Dating Game ☆ Bucky x Reader

Chapter 3

Your week progresses as usual. Wake up, get coffee, go to work and come home. Your morning coffee runs have been shorter and Natalie has barely brought up the weekend. You almost thought it was a fever dream.

You hear your phone ding loudly on the table as you are making yourself some dinner - if you can count pizza rolls and hashbrowns dinner. You walk over and see a message from Natalie on your screen.

<<On my way up! I'm bringing food! - N>>

You glance forlornly at your metal baking tray full of carbs and bad food just waiting on the oven to ding. You walk into your tiny kitchen and start putting the food into freezer bags and back into the freezer. You're thankful that you hadn't started cooking yet.

Right before you hear a knock at your door you wonder how she knows where you live. You don't recall having told her but perhaps you just don't remember. It's not like your memory is that great in the first place and this week has gone by like a blur. You? Nervous? Never. Not that you would admit it anyway.

The knock rings out a second time, louder. "Oh come on, I'm about to drop the food!"

You open your door and in marches Natalie with a rather large suitcase dragging behind her and a bag of Chinese food tucked under her arm, "Oh this is cute! A little small...but cute!" she says excitedly. She drops the bag down on the coffee table and tosses the suitcase onto the far end of your couch.

"Uh, hi Natalie," you laugh as the chaotic whirlwind blows into your apartment as if she belongs there.

"Food first or clothes first?" she asks like a giddy teenager on a sleepover.

"Hello, I haven't seen you much in a few days. How are you? I'm doing great, thanks for asking, you?" a mocking sarcastic tone falls sharply out of your mouth before you sigh, loudly. "Food. Definitely, food," you say as you step into your kitchen and grab plates from the cabinet and silverware from the drawer, "Drink? I've got water, tea, beer..."

"Oh! Beer me!" she shouts, holding her hands out.

You attempt to toss the can across the room which she catches expertly. You grab two glasses, fill one with water, and carry all of it precariously balanced back to the table. You scoot things out of the way and set everything down, " So...how did you know exactly where I live?" you ask.

"You don't remember telling me? It was back around when you gave me your number. You were pretty tired so you probably just forgot," she responded while piling some rice on her plate, "I didn't know what you would like so I grabbed a couple different things. Sesame chicken, teriyaki beef, orange chicken."

It sounds just like you to forget things when you're tired so you brush it off. You scoop a little of all three on your plate with some rice. Natalie hands you a set of chopsticks from the bottom of the bag, "Oh god no. I am awful with those things. Just give me my fork and I'm good," you chuckle quietly and gesture at her with your fork. "So remind me why I'm doing this again?"

"Because you want free coffee for a month and want to do your friend a favor by babysitting her always-getting-himself-into-trouble friend?" Natalie flashed you a dazzling smile before continuing to speak. "Oh don't look at me like that. This is a big city, he hasn't been here in a very very long time. He's been refusing to leave the house. Offering to ask you to go to dinner was the only way he would go do something instead of sitting in the garage and fucking around with that bike of his."

"Me?" you respond with no small measure of shock, stopping shoveling food into your mouth for a moment.

"Yep," she said assuredly and offering no further explanation, "Anyway, this little pub across town in Brooklyn is kitschy, but I figured it would be fun. Brush up on your prohibition-era drinks and your Sinatra. They do these theme nights once a month or so."