Miranda took a dozen grilled sausages, sauces and walked over to the hall. Home theatre. She realized.
"Ah yes the first part, an interesting one, settle down, you will love it,"
"You love these genre of movies?"
"Of course yes, you should know that I am very different from Clara," Miranda reminded him.
"I know Clara never had a thing for movies, I forcefully made her watch movies a lot to spend time together,"
"Were you that crazy about her?"
"I was but I," he stopped. "I don't know I always respected her and liked her, I liked being with her too but there was always a missing spark, maybe because of the lack of freedom. I had so much of restrictions when I was with her,"
"If you felt fine, you shouldn't have kissed me back, I remember well you did, and I remember I heard that was your first-ever serious fight, why did you do that?" and he had no answer for that. "Maybe you should have broken up with her then, it did reveal that you had already lost the spark,"
"I couldn't do anything,"
"Why? Why didn't you do anything until 8 months back?"
" Because our families got involved since we got into this relationship for years,"
"Really? That's huge,"
"Yeah, I couldn't do anything even if I wanted to, that's why I lost the spark maybe, worried, but in the end I did and dad kicked me out, he said he is so embarrassed to face Clara's family and recommended Clara to a college as a professor,"
"Great," she said nothing else. 'so Niall is from a powerful family background' she thought and took a bite of sausage. They resumed with the movie. She was totally into it, her eyes glistening in joy. She glanced at her often watching her enjoy the movie and interrupt asking her doubts.
"So Optimus Prime is the good leader of Autobots in all the parts of the movie? Even in Bumblebee movie?"
"Yes he is, but Bumblebee is the cutest, I love him the most, he has a separate fan base,"
"Cute?"
"Yes just watch him, funny little yellow car," he was startled to see how much she loved the movie that usually girls never preferred. He laughed a little silently and continued watching the movie. And to watch her getting immersed and listen to the storytelling, he played the next part of the movie back to back until it was late at night. They had ordered a bag of fried chicken and mojitos for dinner.
"You are a good eating partner I must say, aren't you worried you will put on weight?"
"Not a bit, why in the world would I miss eating all the good stuff and remain skinny,"
"You are not skinny nor are you heavy,"
"heavy?"
"Am sorry," Niall looked away.
"How do you know I am not heavy? When have you carried me?" she seemed to have forgotten the fact that he not once but has carried her around twice already. "Oh yes, the hospital, sorry I forgot,"
"Not just then,"
"Then? Miranda was shocked.
"When you were drunk at the bar I mentioned the other day, you were too drunk to get to the hostel, so I took you back,"
"What?" she was dumbstruck. "Noooooo," she said. "That means Clara saw us, we were on the same floor, that means you people fought because of me, again?" Things appeared clear to Miranda slowly.
"Not because of you of course, but I wasn't allowed to enter the hostel so I knew nobody except her, so I asked her to take you to your room,"
"Are you kidding me, that's like a suicide mission! Oh dear lord!" she said horrified. "I am so sorry",
"Well don't be," he ordered her. "Don't say that again, thanks to you I am finally happy now, relationships with fights drain you like anything,"
"But your father,"
"My father is also pissed because I didn't choose the family business, but I have plans, it's fine so,"
"So your doctoral thesis are they done? Why did you choose to do them?"
"Because I felt am young enough to continue studies I didn't want regrets that my brother has now, he supported me a lot, he is a graduate in mathematics,"
"He sure does seem nice, lucky you are,"
"Very much," he said sipping a coke.
"These recliners are so good professor Niall," she teased him feeling uneasy and changing the topic. She laid back a bit pulling the headrest. They seemed to have been wrapped in bubble in a different world. As the Decepticons killed the good Autobots, in the middle, Miranda slowly fell asleep. It was past 11 at night. Sitting in the darkroom, she didn't realize it was already night as she watched the movie with him. Niall kept the movie going for her to not wake up. When she completely fell into a deep sleep, he slowly and very carefully took her in his arms carrying her to the master bedroom he showed her early in the evening. He laid her down on the bed and covered her, he saw her sweating and turned the air condition on and keep it low. He tucked her into bed and sat that couch turning the dim lights on.
'She is gonna freak out when she wakes up and finds out she has spend the night here,' he thought smiling wide. He closed the curtains to avoid the morning sun rays falling inside the room in the morning. He took out his textbooks and read through for his thesis. He read and checked on her once a while. He was doing his best remaining calm while his heart was exploding in happiness inside though he was well aware of everything that happened.
Miranda slept well in the cozy bed. She slowly woke up yawning. She looked around her, coming back to her senses. 'Oh no!' she jumped out of the bed. 'no no no, not here,' she bit her lips. She looked around the room, walked over to the closet, and checked if Niall was in the washroom, apparently, he wasn't. She walked out of the room over to the hall, the recliners were still there facing the television, and she moved to the kitchen, everything looked neat. And he was nowhere to be seen. 'Did he leave already? He did say he would leave in the morning. Should I leave before he shows up,' she walked towards the door. 'Wait, what am I embarrassed about, why am I running away, it's not like anything happened,' she stopped walking, thinking in the middle. 'I can't go out looking this way, let me fresh up first,' she walked back into the room. She looked at the bed. 'I am so sorry Mr. and Mrs. Daniel I never meant to use your room first here please forgive me' she apologized in her head correcting the bedspread.
Then she walked over to the closet and opened the door to the washroom once again. To her shock, she saw a tall figure this time in front of her wearing nothing but a turkey in his hip and another one in his hand. She didn't know what to do, panicking, she screamed, loud enough for the heavens to hear her and slammed the door. 'when did he get in' she wondered. Not knowing what had happened, Niall turned around and opened the door. To his surprise, Miranda seemed to be standing facing his closet, eyes tight shut. Smiling, he walked over to her. Unaware that he was closer to her, she relaxed and opened her eyes and found him standing right in front of her, and closer. Few drops of water fell on her shoulders from his wet hair. It gave her the chills all over her body. 'God what is he doing?' she thought as her heart pounded loud.
"I can hear you," he said as he reached out to the shelf for his t-shirts.
"Hear what?" she asked back, her sound hardly coming out as she spoke. Her throat going dry.
"Everything," her uneven breath touching his chest, he was sure she felt super tensed around him.
"Ok whatever," she said looking at his smiling face teasing her. She pushed him away with her bare hands and walked over to the washroom rubbing her hands on her dress after touching him. 'Why does my heart beat loud, could he have meant he heard this? No way!' she argued with herself and took a shower. She always hated wearing dirty clothes after a shower. Then she found the washing machine in the corner of the washroom. She wrapped the towel around her and put the clothes for delicate wash and put it in the dryer. She waited until her clothes came out. 'Still not very dry' she thought, touching the fabric. She looked for a dryer on the shelf in corner of the washroom. There was none there. 'Should I ask him that? Damn it' she cursed. 'Why am I tensed around him, it's just Niall you idiot' she reminded herself. 'Ask him, now!'
"Niall," she called out before she would change her mind.
"Yes,"
"Could you pass me a dryer if there is one?"
"Sure, in a minute," he said and disappeared. She waited in the washroom for a good 15 minutes.
"Niall," she called him, but there was no answer. Five minutes later Niall entred the door.
"Here,"
"What are you doing?" it clicked him. Miranda flushed red, and Niall turned away.
"I didn't see anything,"
"Please shut up,"
"Okay," he said obediently. He badly wanted to laugh but he dare not.
"Give me that," and he extended his hands for her to take them.
"Is this new too?" and he nodded and left her alone.
Half an hour later, Miranda, a little bit more embarrassed walked out towards the kitchen looking crisp.
"Am sorry about what happened earlier, I shouldn't have come,"
"Can we no talk about, like ever?"
"It's not like you were," he stopped as Miranda snared at him. "Okay deal,"
Niall fixed breakfast for Miranda. Bread toasts with grilled sausages scrambled eggs and a glass of strawberry milk.
"When are you leaving?"
"You mean we?"
"Yeah fine, we? When are we leaving?" she agreed finally and looked at his face. 'what did I ever do to cause such a stir in his life?' she thought.
"After 12?"
"Done," they decided.
They finished breakfast together. "You made breakfast, I will do the dishes," she said and took his plates over to the sink not waiting for his response. He turned and looked at her for a moment as she did dishwashing and continued to scroll through his iPad reading headlines sipping his tea.
Around 11, Niall dropped Miranda in front of her apartment.
"I have an urgent thing to take care, I will be back in an hour, be ready by then," he said and took off. Miranda ran upstairs and took care of her things. She packed her backpack and looked at the time, there was plenty of time for Niall to come back. She decided to doll up. Miranda put on her white frilled chiffon blouse for her black jean and wore a black denim jacket over her shoulders. She put on her black pinpoint heels and touched her face with compact and liquid matt red lipstick. She regretted instantly. She looked at her image in the mirror wondering if she overdid it? Then she recalled a past event instantly. 'Didn't I wear this same outfit the day I went with the gang to celebrate our last day at college?' she asked herself.