“I don’t know any show tunes by heart,” Caroline confessed.
“What?” Nathan asked, sounding shocked. “None at all?”
“No, I mean... maybe one or two fromAnastasia?”
“Anastasia, of all shows?”
“What’s wrong withAnastasia?” Caroline demanded, picking up on a note of judgment.
“Nothing! Nothing at all.... That’s just... a choice.” He cleared his throat. “How’d you end up here, then? Did you not do theater in college?”
Caroline clenched her jaw. “Not really.”
Nathan blinked, blue eyes already a little bloodshot.
“Oh. Well, that’s fine, I guess. Trying new things, right?”
“Yeah, that’s the idea.”
He appeared to struggle for a new line of conversation. Caroline decided to bail him out.
“Are you going to sing?” she asked him.
“Oh, I can act, but I found out in high school that my range is only three notes. Nonconsecutive ones. I might try out for one of the workshop plays next semester, but I’ll be backstage again during the spring musical. You?”
“Spring musical? When are auditions?”
“Next week. Are you going to try out?”
“No, of course not,” Caroline immediately replied.
She’d taken this gig only because of the deal with Adrian. But she pursed her lips, musing that Adrian might not agree to seeing her every night, and she’d want something else to do with her free time if he didn’t.
“But I might ask to carry stuff on a volunteer basis again, if you think that’ll be okay?” Caroline hedged.
“Fine by me,” Nathan said. “It’s been great working with you.”
Caroline brightened. “Really?”
“Yeah, for sure. You’ve been a big help.”
Caroline was staring at the ceiling, reviewing what she might have tangibly added to the production, when she realized Nathan was leaning in to kiss her. She only had enough time to pull her head back like a turtle to avoid it, and she banged the back of her head against the kitchen cabinet in the process.
The instinctive movement happened only because Caroline had never once considered kissing him, but she was glad she dodged as soon as she had a second to process it. As she’d learned the hard way in tennis, hooking up with a popular guy tended to make youunpopular with the rest of the team.
“Oops,” she blurted out, even ifoworoh nomight have been more appropriate or definitive. It confused Nathan, for one.
“Are you okay?” he asked when she rubbed the back of her head.
“Sure, sure, I’m fine,” she said, forcing a smile over the immediate chasm of awkwardness between them.
Nathan tilted his head in confusion. “Did you want to...?”
“Uh, no,” Caroline said, presuming that he meant the kissing. “Thank you. I’m good.”
His face fell. “Right,” he said.
He stared at her. Caroline tilted her head to look at the ceiling again, her heart rate picking up as she flailed for what she was supposed to do next. She didn’t know. She hadn’t thought about it. She didn’t have a plan for this.
