He still nodded.
Stacie pierced him with her unflinching gaze before she gave him a nod of her own.
“And what exactly are you doing here now, Nate? Because if it’s thanks you’re looking for, then thank you for helping out Maddy, but I think you should leave now.” She turned to leave herself, which made Nate snap into action.
“Wait!” he called out loud, making Stacie’s head, and plenty of others’ in the vicinity, snap back towards him.
“Please, I need to see her. I know I probably hurt her even when I didn’t know I was doing it.” He paused, not knowing how much Stacie knew about his and Maddy’s unusual meeting, but he forged on. “Everything began to come back to me only recently and if I could have had anything to do with it, I would never have forgotten a single thing about her or the time we spent together. So please, at least give me a chance to apologize to her. And if she doesn’t want to see me again, then I’ll understand and I won’t bother her again.”
Nate felt the plea that had bled into his words and knew that if that didn’t move Stacie, nothing probably would. She seemed fiercely protective of Madison which made her a good friend. A friend he had to go through if he wanted to see his Mads.
Miraculously, Stacie’s eyes did seem to thaw just a little, which made hope spark in Nate’s chest.
“Okay,” she finally said, albeit begrudgingly. “But as I told you, she’s not here today. She took the day off.”
The way she said it made Nate ask something he had no business asking.
“Why? Is something wrong?”
Stacie stared at him for a bit before sighing.
“She told me she’s sick. Nothing serious,” she rushed to add, probably seeing Nate’s panicked look, “it’s probably just a cold, it’s just hit her a bit harder than usual.”
“Give me her address.”
The request was easy to make. Madison was sick, so he would go to her. Simple as that.
Stacie blinked at him. “Excuse me?”
“Give me her address. I’ll make sure she’s okay.”
Nate had clearly taken her by surprise because she was still blinking at him owlishly.
“Stacie, if she’s sick at home all alone someone needs to take care of her. Please, tell me where she lives so I can make sure she’s okay.” He said all that calmly but with a steeliness that brooked no arguments. He needed her to understand how serious he was. “And what I said before still stands, if she doesn’t want me there, I will never bother her again.”
He could see Stacie was caving but not before she tilted her chin up. “And how do I know you’re not someone who’s going to hurt her?”
Nate knew she meant physically because he knew he’d unknowingly already hurt her in other ways.
He held her gaze. “I would rather chop off my own hands than do anything to hurt her.”
Stacie’s rigid posture slowly relaxed and with a loud exhale, she grabbed a post-it and a pen from the reception desk, and scribbled something on it.
“She has to buzz you in anyway, so it’ll be her choice,” she said, handing him the note.
Nate took it before she had a change of heart.
“Thank you,” he said, hoping he sounded as grateful as he felt. “You won’t regret it.”
“I sincerely hope not. For your sake.”
thirty-two
Maddy wondered if this was what feeling like death warmed over was like.
If it was, she had no trouble believing it.
She was currently sprawled on her couch, with a small towel that she’d soaked in cold water covering her forehead and eyes in an attempt to soothe the low-grade fever she was running. She’d already taken some ibuprofen but it hadn’t taken effect yet. Hopefully it would soon. Right then, she was happy to let the couch swallow her as she buried herself under the thick, fleece blanket she had thrown over herself.
