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“I get it,” he said.
They both went for the mushrooms and chewed slowly.
“You’re saying when you ask girls out,” Hayley said. “In this bar, where you’re the king of the world, you ask a girl to leave with you, and she says, ‘Oh, you’re cute’? Like she’s talking to a kid?”
He shrugged, staring into his drink. “Not all the time.”
“Well, that’s just ridiculous.”
He met her gaze with a silentthank you, and the warmth in her eyes saidyou’re welcome.
“I don’t know if anything stays together forever,” he said quietly. “But I really do think you can find what you’re looking for.”
As he kept his eyes on hers, something strengthened between them. Nick had never felt this before, and he couldn’t explain it now, but he knew they were linked—maybe they’d been linked since the first time she’d met his gaze. It was easy to tell her the truth—terrifyingly, mystifyingly easy—and he didn’t want to do anything else. She would spot anything else, and she would look away.
She held his gaze a beat longer and then wiped her hands on a napkin. “I couldn’t make it work before,” she said. “And that was when I had a job.”
“Icarus?”
“Yep.” She reached for her drink. “We used to dance at the Icarus Showcase in Indianapolis.”
“And that’s the piece of your universe that needed to change,” he guessed. “You came here for a better job at Vivez?”
“That was the plan,” she said. “But of course I screwed up the job, and things are still weird with Kevin …”
“But you didn’t screw up,” Nick said gently. “You’ll dance in September, won’t you? That’s what Linda meant the other day?”
Hayley perked up. “Sure,” she said slowly. “But Kevin and I have never not been dancing at the same time before.”
“Sounds like a pretty big adjustment,” Nick said, hoping he sounded supportive.
“It is.” She was smiling now. “It is! God, I wasfreaking out, but that’s it. We just have toadjustto our new rhythm, is all. We’re not used to being this happy.”
Nick tried to follow her logic. “A good problem to have,” he offered.
Her eyes widened. “But what if I don’t dance?”
He scoffed. “You’ll dance.”
“Seriously,” Hayley said. “What if she changes her mind? If I’d really been good enough, Linda Branflakesinwhatsit would’ve given me a job, right along with Kevin. She would’ve said, ‘Hayley, I don’t give a good goddamn who I’ve got already. You’ve gotta be up there.’”
“She’ll put you on stage.”
“You can’t just say that.”
“I know it.”
“How?”
“Because you’re beautiful,” he said.
Silence.
He’d gotten too comfortable. Nick had cheered her up, and so he’d been riding the high of his success, busy shoveling mushrooms into his mouth and washing them down with ice water while he half listened to Hayley worry about a problem he knew for a fact wasn’t a problem, because there was no way in hell anyone would deny this woman a spot on stage. While his guard was down, the truth came out of his mouth, and then panic hit so hard and fast he thought he might throw up. When he finally found the courage to look at her, he saw pure joyful surprise on Hayley’s face.
“You really think I’m beautiful?” she asked.
He was a little taken aback. Surely Kevin had told her, if no one else. How could she not know she was special?
