“Then let’s get you coffee,” he said.
He opened his apartment door and I stepped out onto the landing. It was crazy, but I had this odd feeling that I was being watched. I’m sure it was just my paranoia from the video, but it was hard to shake.
When we got to the bottom of the steps, I was suddenly super self-conscious. My fingers twisted together.
“What?” Nick asked, when I didn’t start walking toward the town square.
“This feels like a lot of pressure. It’s one thing if it’s just us. Or just our parents, but news that we’re a couple is going to spread all around town by tonight.”
He took my hand. “We went viral, babe. Even the cats of Calico Cove know we’re a thing. Let’s do this.”
I scrunched up my face at him. “I can’t believe you, of all people, are being easy-going about this.”
“Wait? Are you freaking out now?”
I bit my bottom lip. “I’m not freaking out about my feelings. Just all the pressure from the town.”
“Fuck the town.”
I glared at him. “You sound like Dad.”
“That’s a compliment. But…” Nick’s voice trailed off.
“What?”
“What if you’re nervous about something else?”
“Like what?”
He stopped walking then and looked down at me. “You’ve…thought about this before. You and me, right?”
“Uh, only since puberty, Nick.”
He closed his eyes and did that nose pinching move. I wanted to ask him if it ever worked.
“Can we please never discuss you and puberty again?”
“Fair enough.”
“My point is, you’ve built up…I don’t know, maybe a lot of fantasies about me.”
“Which you’ve exceeded in bed, thank you very much.”
“No, I mean fantasies about what I might be like as a boyfriend.”
I blinked. “Yeah, I guess I probably have.”
“I’m going to exceed those too,” he said. “Prepare yourself.”
I laughed, so relieved he was trying to distract me. “I think I’m prepared for you, Nick.”
“You can’t possibly be,” he said, pushing us forward. It was nice to let him take charge. To let him be the one to manage this step. “I know you so well and I’m going to use all that information to my advantage.”
We stepped over the curb and onto the sidewalk.
“Yeah, what do you know?”
“I know you like those caramel drinks on the weekends. But coffee on weekday mornings. I know you like herbal tea in the afternoon and you let yourself have one Diet Coke a week. You like cheeseburgers with extra ketchup and no mustard, which is ridiculous, by the way. I know you like to sleep in a cold room so you can have lots of blankets. Fall is your favoriteseason. You like peonies and hate carnations. You want five kids. You like cats, not dogs, which we’re probably going to have to compromise on. Hey…” he wiped away my tears with his thumbs.
