Chapter 4

Haley was sitting on her bed almost finishing reading her book when she heard her phone ringing. God who must been calling at this time she groaned to herself.

"Hello." She answered the phone.

"Can I please speak to Haley?" She frowned when she heard a gentle voice.

"This is her. Who is it?"

"Oh, hey Haley, it's me, Nathan." The boy answered naturally.

Her eyes went wide, she was having a lovely evening and she wouldn't let him ruin it. "Oh no, you've got to be kidding me! Goodbye Nat..."

"Wait Haley! Please, don't hang up." He said quickly.

"How did you get my number anyway?" Haley asked curiously.

"I have my ways." Nathan replied with a smirk on his face.

"Oh I bet." She said rolling her eyes. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to say I'm sorry for acting like a jerk with you. I didn't mean to say all those things. I was really angry because I had no other choice and I din't want to get kicked out of the team."

"Then you decided to take all your anger on me."

"I know and I'm sorry, you didn't deserve that."

"It's okay."

"So, could you tutor me?"

"Uh I've already checked my schedule and I saw I could tutor you."

"Really?"

"Yes, we'll start tomorrow morning, be at the docks at 7 am."

"Why so early and not at the tutoring center?"

"Because I don't have any more time at the tutoring center, it's full already and this is the only way I can tutor you." She declared firmly.

He knew he didn't have much choice. He needed to get help but he didn't want any of those nerds of the tutoring center. Haley was the best tutor and even thought he didn't want to admit to himself yet, he felt attracted by her when they had their first encounter at the tutoring center.

"Ok, I'll be there." He answered before she could change her mind.

"Thank you Hales." He said softly.

She didn't know why but she felt her body shiver when she heard him saying her nickname. It felt different coming from his mouth.

"Goodbye Nathan." She said wanting to end this conversation.

She sighed and lay down on her bed. She didn't know if she had made the right decision but she decided to follow her instincts and for some reason that was what they were telling her to do. He didn't give up after she had said no to him, so she decided to give him a second chance.

"So, we'll go out tonight right?"

"I don't think so..."

"Oh no Haley, we will!"

"Kristen..."

"Hales, I'm begging here."

Before Haley could say anything she saw that her friends were looking right past her and when she turned around her head she saw Nathan waiting at the door smiling at her. She blinked her eyes a couple of times thinking maybe she was dreaming or seeing things, either way it was fine for her as long as this wasn't reality.

She looked around slowly, she was still in her office, Nathan was still standing there looking at her, waiting for some kind of reaction. She walked to him quickly.

"Hey!" He said with a wide smile.

"Hey. What are you doing here Nathan?" She whispered not wanting anyone to listen to their conversation. She could already feel a pair of eyes on her.

"I wanted to see you." Nathan declared with a grin that made Haley melt inside.

"How did you get the address of where I work?"

"I have my ways." He said smirking at her, saying the same thing he had said to her years ago, and he knew she remembered too for the look on her face.

"Nathan, I can't stand here chatting with you, I need to go back to work."

"Well, can we have lunch together at your break?" He asked hopefully.

"Yes, I guess we can." She said with a small smile. She didn't know if this was a good idea but she couldn't say no to him when he looked with those pleading blue eyes.

"Great!"

"You can be back in third minutes." She informed him looking at the clock on the wall.

"Ok, see you soon." He said winking at her before leaving the office.

Haley watched him leave and waited a few seconds. She wasn't sure if she wanted to turn around and depare with her friends. She took a long breath before turning around to face them.

"I guess you have a date." Kristen stated cheaply.

"One hot date." Martha added.

"It's not a date, we're just going to have lunch together."

"Whatever you say. Just please, give us all the details later."

"I thought you wouldn't come."

"Oh I wouldn't miss for anything."

"Did you bring up your books?" She asked ignoring his comment.

"Yep."

He was staring at her.

"What?"

"Nothing, I'm just looking at you."

"Wonderful, and what's the reason?"

"I think you should let your hair down, tho you look cute with your hair in a ponytail too."

Haley started to feel her cheeks red with blush. He laughed seeing her blushing, he enjoyed making her blush. He could make any girl blush easily only with Haley he loved to watch her cheeks went to every tone of red. And the fact that she always tried to resist, it made even more enjoyable. He felt a suddenly urge to caress her skin.

"Whatever. Let's focus here Nathan." Haley spoke trying to change the subject.

"I am." he said resting his jaw on his hand watching her with a smirk.

"Nathan, you need to take this seriously. I'm not going to waste my time here listening to your stupid comments, if you wanna learn I'll help you otherwise let me know and I'll leave now."

"Ok, ok I'll stop it. We can start now."

They opened their books and she started explaining while he went back to keep staring at her face, nodding his head when she would ask if he was understanding what she was saying.

"This is a nice place." Haley commented looking around the restaurant.

"Yes, and the food is great."

They sat on their chairs, ordered their food and it felt a silent. Neither of them knew what to say. Since Nathan was the one who invited her, he started talking.

"How have you been?" Nathan asked breaking the silence.

"I've been good." She answered shortly not knowing what else to say. She didn't know why she was felling so nervous.

"Brian is a good kid. We've talked quite a bit lately and he seems like is a smart kid and really down to earth."

"He is wonderful. I'm very lucky to have him as a son." She said proudly. He smiled seeing how her face changed when she talked about her son. She had the same loving look that Brian had when the boy had told more about his mom to Nathan.

"He is very proud of you too." He said honestly. Haley now started felling very hot with Nathan's intense gaze on her.

"And how's everything with you Nathan?" Haley asked trying to keep it cool.

"I can't complain much. I've reached my goals with basketball and right now I just wanna settle down."

They kept having their conversation while eating their meal, never mentioning anything about the past. They were afraid to bring it up all those old memories so they had preferred to focus on getting to know what they have been doing with each other's lifes.

At first, Haley felt very nervous about this encounter, but soon she started to relax. It was amazing how after so many years they still could connect so quickly. Nathan had never been a good talker or listener, specially with women. He always went straight to the point without saying many words.

But he always felt comfortable around Haley. In highschool when he had a lot of bad things going on in his life he would always open up to Haley and it didn't feel weird. He felt relieved. She had been very important in his life, he didn't know if he would have been able to live through everything without her in his life.

Now they were together again talking about their life apart.

"I missed you." He declared honestly looking at her. They were now standing in front of her work building.

She looked up surprised at his sudden declaration but decided to do the same. "I missed you too."

"Thank you for the lunch. I had a great time."

"It was my pleasure." Surprising her, he placed a tender kiss on her right cheek. He saw a blush crept on her face.

"Goodbye Nathan."

"How did the date go?"

"It went good." Haley said lying back on her bed. She was felling really tired, all she wanted now was have a good night of sleep.

"Please Haley I want more details." Kristen begged.

"We went to some really nice restaurant. The food was wonderful. I ordered fish with salad. It was delicious. I'm thinking of going there more often."

"That's awesome. But you know that's not what I want to know."

"Oh, really?" Haley said trying to sound surprised but couldn't hold back her amusement.

Haley and Kristen had been friends for years and since they first met they had got along pretty well. At first, Haley didn't talk about her past but Kristen already knew her and felt that Haley had been through some pretty tough stuff in life, even thought she was really young. Later Haley decided to tell Kristen everything, it was very hard for her to open up to someone, specially about some sad and bad memories.

She felt very vulnerable talking about all those things but she also felt very relieved to confide her past to someone. All those years she had been keeping those emotions to herself, she had nobody to confide. She had moved on and had handled everything pretty well, but her heart was still broken.

When Kristen found out about Haley's history she was stunned. She felt for Haley and wanted to help her. They got closer even more with the situation. Kristen also couldn't help but fell very intrigued with everything. She had supported Haley and when they saw Nathan, Kristen wanted to help her friend.

"I want to know how everything went with you and Nathan."

"It went lovely. We talked about what we had been doing during those past years, with our life and career."

"Did you guys talked about highschool?"

"No, no. We didn't dare to talk about the past, but our encounter still brought old feeling that had been buried." Haley confessed.

"It's very natural. What you two had was something very intense."

"He said he missed me and I said I missed him as well." She whispered softly and smiled timidly when she heard her friend squealing at the other side of the line. Kristen was excited like it was her favorite novel. Haley didn't fell it was entertainenting since it was her own life.