“Of course I do. I wouldn’t be a good agent if I said no, but I don’t want you to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.” Marcus removed his tortoiseshell frames and replaced them with a pair of black circular sunglasses. “Don’t worry about it now, okay? You have weeks to decide. In the meantime, why don’t you let me see what you’ve written? You can come to the office one day next week and we’ll grab dinner on the company dime to talk about the draft.”
Nick gulped. He had managed to write the first chapter of book two, and it was hot garbage. But it was Marcus’s birthday and after all Marcus had done for him, Nick didn’t want to let Marcus down, especially since he already knew he wouldn’t attend M&M’s party and put his face to N.R. Strickland’s name.
“Yeah, cool,” Nick said. “Sounds good.”
Nick followed Marcus back into the living room, which was fuller than when he’d left almost fifteen minutes ago. His eyes scanned the crowd for gold. He spotted Lily bumping her hip with Caleb. She was laughing, her whole face lit up in delight. Nick’s chest panged again.
“Who’s that with Caleb?” Marcus asked.
Nick tore his eyes away from Lily to answer Marcus. “That’s my neighbor Lily.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot you said you were bringing her.” Marcus paused, glancing back and forth between Lily and Nick and their matching outfits. “Is something going on there or . . .”
Nick cleared his throat. He wanted to tell Marcus the whole deal with Lily, but tonight was his birthday. He should be having fun, not listening to Nick’s drama. He’d tell him soon, just . . . at another time.
“Nah,” Nick said. “We’re just friends.”
Were they friends, though? Did Lily claim him as a friend? Should she? Probably not. This was all so fucked.
“Right, cool,” Marcus said. “How much you want to bet that all the pepperoni pizza is gone?”
“Oh, um, huh?” Nick mumbled. Marcus had already moved on to a new subject, but Nick’s attention was elsewhere. More accurately, his attention was approximately twenty feet away in the living room. Lily was no longer dancing with Caleb, but she was talking to some dude dressed in a skintight turtleneck with a pick stuck in an Afro that clearly looked like a wig. He was leaning down, his face several inches from Lily’s, and she was nodding as he talked. The pang in Nick’s chest worsened. Why, though? Wasn’t this the reason he’d brought her here? To meet someone else? Mission accomplished. He should be happy! He was happy.
So it didn’t make much sense when he found himself walking across the room, fully intending to interrupt their conversation.
Lily was in the middle of talking to Caleb’s friend Will about which middle-grade fantasy novels he should buy for his girlfriend’s niece, when Nick suddenly materialized at her side and said, “Hey, can I show you something in the kitchen really quick?”
He had an odd look on his face, like he’d eaten a Sour Patch Kid that hadn’t turned sweet as promised. He briefly nodded his head at Will before returning his gaze to her.
Lily, someone who often felt exhausted at the thought of parties, was surprised at how much she was genuinely enjoying herself tonight. Caleb took his hosting duties very seriously and he danced with Lily every few songs and was kind enough not to ask how she’d somehow gone through life without properly learning how to dance on beat. The crowd was a mix between Caleb’s friends from interior design school and publishing people who knew Marcus, which basically meant that every other person knew at least one of Lily’s coworkers. The men at the party were sweet and funny, but they were also either gay or had shown up with a girlfriend. Will’s girlfriend had just excused herself to go smoke. That meant finding a prospective date tonight to Violet’s wedding was a bust.
Lily was having fun, but she was relieved to see Nick. Talking to so many new people was exhausting. Her social battery was beginning to drain.
“Okay,” she said to him, wondering what it was that he had to show her.
She said goodbye to Will and followed Nick into the kitchen. It was mostly dark, but the glow from the disco ball shed enough light on Nick’s gold shirt and the table that was covered in empty pizza boxes and beer bottles. Nick paused by the fridge and glanced around before turning to face Lily. She looked at him expectantly.
“Uh,” he said. Then he reached above the fridge and procured a family-size bag of Kettle Brand sour cream and onion chips. He opened the bag and held it out to Lily. “Want some?”
Bemused, she walked closer to him. “You wanted to show me a bag of chips?”
“Not just any bag of chips,” he said. “Caleb’s secret stash.” When Lily froze, Nick laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ll buy him another bag. We didn’t get here in time for pizza. I thought you might be hungry.”
Lily was touched that he’d thought to look after her well-being. And he was right, she was hungry. Too hungry to think about the repercussions of eating Caleb’s secret snack. She took the chips and poured a handful into her palm, trusting that Nick would make good on his promise to replace the bag.
She sat at the table and Nick took the seat beside her. Their gold clothes were illuminated. There was something calming about sitting in the dark this way, slightly removed from the party.
“Are you having fun?” he asked, looking over at Lily. His lips formed into a soft smile when he realized she was too busy chewing to respond. She wished his smile didn’t have such an effect on her. “They’re good, right?”
She nodded and almost wiped her hands on her thighs but remembered that Violet would murder her if she got potato chip grease on her clothes. She reached for a napkin instead.
“I am having fun. Everyone’s really nice, especially Caleb.” She offered him her half-full cup of rum punch. “Want some?”
“Nah, I don’t drink,” he said. “I mean, I try not to.”
“Oh, okay.” She set her cup down on the table. “I still haven’t met Marcus, though.”
“He’s somewhere around here.” Nick paused. “So . . . have you met any wedding-date contenders?”
“Sadly, you’re the only single man here who is interested in women.”
Nick blinked. “Really? But what about the dude with the Afro?”
“We’re at a disco party. You’re gonna have to be more specific.”
“The one you were talking to when I walked up. He was wearing a turtleneck.”
“Oh, him. He has a girlfriend.”
“Huh.” He leaned back in his chair and mumbled something to himself. Aloud to her, he said, “I’ve failed you then.”
Lily grinned. “It’s okay. We still have until August. Plus, as sad as it sounds, I think I’ve had enough socializing tonight.”
“It doesn’t sound sad,” he said, scooping more chips out of the bag. “I’ve already reached my limit and I only talked to you and Marcus. Parties require too much extroverting.”
Lily stared at him. He passed the chips back to her, then bit his lip self-consciously when he saw how she was looking at him.
“What?” he asked.
“I . . . Nothing. I guess I just assumed you didn’t have that problem. You always talk to people so easily. At least that’s what it seems like when I see you interacting with other people in our building.”
“Oh, that’s different,” he said, chewing.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s something I turn off and on.”