Page 62 of She Used to Be Nice
Pete glanced at Avery, like he was going to let her answer. She paused for a beat before replying, “Yes, we’re dating.”
“Well,thattook a minute!” Steve looked knowingly at the cackling audience, as if the joke wrote itself. “Is that your final answer?”
Avery rested her hand on Pete’s knee and told Steve yes, yes it was. And maybe it was silly to say the word “dating” out loud for the first time at a comedy show, but for the first time she didn’t find herself recoiling at the thought. In fact, it finally felt right.
The show ended two hours later to a rambunctious round of applause. The venue cleared out into MacDougal Street, which bustled with crowded eateries, loud NYU students, and groups of stoners playing drums for cash. Avery looped her arm throughPete’s. It was a perfect weekend night in early March, and winter was finally beginning to thaw into spring, and the air smelled like gravel and cigarettes and possibility. Tonight was the first warm night where Avery didn’t need a jacket. Her good mood was buoyed when she and Pete stopped for dinner at a pizzeria and ordered a plate of mozzarella sticks, which had become their go-to appetizer whenever they went out to eat. Now, every time Avery saw a plate of mozzarella sticks, she thought of the man she was dating. Dating! She was so proud of herself for being able to say it.
“That host definitely had a crush on you,” Pete said, biting into a mozzarella stick.
Avery licked marinara sauce off her finger. “You think so?”
“For sure. He wished he was on a date with you instead of me.”
Avery bounced her eyebrows up and down. A date! They were dating! She wanted to scream it from a rooftop like a cringey rom-com character. “You jealous?”
Pete shrugged adorably. How one shrugs adorably, Avery was not sure, but Pete did it.
Avery thought about Morgan and Charlie’s suggestion that she bring Pete to the bachelor party. Bringing him to Colorado next month could be a trial run for bringing him to the wedding in August. The latter was her ultimate goal anyway, and the bachelor party was more casual, smaller scale, and lower pressure, with some of the same people who’d be at the wedding. That weekend could be a test to see if Avery could successfully manage balancing her past and her present. If it went well—if Pete remained ignorant to what happened senior year—she’d feel more comfortable inviting him to the wedding, which was when she’dreallyhave to be on her best behavior, thwarting panic attack triggers and keeping her past under wraps.
Plus, she’d finally named what she and Pete were doing for what it was. And instead of feeling anxious about admitting they were together, she felt settled and strong, like a tectonic plate cemented into place beside him. She wanted to celebrate that somehow.
“So, I have a question,” she began. She leaned forward, the red upholstered cushion of the booth crunching under her thighs. “Areyou free the weekend of April twenty-fifth? Morgan and Charlie are hosting a joint bachelor party in Colorado. Do you want to come?”
“Really?” Pete’s face brightened. “I’m invited?”
“Charlie also asked about it, for what it’s worth. I’m not just being one of those girls who can’t go anywhere without the guy she’s dating.”
A smile danced on Pete’s lips. “I wouldn’t hate it if you were being like that, you know.”
Avery blushed. “Well, I guess right now I am kind of being like that, since I’m the one inviting you. And since I really want you to come.”
Pete leaned over the speckled Formica table to kiss her. “I’d love to. That’s awesome. Thanks for the invite.”
Avery’s phone buzzed in her pocket as she took a bite of another mozzarella stick. She snuck a quick peek at the home screen and saw that it was a number she didn’t recognize. She let it continue ringing and go to voicemail. But then it buzzed again.
“Sorry.” Mid-chew, she pointed to her phone. “One second.” She answered. “Hello?”
“Hey, is this Avery?”
Her eyes widened.
That voice. It would wake her from a coma.
She hung up and started coughing uncontrollably, spraying bits of cheese and sauce and breadcrumbs everywhere.
“Whoa, whoa!” Pete smacked her back, his eyes bulging in alarm. “Are you okay? Are you choking?”
Avery kept coughing and spraying food like a broken fire hydrant, trying to contain everything behind her hand. “No, I’m fine. I’m—sorry. I’ve just … forgotten how to swallow, apparently.”
“Who was that?”
Avery shoveled more mozzarella sticks into her mouth, guzzling them down like she hadn’t eaten in weeks. She wished she could chuck her phone across the room, but she knew she’d hurt someone from the force of the impact, so she shoved it inside her purse instead. She felt dizzy. Noah was on the other line. Noah’smouth was inches from the speaker on his phone. Noah’s breath was in Avery’s ear. Just like it was when he—
“Nobody. Let’s eat,” she said curtly.
Pete narrowed his eyes, both skeptical and concerned. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes.”
