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Nick nodded emphatically and felt the room swim. “I’d do it for Hayley, though.”
Calvin paused mid-crouch. “Sink?”
“I’m not even saying, like, if she was a diver or whatever,” Nick barreled on. “If she said, ‘Nick, I’d be happy if you lived on a boat,’ I think I’d do it. I’d be loading up on Dramamine, andshe’d be here, and I’d—I don’t know—send her pictures of purposes or whatever …” He realized his mistake. “Porpoises. Porpoises?”
Cal stood slowly as he put it all together. “You’re in love with her,” he said.
Nick forgot about porpoises. “No.” He shook his head and started to laugh. “Not a chance. I’ve done that. Love is easy.”
“Says who?” Cal took aim and sent Nick’s empty cup on an easy arc into a nearby trash can. “Love’s only easy when it’s convenient.”
“I just had to take my cues,” Nick said. “I’mreally goodat that, man. I could see everything at lunch, what they all wanted from me. Kevin wants an emotional stunt double or something, and her folks like me better than him, so why not? And Hayley …” Nick gritted his teeth. “Hayley wants to show her parents this perfect picture of her life. And that’s fine. I can be what she wants. Except today.” He slumped. “Couldn’t do it today.”
Cal dropped into the seat next to him. “Of course not,” he said. “You want something better.”
Nick pointed at him. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But that’s not why I left her on the …” He waved a hand in front of him at the imaginary sidewalk. “I left because I realized I will doanythingto keep her around,” he said. “You know how scary that is? All afternoon, I’ve been imagining all the lunches I’m going to suffer through, and all the pain that’s going to come with being nothing more than her friend. And I’m going to do it anyway.”
The pair stared at each other.
“It’s awfully interesting,” Cal said carefully, “how she’s as upset as you are.”
Nick blinked. “No,” he said. “She’s … look, she probably thinks she did something wrong.”
“Did she?”
“No. Come on.” Nick was floundering. “It doesn’t matter. They’re moving away.”
“Probably not much of a downside to telling her how you feel, then.”
“I’m not going to tell her I’m pissed at her.”
“Not what I meant.” Cal got up and reached for Nick’s plate. “Want some more nachos?”
Nick wasn’t ready for the subject change. “Is there enough time?”
“I can make it happen,” Cal said. “Though you should know people are going to panic if we ask for two Nacho Days in one night.”
“Nacho …” Nick started to laugh. “Not Your Day. I knew the plate was larger than normal.”
“The emergency menu is top secret,” Cal cautioned. “Vivez family only.”
“No nachos required,” Nick said. “Maybe another Brigadoon. And some water.” He paused. “Is there some sort of cookie situation on the emergency menu?”
“Anything for the music man.”
Nick was comfortably spent when the show ended, light-headed from laughter and booze when Mimi found him after the curtain call.
“Nick,” she said, “how drunk are you right now, would you say?”
Nick gave that some serious thought. “Let’s find out.” He stood up carefully. “Oh yeah. We’re golden.”
“And what does that mean?”
“Means the room’s not spinning when I stand up, so I am good to go.”
“Fantastic. Have you seen our rehearsal rooms?”
He was still working on her first question. “I mean, there aredegreesof drunk. But I’m not sick drunk. Notunstable.”
