Chapter 19

Natasha was not all that surprised to find Carl at the door of her dorm the following day. She had been expecting his visit… just not so soon after his altercation with his brother.

She sighed as she passed by him. He followed and fell into step with her.

"Something you need?" She bit out.

"I just want to talk," he replied calmly. Almost too calmly.

"About?" Was her clipped answer.

"I'm just sorry," he rearranged his hair nervously, "I was neither drunk nor in the right to say what I said yesterday."

She stopped at that, astonished as she was. "I don't follow."

"I'm not angry at you anymore… Hell, I don't have the right to be," he admitted sheepishly, eyes downcast.

She sighed at that. "You do." She paused, and sighed anew, "You do have the right to be angry. It was never my intention to hurt you like I did by dating your brother. But it just happened. I couldn't…"

"Resist him," he finished for her, now looking at her eyes.

She blushed and that was all the confirmation he needed.

The girl of his dreams was in love with his brother.

History had a bad habit of repeating itself.

"I have yet to overgrow how jealous I am of him," he admitted. "I'm not as smart, independent or as steel-minded as him. While he was the pride of the school, I kind of lurked in the shadows. While he had girls throwing themselves at him, I had trouble trying to keep my own girl from falling for him. Our parents wanted him to become a doctor but he had his mind set on becoming an architect. And they stopped at almost nothing to deter him from his decision. But Daniel is Daniel…"

Natasha didn't know where all this honesty was coming from, but she was seeing a part of Carl that she had never seen before – the vulnerable part. A part which, had she seen before, could have stopped their drifitng apart.

"He's a great guy," he finished his monologue, "and you're a great girl. Do not forget that."

She smiled at that, blushing to her utter and complete dismay.

"At least one of the Davidson brothers will get the smartest architect student around," he joked.

She laughed, and he soon joined her.

"I hope we could remain friends… after I deal with my feelings," he suggested nervously.

"I don't mind," she winked at him. Then, looking at her wrist watch, she told him that she had to go and they parted ways.

*****************

"Was that Carl I saw you with?" Amanda asked without even greeting her friend properly.

"Good morning to you too," Natasha chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah. Good morning. Are you back together or something?" Her friend's eyebrow rose.

"No. Hell no!" Natasha exclaimed right away.

"You scared me there for a minute," Amanda told her, a small smile stretching her lips.

The half-Russian student laughed at that. "I'm not crazy."

"Yeah, yeah," her friend muttered before adding in a lighter tone, "I don't know who's making you happy these days, but he's a keeper."

Natasha blushed at that and tried to deny her friend's statement, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Amanda rolled her eyes at that. "Right."

"I don't," Natasha repeated, blushing an even darker shade of pink.

"You are a terrible liar, sweetie." Her bubbly friend told her while hooking her arm with hers and making their way to their first course of the day.

"He's good to me," Natasha admitted after a while.

"I can see that he is. You're oozing off happiness." She smiled at her. "When can I meet him?"

"Not just yet," the auburn-haired student told her with a tight smile. "We just started dating, you know."

"Okay, Okay," Amanda held her hands up in surrender, "No pressure."

After fifteen minutes of waiting, it seemed like their lecturer was not going to come, and thus the two girls went to the cafeteria so they could grab a coffee before their second course.

As soon as Natasha stepped into the conference room where Daniel was supposed to lecture them, she froze.

There, on the platform, next to his desk, stood Daniel in all his six-feet glory, a leggy blonde all but rubbing her breasts against his arm.

"Vivian, stop it!" She heard him reprimand the woman.

"Someone you know?" Amanda asked her.

"No, not at all," Natasha answered in a clipped tone, "never seen her on campus even."

She then resumed walking, eyes glaring in the distance.

Looks like Daniel is going back to his playboy ways… that is if he ever stopped, her mind told her, making her angrier by the minute.

After the dear and lovely Vivian left, Daniel cleared his throat, looking embarrassed, nothing like his usual self. "Sorry about that," he apologized sincerely.

Again, not all lecturers took the time to apologize for something as trivial, but this was not the time to be counting his pros. Natasha rolled her eyes at him and looked the other way.

This was going to be a long lecture.