Page 22 of Play With Me
CHAPTER6
Jude
Even though it’s only a twenty-minute walk back to her apartment from the library, between the rain now coming down in sheets, Cap’s constant yawning, and her inability to see, Nora agrees to let me call a cab instead of walking.
Nora says it’s only a seven-minute drive, and luckily, Cap launches into an immediate discussion about the Marvel universe with the cabbie. He’s sitting between me and Nora, and keeps leaning forward, gesticulating wildly. I steal glances at Nora whenever he does, but she doesn’t look my way at all. Just sits there with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, as if she’d rather be anywhere else in the world.
My stomach knots.
She’s wearing dark green nail polish, I notice. Since when does Nora wear nail polish?
Cap’s still talking, but I notice he’s leaning back in his seat now. He’s got shadows under his eyes.
We only got in late last night and I made him wake up at nine this morning so we could beat the jet lag. But the kid’s exhausted. He doesn’t even lift his hands to describe the fight scene he’s talking about.
My anger from back in the library deflates like a sad balloon.
This angry version of myself is not one I like, and now I feel like a shit dad on top of everything else. I should have insisted we stop looking for Nora hours ago. But we’d both been desperate to see her.
It hadn’t gone anywhere near to plan.
I lean my head back against the seat.
“You can just drop me off at the door,” Nora says to the driver as the car pulls up to the building a few minutes later.
“No.” I sit up fast. The word comes out hard enough that Cap looks confused.
“You need to get to your hotel,” Nora says. “Cap’s exhausted.”
“I’m not tired!” Cap says, lifting his head from the seat like it weighs a thousand pounds.
“I know he is,” I say. “But we’re walking you to your door, okay? You can’t see shit. Don’t argue with me.”
“Dad!” Cap hisses, glancing at our driver, then Nora.
“It’s all right, mate,” the driver says. “Heard a lot worse in here!” He guffaws loudly.
Normally, all of us would have laughed alongside him, but none of us are laughing now. The tension between me and Nora is palpable, and Cap’s not just exhausted now, but worried.
I put on a smile for the driver, but mostly for Cap. “Thanks,” I say as I hand him cash before Nora can even think about trying to.
Maybe buoyed by my softening, Cap waves amiably at the driver as he stumbles out of the car. “Yeah, thanks for the ride, Tim!”
The driver smiles happily, obviously surprised to have received a personalized thanks from a seven-year-old.
“Here,” I say as Nora reaches the door. She’s holding her keys inches from her face, clearly struggling to see which is which. And her hands are shaking.
I’m such a fucking asshole.
Reluctantly, she lets me take them, though she sticks her hand out to get them back the moment I’ve unlocked the door.
Nora’s building is an old brick walk-up with a large parquet lobby and a wide set of wooden stairs leading up across from the door. “I’m on the fifth floor,” she says. “Or do you already know that?”
I grimace. “Murray might have let it slip out.”
Cap peers at the stairs with confusion. “Where’s the elevator?”
“No elevators when these buildings were made, buddy,” I mumble, eyes still on Nora.
