“No, you’re good, Nigel.”
He sighed. “Very well. Anything else you need this morning?”
“Yeah…where is Tanner?”
“Didn’t I say?” He grabbed his bells. “I think I already said. Bye!” He scurried off without answering my question, his bells jingling along with him.
Well, that was weird. But everything Nigel did was weird. So it was actually normal. Seriously, I needed to move back to my place. Hopefully Nigel’s schedule would open up sooner than next year. I really couldn’t imagine staying here through Thanksgiving. And Christmas. And New Year’s. And definitely not Valentine’s Day. I could not,would not, see Nigel on Valentine’s Day.
I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and texted Tanner. I hadn’t told him about Kennedy last night, but I needed his advice now. Before I did something stupid and called her ten times when she’d specifically told me not to.
I stood up and looked around for my clothes. It looked like Nigel had taken them. Hopefully to clean and not to do something weird with. I opened the closet doors.
“Oh, and Mr. Caldwell?” Nigel said and walked back into the room.
Jesus.I jumped behind the closet door so he couldn’t stare at me naked anymore. “What, Nigel?”
“This arrived for you late yesterday evening.” He walked into the room, not caring at all that I was trying to hide from him in the closet, and handed me the manila envelope.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I don’t know. But I can open it for you.” He pulled out a letter opener from his lederhosen.
Wait, why was he wearing lederhosen again? I decided it was better not to ask. Nigel could do whatever he wanted in his free time. “That won’t be necessary,” I said and grabbed the envelope, holding it in front of my junk.
“Anything else you need? I can spoon-feed you some of the oatmeal.”
“I’m seriously good.”
Nigel nodded. “Very well, Master. I mean, Mr. Caldwell. See you for our secret rendezvous tonight at 9 pm. I’ll fax you the details. I mean text. Because I’m a modern day boy. Good day.” He ran out of the room.
Nigel had to be the strangest person I’d ever met. And that was saying something. Since Tanner was one of my best friends.
I opened up the manila envelope and pulled out the contents.Jesus.It was me and Poppy’s relationship contract. Mr. Pruitt had said he’d send it over immediately. I’d been hoping immediately meant like…in a week. I needed time to figure out what to do with the information Nigel brought me tonight. I’d just have to plan everything out quickly. Because there was no way in hell I was signing this thing. I tossed it onto my bed and picked up my phone when I saw it was blinking.
There was an unread text from Rob. I clicked on it.
“I heard Penny thought you liked that D. I’m totally cool with it if you’re gay. Probably cooler than Tanner is. I bet he’s homophobic, don’t you think? He seems like the type. Loser.”
“I’m not gay,” I texted back.
“It’s cool if you are.”
“I’m not.” I hit send and then quickly texted again. “Want to grab brunch?” I went back in my closet to look for something to wear.
“Honestly, man, that sounded really gay. I love that for you.”
“Do you want to grab brunch or not?” I was going to talk to Tanner about this, but since he was at worship or something, Rob could help me out. Besides, Rob was happily married. He probably had better advice anyway. Because as much as Tanner talked about true love, he wasn’t in a relationship.
“Of course I want to grab brunch,” he texted. “As long as we can go to that place with eclairs.”
If I was gay, then so was Rob. “See you there in thirty minutes.”
“Plenty of time to get your makeup on.”
“Go to hell,” I texted back with a laugh.
“Love you too.”
