Chapter 16

“I think Bruno’s stopping by in a little while,” Natalie said to her mom as she stuck her head into her work office. She glanced up from the papers she was looking at on a table, giving Natalie a curious look.

“Now be honest,” Her mom said with a small smile as she walked towards Natalie. “What do you two have going on?”

Natalie shrugged her shoulders, reaching down to touch a pen on a desk. Whatever we had going on may be different after today… She thought nervously, avoiding her mother’s stare.

“Well are you two dating or what..?”

“Um, yeah…” Natalie replied, glancing at her mom, giving her a enough with the questions look. Her mom simply winked at her with a smile as she grabbed several papers on the desk.

“I figured,” she said with a small smile, walking towards the door. “That’s fine if he comes by, but make sure you have your work done before.”

—

Natalie waited around for another few hours, filing papers and other necessities from the office work. She eventually found herself handling the main entrance desk, but really had nothing much to do. Since it was nearing the end of the public visiting hours of the aquarium, there were hardly any people coming in by the time half past three came around.

Eventually the sliding glass doors slid open as Bruno walked in, a distraught look to his face. Gosh he’s so easy, Natalie thought as she let out a sigh. I knew he’d come.

She got up from behind the desk and glanced around the main entry way surrounding her. It looked as though the few people who were still there were doing fine, and she figured no one else would come in anymore today, so she walked down one of the hallways. She passed through the long skywalk until she found and empty area, near the seahorse exhibit.

She stared at Bruno for a few minutes as he simply stared at the glass in front of him, watching the water and fish behind it. Natalie felt her forehead begin to wrinkle the longer she watched him, frustrated that he wasn’t even acknowledging she was here.

Natalie crossed her arms over her chest, keeping her eyes on him. “I’m sorry,” she said after another minute, catching his attention.

He turned towards her, shrugging his shoulders.

“So are you going to say anything or what?” She asked, tensing up at his silence.

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Bruno replied stubbornly, making Natalie want to roll her eyes at him.

“You don’t have to be so stubborn about this,” she said, locking her eyes on his from the large distance between them. “I told you nothing was going to happen, and I was right.”

“Oh right,” Bruno said, shaking his head. “I forgot; you only lied to me,” he stated sarcastically as his voice rose louder.

Footsteps shut them up quickly as Natalie turned towards the opposite end of the exhibit, seeing her mother walking into it. “Oh hello, Bruno!” Her mom said with a small smile.

Natalie stood silent as Bruno smiled back at her. “It’s nice to see you again, Ms. Jackson,” he said, nodding to her. Natalie didn’t move as she made eye contact to her cheerful mother, shooting her a glare. Her mom glanced between the two of them, and must have noticed the tension because her eyes quickly lit up in realization and she excused herself, leaving the area.

It was another few moments of silence after she left, making Natalie uncomfortable at their tension. She finally let out a small sigh, sagging her shoulders. “You know I didn’t want to cause any problems,” she said in a calm voice. “And I know I shouldn’t have lied. I’m sorry.”

“You’re just saying that to make things easy,” Bruno stated moodily, turning to look back at the exhibit.

“And you’re acting stubborn just to be an asshole,” she mumbled under her breath. “Why do you always blow things up out of proportion? It’s not even a big deal…”

“Yeah well it’s not just that, Natalie,” he said, turning to face her again. “It’s the fact that you promised me one thing and then ran off behind my back and lied about it.”

“…Because you were being unreasonable. Can’t we just work this out?”

Bruno shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know if I even want to…” Oh my God,Natalie thought, rolling her eyes.

“Well obviously you do if you just wasted part of your day to come here,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “If you really didn’t give a shit, then that phone call would have been your last to me…”

“…You know I wouldn’t do it like that,” Bruno said in a small voice.

“Alright, well here we are, Bruno,” Natalie said, tossing her hands up in a defeated manner. “If it’s really what you’re thinking than just say it!”

Bruno peeled his eyes from her after a long contact, glancing to his feet. He took a deep breath before shaking his head finally, not saying anything.

“See…” Natalie replied, knowing he didn’t want to break up with her over something so small like this. “Now can we please just talk this out?”

Bruno shrugged his shoulders. Oh my god, why is he so stubborn? “Bruno, I really am sorry,” She said in a soft tone, shrugging her shoulders.

“How do you expect me to trust you when you do shit like that?” Bruno stated suddenly, looking up at her.

Natalie bit her lip, understanding where he was coming from. “I know…” she said shamefully, looking at the floor. “I’m just used to making my owndecisions.”

“I did over react a little, didn’t I?” Bruno asked in an equally small voice.

“Just a little…” Natalie replied, giving him a look.

“I’m sorry for that, Nat,” he said as he looked back at her eyes.

Natalie nodded her head, shifting her body awkwardly. “Is everything good now?” she asked nervously, forcing herself to look at him.

Bruno bit his lip for a moment, slightly shrugging his shoulders. “Can we just have  no more drama?”

Natalie nodded her head. “Yeah, I think I could do with that,” she said with a small smile, shrugging her shoulders as he drew her in for a hug.

Natalie let out a deep breath, feeling her shoulders ease. I knew he wouldn’t be able to stay mad.