I start loading up my plate with haste, knowing that our flight will be leaving soon. As I'm pondering between the tuna sandwich or the avocado sourdough Nikolai sneaks up behind me and says near my ear, 'Wow I didn't know you had such a big appetite Jas'. My heart nearly stops and I almost drop my plate, but I quickly catch it before it falls to the ground. 'Jesus Christ! Haven't you ever heard of personal space!'
He is about to answer me when the announcement of our flight interrupts him, telling us we have 20 minutes until boarding time. His face gets dark for a second and a muscle in his jaw ticks. He turns to me with a brooding look on his face, 'Look, just hurry it up. We're going in 15!'
'But the announcement said twe-' he puts his hand up to halt me. '15 minutes Jas and not a second later'. Then he stalks off to a lounge leaving me to my own devices. I stare after him. Jeez what crawled up his ass and died. He's usually broody but today he's even more insufferable.
I shrug my shoulders, there's not a second to waste thinking about that bastard.
I scarf my food down and I'm moving onto the last tuna sandwich when Nikolai resurfaces. No doubt because he doesn't trust me to meet him on time.
'Are you done? Let's go!' he says and I notice that the coloring in his face is off.
I roll my eyes, 'Nearly give me 5 more minutes, so I can digest my food'.
Nikolai clenches his jaw, 'We don't have 5 more minutes! Just throw it in the bin. Let's go!'
I check my watch, already full well knowing that he's come to get me 5 minutes earlier than the allotted time that we decided on. 'We've still got time. What's the rush?'
He gets closer to my personal space and stares down at me, 'Just. Finish. Your. Damn. Food.'
Ughh the insufferable bastard, all I'm trying to do is eat here. You'd think I was preparing to kill his dog the way he's acting.
Instead of leaving me to finish my food in peace he stands right next to me silently pressuring me to hurry up.
Because of his rude attitude I decide to do the opposite and take smaller bites taking even longer to finish the last bits of my food. I feel a menacing energy radiating from him, which should scare me, but instead it excites me.
Especially because I know he can't do anything to me in public even if he wanted to. I smile in my head knowing that I've won this round. He can suck it.
A lady announces through the speakers that our flight is ready for boarding, so I go and chuck my rubbish and grab my bag. Then I look up at Nikolai to see him clenching his jaw and staring at me with a dark look that screams vengeance.
I smile at him, 'I think I'm just about ready!' then I tap my head with my index finger, 'On second thought, I think I might just grab another croissant for our trip. You never know when hunger might strike' I wink at him and fake turning towards the buffet, when Nikolai's arm shoots out to catch me.
'I've had it with your games.' He growls at me. 'We're going straight to our gate and we're not stopping for anything else'. He grabs my arm and tugs me toward the direction of our gate.
I'm really tempted to whack him for always touching me without my permission but decide to let it go for now because he looks a little weird today. He's more aggressive and short tempered than usual. He's usually broody and serious, but he's always patient with people. But today he's a bit off, I can't put my finger on it.
As we approach the check in for our gate, his grip on my arm tightens causing my arm to slightly ache from the pressure. 'Are you feeling okay?'
'Of course I am! What kind of ridiculous question is that?' he says in a stern tone.
My eye twitches, 'Oh I don't know, maybe it's because you've had a death grip on my arm for the past 10 minutes.' I say pointing at our adjoined hands for emphasis.
He immediately drops my hand and a look of confusion crosses his face. As if he's trying to work out why he was even holding onto my arm to begin with. Nikolai coughs, clearing his throat, 'Hmph, that is a ridiculous accusation Jasmina.' My eyes bulge at his comment and I nearly choke on my own saliva.
He continues, 'I was simply keeping an eye on you so that we would be on time for our flight. You have a tendency to run off and I couldn't have you disrupting our schedule'.