Nate seemed to fall quiet for a while, his expression becoming serious.
“What are we going to do, Madison? Do we act like nothing’s wrong, like this is where we’re supposed to be?”
Maddy thought about it before answering.
“I don’t think there’s anythingtodo,” she started. “If this a dream, a figment of overactive imagination, or true, all we can do is just see it through. I don’t think this is something we can control. It just is what it is. Maybe…” she hesitated. “Maybe we could have a re-do,” she suggested tentatively. “We could make a list of things to experience again, silly things or even not so silly.”
Nate’s piercing gaze was difficult to read.
“Or not,” she laughed awkwardly.
Nate leaned forward, putting his forearms on the table.
With an imperceptible sigh, he said, “What’s the first thing on the list?”
There was no way Maddy could control the smile that split her face.
She pretended to think hard. “How do you feel about a movie night?”
ten
Nate wasn’t sure what he had exactly agreed to.
What he did know, was that, as inexplicable as it may seem to him, Nate found that he couldn’t say no to Madison’s request. Not to the way she’d said it, so timidly, as if she felt like she was overstepping. He found that he liked that. He wanted more of her genuine, unbridled reactions. She didn’t play at things, being coy for the sake of being coy.
Her brain-to-mouth filter was just this side of compromised, and she blurted out things that surprised him and delighted him, even though he tried not to be too obvious about it.
He’d had to close himself off to so many different things in his life, it was probably second nature at that point, keeping his reactions to himself.
Madison though, seemed nothing like him. From the few conversations he’d had with her he wondered if maybe she was holding herself back. He saw a spark of mischief in her gaze that drew him in, that spoke to a part of himself. A special blend of melancholy and lightness he wanted to sample.
They’d stuck to general chit chat for the rest of their stay at the coffee shop, the sky darkening as afternoon started turning to evening. The earlier rain had left behind a cloying wetness that seemed to stick to them as they made their way back.
She was surprisingly easy to talk to. She didn’t push. She just did and said her own thing, and that was something he respected.
Nate had insisted in accompanying her to her house. They weren’t far but it would be easy to feel uncomfortable when it got dark. Madison of course said that she didn’t want to be a bother. He had an inkling she felt that way frequently, like she was a bother even when he could see that she was grateful for the chance not to walk back alone.
So she spoke to his inner caretaker, sue him.
He’d taken care of his own family for as long as he could remember. It wasn’t easy to discard that particular trait.
And as he stole a glance at her as she traipsed through the shallow puddles of water, with a faint smile permanently on her lips, he thought he didn’t even want to discard it.
eleven
That’s how they found themselves in the video club store on Saturday evening, looking for movies to rent. The fact that Nate had actually agreed to this was nothing short of a miracle but she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She was just happy to be there.
Maddy had always loved going to the video club. Even as a kid, she would go with her mom and browse endlessly the cartoon movies, trying to remember what she’d already seen and what she had yet to rent. And then later on, the new releases were always the first thing she would rush to the moment she walked through the door.
She’d loved the whole thing.
Sure, it was easier now to watch whatever she wanted through the many streaming services, but nothing beat that feeling when she would pick up everything she wanted and head to the check-out with an armload of choices to rent for the week. It was a feeling difficult to replicate.
But she was there now, and she planned on taking full advantage. And she wasn’t going to do it alone. She would drag Nate along for the ride.
Maddy had told her parents she would be at her friends’ get-together for a movie night, which technically hadn’t been a lie.
Was Nate her friend now? Maybe, she supposed.
