Chapter Four #2
Alex nodded. “Point taken. And you’re right—we don’t need it.
Fancy footwork can be just as impressive, you know.
For instance, if you…” He demonstrated a lunge, punctuated with a twirl, thrusting an imaginary sword toward the center of the living room.
Simon repeated the movement, and Alex did it again, correcting his form.
That was my cue to leave. My role in the human chess match was to smile and applaud. There was no need for me to hang out here and watch the way Alex’s sweats hugged his ass when he thrust and parried. I had better things to do with my day.
—
The desk in my childhood bedroom was a white wood confection accented with scrollwork and bordered with little gingerbread cutouts.
I’d spent the better part of my teenage years doing my homework at this desk.
Now my knees bumped at the bottom of it, and I shifted around uncomfortably in the matching spindle-legged chair.
How had I tolerated this chair all those years? It was the opposite of ergonomic.
The chair wasn’t the only thing making me uncomfortable. I’d closed my bedroom door but I could still hear them out there in the living room. I could still see them in my mind: Simon and Alex thrusting and parrying…
I didn’t want to think about Alex thrusting.
My phone buzzed on my desk, and I seized it like a lifeline. Skin-care coupon, spam text, I didn’t care. Distract me, please.
It was even better than that: a text from Nina. Lunch at Jackson’s? I hear they give a discount if you’re unemployed and living with your mom.
I huffed out a laugh. Thanks a lot, I texted back.
My treat, then, how’s that?
Yes please. See you soon. I closed my laptop with a snap—I’d just been staring at my empty inbox anyway—and grabbed my keys. I could job-hunt after lunch. There was no rush.
In a corner booth at Jackson’s, Willow Creek’s favorite hole-in-the-wall bar/diner/karaoke venue, Nina’s eyes got wider as I recounted my morning.
“He’s at your house?” She leaned back as the server placed the giant platter of appetizers between us. We hadn’t been able to decide between onion rings and mozzarella sticks; the sampler platter was a good compromise.
I nodded grimly and reached for some fried cheese. “I thought seeing him during Faire weekends was bad enough.”
“No shit.” Nina filled her small plate with some mushroom caps and onion rings, concentrating hard on the placement before looking back up at me, a wicked glint in her eyes. “Remember when you told your mom you were spending the night at my house and went out to see him?”
I groaned. “And then ended up back at your house like three hours later because I was too scared to have sex with him?” I cradled my forehead against my palm, because honestly, what had I been thinking?
I’d thought I was so grown up back then, but I’d really been a sheltered virgin with my head in the clouds.
Nina clucked a sympathetic tongue. “Ridiculous of him to think you’d fuck him anyway. Wasn’t he living in a camper with like two other guys?” She shook her head. “Dude needed a crash course in romance.”
“It wasn’t like that.” God, I didn’t want to come to his defense, not now. But I couldn’t let her think he was that crude. “I mean, yeah, you’re right about the camper, that was disgusting. But he never pushed me to do anything I wasn’t ready for.”
She made a noncommittal grunt around a mouthful of onion ring. “Okay, fine. He can have a little credit. A very little.”
“That’s all he gets.” I nodded firmly.
“So…I assume that talking to him is out, right?”
Now it was my turn for my eyes to go wide. “What in the hell would I want to talk to him about?”
“I don’t know…” Nina’s shrug was innocent. “Maybe why he dumped you via text message right before your chem lab?”
“He’d been pretty clear, hadn’t he?” Nina had been my first text that day. I’d screenshotted his message and forwarded it to her, and by the time she’d responded with multiple angry emojis I’d cut class and was on the way back to my dorm, my arms full of pints of Ben no explanation needed about that.
Nina cleared her throat, bringing me back to the present and banishing that humiliation. “No relationship talk.” She sketched an invisible box around our booth with her hands. “This is a relationship-talk-free zone.”
“Thank God.” I leaned forward, inspecting the appetizer platter before filling my own little plate with deep-fried goodness. Nina had left me a couple mushrooms. She was nice that way. I dragged one through the little cup of ranch and popped it in my mouth.
“Shame he’s still hot, though.”
I groaned and rested my forehead on my hand, still chewing. “Dammit. He really is.” When I looked up at Nina her eyes were on the platter, plotting her next deep-fried move.
“Just be careful there, okay?” She was all innocence as she took another mozzarella stick and some onion rings. “I don’t want him getting a second chance to break your heart.”
“Not gonna happen,” I said quickly, but my head filled with an image from yesterday.
Alex and me helping Mitch down the hill, exchanging more than one concerned look.
There’d been a moment of connection there, and for a second—a very short second—I’d wondered what this grown-up Alex was like.
I’d certainly changed a lot since the last time we’d seen each other. Had he?
Across the table, Nina raised her eyebrows. “You sure about that?”
“Positive.” I nodded firmly. “Besides, even if—”
Nina groaned. “Oh, here we go.”
I kept talking like she hadn’t interrupted me. “Even if I decided to go there—and I’m not saying I have—it won’t be like last time. I don’t do that anymore.”
“What, relationships?”
She’d asked the question flippantly, but my nod was serious. “They’re not for me. Not long-term, anyway.”
“Well, that’s not true,” she protested. “There was that guy, what, your junior year? You were together…”
“About four months,” I said. “I broke up with him right after the holidays.” That one had hurt.
Andrew had been…fine. His eyes were kind, and his laugh had made me feel safe.
But I realized that the more time I spent with him, the more anxious I got, waiting for the ax to fall, and I finally ended it before he could.
Any other guy I went out with ended the same way; with me dumping them before they could dump me. It was easier like that.
“I just think…”
I cut Nina off before she could finish her thought. “Relationship-talk-free zone, remember?” I waved my hands around our booth, and Nina put up her hands in surrender.
“You’re right, you’re right.” She took a long drink of her Diet Coke. “So. Lost your job, huh? They catch you stealing?”
I groaned and dropped the mushroom on my plate. “Never mind. Let’s talk about relationships some more. How are things with you and Cheri?”
“She’s great. Three years now, can you believe it?
” Nina looked around as though speaking her girlfriend’s name would summon her.
She worked at Jackson’s; in fact, she’d been our server when we’d gone out for Nina’s twenty-first birthday.
It had been an adorable, if tipsy, meet-cute, and they’d been together ever since.
“Of course I can believe it,” I said. “I bet you’re the perfect girlfriend.”
She snorted and reached for another onion ring. “She’s even gotten into the renaissance faire. Starting last summer. She’s one of the tavern wenches.”
“Spending the summer in a corset.” I clucked my tongue. “That’s true love.”
“It really is.” Nina chewed thoughtfully. “How about you?”
“Me?” I blinked. “No true love here. I thought we established that.”
She tsked at me. “Doing Faire again, dummy. How’s it feel to be back?”
I opened my mouth to say something flippant, but Nina deserved better than that. “Weird,” I finally said. “You know when you dream about being back in high school, but everything’s different?”
She nodded. “It’s the day before finals and you haven’t been to class once?”
“Exactly. I’m even wearing the same damn dress I wore when I was a kid.”
“I thought it looked familiar.” Nina tilted her head in thought. “Didn’t it used to have a hoopskirt?”
“Farthingale,” I corrected before I could stop myself.
Nina rolled her eyes. “Simon’s a bad influence on you.”
I snorted. “Anyway, someone else grabbed that first. We had to scrounge up something for me last minute. That’s why I look so deflated these days.”
“Oh, you do not.” Her smile was kind, but she was lying. “Anyway…” Nina leaned across the table and snagged the last mushroom off my plate. “It’s nice having you home.”