Page 65 of Take A Number
My mother’s eyes bore in on me so I sit up and smile. “What are you all going to order? I’m starving!”
I open my menu and pretend to study it as I watch Dean stand at the bar with Lala. They’re speaking close together in hushed tones, and the way he places his hand on her shoulder makes me feel like they are more than just acquaintances.
Jealousy spikes hard and fast in my belly, and I hate myself for it. This is all fake. None of what Dean and I have is real. So why would it bother me if this is a girl Dean used to date?
Dean returns to the table and avoids eye contact with me as he opens his menu. A second later, a different waiter comes over with our drinks and sets about taking everyone’s food orders. When he’s gone, I take a sip of my wine and open my mouth to say something to Dean when Nate interrupts.
“Norah, do you remember how I used to sneak into your house all the time when we were teenagers?”
“What?” my mother mock gasps and presses her hand to her chest. “You didn’t! I would have known.”
“It was stupid,” I mutter around my glass and wave my mother off. “We didn’t do anything wild or crazy. We just watched movies and ate way too many cookies.”
Nate laughs freely. “Yes, sneaking into your house was pretty much our only form of entertainment for years. There were a few exciting nights when you would come downstairs, Elaine. We would hear you coming, and I’d hide in the furnace room.”
“I can’t believe this!” my mom chants dramatically. “Jeffrey, did you have any idea this was going on?”
“Not a clue,” Dad says with a laugh and takes a sip of the amber liquid in his rocks glass. “Jim, your son was clearly out of control.”
“Oh yes,” Jim says with a scoff. “I was highly worried about him and his bad-boy ways…especially with that French horn he wouldn’t go anywhere without.”
Carol interjects on her son’s behalf. “That French horn got our son a music scholarship, thank you very much.” She pats Nate’s arm affectionally, and Nate rolls his eyes and shoots me a wink.
“You played French horn in college?” Dean asks, leaning over to drape his arm on the back of my chair. This is the first time he’s said a word since ushering that girl away, and I’m watching his every move like a hawk.
“For the first two years,” Nate replies sheepishly. “I realized it wasn’t exactly helping me with the ladies so I quit and spent time at the campus gym instead.”
“You look incredible,” my mother says, eyeing him appreciatively as she swirls her wine. The entire act annoys the shit out of me because she’s barely looked at Dean this entire evening. “What kind of workout regime do you do? I’m looking to change mine up a bit. My aqua aerobics isn’t challenging me enough.”
“I do a lot of boot camps,” Nate says with a nod and puffs his chest out a bit. “Kickboxing, taekwondo. Extreme weight lifting. Anything with a little rough contact…I’m into it.” He smiles at me again, and I swear he flexes his arm in his dress shirt. “How about you, Norah? Do you like a little rough contact?”
My cheeks flame with how awkward that question is. I dab at my upper lip and murmur, “Um…I give my croinut dough a good beating some days, I guess.”
Nate laughs a little too loudly and shakes his head admirably. “Still adorable as ever.”
“I’m a runner,” Dean interjects, tilting his head and eyeing Nate with a look that doesn’t seem all that friendly. “I like my life so I don’t feel the need to take out any aggression on inanimate objects.”
My lips part in surprise at the obvious challenge in Dean’s tone to Nate. What is he trying to do right now?
“Who says they’re inanimate?” Nate waggles his brows suggestively and I can’t help but frown because…ew, it has a sexual assault tone to it.“Oh man, that reminds me…Norah, do you remember when we were kids and we tried to leapfrog over those electrical boxes on the side of the road and I biffed it and landed on my chest?”
I can’t help but burst out laughing because the image of Nate eating shit explodes in my mind. “Oh my God, I had totally forgotten about that! You couldn’t catch your breath and I nearly peed my pants from laughing so hard.”
Nate and I both keel over laughing, and my mother’s scolding voice echoes in my ear, “Norah! That doesn’t sound funny at all. That sounds dangerous. What were you two doing near electrical boxes?”
“I don’t know,” I reply with a laugh and a shrug. “We were dumb kids, I guess. And man, that day must have given me brain damage because I always laugh when people get hurt. It’s so messed up.”
“Probably why we were so close,” Nate replies, draping his arm over the back of my chair on the other side. “I was always hurting myself. I was such a klutz.”
“Well.” I pat him playfully on the arm. “You clearly grew into your own skin. I bet you could clear that electric box easily now.”
“We should try it out later.”
“In this dress and heels? I’ll be the one eating dirt this time!”
Nate and I continue laughing for a moment and I glance over at Dean who looks decidedly annoyed. Maybe it was one of those stories where you had to be there?
“Nathaniel, have you found a place to live yet?” my mom chimes in just as the food is placed in front of us.
