“I was wondering if you wanted to go with me,” she continued, right on his heels. “To the wedding, I mean. There’ll be free food and an open bar. We’ll have fun! What do you say?”
Nick whipped around, displaying an expression of pure panic. He stared at Lily like she’d just spoken to him in gibberish.
“I—I, no. I can’t. Sorry.”
His immediate rejection stabbed her right in the heart. “Oh . . . um,” she stuttered.
“It’s just that I remembered I’m not trying to date right now,” he said quickly.
“I don’t want to date anyone either!” Her painful embarrassment at being rejected was swiftly replaced with a feeling of relief. He was confused about her intentions. That was all. “It’s just one night. I don’t want you to be my boyfriend or anything.”
Then she laughed, like the thought of Nick being her boyfriend was the most absurd idea she’d ever heard. She didn’t even want to imagine how ridiculous she must seem right now.
Nick was still looking at her with that wide-eyed, confused stare. “I . . . I can’t even commit to one evening. I’m kind of avoiding anything like that altogether.”
Now Lily was confused. “But we just kissed.”
Well, actually she had kissed him now that she thought about it.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I got caught up in the moment.”
Before Lily could even process that Nick was really, truly turning her down, the stairwell door opened and a woman dressed in a dark magenta wrap dress stepped into the hallway holding a folded piece of clothing in her hands. Her diamond bracelets jangled loudly with each step as she walked toward them. Lily recognized her as the woman who owned the loud Pomeranian puppy that liked to bark at everyone.
“Nick, honey,” she said, “you forgot your boxers the other morning. I washed and dried them for you.”
Honey?
Nick took the navy blue boxers from the woman and cleared his throat. He glanced at Lily, looking both apologetic and embarrassed. “Thanks, Yolanda. I—uh, this is Lily.”
Yolanda then turned her attention to Lily and smiled. “Hi, sweetheart. So nice to meet you. Well, I’m off to meet Henry for dinner. Have a good night.” She kissed Nick on the cheek and raised an eyebrow mischievously before hurrying down the hall to get on the elevator.
Lily was slow to understand what she’d just witnessed. That woman had returned Nick’s boxers . . .
“It’s not what it looks like,” Nick said quickly.
“Riiiight.” Lily backed away from him.
“Last weekend was Yolanda’s half birthday,” Nick said, lowering his voice. “We had a small celebration at her apartment and I forgot my boxers.”
“It’s really not my business. But how could you possibly have forgotten your boxers, of all things?”
“It—um. It was a mistake,” Nick said, shaking his head. “Just a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?” Lily repeated, frowning. Maybe this was his thing. He went around trying to hook up with each of the women in their building for sport and then begged off when they expressed real interest in him. And Yolanda . . . Why did that name sound familiar? Wait a minute. Wasn’t Yolanda the woman that Nick and Henry had been talking about in the elevator last weekend? The woman Henry had wanted to ask out on a date? He’d been so nervous yet excited to give Yolanda his cupcakes.
“But your friend likes her,” Lily whispered, gasping. “That sweet man. You gave him that big pep talk about asking her out and everything.”
“I sleep naked,” Nick suddenly whispered back, looking pained. “I got drunk, fell asleep at her apartment and took off my clothes in the middle of the night. That’s why she had my boxers. She wasn’t even there. She was downstairs with Henry.”
“Oh,” Lily said. Her skin prickled with heat at the mention of him sleeping naked. Nick was looking everywhere but her face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. Not that you need to care what I think.”
He looked at her then, and his gaze roamed over her face in a quick, utterly absorbed manner. It was almost as if he was carefully cataloging her features. He blinked and shook his head.
“I’m really sorry,” he blurted. “I have to go to IKEA.”
And then, like a phantom, he rushed down the hallway, pushed open the stairwell doors and disappeared.
What in the world . . . ? Lily stood alone in the hallway, trying to figure out what had changed between her and Nick so quickly. One minute he’d been caressing her and the next he’d treated her like she had an infectious disease! What was it about her that made him realize he actually didn’t want to get involved with anyone? Was he turned off by the fact that she was a cat owner? Or maybe it was something about her feet? It was true that she’d kissed him first, but he’d kissed her back. She hadn’t imagined that. Either way, she’d thought Nick was a for sure wedding date candidate, but she’d been wrong. She’d followed her instincts to pursue Nick, but her instincts had led her astray. Imagine what Iris and Violet would think if they found out about this. It would just be more proof that she wasn’t a good judge of men and needed them to keep intervening.
Maybe she was in a little over her head with trying to find a date in such a short time span. She had no idea how to flirt properly. The issue was that she didn’t have anyone to turn to for advice. She had very few friends in New York City, and she was closest with her sisters, but she couldn’t ask them for help. She needed to win this bet on her own so that her sisters would stop meddling with her life. And more important, she needed to prove to them that she could do this one thing right.
The elevator doors opened again, and Lily turned, foolishly hoping to see Nick. Maybe he’d realized how weird he’d been acting and was coming to tell Lily that he’d actually love to be her date to Violet’s wedding.
But it wasn’t Nick that stepped out of the elevator. It was Yolanda and Henry. They were holding hands and laughing, gazing into each other’s eyes as they walked down the hall. Yolanda looked up and noticed Lily standing there.
“Hi, honey,” she said, then she glanced around. “Where’s Nick? Henry and I were on our way to dinner and thought we should come back and invite the two of you.”
“Oh.” Lily blinked. “He, um, he just left, actually.”
“That’s too bad,” Yolanda said. “Next time then. Your name is Lily, right? This is my boyfriend, Henry. We’re friends of Nick’s.”
“Nice to formally meet you,” Henry said, extending his hand, smiling.
“Nice to meet you too,” Lily replied, taking in his bright aura. Henry was positively beaming. He was nothing like the timid, unsure man whom she saw in the elevator only a few days ago.
Henry and Yolanda said goodbye and walked back toward the elevator. When the elevator arrived, they stepped inside, and Yolanda leaned her head against Henry’s shoulder. When Henry noticed that Lily was still watching them, he gave her a secret wink before the doors closed.