Nathaly
I got in Daniel's car after weighing it for a moment. That is, Daniel, even though he was my co-worker, was a stranger to me, so I had to tread carefully. Today's insecurity made me rethink my idea of agreeing to go with him, but I put on my seat belt somewhat nervously, because this was one of the few times I got back in a car.
Daniel watched me for a second and started the car.
"What a coincidence to find us, how did you recognize me?" I was on my back, I said to ease my nerves from being inside a car and being with it.
"The bar shirt," he replied.
I nodded.
Daniel started the car and I thought about the bad idea of saying yes, because his presence was demanding. I looked sideways at his bare arms, he wore a V-neck T-shirt and his scars could be seen better. He noticed my gaze.
"Do you like my scars?"
Shit.
"I wasn't seeing your scars," I refused.
"Then what did you see? My arms marked? Well, it's the second time I've caught you looking at my physique, Nat. I'm starting to believe that I seem attractive to you," he referenced the day I met him. I rolled my eyes by how he named me.
Refused.
"First of all, my name is Nathaly. Just Nathaly. I don't like that they abbreviate the name," I clarified.
"Okay."
"And I can't believe the self-esteem you have. You have a lot of ego. Have you been told that before?", I narrowed my eyes a little. Daniel smiled sideways.
"All the time," his reply was formulated with pride.
"And, Dan, why have you moved to Seattle?"
"Daniel," he now corrected me, as I turned a busy corner.
"Daniel," I said.
"Dan is an abbreviation that I can't stand And, I think I told you in the interview that this is something personal."
I assumed he had an unpleasant reason for his taste for coming to Seattle, judging by how his words sounded a moment ago. If it were a simple reason he made the decision to move to the United States, Daniel wouldn't evade my question with that little dash of "don't mess around my business." Obviously I would not ask him the same thing again a third time, but I had to admit that his attitude left me intrigued, much more if we added the issue of his scars. That is, about it I was not going to ask him anything, but in my mind he did wander and had some other theory. Maybe that bad boy and troublesome air was spot on and Daniel had a past full of messes. And the question there would be: what kind of mess?
"Well, then, I will change my question: have you come alone or with your family?"
"With my family."
I affirmed.
"And you?" Are you from here? —his voice held back curiosity.
"I'm from New York. I moved to Seattle for studies. I am studying Architecture.
"I started studying architecture too. That was a few years ago," he said. I looked at him intrigued, wanting to know more about it.
"Did you leave her?" I think the answer was obvious, but I still asked.
"I had to," he replied with a grimace, getting a little tense.
"Can I... know why?"
Daniel gave me one last look, a little serious one.
"It's personal," he came out with the same thing as before.
Honestly, that I did not want to answer things that for me were so simple, left me more intrigued, more interested in Daniel, in his past. I was not going to investigate any more, I would respect his answer and I would not dig into his private life even if the curiosity was great. I didn't want to look like a mess to her.
When we arrived at the bar, Daniel told me to get off while he found a place to park. The street was packed, which meant that the bar was full and that, again, my night would be long. I walked into the bar, and sure enough, there were a lot of people. Fortunately, the night was quite quiet, we didn't have fights or a lot of harassment. The bar now had many girls as customers, and I noticed how several were left watching Daniel dumbfounded.
During the night I kept thinking about Daniel, his arrogant personality and his secrets. I don't know why I was so interested in him, but he had something weird really eye-catching to my eyes. Not that I liked it, of course not, not when we barely knew each other, but I did admit that it had an appeal that was too pleasing to my eyes. At times, when I had a quiet minute, I was watching it from my place, analyzing its demanding, serious, attractive and even ... Dark. On certain occasions I felt a loop of nerves in my stomach, because Daniel hooked me looking at him and I had no choice but to look away. What tickled my stomach was that, on one of those occasions, he smiled at me.
"Excuse me," a chestnut girl told me.
"Yes, what good do I do to you?" I asked him with a smile.
"No, it's not that, I wanted to ask you for a favor. I'm embarrassed to go and give it to myself," she told me, but I didn't quite understand what he was talking about.
"Ah."
"It's my number. Could you give it to your partner, the security guy? It's very cute." He showed me a piece of paper. His cheeks were red.
I looked at the paper and then at Daniel.
I barely got to work and already had admirers.
"Sure. His name is Daniel," I smiled. She didn't have to, the girl could go about her own business, but I didn't want to be rude to her.
I took the paper and told him I would give it to him as soon as I had a spare minute. My little break would start in a few minutes. The girl went to the table where her friends were waiting for her. I poured a couple more drinks and, when I noticed that my free time had just begun, I walked to that gray-eyed guy watching me go towards him.
"Ten," I laid out the paper.
Daniel looked at the numbers, forming a small smile.
"Are you flirting with me?" He asked, with that arrogant smile.
"No, Daniel," I replied immediately.
I rolled my eyes.
"Behind it is the girl's number. It's the black-eyed chestnut sitting at table three", I tilted my head, pointing out the place.
"The one in a dark blue dress?"
"That same one," I nodded.
Daniel watched her a little more.
"She's cute, but I'm not interested in meeting anyone."
Another interesting thing about him.
"Well, that's up to you, I just came to hand over the paper," I shrugged.
"Shouldn't you be working instead of handing out little pieces of paper with phone numbers?" That girl could have come alone.
"He was embarrassed to do so," I explained.
"Anyway. Shouldn't you be working?" repeated the question.
"I have twenty minutes to spare," I replied.
Daniel smiled.
"Me too. Do we go out for a moment?" He asked.
He pointed to the door.
"I want to smoke a cigarette in the company of someone nice.
"In the company of someone nice."