Oh boy, Nate Peterson is honestly full of surprises. This past year, he’s become less and less annoying and more…intriguing,and now, to add to that, I find out that the guy can sing. Now, I don’t mean like he can hold a tune, I mean he can hold a whole room entranced in his voice.
He finishes the last song, something about being a simple man, and when he sits down and takes a swig of his beer, I wait patiently. He eyes me over the bottle as he lowers it, then looks around. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
I laugh. “Are you kidding me right now? We’ve been friends now for over a year, and you hidethattalent?”
He blushes! Then shrugs. “Cas has the dance moves, and I have the voice. It’s no big deal.” I go to open my mouth, but he stops me. “It’s not, but if you want to know my hopes, dreams and secrets, then it’s only fair I know yours.” He makes it sound like an offhanded comment, but to me it isn’t. It’s one more person wanting something from me, wanting to know the ins and outs of every little thing, and I…can’t.
“Forget it.” I stand from the table and grab my bag, but Nate’s quicker.
His hand closes around my wrist, gently holding me in place. “I’m not asking for everything, I only want to help.” His eyes are so earnest that it makes me want to give in, but that feeling of betrayal rises because Pete was also earnest once.
I shake my head. “I can’t give you what you want, Nate. That isn’t me anymore.”
He let go of my hand. “Friendship? Because that’s all I’m asking, I know I flirt, and sometimes I say things I shouldn’t, my brain isn’t very good at keeping it in, but all of that will stop if you want it to. I want to be your friend and help you.”
“It’s not that easy.” I could never bejustfriends with someone like Nate; he’d wear down my walls too quickly, too easily, and where would that leave me?
“It really is that easy. We can start small with the list. We can write down everything that you want to do to make you smile, and we can work through them one by one.”
I look away as the tears sting my eyes and my stupid heart betrays me.Say yes, Hayleigh.I look back at Nate, so at ease with everything that I wonder sometimes if anything phases him.
He’s always happy and smiling, he doesn’t catastrophise or lose his cool and suddenly I find myself sitting back down.
He waves at one of the servers walking past. She makes her way over, a dreamy look in her eye. “Hey. Can I just say that OMG you wereamazingup there, like, totally amazing.” She giggles and blushes, and I roll my eyes.
Nate throws a wink at her, and something ugly churns in my gut as he leans on one hand and smiles at her. “Thank you…” He looks at her badge. “Stacey. Can you get me and my friend here a couple of Jell-O shots, a whiskey sour and a bottle of beer? Oh, and a piece of paper and a pen.” He throws another wink, and I swear to god if he does that one more time, he will be permanently winking when I poke his eye with my straw!
She doesn’t even acknowledge that I’m there. Talk about girl power. Instead, she giggles again. “Sure, handsome.” She saunters off, swaying her hips like a fucking pendulum.
Nate sniggers, and my eyes go to him. “Shortcake, did you realise your face has subtitles?”
My hand dives into the bowl of peanuts on the table between us before I flick one right at his forehead. “Didn’t realise you enjoyed having a fan club.”
His mouth drops open. “First of all, ouch and second, are you jealous?”
I roll my eyes; my entire head moves with them. “Oh,please,as if.”
He narrows his eyes and then nods while smiling to himself. Stupid idiot, and oh great, his number one fan is back.
She places the drinks on the table, and I swear to god there is no need for her to be bending in half to place them down. Then she takes the pad from the front pocket of her waist apron and pulls the pen from her cleavage. “There you go.” Her voice is breathy, and a giggle escapes her lips as he takes them from her, then in a moment she’s gone.
“I amnottouching that pen! Where does she keep her phone? Her vagina? And what was with the giggles? Is she a fucking Teletubby?” I am outraged. On his behalf, of course, she was totally objectifying him, and he didn’t invite that behaviour. It isn’t because I’m jealous.
Absolutely not. Ludicrous.
I can see him trying not to laugh at my outburst as he clicks the lid of the pen and poises it over the paper. “Okay. This is how it’s going to work. You’re going to take a shot, and then you’re going to tell me one thing you want to do most in the world. Without any context behind it. If you choose to share more, great; if you don’t, that’s okay.”
I immediately relax at that idea, and a small crack forms in those walls around me.
I pick up a neon blue shot and down it. I think for a moment that all of those drinking sessions when I was younger paid off, but then the flavour hits my tongue, and the alcohol burns a trail down my throat. I cough and splutter. Very sexy.
I wipe my eyes. “Holy shit, what was inthat?”
“It’s best you don’t know. Okay, first item on the list without thinking. Go.”
“I want my own place.” I surprise myself. He nods for me to take another shot, but I want him to know why. So I swallow the taste, and I’m not sure if it was the shot or the churning nerves. “I want somewhere that’s mine, fresh and new. Somewhere thathe wasn’t. I want it to need work and not because I necessarily want to do the work, but I want to make it mine from the ground up.”
He writes something down on the list, smiling. “I like that.” No pushing, no analysing. Acceptance.
