Chapter 8: The Park

Friday was to be the day they were to meet Judy and Nick for a walk around the grounds so that the fox could show his neighbour exactly where what was. They arranged to meet on Friday because Rabbit wanted to get everything ready on Saturday so that she could receive her guests in full readiness on Sunday. She didn't want to make any gaffes at the very start, she wanted to appear as good as possible so as not to make a bad impression. Nick understood this perfectly, and Friday also suited him better, because Saturday was the qualifying for the last race of the season, which was ending unfortunatelly on that Sunday, the day when the doe decided to have a party in which she invited all the neighbours together with Nick. To be honest, the fox would have preferred to watch the last race with his friend, but he couldn't pass up the invitation. He didn't want her to take it badly, after all their acquaintance had really blossomed looking at the fact that they had only known each other for a few days. He did not expect that he would find a common language with his new neighbour and did not think that their acquaintance would bloom so much. In any case, he decided to go to this party. He was a little worried about Finnick's reaction when he found out about it, they had both been looking forward to this day for a very long time, they were looking forward to the last race, Finnick was more emotionally excited than Nick who could refuse to watch the races sometimes. Finnick will probably want to watch the race, but he will be more influenced by Suzanne, who will probably order him to go to the meeting.

On Friday during work time Nick sat in his office as always listening to music or browsing something on the internet losing count of the time. The day was, as it had been for the past week, hot, with a slight cool breeze blowing, but Nick didn't mind. That day he decided to get himself a fan, which he had brought with him from home to keep him a bit cooler while working. He was the only one with this idea, sitting by the fan cooling his face so that he did not feel as tired as the others. His highlights of the day were meeting Finnick during his lunch break and walking with Judy. He wanted to meet Finnick so he could talk to him and explain about the race that would take place this Sunday. He didn't want to cheat or set him up, so he figured the best way would be to meet him and confess it to him in person. He didn't want any short-circuit in their friendship because of some insinuation. Then again, thoughts of meeting Judy made his heart work faster, he didn't know for what reason. He felt...better, the thought of her and the walk caused a slight smile to appear on his face, a little dim looking grin, but it was a smile that expressed contentment. Sitting in front of the computer imagining the setting sun flooding the sky with blood red caused Nick to drift off in his thoughts circling around today's events that were about to happen. It had been a long time since he had felt so...at ease. Usually hard headed he rarely thought about anything abstract, on this day he was thinking about such things quite excessively and that didn't bother him.

When 2.00 p.m. struck, Nick left his office like a sling to go to a meeting with Finnick. They arranged to meet in a park, which was not far from Nick's agency. Finnick wasn't far from it either, so they decided to go there for the interview. It was practically the quietest place around downtown Zootopia, where no one would disturb their conversation. They hoped for peace and quiet in their dialogue. When Nick crossed the iron gate of the park, he walked a dozen yards down the main avenue looking for his friend who was somewhere in the area. He finally found him on a side street, sitting unmoving on a bench under the shade of a large oak tree, which was probably the largest tree in the small forest. Nick walked over to his friend and sat down greeting him.

"Did you know you have a new neighbour?" Finnick asked when Nick managed to sit down comfortably on the bench. From here, there was a really nice view of the park filled with life. Lush tree crowns covered most of the area giving shade which allowed for strolling in the cooler temperatures, there was a small fountain in the centre of the park where some people cooled the water if they had to. The whole park could be seen from the position of two friends who were chatting looking at other walkers.

"She lives next door to me, that's how I know about her moving" Nick communicated. He didn't want to dwell on his encounters with his neighbour, preferring to keep it to himself for the moment.

"She was at our house yesterday afternoon. She was inviting us to some kind of party to get to know us new neighbours or something," Finnick continued. His colleague nodded with a movement of his head. He felt a slight unease when he heard about it, he was waiting for the right moment to let him know that he would have to watch the race himself.

"Ekhm...well, and are you going to her for this meeting?" Nick asked uncertainly.

"Heh... you know what's on this Sunday right?" Finnick asked, Nick nodded with a gentle shake of his head.

"To be honest I'd most like not to go and stay at home, but Suzanne said it was appropriate to go...and you know how it is with girls. It's better to listen to them," Finnick replied. Nick was relieved that he wasn't the only one who would miss the competition. He was afraid that he would let his friend down, and he wouldn't want that under any circumstances. He even laughed quietly upon hearing the news. He had been worried about it from the start, he couldn't imagine what would happen if he had to leave Finnick alone.

"Luckily..." Nick sighed.

"What, why fortunately? I think it's just bad, we won't watch..."

"Yeah I know I know. You know, I meant that I'm not the only one who has to leave the race. You know, I didn't mean to leave you alone," Nick explained, seeing how Finnick was taken aback at his words. The man calmed down immediately patting his friend on the back laughing quietly.

"Believe me, if I were in your shoes I would have quit the race too" replied Finnick.

"Why?" Nick asked. He raised both eyebrows in mild surprise as he stared at his friend. He couldn't imagine the man voluntarily giving up the race for some meeting. He'd even given up a meeting with Suzanne once to make sure he made it to the competition!

"As if to tell you this...don't get me wrong, but you're single, you don't have any girlfriends, your Neighbour seems like a nice person. It would be a shame to have a row with someone who will live behind the hedge. It's enough that you have Patrick under the window,' Finnick explained. Nick pondered his words for a moment. Thoughts of not having a second half had been haunting him for days, he hadn't realised that anyone else was thinking about it too. He lowered his eyebrows with suspicion and looked into Finnick's eyes, trying to decipher whether he was saying it ironically or with complete seriousness.

"Have you thought about it?" Asked Nick after a moment.

"Yeah, sure! It's a shame to see you come home, sit at home most of the evening and then leave for work the next morning. Until I had a girlfriend myself I didn't even think about the fact that there were better ways to use my free time " Finnick replied. This made Nick a little uneasy. He himself didn't know what to say. On the one hand he liked to sit in silence and solitude with no one to disturb him, but on the other hand he would like to go out and talk to someone or have someone close to him.

"So what do you think I should do?" Asked Nick after a short thought.

"Look for someone! There are so many dating sites, go out on the town, look for someone! Maybe even that neighbour..."

"What, you mean Judy!" Jumped out Nick abruptly. Did Finnick seriously mean some kind of flirtation with...a rabbit?

"Judy? Is that the neighbour's name?" Finnick asked. Nick nodded in seriousness with a shake of his head, but he already knew that Finnick was going to start giving him a hard time. As he expected, he started laughing seeing the helplessness in Nick's emerald eyes as he waited with lowered eyebrows for him to explain.

"Wait, you already talked to her! And you know her name...I see you've already decided what to do yourself" Finnick said ironically. Nick growled quietly seeing Finnick's continued amusement, he tried to sit still but was becoming more and more irritated with each passing moment.

"I mean...yeah, I talked to her. I helped with the move for her yesterday, we talked a bit, but let's agree on something...as it can only be a friend! A fox with a rabbit...come on" Nick countered when Finnick managed to calm down enough to listen to what Nick had to say.

"Well, all right. Honestly, that would be the original couple...I mean you and Judy" Finnick pointed out. Nick shrugged his shoulders. At the thought of having to be with a rabbit made him uneasy and frankly he didn't really see himself in such a relationship.

"Original maybe it would be, but would it be good for sure...it would be quite strange"

"Weird because you think so, or weird because others would think so?" Finnick asked. Nick took some time to answer. It was a good question, a difficult one to answer looking at the fact that he was actually afraid of the reaction of others when they would spot him along with the rabbit in an embrace.

"Well...that and that seems like a good answer. Anyway, never mind! I'll decide for myself when I fall in love" replied Nick. Finnick again couldn't help himself and laughed at his friend's words, who looked at him with irritation.

"You wish. Once you fall in love, you can't control it. That's not for you to decide...I'll be going now, my break is over, see you Sunday at the meeting" Finnick said. He said goodbye to Nick and then headed down the main avenue to the park exit.

'It's time for me too' thought Nick. He sat under the oak tree for a few moments reflecting on his friend's words, then left the park area.

There wasn't much for Nick to do in the office to be honest, which surprised him. Usually there were more clients at the end of the week (around Thursday, Friday), that's when he had a dozen or so clients with whom he often made appointments to discuss a particular house. This week he scheduled one meeting, specifically on Wednesday next week. He was to show a flat in a high-rise building that belonged to the agency. A building with 8 floors, most of the flats were available for purchase. It was a modern, modernistic skyscraper, which by its design attracted demanding clients, a lot of them were scared off by the price, which was quite high, but nobody was surprised by that. The skyscraper was located in the centre of the city, from it there was access to practically all attractions of Zootopia, the only problem might be the constant noise that came from the streets. Leaving that aside, it was a good place to live and, above all, profitable for those who live on the move all the time and need to have access to everything regardless of the time of day or night.

Before he could leave work, the fox checked all his documents. He had to make sure that what was supposed to be ready for Monday would definitely be there and no one would take it away from him. On a couple of occasions he'd had a janitor take away his important papers and he'd had to sit in the office for hours re-doing everything, since then he'd learnt to put all the papers he needed in front of the computer screen so the janitor could see that they were important papers, the rest of the papers that needed to be thrown away Nick put next to his desk on the floor. The prepared piles of papers were easy to throw away or burn. After checking the accuracy of the documents, Fox brought order and tidiness to his workstation as he did every evening at the end of the job. He threw away unnecessary rubbish and arranged some scattered gadgets which found their place next to the monitor. Having done so, Nick looked at his watch; it was 5.00 p.m.