Ah, thought Nina, he IS dating that girl from his team (which we all know is suicide for team cohesion) and that’s that. Not that there was any that there in the first place, of course . . . And then she realized the girl from Quizzard was walking toward her with a big, broad smile on her face. Behind her, Tom was wobbling in his trajectory, thrown by Lisa’s sudden darting movement. His sneakers squeaked on the polished concrete floor.
“Hey there, I know you, don’t I?”
Nina was a full adult, capable and competent in many ways, but this simple greeting made her blush and get flustered. “Uh . . . well . . .”
“From trivia league, right?” said Lisa, holding out her hand. “I’m Lisa. Our team beat your team last week.”
Nina nodded, shaking her hand. “Yes, I remember. I’m Nina.” She paused. “January the first.”
“I’m sorry?” Lisa shot a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure Tom was coming over. He wasn’t. She micro-frowned at him, and he started to move.
“Racehorses. January the first. That’s how you won.”
“With racehorses?”
“Yes. You won with a question about racehorses.” Nina was starting to feel a little desperate for this conversation to be over. The good-looking guy was approaching; it was too late.
“That’s right,” said Lisa, smiling at Nina as if the two of them had known each other forEVS. Then Tom joined them and Lisa revealed herself as the manipulative mastermind she truly was. “Oh, hey, Tom, this is Nina. Do you remember her from Quiz League?”
“Of course.” Tom had had an additional fifteen seconds to compose himself, and felt utterly capable of exchanging pleasantries and walking away. “I’m Tom. Nice to meet you properly, if you know what I mean.”
Nina shook his hand, feeling her systems coming back online. “The feeling is mutual.” (No, Nina! What the hell was that? Why do these stupid phrases come out of your mouth? What’s next, gum would be perfection?)
“So, here’s the weirdest thing,” said Lisa. “I can’t see the film after all, so here, have my ticket and you guys can go together.” She pushed her ticket into Nina’s hand and started to back away.
“No,” Tom yelped. (Great, Tom, attractive noise. Let’s hope she’s got a secret fetish for yodeling.) “Why? You texted me like ten minutes ago saying you were looking forward to it.”
“I have a sudden headache,” said Lisa.
“I have Advil in my bag,” said Nina, also in a somewhat higher voice than normal.
“I can’t take ibuprofen. Sorry, upsets my tummy.” Lisa looked apologetic, but she was still unmistakably backing away.
“I also have Tylenol,” said Nina, starting to rummage.
“Can’t take acetaminophen, either. Deathly allergic.”
“Allergic to Tylenol?” asked Tom, trying to remember if she’d mentioned this in the nearly twenty years they’d been friends.
“Yes, terribly. I’ll drop dead on the spot.” Lisa shrugged, which Nina thought made for a pretty casual reference to sudden death.
“Maybe you need caffeine?” suggested Tom. “Or something to eat?”
“Or you can get a rain check?” suggested Nina, looking now to Tom for support. They didn’t want to see a film together, did they?
Lisa looked at the clock above the movie board. “Too late! Movie starts in three minutes. Run along.”
“I don’t think that’s how rain checks . . .”
“Gotta go,” said Lisa, clutching her head. “Starting to lose consciousness. Got to get to a darkened room and an ice bag ASAP. See you guys.” And then she turned and essentially ran away. Not literally running, obviously, because that would have been bizarre, but definitely speed walking.
Tom and Nina stared after her. Then Nina looked down at the ticket in her hand. Space Spiders on Mars? She raised her eyebrows and looked up to see Tom watching her.
“Not a sci-fi action movie fan?” he said, with a note in his voice that suggested he wasn’t surprised. He looked up at the board. “I bet you were going to see Miss Eglantine Expects, weren’t you? One of those movies where the corsets are tighter than the fight choreography.”
Nina frowned. He was right, but she wasn’t going to admit it. “No, actually, I’m here for Bloody Deadly Blood Death III: The Blood Rises.”
“Really?” He had started the word sounding surprised, but by the end of it he was sarcastic.
“Yes.” She gazed up at him, Popsicle cool, though she suddenly wished she hadn’t gone in this direction and had simply offered to buy the popcorn. He was really attractive, and now he thought she was . . . She didn’t know what he thought. His expression was unreadable, not that she was all that good at reading people, anyway. She started to feel the familiar signs of imminent panic. Tingling hands. Mild nausea.
Tom was thinking he didn’t believe Nina about Blood Death III, but it was clear she didn’t want to watch a film with him. He wanted to stop bickering with her but wasn’t sure how. He opened his mouth to suggest something, and then she suddenly thrust the ticket back at him and turned and walked out.
He watched her go, realizing for the first time that he really was attracted to her and that she apparently hated him so much she was willing to break all social conventions and walk away without a word.
As she walked toward Vine Street, Nina realized she had done exactly what Lisa had done, and giggled a little, somewhat hysterically. She was starting to calm down, but her palms were still tingly. Her anxiety had gotten better in the last several years, once she’d started to use a planner and keep a schedule and basically try to control every aspect of her life, but it was always curled up at the base of her spine like a sleeping cat. Any step off the normal path, any deviation from standard, and it started lashing its tail.
Suddenly, she wanted to cry. She’d been doing so well, but clearly she wasn’t one of those people who could be spontaneous, and that was going to have to be OK. She didn’t want complexity in her life, and with work and the new weird family thing, she definitely didn’t have space for a boyfriend.
Time to go back into hiding.
Nine
In which Nina gets schooled by well-meaning
but ill-informed children.
“You did what?”
“I just turned and walked away.”
Polly stared at her. “But, wait, I thought you liked this guy. Or rather, I thought he was cute and, therefore, you might like him once you got to know him. There was the possibility of liking.”
Nina nodded. It was the following Monday, there were no customers in the store yet, and Polly had shown up on time for once.
Polly continued, “And yet, when you had a chance to talk to him, you walked away.”
“Right.”
Polly narrowed her eyes. “So I’m struggling with this. Talk me through it.”
Nina sighed. “I went to the movies, alone. I saw him there. Weird circumstances involving a girl on his trivia team meant suddenly the two of us had tickets to the same movie, then I freaked out and walked away.”
“Without a word?”
“Silently, yes.”