You think

"Then what do you suggest I do?" Zuph asked knowing that he would definitely regret asking mere moments later.

"I cannot believe my ears, are you actually asking me for advice?!" Elihu asked shocked, his mouth wide open as he stopped walking.

"Can you stop making a big deal out of it? I am even starting to regret asking you." Zuph scoffed, he should have known better than to confide in Elihu concerning his problems, however, truth be told, Elihu was the only man he was certain had experience with women, even though it was not all mostly good experience, but it was experience regardless.

And he was not knowledgeable at all in this area, sure he had concluded to keep his feelings to himself until he knew that Nora was ready to hear what he had to say, however, he could not stop himself from feeling this unsettling emotion that told him if he did not tell her now he would never.

He could not handle that sinking feeling he felt, it was terrible.

"Oh please, just relax, give me a moment to take this in, you need my help, for the first time in your life, you need my help, oh this is simply too precious." he laughed.

Zuph did not seem impressed at all, instead, he looked annoyed. He was definitely regretting confiding in Elihu.

"Alright, alright, give me a few moments more." Elihu said as he tried to catch his breath. They had stopped walking and everyone began to look their way wondering what had happened to Elihu.

"Can you get a hold of yourself, people are starting to stare." Zuph said annoyed.

"Alright, I am okay now." he said as he smiled and they continued walking.

"I am so happy that you finally need my advice. It makes me feel really nice to be experienced." Elihu declared as Zuph almost rolled his eyes.

"Moving on." Zuph said.

"As I said earlier, you are in a very tough situation my friend." he said.

"There is nothing more complicated than when you are in love with someone yet, they are in love with another." he said.

"Exactly, so what do you suppose I do? Because a part of me wants to be patient and not to scare her off, but another part of me is scared that if I do not tell her how I feel, she might move on and see me forever as a friend, and I do not want that." Zuph said sounding extremely conflicted.

"Firstly, you need to calm down Zuph, do not sound like this is the worst thing you have ever been put through." Elihu said unimpressed.

"But it is, in a way, it is." he replied.

"Secondly, I agree with you, if you tell Nora your feelings now, her demeanour towards you will change."

"She will think that you have only been nice to her and helping her because of your interest in her, naturally she will pull away and distance herself from you." 

"I am not helping her because of what I feel for her, sure, it does contribute to my actions, but only a little bit, I am helping her because I care and what Mero did was wrong." Zuph argued.

"Yes, but every woman always has this little voice at the back of their mind telling them that a man's goodwill towards them is due to his interest in her." Elihu smiled.

"Is that true?" Zuph asked surprised.

"Yes, it is true, it is just natural, of course we men love women, and when we have interest in a certain woman, we will help them more than we would anyone." Elihu nodded.

"So you think she is aware of my feelings for her?" Zuph asked warily. If that was true, then he would never be able to face her again, because she knew, how he felt and acted as if she did not.

"No, I think she has thought of the possibility, but of course she has shun such thoughts because she trusts you, which in this case can be a good thing and a bad thing."

"How so?" Zuph asked, actually surprised at how knowledgeable Elihu was, he even sounded like he actually knew what he was saying.

"Well, it's a good thing because it shows she trusts you character, the words you speak, but also a bad thing because when you reveal your true feelings to her she will instantly believe that everything you have done for her in the past has been because of these feelings." Elihu said scaring Zuph.

"No, I don't want her to feel that way at all, the last thing I want is for her to distance herself from me, or worse, hat me." Zuph replied.

"Which is why, I am glad you came to ask for my advice, you could have easily caused a huge problem for yourself." Elihu said.

"So what exactly are you saying right now? Do you mean to say that I should not tell her how I feel?" Zuph asked perplexed, it seemed like no matter what he did things would not turn out well.

"No, of course not, if you continue to keep this to yourself it will eat you from the inside out." he replied.

"What I am trying to say is that you have to tell her." Elihu said as Zuph breathed a sigh of relief.

"But you cannot tell her now, as you said earlier, she is still in love with Mero, which is understandable, they only just ended things between them, and clearly she was the one who loved him in that relationship so it would take a longer while for her to truly stop loving him." Elihu said.

Zuph sighed, at the moment Elihu was just saying everything he had thought of for the past few weeks.

"I advise that you only tell her when you are absolutely sure that she had moved on from Mero, or else, you might risk losing her." he concluded.

"But how exactly will I know that?" he asked confused.

"Do not ask me that, you are the one chasing her. Once it is the right time, I am sure you will know." Elihu replied.

"Alright, thank you Elihu, it was surprisingly nice to talk to you about this." Zuph admitted.

"Of course it is, there is nothing more fulfilling for a man than to speak about women." he replied as Zuph shook his head.

"I beg to differ on that Elihu." Zuph replied.

"Oh, look who is talking, before you looked as if you were carrying the weight of the whole world on your shoulders, and now you look relieved, so yes, speaking about women makes us men feel better." he smiled.

"I am not even going to try to correct you." Zuph replied scoffing.

"You better behave, I am your superior here, and you have to listen to every of my orders." he replied.

"Oh please, when did you hear that? All I heard was Mero telling you to show me my new duties, I heard nothing about you being my superior." 

"Well it is basically the same thing." he replied.

"No it is not." Zuph replied.

"Watch how you talk to me, I just gave you life saving advice." he demanded.

"Thank you for reminding me not to ever ask you for advice again." Zuph replied as he walked ahead.

"Oh please Zuph, do not take that so seriously, I was only joking." Elihu laughed as he ran after him.

...

Nora had finished tidying up Wura's tent. She felt bored, it was not like Wura was a dirty person, everywhere was already clean, and now she felt bored, there was nothing else for her to do.

Oh she missed the days when she could follow Wura everywhere, she would be by her side all day, attending to her every need.

Sure to some people that might have sounded like bondage, but to her, it was not a bondage at all, she loved to serve, she loved being needed.

Now she felt bored, and tired and exhausted because she was not working.

Nora sighed once again, she sat down on her bed and contemplated what to do next.

"Maybe I should wash her dirty clothes?" she thought to herself, but she decided not to, it was another maid's duty to do that and it would feel as if she was imposing if she did that.

"Maybe I should just go and see her, there is no way that Mero is always with her." she concluded as she stood up.

Yes, Mero was a very busy man, there was no way that he had the time to continuously be by Wura's side.

"It would be a nice surprise if I went." she smiled. Wura would definitely be surprised and happy to see her and that made her feel even more confident to go.

Nora did not waste time at all, she quickly left.