“Are you out here to smoke? Do you want a cigarette? You smoke Parliaments? That’s all I got.”
Mark has clearly done the blow he laid out for us on the table, because he hasn’t stopped speaking and I’m still in my hoodie shell and haven’t spoken one word and he hasn’t noticed. I’m actually quite jealous of his emotional disconnect right now. “Mark—” I attempt.
“Ah, shit, I left them inside. I can go in and grab them? Or I can sit next to you? You okay? Wanna talk about it?”
I sigh. “No, Mark. Please go back inside.”
“Are you sure? I mean, look at you. You clearly need someone to talk to.”
I finally pop my head out an inch to eye him. He can’t stop moving. “Probably, but that person isn’t you.” I retreat back into my shell.
“Why not? I’m a great listener, and I thought we were getting along in there, and I thought?—”
I don’t hear whatever profound realizations Mark’s made because he’s suddenly cut off by a rich voice with a Brooklyn accent that mostly comes out to play when he is feeling a strong emotion. “Hey, honey.”
The wave of relief that rushes through me is overpowering. “Hi,” I answer, and even that small word comes out strangled. I stay in my hoodie cave.
“Mark, go back inside,” he says. Commands, actually.
“Whoa, sorry, bro. I didn’t… I wasn’t… are you two?—”
“No,” I say, at the same time Nico says, “Yes.”
“Right, man, well, sorry, I didn’t know. Claire seemed to think you two were, or you two seemed pretty, you know?—”
I take deep, centering breaths.
“Inside, Mark,” and then I don’t hear his cocaine-fueled rambling anymore.
Suddenly, I feel the warmth of Nico’s body as he takes a seat right next to me on the pavement. Settles himself right into my side without any concept of personal space.
“I would actually kill someone for a cigarette right now,” I manage after a minute of warm, comfortable silence.
“Same,” he says.
“Do you have any?” I ask him.
“I quit after you told me it was gross.”
There’s a burst of warmth in my chest. “You said I was so sexy, it was gross.”
“Still true.”
I’m glad I’m still in the hoodie. “I quit everything,” I confess.
I feel his body stiffen. “Everything?”
“Everything. Just up until the wedding.”
His big body expands with the breath he takes. “And I brought you here.”
I shrug. “It’s my problem, not yours.”
“Still, Annie—” he starts with aggravation.
All coziness halts. I hate that tone in his voice, sick and tired of people getting aggravated with me, like I’m a permanent piece of gum stuck on their shoe. I’m really trying my best! Am I really that aggravating to be around? This is what I wanted to avoid in the first place! “Can you please tell me the info for the rental now?”
He scoffs. “Absolutely not. I’m taking you home.”
