Page 14 of Welcome to the Friendzone

“Right? I thought so, too. Too bad he won’t wear it.”

“We should make him wear it.”

Oliver raised an eyebrow at Marta, not having any idea how the hell they would make his best friend wear the Grumpy Cat Christmas sweater.

“You paid for the pizza, right?” Marta started explaining.

“Yeah.”

“So if he doesn’t wear the sweater, he won’t get his disgusting pineapple pizza. Easy win.”

Oliver wasn’t sure if that would work but it was worth a try so he agreed with Marta, placed the black sweater on the kitchen counter and started cleaning up the mess from their turkey preparation. He grabbed his phone and increased the volume of the Christmas playlist he was listening to. “Jingle Bell Rock” was currently playing and he started swaying his hips slightly to the beat of the song.

As they’d only prepared the turkey the mess was cleaned pretty quickly but Oliver turned up the music even more and stepped towards Marta.

“What are you doing?” she chuckled insecurely when Oliver grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the empty area between the dinner table and the couches.

“You owe me a dance!”

“I… what? When did you decide that?” Marta asked, confused, but instead of answering, Oliver only placed his other hand right above Marta’s hip.

“I paid for your pizza as well. So you owe me a dance for it.” The Agent winked at her the moment the song changed to a remix of “12 Days of Christmas”.

Oliver started to move them together and Marta was totally overwhelmed with the whole situation, unsure if she should let go and enjoy the great evening with her colleague or run back to her room and hide for the rest of the day. Today was a day of many emotions and her body wasn’t sure which one was the strongest at the moment.

“Relax. It’s only one dance, okay?” Oliver whispered at her, making them slowly spin around the living room.

With every step and every line of the song Marta indeed relaxed until she was finally fully enjoying the dance. She even started to sing the lyrics of the song with Oliver while grinning at him. Today she’d really found a new friend. Someone she enjoyed spending her time with. Someone who made her feel special.

When the song slowly subsided and they were waiting for the next one, they looked each other in the eyes, lips curled upward in a smile, but the moment Marta heard Mariah Carrey start to sing her song “All I want for Christmas is you”, her face fell, tears gathered in her eyes, and she fought herself free from Oliver’s hands.

The world was spinning around her, and waves of heat and cold spread throughout her body, while her hands started to shake.

The tears fell from her eyes, surprising Oliver who only looked at her with shock.

“Marta, are you okay?”

You don’t have to tell me

December 24th, 2019

“I…” Marta stuttered, her body still shaking, and she wasn’t able to answer Oliver.

The blond Agent stepped towards her, placing both of his palms on Marta’s upper arms to steady the shaking woman.

“Marta. What’s going on?”

“St-Stop. Stop that song,” she said between clenched teeth, the tears still sliding down her cheeks.

Oliver immediately did as she requested but, even after a minute of silence in the room, Marta’s condition didn’t improve.

Oliver carefully guided her towards the nearest sofa, making sure she didn’t collapse. He prepared himself to catch her just in case. Thankfully, she made it to the couch and immediately laid down on it with her feet slightly raised on the armrest. She closed her eyes, which alarmed Oliver.

“Marta?”

His voice was now filled with panic while he was looking around the room to check where he had left his phone a few minutes ago.

He could see it lying on the dinner table. He must have placed it there before Marta needed his full attention.

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