Ready To Go (22 page)

“I have no idea,” she said with a grin. “I just want a goodbye dinner for you and a thank you dinner for Ethan, and I guess a congratulations dinner for me. Something kind of special.”

“How about spaghetti?” he suggested. “Ethan’s got some dry noodles in the kitchen, so all you’d need to get is sauce.”

“I can make spaghetti,” she said. “I guess that’s what this twenty is going to, unless you change your mind on wanting it?”

“You earned it,” he said. “You go spend it. Take my car.”

She smiled, and headed back to the door. “I was barely even here,” she said. “Feels kind of like just another hotel. But a little messier.”

Daniel laughed. “Yeah. Ethan’s not the neatest.”

After Nicole had left, Daniel spent a few minutes straightening up the apartment. He had nothing better to do, and he figured it couldn’t hurt to make the place neater for the other two.

The door to the apartment opened, and Ethan entered. “Where’s Nicole?” he asked.

“She’s getting something for dinner,” Daniel replied. “Hey, I got a question.”

“Yeah?” Ethan asked. He set the bag with the new keys on the kitchen counter and added, “Make sure Nicole gets one of those.”

“Do you mind if I stay here for a while longer?” Daniel asked.

“How long is a while?”

“I don’t know,” he replied with a shrug. “I’m thinking about not going back home. I’m dropping out of school anyway, told you about that. And I want to stay with Nicole.”

“Is she why you’re asking?” Ethan guessed. “’Cause I know you, you wouldn’t stay here long. You’d find your own place soon.”

“Yeah, that’s the plan,” Daniel said. “And yeah. I’m asking about Nicole. You still want her?”

“She shot me down last night,” Ethan replied. “It’s cool. She’s way hot, but you and her, you’ve got something. It’s really obvious. Can’t say I won’t try to get with her again, but I’ll back off for now.”

“Okay,” Daniel said, a smile spreading across his face. “Thanks. I’m going to call my parents tomorrow, beg for that money again, and see how that goes.”

“Good luck.”

The intercom buzzed, and Nicole’s voice called, “I’m back. Can you let me in?”

Ethan pressed the button to unlock the door, then glanced at Daniel again and repeated, “Good luck.”

Nicole fussed around in the kitchen for a while, and would not let anyone help her. Daniel stayed in the kitchen with her, though, pretending to read but really thinking about how he would tell her that he was planning on staying. Was it really the right choice? But then she turned and smiled at him, and he realized, yes. It was.

But then he noticed that her eyes were red and the smile wasn’t as bright as usual. She’d been crying. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“This place is starting to feel kind of permanent,” she said. “So, I guess I’m finally homesick.”

“You could call your parents.”

She shrugged. “And tell them what?”

“That you’re safe,” he replied. “Maybe where to find you?”

“That would kind of ruin the point of running away.”

“Then that you’re safe,” he repeated. “You can use my phone if yours is still dead.”

She hesitated, but nodded. “Fine. Can you stir the sauce while I do that?”

“Yeah.” Daniel pulled his cell phone from his pocket and tossed it to her. She caught it, though she had to reach for it, then opened it and dialed a number she knew well.

She sat at the table while Daniel stirred. He pretended he wasn’t listening.

“Hi Mom,” Nicole said softly. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m okay.”

“We’re so worried about you, Nicole,” her mother said on the other end, sounding as if she was right there instead of the other side of the country. Nicole took a deep breath.

“I know,” she said. “I had to do this. But I’m in California now, I have a job, I have a place to stay, and I’m going to be okay. Maybe you can come out here for Christmas or something.”

“Sweetie, I wish you could have talked to us before leaving like this.”

Another deep breath. “Mom, I’m not the one you need to talk to. I left because of Dad.”

“Why?” her mother asked, bewildered. “What did he do to you?”

“Nothing!” Nicole replied quickly. “He didn’t…I saw him with…someone. Please, Mom, I don’t want to be the one to do this. Talk to Dad.”

Her mother was silent for quite a while, but then finally said, almost too calmly, “I will. I think I know what this is about, and I think that I’ll see you at Christmas.”

“I still have my phone,” Nicole said. “It’s dead right now, but I’ll charge it, and then if you want to talk to me ever-”

“I always want to talk to you, sweetie,” her mother said. “But I understand, you need your space. I’m glad you’re safe.”

It was Nicole’s turn to be silent for a while. “I should go. I’m making dinner.”

“Don’t burn it.” She could almost hear her mother smiling. “I love you, Nicole.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

“And your father loves you.”

“I know.” Neither one spoke for a second that seemed like an hour, and then Nicole pulled the phone away from her ear and ended the call. She walked over to Daniel and handed the phone back to him.

“Feeling any better?” he asked.

She just glanced at the sauce he was stirring. “That’s probably done. I’ll just drain the pasta now.”

“Hey, if you need anything-”

“I know,” she interrupted. “I’ll be okay. Really. But that pasta won’t if I don’t drain it soon.”

It wasn’t long before she had the pasta drained, sauce stirred in, and table cleared and set. As much as Daniel wanted to help, he offered no argument to standing out of the way and letting her do all the work.

“I haven’t eaten at the table since my parents last visited,” Ethan commented as the three sat down for dinner.

“You’re not going to like living with me,” Nicole replied. “I mean, if I’m going to be cooking a lot, I’m going to expect you to taste everything and tell me how it is. That means eating at the table, not in front of the TV.”

“I don’t eat in front of the TV,” he explained. “My bedroom, actually. I get crumbs in my bed way too often.”

“We don’t need to hear about your freaky sex life,” Daniel joked. “You need any help, Nicole?”

She stopped dishing out the pasta, the spoon frozen in midair. Daniel realized that was the first time he’d ever called her by her name—when they weren’t in bed, anyway. He didn’t want her name to be a strange thing. If he stayed, he’d call her by it more.

“Yeah, if you could get drinks?” she said, resuming her activity. “I got some wine, too. It’s in the fridge.”

“So, how was your day?” Ethan asked as Nicole placed a dish of spaghetti in front of him. “I know what Dan did today—absolutely fucking nothing-“

“Hey!” Daniel interjected as he uncorked the wine.

“-but what about you?” Ethan continued. “How’s your job?”

Nicole proceeded to tell Ethan the whole story as she and Daniel finished putting the food on the table. She added in a few details she’d left out before, like that she’d started her drawings for customers as a doodle that Lauryn said she should give with the check. She’d also worked on making food, a little bit—she got to put the garnish, a little sprig of mint, on a dessert.

“This is pretty good,” Daniel said when she’d finished her story. “Ethan’s lucky to have you cook for him.

“Thanks,” she said. She caught his eye, and her smile faded a bit. “When you come out to visit, I promise I’ll cook for you.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he said. He really should have told her that he wasn’t planning on leaving, but he didn’t want to get her hopes up. His parents could easily make him go back. Not legally, but if they cut him off for good—he wasn’t sure he could deal with that. If Nicole thought he was staying, and he left anyway—the poor girl had been through too much already. She’d cried enough for a lifetime in a couple of days.

He came close to telling her his plan as they were in bed that night. “So what would you think if?” He stopped himself halfway through. There was a very good chance his parents would make him return to Pittsburgh anyway.

“If what?” she asked. She rested her head against his shoulder.

“If we had sex finally? Just one time before I go.” He tried to play it off as a joke. He knew she’d say no to that.

“I don’t think so.” He was right. “You know it’ll make it hard. On both of us.”

“I know,” he replied. He wrapped an arm around her and murmured, “But you’re just so sexy, I gotta ask.”

She smiled at him, and then bent her head up to plant a quick kiss on his lips. “Trust me, I want to. It’s just too hard to deal with you leaving so soon, especially if we do that. It’s hard enough as is.”

“I know you want to,” he said with a bit of a cocky grin. “You threw yourself at me again last night.”

“Did I?” She laughed. “I need to stop getting drunk. We didn’t, right?”

“Of course not,” he said. “Not taking advantage of you like that.”

She smiled. “Thanks.”

He lightly pushed her back on the bed and kissed her more roughly, nipping at her lower lip. “So, when can we have sex?”

She rolled her eyes, but returned the kisses. “When you decide to stay here.”

“If I’m here tomorrow night, we’ll do it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she replied. She laughed, thinking he was joking. “If you’re still here, but not if you’re just staying an extra day just for sex.”

He didn’t reply to that. He just kissed her again.

In the morning, Nicole woke Daniel up just before she had to leave. She’d been crying, he could tell, but she acted like she was fine.

He sat up and hugged her. “Goodbye,” he murmured, and that was it. She started to cry again, hiding her face in his shoulder.

“I wish you didn’t have to go,” she said. “Promise you’ll keep in touch?”

He pulled back so he could see her face, and wiped a tear from her cheek. “Yeah. I promise. Don’t let this ruin your day. I want to hear all about the tips you got from your drawings again.”

“I don’t have a phone, I can’t call you,” she reminded him.

“Ethan has my number,” he said, punctuating his words with a small kiss on her cheek. “Use his phone.”

She nodded. “I have to go.” She headed out the door, but before leaving, turned around. “I.” She paused, and just shook her head. “Bye.”

“Bye,” he repeated.

He wanted to go back to sleep after she left, but he knew he had to call his parents. After all, they were three time zones away now. It was early here, but late morning there. But first, he showered and dressed, knowing full well that they couldn’t see him when he called.

He was hesitant as he scrolled through his list of contacts, but finally landed on the right number and hit SEND. “Hey Dad. I need to talk to you and Mom.”

“You’re on speaker,” his father replied.

“Where are you?” his mother’s voice came, sounding frantic.

“I’m in LA,” he said. “I’m staying with Ethan. Remember him?”

“Right, he was your roommate in college?” his mother asked.

“Yeah. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this for a few days, and I made up my mind,” Daniel said quickly. “I’m staying here.”

“What about your school?” his father asked.

“I can’t go back,” he replied. “Come on, you knew that I was never really going to be a doctor. Not when blood makes me pass out.”

“You were working on getting over it!” his mother cried, but his father’s voice interrupted her.

“Eileen, you know he’s right. It’s been almost thirty years and the boy still can’t sit through a horror movie. But what are you going to do now?”

“I’m not sure,” Daniel said honestly. “But I’ve got a place to stay here, for now, and I do at least have my undergraduate degree, so I can get a job somewhere.”

“What about money?” his father asked sternly.

“That’s partly why I called,” he said. “I need that savings account back. I know you said that I can’t get it back until I go back to school, but I’m not going back.”

“Is this because of that girl?” his mother asked. “You’re throwing your life away for her!”

“And what’s wrong with that?” Daniel asked. “What’s wrong with being spontaneous for once?”

“How are you going to survive?”

“Hopefully with that savings account,” he said. “Mom, you really don’t have to worry. I know I can get a job. I might not be so rich, but I’ll be happy. I just—I need the account
until
I can get a job, that’s all.”

“You’d be happy as a doctor,” she said. “And rich!”

“I don’t think I would,” he admitted. “I actually tried to save a man’s life the other day. And then I passed out because of the blood.”

“You saved a man’s life?” his father asked. “Why didn’t you tell us about that?”

“Because I almost made it worse,” he said. “I wasn’t a hero, I was lucky. And I passed out because of a little blood.”

“I’m sure the man felt a little differently.”

“Can I just have the money?” Daniel asked impatiently. Just imagining that man’s blood again was making him a little dizzy.

“I think we should give it to him.” His father’s voice was a little muffled, as if he’d stepped away from the phone. His mother replied, but Daniel couldn’t hear her words.