Chapter 6

• Nathan was making pancakes when he heard footsteps behind him and turned. Seeing Tracy yawning and rubbing her eyes as she entered the kitchen, he chuckled, “the sleeping beauty has decided to wake up. For a minute day, I thought you are dead.”
• “Aw, and someone would have cried,” she joked, walking up to him to ruffle his hair and stealing a pancake.
• “Stop that,” he warned but smiled afterwards.
• Tracy glanced around the kitchen, she would be a liar if she said she didn’t notice a difference from last night, “you cleaned up?” she asked wide-eyed.
• “Yep, the whole house is clean and you are welcome,” he did a gentlemanly bow.
• Tracy smiled sweetly, “you spoil me too much,” she chuckled, “thank you Nathan-Boo,” she stood on her tip toes and kissed his cheek. “So now you have done the whole work alone, what am I to do?”
• “Firstly, you will need to think about grocery, your fridge is empty lady,” he placed a plate of pancakes on the table.
• Tracy sat in front of the plate and took a bite of the pancake in her hand, “yeah, I will do that later.”
• “Great,” he replied, joining her at the table with another plate of pancakes. He poured an applesauce on his and also on hers. “This was the only thing I could find its ingredients.”
• Tracy chuckled, “your mom should be back by now, don’t you think?”
• “Yep, I saw her car in the driveway when I was taking out the trash.”
• “We will go over after eating. I need to say hi to her, it’s been long I talked to her.”
• “Sure,” he replied, forking a piece of pancake dipped in sauce into his mouth.
• “What are you doing today?” Tracy asked casually.
• “I have practice, I missed yesterday’s own. Coach won’t let me miss again.”
• “How long will it take?”
• “Mostly an hour and thirty minutes, why ask?”
• “Nothing, just wanting to know if you are free to accompany me to Hansel’s party, I don’t want to go alone and I definitely don’t want James counting that I stood him up,” she made an air quote with her fingers.
• “Oh,” his fork paused few inches from his mouth, “that can be arranged, what time is the party?”
• “I don’t know but I probably will be going around seven or eight.”
• “Great, I will be home by then.”
• Tracy smiled, “thank you.”
• “Anytime,” he replied and the rest of the meal passed in silence.
• They both walked over to his house and Lucy was shocked when he saw them together, “goodness me, you are not at home Nathan?”
• Nathan was surprised when he heard, “you didn’t know I was not at home?” he asked perplexed.
• “No, if I did I would have called you. You didn’t leave me a message or anything and I came home at five this morning. Was so tired that I went straight to bed and I am just waking up,” she explained.
• “Oh, sorry about.”
• “It’s okay but next time, try to leave me a message okay?”
• “Yes mom.”
• Lucy turned to Tracy then, “you are back, we have missed you. Nathan has missed you a lot even though he acts like he doesn’t.”
• “No one asked you mom,” he rolled his eyes and stepped into the house. Lucy chuckled and Tracy followed him inside.
• “Well, you guys are here on time I guess, I was about to make brunch,” Lucy said, closing the door.
• “No need, we just finished having hours,” Tracy explained, knowing her way around the house and walking straight to the kitchen and pulling out a chair to sit down.
• “Really?” Lucy yawned both in tiredness and hunger, “well, allow me to have mine.”
• Tracy nodded while Nathan went up to his room, “how have you been Lucy, you look stressed.”
• “I am stressed,” she replied, “my colleague is sick and I am torn between working my shift and hers. But it’s okay. I will survive.”
• “Mm mm,” Tracy shook her head, “I don’t like this, you are overworking yourself. If she is sick let her tell the management and be given a sick leave while someone else will temporarily cover for her, it mustn’t be you.”
• “Come on Trace, I am not that old and week,” she smiled.
• “You are not getting any younger either. Nathan needs you and I need you.”
• “Aw,” Lucy smiled and walked up to her, she kissed her forehead and hugged, “I will be here honey, for both of you. You are my children and naturally I will never leave you.”
• Tracy wrapped her arms round her waist, “thank you.”
• Nathan came back down at that time and witnessed the scene, it was something that would move anybody and he was no exception but with the love came his secret. If his mom sees Tracy like that, that means no matter what he says, she will never let them be together right?
• His heart felt heavy and it suddenly felt like a big boulder was dumped on his chest. He turned to walk away but his mom said something that caught his attention again. “How about Gary, are you two okay?”
• Tracy sighed, “we broke up.”
• “What?” Lucy was shocked.
• “Yeah, it didn’t work out,” she shrugged.
• “Oh, how sad and here I was thinking…” she sighed, “never mind,” she went to the cupboard to fetch out ingredients for chicken nuggets. “Well, it’s alright, there are many men out there and a lot who would want to spend their life with you. Don’t give up, positive energy.”
• Tracy chuckled and stood up to help her, “yeah, positive energy.”
• Hearing how casually they talked, Nathan couldn’t stand and listen anymore, he went back up to his room and picked up his ball. Jumping into his bed and casually throwing the ball into the hoop. With what his mother said yesterday morning and how their discussion was going downstairs now, he has the feeling that she would start suggesting marriage to her and he really can’t understand why. And then he realized that he knows why but just don’t want to admit it. Tracy was not getting any younger but he would appreciate if his mom doesn’t remind her of that and then push her into settling down with the wrong guy. Perhaps he needs to talk to her about this and he fought to convince himself that he wasn’t doing it for himself but for Tracy’s sake, he will be doing it to give her time to find the right one for her. Yeah right, he rolled his eyes.
• He stayed in his room until he heard Tracy yelling to him, telling him that she was going for grocery. He wanted to go with her but at the moment, he doubt if he could be around her without speaking up his mind. Perhaps he still needs some time to cool down before going to that party with her. Remembering the party, he hastily stood up and strode to his wardrobe to find something nice to wear so that he would fit to stand beside her and smiled when he found a nice jean and knew where he could get a perfect jacket.
• ***
• Nathan knocked on the door and waited for Tracy to open up. He was dressed in a blue jean and his father’s black dinner jacket. His mother had tear up seeing him and he had to stay for some minutes to calm her down. He never knew his father but Tracy and his mom made him sound like an angel, making him wish he had gotten to see him, at least once. But whenever he starts to think about that, he stops himself before he gets all emotional.
• Tracy opened the door and smiled seeing him, “I was about to call you thinking you weren’t back yet.”
• Nathan stared at her awestruck, she was dressed in a beautiful knee level black gown, her hair was let down, cascading down her shoulders like a waterfall. She wasn’t having much makeup on, in fact, he doubts if he had ever seen her in heavy makeup. Her lips were pinkish and shining because of her lip gloss and he found himself gulping really hard and forcing himself to take his eyes off her lips. He slowly licked his lower lip before saying in a smitten voice, “you are beautiful.”
• Tracy smiled, “thank you, you are quite dressed up too,” her eyes went to his dressing and she smiled sadly, “that’s Brian’s jacket.”
• “Yes, I finally fit into his clothes,” he smiled and looked down at himself, loving how the jacket fits around him. He glanced up when he heard nothing from her, only to be surprised seeing that her eyes were tearing up. “No no no no,” he reached out and grabbed her shoulders, “please don’t, I would have been here earlier if I didn’t have to calm mom down.”
• Tracy chuckled softly, “I’m sorry, I just miss him.”
• “We all do,” he replied, “now, why don’t we let go of the sadness and go have fun, huh?”
• “Yeah, you are right,” she handed him the car key, “then be a gentleman,” she winked, stepped out and locked the door before walking towards the car.
• Nathan chuckled and ran after her, quickly unlocking the car and opening the door for her. Tracy grinned, “Well, thank you,” she said and got in. Nathan smiled and closed the door, hurriedly went to the driver’s side, got in and drove away.