Finally, After Forever

Five. Nami and Eli

I slightly opened my eyes to the smell of French toast, scrambled cheesy eggs, and turkey bacon. Elijah was sitting in my bed with two plates of breakfast waiting to be eaten.

"Good morning Naomi! I hope you don't mind me using your plates but I got us some breakfast from Grubhub," said a very deep voiced Elijah. After we finished matching, I invited Elijah back inside where we watched a couple dumb movies until we both crashed from the weed. We ended up sleeping in my bed together but it was very casual. I'm surprised he didn't leave in the middle of the night like my former tinder dates. I've been robbed once before so I'm definitely glad he didn't leave but I'm also glad because I got to lay up with him all night.

"Oh my gosh food! I'm starving! Thank you for using my plates and thank you for getting turkey bacon!" I don't eat most meats and I only told him that once so it made me feel special that he remembered. He might actually care about me.

"So are we gonna talk about us saying we like each other? Where do we go from here? What are you looking for," I asked. I was still over the moon about expressing my feelings and that he really felt the same way. I'm always straight forward with the men I deal with and even though I liked Elijah more than most, he wasn't getting a pass to waste my time.

"I like what we have going on now," he started, "I like talking to you a lot, I want to spend a lot more time with you, and spend more time in this bed too. What am I looking for? I don't really know, I'm open to anything." He looked me in the eye as he said all that letting me know he wasn't lying. No promises of long term anything to get my hopes up, just wanting to go with the flow. I respected it.

"To be frank, I want long term, to build something that'll last and to be married. That's my end goal. I'd like to spend more time together too but if that makes you nervous, let me know now so I don't get too interested." I responded. Elijah grabbed my hand and looked at me and just offered a reassuring smile.

"I'm interested." He replied with a sexy smirk.

I literally can't believe this is working out so well for me! I saw this man in my coffee shop and decided to talk to him and it's working out for me! After finishing my breakfast, I rested my head on his chest and laid my arm across his torso. What a dream cozy Sunday afternoon. I could really get used to this. Using my other hand I opened my phone and finally deleted tinder. It was way overdue to delete this app and I finally felt like I could! Even if this didn't work out, I didn't want to swipe on those losers anymore. I'm over it completely.

"You know Naomi, you need a nickname. I'm tired of calling you your full name, it's too formal. What do your family and friends call you?" Elijah asked me. This was a random question but all the cute couples give each other nicknames but my name is hard to nickname.

"My best friends call me Naomi and my parents also call me Naomi. Give me a nickname Elijah or do you prefer Eli? Jah? Lij?" I was being annoying at this point but if he wanted to give me a nickname, I'm giving him one. Mine will just be cuter.

"Nobody has called me Eli since I was a child but I'll make an exception for you. I will get to thinking because I'm not calling you Naomi. Every time I talk to you, I want it to be personal and for us to connect. That matters to me." Eli said to me. This man has a way with words. He doesn't know he doesn't have to work this hard with me because I already like him but I'm not saying anything because I like the treatment.

Truth is I did I have a nickname. People called me Shadow because I often faded into the background and people forgot I was even around. Even Kourtney and Cassie called me Shadow for a while trying to "make it sound cool" but when anybody called me Shadow it hurt my feelings.