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After lunch, we spent the whole afternoon bouncing around from shop to shop, looking at the adorable things available for new babies. Since I didn’t yet know if it was a boy or a girl, I stuck with neutral colors for the clothes I picked out. I wanted to choose a theme for the nursery, but nothing had jumped out at me yet. I felt like when I landed on the perfect one, I would know.
That night, I was at home washing all the new baby clothes and folding them up carefully so they could sit in the dresser and wait for the little one’s arrival. I had just finished the last load when someone knocked on my door.
People had come knocking on my door more in the last couple of weeks than had in the entire time I’d lived in the house. At that point, I didn’t know what to expect when I got to the door. But seeing Nick through the peephole was a real surprise. I couldn’t help the smile that came to my lips as I opened the door and looked out at him.
“Hey, there,” I said.
Nick pulled his hands from around his back to display a pizza and a bottle of sparkling cider. “I was hoping we could have dinner together.”
I smiled even wider. “That sounds wonderful.”
He came inside, and we headed for the dining room table. I went into the kitchen to get plates and champagne flutes. When I came back into the dining room, he was shuffling around in the drawer to the side table, taking out candles and matches. He settled the simple white tapers into cut crystal candleholders that were my mother’s and lit them.
“Very fancy,” I said with a slight tease in my voice, but the gesture really did create a flutter in my chest.
This was almost like a date. Which was something we hadn’t done yet. We hadn’t even talked about whether we were going to try it at all. All this preparation for the baby and looking forward to what life was going to be like after it was born did have me thinking more about forming a family. I figured I could do both. I could focus my thoughts and energy on the present, living right now rather than worrying, while also hoping for something more. I decided to just let things develop, to not put too much pressure on anything.
After all, Nick had come up with the idea of surprising me with dinner on his own. He had gone for something casual and easy which made it feel less heavy. Maybe he was thinking the same way I was. We didn’t need to sit down for an elaborate conversation that put labels and expectations on us. We could just live life and do what felt natural to us and see where that would take us. It could be really nice.
At least, that’s what I thought until he had me stuffed full of pizza and lulled into complacency with sweet, bubbly cider. That’s when he dropped the bomb.
“Justin showed up at my office,” he said.
I paused in the middle of a bite, holding the crust of my last slice of pizza and staring at him with widened eyes. “What?”
“Tonight,” he said. “I was working late and finishing some stuff up, and he walked in. That’s actually why I came tonight. I wanted to tell you.”
“He just walked in?” I asked. “He didn’t say anything?”
“When he came in, I was actually surprised because I thought I had locked the door. It was after hours, but I just hadn’t gotten around to it. He looked pretty normal when I got out into the lobby, but then he got this look on his face that was really disquieting.”
“That’s the perfect word for it,” I said. “I’m very familiar with that look.”
“I introduced myself, and then he introduced himself. Just casually like it wasn’t going to affect me at all,” he said. “He told me things didn’t work out with him and his last investor, so he wanted to come to me because he’d heard I was the best in town.”
“That’s true,” I said. “That’s why Trish recommended I go see you.”
“Do Justin and Trish know each other?” Nick asked.
It was a strange question that kind of took me aback. I looked at him quizzically. “They know of each other. I’ve known both of them for a long time. Why?”
“Would they have any reason to talk to each other now?” he asked.
“I highly doubt it. Unless they ran into each other randomly. And even if they did, Trish wouldn’t have any reason to have a conversation with him. She’s almost as angry at him as I am. Besides, the two of them never really got along anyway. Why?” I asked.
“Because Justin mentioned to me that he had heard you and I were working together,” Nick said.
