Her voice was hoarse, as if she had been crying.

"Andrew?"

She nodded.

"What did he want?"

"To see if I was calmer."

"Were you?"

She didn't answer, and the brunette didn't push. It was weird to see Nicole like that. She never let her guard down, never let herself be vulnerable. Yet she was falling apart.

"Did he give you an explanation, at least?"

"I didn't let him."

"Nicole-" she started, but she didn't really know what to say. The situation was as bad from her point of view as it was from Nicole's. He had left her, plain as that. But they didn't know his reasons.

"I'm the one in the wrong now," Nicole muttered. "I fucked up yesterday and now I'm the one who doesn't deserve him."

Carolina blinked. "What? You did nothing wrong. He hurt you and you reacted."

"But I didn't have to throw a lamp at him!" Her voice rose. She sat up, staring at her friend. "It doesn't matter how fucked up the situation was, I escalated it. I could've been just told him to leave. I didn't have to yell and break things!"

"So? Apologise to him. You can't sit here in the dark regretting what you did. You can apologise to him, though."

"I don't want to apologise to him," she whined. "He doesn't deserve an apology after what he did."

Carolina kept quiet for a minute, letting it all sink in. She could almost laugh. Nicole, who was always the rational one, never driven by emotion, had reached a stalemate because heart and mind were yelling at the same time.

"So... pros and cons list?"

Nicole stared at her. "Obviously."

The brunette got up to get a sheet of paper and a pen where she drew to columns. She sat next to Nicole again, and the blonde came closer.

"Pros," Carolina started, "You love him."

"I never said that."

"Yeah, but you do. And he loves you, too. You wouldn't be dating him in the first place if you weren't sure he was your endgame."

Nicole said nothing. She could've argued, but Carolina wasn't wrong.

"He doesn't love me, though. He left me."

"He's loved you from the moment you met. Maybe not love, but you know he was drawn to you," Carolina added. "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but in the night the boys went clubbing, he said he found you hot."

Nicole rolled her eyes. She didn't think finding someone hot and being in love were the same.

"I know. I heard Lucas tell you. The walls are thin."

Carolina's cheeks turned bright pink at the thought of the things she might've heard. Regardless, she went on with the list.

"He's got money," she said as she wrote it down.

"Seriously?" Nicole asked, rolling her eyes.

"That's actually all I got. Pros, you love him. Cons, he left you. This is a shitty list."

"Tell me about it." She laid back down. "He said whenever I wanted to talk, I could just call or stop by the house. I hate he left the decision on me. He's probably afraid I'll throw another lamp at him. I wouldn't miss a second time, though."

The brunette giggled at that. She wasn't sure what advice to give. They should be together, but she was afraid that by suggesting it, she would make it all worse. Some couples weren't meant to be, and Nicole didn't need to suffer anymore.

"Why don't you go to his place to apologise? Just apologise. Maybe hear him out too. You can decide what to do after you have all the facts."

The blonde sighed. "Yeah... I might. I just need time to cool my head."

🤍🖤🤍

Alice's feet were killing her. She had borrowed a pair of high heels from Carolina, but she didn't expect to end the night wandering through the park with Giovanni. After a while, she had to sit down on a bench and take her shoes off.

"You could've brough sneakers," he pointed out. "I've never seen you wear that type of shoes before."

"I wanted to be on theme," she complained.

He was walking back and forth in front of her, kicking the pebbles on the floor. One of them ended up rolling onto the lake behind the bench, making a loud splash that she felt in the ankles.

"Okay."

He kept on kicking the floor, hands in his pockets. His eyes never met hers, no matter how much she tried to find them, no matter how much she tried to make him face her.

"Why are you so monosyllabic tonight?"

"I'm not."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

He was looking up at the stars. The sky was a blue starry blanket over their heads, deep and mysterious.

"Gio?"

"Mhm?"

"Why are we here?"

He shrugged. "Carolina was annoying me to come."

"Why?"

He kept quiet for a bit, choosing his next words.

"Because she thinks we like each other," he answered, truthfully. "But don't worry, I know we're just friends."

She shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah. I said that."

"But you know what?" he asked, hoping the sudden jolt of courage didn't go away. "I liked kissing you. And I'd do it again."

Alice stared at him, lips parted in awe. She wasn't expecting him to say that.

"I-I liked the kiss too," she admitted. "But it didn't mean anything."

"Yeah, you said that before."

"It's the truth."

He rolled his eyes and went back to kicking pebbles. It seemed like the only thing he could do at the moment. Each of them went straight into the water, making frogs jump with a croak.

"Gio, don't be mad."

"I'm not mad. But I want to go home. I'm tired."

"Gio, it's not that easy." She went up to him and held his face so he had to look at her. "I always think I like someone, but it's just a stupid infatuation. And it's unrequited."

"It's not unrequited this time. I like you. You're the best thing that happened to me since I came to university," he said. "I like spending time with you. I like your jokes and the way you frown when I don't understand them right away. I like you, I really do."

"You like me like a best friend would. And we're great friends. Why are you ruining it?"

He grabbed her hands, pulling them from his face. "Alice, no offense, but you're being really annoying right now."

She frowned. "Because I'm not giving you what you want? It's for the best."

"How is it for the best? I like you and you like me. Why are you putting a barrier for no reason?"

Alice rested her forehead against his with a sigh. Her eyes were glued to her shoes, incapable of looking at him in the eyes.

"We'll get hurt," she muttered.

"You don't know that. You're guessing based on a previous terrible experience. But I'm not Andrew. Our relationship is nothing like yours was."

"I'm not projecting," she complained. "I just-"

"Don't want to get hurt?" he asked, and she nodded. "I won't hurt you. I promise."

She shook her head. "You can't promise something like that."

"But I am. I promise I won't hurt you. Ever."

The corners of her lips tilted upwards. "You're being silly."

"Maybe. But I'm serious," he said. "Ali, look at me."

She did. Her eyes met his, the ones she was so desperately trying to avoid. They were as close as they had been when they first kissed. But now they weren't drunk. There was no liquid courage to fuel anything, so when Giovanni kissed her, it was real.

"You can't do that," she muttered against his lips.

"Why not?"

"I-" she stopped for a second, tracing his jaw with her thumb. "I don't know." She kissed him again, and this time it made her happy.

Yall can thank the reader who told me to update for this. I've been unable to write for the past weeks. Uni is murdering me

Hope you enjoy the story still. We're almost at the end.

Thoughts on Nicole? Thoughts on everyone else?

Thank you so much for reading ;)