If we’re being honest, I was expecting more enthusiasm. “You busy tonight? I could come over.”
He’s quiet for a while. A weird kernel of worry starts to gnaw at my ribs. “Not tonight. I have—Jacob has an appointment in the morning. I need to be up early.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Nothing serious. I mean—” He makes a weird hiccupping sound. “He’s having some problems at school. We’re working some things out.”
Oh. That doesn’t sound so serious. “Okay. Well, let me know how it goes, okay?”
“Yeah. For sure.”
Except he doesn’t. Thursday comes and goes, and I don’t hear from him.
Friday, we’re at the learning centre all day. Lena shows up in steel-toed boots and with her own tools. She’s definitely overqualified, but Bill seems enchanted by her as she hauls boxes and literally holds up her end while helping the contractors mount the massive flat screen in his multimedia room.
The install runs long, so much so that we have to come back and do a half day on Saturday to finish up. Then Bill insists on taking us all out for lunch as a thank you, which is really nice, but by then the kernel of worry has turned into some kind of lesion that is twisting and spreading over my heart and lungs. I keep checking my phone, and there’s never anything from Nash. I send a few eggplants and a question mark but get nothing in reply.
On Sunday, there’s aSorry. Boys this weekend. We’re at the aquarium.
Am I the asshole for resenting playing second fiddle to a couple children? It’s how it’s supposed to work. If Nash and I are going to be a thing long-term, I’ll have to come to grips with the fact that, no matter how much we love each other, the boys will always come first.
I take a risk and text.I could join you? Be the friend you “happen” to run into?
He doesn’t reply.
By Monday, the worry lesion is definitely infected. It’s telling me all kinds of awful things. Nash is dying. His kids are dying. He’s gotten back together with Dominic. He and Dominic are now in some poly relationship with the boyfriend from the restaurant. They’ve moved away up north so they can all live in the forest and not be judged for their non-monogamous lifestyle.
The last time I saw Nash was at his apartment the night of our failed date. He told me he didn’t mind that I had to leave for a work call. He even let me take him to bed and sleep over, but what if he’s changed his mind? Maybe the sight of his ex-husband and his perfect boyfriend reminded him what an odd couple we are. Maybe we really only do work well in bed.
On any other week, I’d duck out of my office and go over to the festival, but I’m training Lena, and while she’s awesome, she doesn’t know all the clients, and a few of them have managed to screw things up so badly even I’m not sure how to solve their problems. I call instead but get Nash’s voicemail. I don’t leave a message, but he must see the missed call, because he sends another text.
Sorry. Soccer again. Talk tomorrow?
But by lunchtime on Tuesday, I still haven’t heard from him properly, and I’m crawling out of my skin. Lena and I are supposed to go to Bill’s to make sure everything is up and running to his liking, and all I can think of is Nash.
“Something wrong?” Lena asks as I check my phone for the millionth time, like it will make Nash magically appear in the room.
I give her a tight smile. “Just, um, Nash. He’s a... client. At the film festival. I told you about him.”
“Do you need to talk to him?” she says.
“Yes.” Not like she means, but this waiting and hoping is killing me.
“Do you want me to go to Bill’s by myself?”
My head pops up, and I babble all the things I’m supposed to say. “Of course not. I couldn’t ask you. It’s your second week, and—”
But she’s already logging off her laptop and slipping her phone into her pocket. “He liked me. I can go by myself.”
I gape. “Really?”
Lena sneers. “He has a few screens. In Buenos Aires, at my old job, a server melted down the weekend before six hundred people moved into a new office building. I can help Bill if something isn’t working.”
She’s so overqualified. If I’m lucky, she’ll last a year then take her shiny new Canadian experience and get a job that will actually pay her what she’s worth. If I’m really lucky, she’ll buy half my equity and be my business partner.
I try to smile brightly as adrenaline floods my system. I’m going to see Nash. We’re going to sort this out. “I won’t be long at the film festival. If there’s a problem at Bill’s, text me and I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
More like forty, assuming the streetcar is running on time, but I’m sure everything will be okay, and Lena has already won him over with her confidence and competence.
