43 Embrace the feeling

When you feel this way, there are mainly three things involved;

You could be madly in love with them?''

Nicklaus brows creased harder;

''In what? ''

He asked with an irritated tone; that was the last thing he expected to hear. He barely knew Tiana, why was the doctor talking about love? Besides, he wasn't one who had such weak feelings, he didn't even have time for that; she must be mistaken.

''No, I didn't say that is what it is, I'm just giving you the options; can I go on? ''

Nicklaus was already boiling, but he figured that he would just let her go on since she hadn't finished with her talk. What was the worst that could happen anyway?

''Go on. '' He said, his voice gravelly. His eyes were dark, and he was already looking angry, Dr. Perry swallowed hard before she continued; she was a bit scared because she didn't know what she would say that could annoy him; everything around him looked terrifying.

''Another case is that you may have started developing fresh feelings of infatuation towards them; or maybe there is no particular reason and you're just going to accept that that is how your brain functions ''

She paused, awaiting his reaction; Nicklaus was staring at her sternly;

Has she finished speaking? He waited a moment but when he saw that she would not say anything else, he asked curtly;

''are you done?''

He raised an eyebrow, his expression doubting; it was obvious he believed nothing the woman said;

Dr. Perry adjusted on her seat; clearing her throat, she continued;

''There are things you can't control and you must come to terms with them. From what you've told me, all I can say is that you're beginning to fall for this person. ''

She explained, her fingers curling on the table. The expression of the man in front of her was so scary right now.

Nicklaus couldn't believe his ears;

Falling in love? What a joke!

He was not one of those men whose lives were curled around a woman's fingers. He had never taken a liking to a woman before and he obviously couldn't start now.

''Is there no other explanation to this? '' He asked, unsatisfied by the Dr.'s diagnosis.

Dr. Perry thought silently; he was really a strange person. Why was he so averse to falling in love?

''I'm sorry, but there is no other explanation. ''

Nicklaus stared at her for a moment; then he stood up quietly and turned to the door;

''But I'll advise you to… '' Dr. Perry added, making Nicklaus stop;

Nicklaus turned to her, a menacing glare in his eyes; Dr. Perry inched backwards on her chair, chiding away from his frosty aura. He stared at her for a moment before turning around and walking out the door, banging it behind him.

Dr. Perry heaved a sigh of relief once he was out of her office. She had not gotten such a scary client in all the years of her practice!

…

Nicklaus drove like a maniac on the road, his hands clutched so hard on the steering that his knuckles looked like they could pop any second.

He regretted ever going to see the doctor, now he was worse than he was the previous day, with the doctor's last words resounding every minute in his ears.

What if she was right, and he was falling for her?

But what was there to fall for? She was beautiful, yes, but he had seen pretty women! What was about her that got him so insane?

He ran his hand through his head as he stopped on the red light;

Just when he thought his problems were already too much; his eyes reflexively glanced to his side and he saw two people sucking their breaths out of each other.

Nicklaus swiftly looked forward; he shifted his hand to the side and wound up the glass instantly.

Was that what it would be like? Stopping at red lights to bite on each other's tongues;

Nicklaus imagined doing that with Tiana and he instantly shook his head; cringing at the thought of it;

No way, it wasn't happening; even if the Dr. was correct, he would train his mind to stop thinking so childishly. There was a lot of things at stake at that moment. Having such preposterous feelings would be damaging, he couldn't risk it.

…

By the next week, Fredrick handed everything to Tiana completely. After the day's work she followed Nicklaus home. He had been behaving indifferently towards her recently; although he was normally like that, but in the past few days, it felt as though he was intentionally avoiding her; he didn't even send her tasks anymore and only called her to review files or attend client meetings.

She suspected that it was related to his illness, but she wasn't even fazed a bit; in fact, he made living more bearable for her. She was happy about it.

They dismissed early on Friday; so Tiana decided to swim to relieve her stress and stretch her bones; she wasn't a perfect swimmer, but she was good.

It was an indoor swimming pool, and there was a door which she could lock to prevent anyone from coming in. She didn't have a swim trunk, so she wore bikinis to swim; she couldn't risk the workers walking in and seeing her half naked, so she locked the doors.

After packing her hair into a tight bun; Tiana removed her clothes. She was shy from exposing her body in such an open space, it felt as though someone was watching her, wanting to be sure, she walked back to the door to check if it was locked properly, when she was sure that it was, she returned to the swimming pool.