Page 23 of Heart Match

‘Oh my God, why are you talking about children?’ I ask.

‘It’s not about children, it’s about the Hemsworth family. Come sit, Naomi has your breakfast taken care of,’ says Lexi.

‘What about them?’ I ask as I sit on a stool next to her.

‘The males of that family are blessed,’ she says and Naomi lets out a laugh.

‘She’s horny,’ teases Naomi.

‘Shut up, Naomi,’ hisses Lexi.

Lexi’s browsing her Instagram and shows me some pictures of Chris Hemsworth shirtless on some beach in Australia. Then she shows me some of Liam’s and Luke’s too, to make a fair comparison, according to her.

‘I prefer Liam,’ I say.

‘I respect that,’ she says, serious.

She keeps browsing on her Instagram, jumping from one profile to another, figuring out who’s dating who and travelling where.

‘You’re so addicted to that thing,’ I say.

‘Yeah, if you had a profile you would be too, all the world’s gossip and news is right here,’ she says.

‘Not interested,’ I say.

I’m not a social media kind of person. Ever since Josh and I broke up I deleted all my profiles from the web and haven’t created one since, not even on LinkedIn for work. But even before we broke up I already hadn’t used it much, he used to get angry anytime a male friend liked or commented on a status or picture of mine. There were many fights over the same subject over and over, and so I kind of developed an aversion to that. And well, there was also the stalking after the breakup.

‘Are you hungry?’ asks Naomi from the counter.

‘A bit,’ I say.

Having Naomi fixing me breakfast reminds me of when she took care of me after the breakup, precisely the day after, when my face was swollen and my ribcage hurt every time I breathed. I was so grateful that day to have her taking care of me without questions or accusations. I was glad I didn’t have to go to my parents’, considering the state I was in.

‘Thank you Naomi, you didn’t have to.’

‘Have you been eating?’ she asks as she transfers the eggs from the pan into a plate. She sounds like Dad, always worried about me eating enough.

‘Of course I’ve been eating,’ I say, defensively.

She eyes me suspiciously, as if by doing so she could extract truth from me. She doesn’t, but she knows I lied.

‘What?’ I ask looking between my two friends who are watching me in the way they do when they want some kind of confession.

‘You haven’t been like yourself lately,’ says Lexi. ‘And you’re hiding something.’

‘I’m not hiding anything, and I’m still myself. What makes you think that?’

I take the plate Naomi gives me with eggs and toast and use it as an excuse not to meet their eyes.

‘You never wake up late, you are always defensive when we talk to you lately, and you seem anxious,’ says Naomi. ‘I know you don’t eat when you’re anxious.’

Why do they know me so well?

‘What’s wrong with sleeping until late? I worked a lot in the past two days. I just want to finish the new designs as soon as possible, it’s making me anxious, of course,’ I say as I chew. Swallowing is hard.

They keep watching me.

‘Is it the cute neighbour?’ asks Lexi, teasingly bumping her knee to mine.

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