"Coffee?" Jason asks. Not IPA. He's reading the room.
"Please."
Jason reaches for a mug. The good mug. The one he's apparently been saving for this exact moment — the moment when Nico stopped being a customer and started being something else.
Nico wraps his hands around it. Takes a sip. Looks at me sideways.
"I got your sweatpants back," I say.
"Keep them."
"They're too short."
"I know. It's endearing."
"I am not endearing."
Nico smirks at me, then takes a deep breath.
"I need to make a call today," Nico says. The lightness shifts. Not gone, just layered. Something heavier underneath. "About the NDA situation. The lawyer."
"Martin."
"Martin." He sets the mug down. Wraps both hands around it like an anchor. "We're not... It's not a warm relationship. He practiced corporate law for twenty years before he retired. He's competent. He's thorough. He'll know the right questions."
"But?"
"But he raised me and Cass for twelve years and I can count on one hand the number of times he asked how we were doing. He hired nannies and wrote checks and made sure the logistics were handled. Everything right on paper."
"You trust him?"
"I trust his competence. That's different from trusting his warmth." The ghost of a smile, self-aware, rueful. "I'm aware that's a distinction I make a lot."
"You do. It's very you."
"Is that a compliment?"
"It's an observation. Take it however you want."
He looks at me. We're sitting close enough that I can smell the coffee on his breath and the hotel soap I washed offfour hours ago and something underneath that's justhim, the thing my lion has been tracking since day one and last night got close enough to drown in.
"Will you be here when I call?" he asks. "I don't... I'm not asking you to hold my hand. I just..."
"I'll be here."
"It might be awkward."
"Nico. I'll be here."
He nods. Takes out his phone. Sets it on the bar between us. Looks at it the way someone looks at a door they've been avoiding.
"Now?" I ask.
"If I don't do it now I'll talk myself out of it by this afternoon."
"Okay." I close my laptop. Give him my full attention. "Do it."
Nico picks up the phone. Dials. Puts it on speaker. Sets it back on the bar.
