Confession

They were seated in the restaurant and everyone there seemed to know George and Luke; everyone was smiling at them. Even the waiters knew them. Nora looked at George as he gave the order for the dinner to a waitress.

"You guys seriously own this restaurant, I am amazed." Tina lightly slammed her palms on the table.

"So how was your day?" George asked, not specifically aiming at anyone. Tina spoke up, "Great, we were so excited. You called out of the blue."

"Were you? And you Nora?"

"I just came to know about this a few hours ago and had no idea you called us in, but I am glad for your invitation." She smiled.

The waitress was back with their meals, the plates were settled in the table. "For today's special the chef has prepared seared porterhouse steak with grilled sweet potatoes. Please enjoy your meal." The waitress gave a curt nod and left.

"Go ahead." George smiled, "Bon appetit."

The steak was delicious, it was seared to perfection and the grilled sweet potatoes complimented it well. When done a waiter cleared the table. The waitress was back after a few minutes, "For the dessert the chef has prepared the chocolate cream pie, simple yet subtle, with a cookie crust and half Oreo, half red velvet." She laid down the plates.

Nora's lips curled up in a smile as she dug into it with a spoon and put it in her mouth, the smile grew bigger. "You like that Nora?" George snapped her out.

"Yes. It's great." She took another spoonful.

"How was the steak?"

"It was good too. But why the sudden treat?" She looked at him. He let out a small chuckle, "Well I wanted to talk about something. Something that's very important to me."

"Hmm." She got back at her pie. George put down his spoon and leaned back in his seat. "Nora, I like you. Will you go out with me?"

Nora's hand stopped inches away from her mouth, her eyes widened, she looked at him dumbfounded. "Nora?" He said again.

"Yeah. I.. is this a joke?" She laughed awkwardly.

"No I'm very serious at the moment, I like you. And I want you to go out with me." He said sternly.

Her brain stopped processing stuff, she put down the spoon and her put hands on the table, "Look I am. I.. you. It's.. I need to get some air." She fumbled through the napkin on her lap, got up and dashed out.

"Well that didn't go as you planned." Luke shrugged and took a bite of his pie.

"So you finally decide to speak and at this moment." George snapped.

"I'll go look for her." Tina followed her.

George sank into his chair, "Help me man, talk to me, tell me everything's gonna be fine." He sighed.

"Can't do that. I cannot lie to you." Luke shrugged.

Tina was back a few minutes later, she looked pissed, "Damn she's fast. I couldn't find her anywhere and her phone's switched off." She slumped in the chair.

"Hey Tina, was that the first time someone confessed to her? What was that? She was so surprised." George straightened up.

"Shocked. I would say she was shocked." Luke smirked.

"Shut the fuck up. Concentrate on your freaking pie." George growled.

"No it's nothing like that. I don't know, maybe you took her by surprise." She shrugged. "I think we should wait, she'll come back soon."

"Like we have a choice." Luke said. Both of them glared at him. "What?" He said.

George opened his mouth but was cut off by a ring. "Oh excuse me." Luke took out his phone from his pocket, "I got to take this call. I'll be right back." He got up, "And Tina you mind giving George here some words of motivation?" She nodded and he was gone.

"What do you want?" Luke said on his phone. He couldn't hear the reply clearly, the restaurant was just too noisy because of someone's party, people were jumping around, hooting and singing. Someone with big party glasses bumped into him, he gave the guy a scornful look and he stepped back. He sighed, "Wait a minute." He said on his phone and made his way to the kitchen and used the back door to exit the restaurant, and got into the back alley. "Yeah go ahead. I know it's important but he doesn't care about me anyway. Please don't again." The person on the other side started speaking. He stood in the alley running his hand through his hair, the person didn't stop speaking, he sighed in frustration and started looking around when something caught his sight on the alley stairs of the building. He squinted his eyes trying to focus on the form on the stairs, "Hey I'll call you later. I promise I will." He hung up and started walking towards the staircase. He stood at the bottom and turned on the flashlight of his phone and directed it at the person sitting at the top of the staircase, his mouth dropped open, "Nora?! What are you doing here?"

She looked at him and then down at her feet. He climbed up the stairs, "The heck Nora? How did you even manage to get here?" He asked her.

"Leave me alone, please." She said in a small voice.

He sighed and settled down on the steps below hers and put down his phone with the flashlight on, beside him and turned his back to her, "Is it because of what George said?"

"I don't want to talk about it." She said frustrated.

"I see. So you think hiding here in the dark is going to help you, huh?" She didn't respond. "Do you like him Nora?"

"No." Her voice was low, barely audible.

"Okay. Then what's the matter? You can't turn him down?"

"Yes. I can't. He did so much, called us for dinner, prepared everything. It would be too rude."

"Then say yes to him." He shrugged.

"No. I can't do that." She finally raised her voice.

"Then turn him down."

"I can't do that either. I am useless." She cried. "I'm just creating troubles for everyone. If I turn him down he would feel too bad and also in his earlier relationship he was cheated on. I just can't.."

"If I hadn't told you about his past would you have accepted his proposal?"

"No. But still."

"Nora if you keep thinking about how your personal decisions affect the people around you, you will never be able to live peacefully. If someone is upset because of your decision, don't blame yourself, it's not your fault."

"If I ask for some time, would that help?"

"Well, no it won't. Asking for time will only give him hope that you might say yes, but that's not your case. And you know what, speaking what's on your mind isn't a bad thing either, some people might get hurt or feel offended but at least you won't have any regrets later on."

"Then I would be too selfish, thinking only about myself."

Luke took a deep breath and got up, he turned around to face Nora. She was looking down at her hands in her lap, his eyes fell down at her feet, a small smile formed on his face. He bent down and tied her shoelaces, he then tapped on her calf and looked up at her, she finally looked at him. "Nora, thinking about yourself first isn't called being selfish, it's called caring about yourself. Listen to what your heart says and then do that using your mind. Don't bear any kind of unnecessary guilt or regret. Do what you feel is right. Okay?" He smiled. She gave a small nod. "And another thing," he straightened himself, "it's high time now, you should start paying me for tying your laces. This is the third time I'm doing this for you."

Nora gave a small smile, "Nobody asked you to tie them in first place."

"Hmm.. you're right. Fine then it's free service for you." He smiled. "Now make up your mind quick and come inside. It's not safe round here at this point of the hour." He picked up his phone and started down the stairs, "Hurry up." He said when he got at the bottom and then returned to the back door and got in.