Nico is pinching the bridge of his nose, but he's smiling. The real one, the one that changes his whole face, the one I've seen only a handful of times and am now adding another instance to my catalog.
"The green dress was the right call," he says. "David's shoes are fixable. Champagne is terrible and adults are lying. I'll call you tomorrow."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Tell the spreadsheet bartender I said hi."
Nico looks at me. I feel my face do something that is either a smile or a complete loss of muscular control.
"He says hi back," Nico says.
"OH MY GOD is he right th—"
Nico hangs up.
The bar is very quiet for about two seconds. Then Jason loses it — a full, helpless laugh that he tries to muffle with a dish towel. Robin is grinning into his pastry box. Even Silas has looked up from his book with an expression that on anyone else would be amusement and on Silas is the slight elevation of one eyebrow.
"She's eighteen," Nico says to no one in particular. "She has the energy of several small explosions."
"I like her," I say.
"Everyone likes her. It's a problem." He looks at the phone. At our hands, still intertwined on the bar. At me. "She called you the spreadsheet bartender."
"I've been called worse."
"She said I sounded emotionally weird about the bar top."
"You did."
"I sounded factually interested in the craftsmanship."
"Nico. You told your sister about the oak. Unsolicited."
He opens his mouth. Closes it. The tips of his ears go pink — a thing I didn't know Nico's ears could do and am now extremely invested in making happen again.
"I was being thorough," he says.
"Mm."
"It's a nice bar top."
"Mm-hm."
"Stop saying 'mm.'"
"Mm."
He squeezes my hand. I squeeze back.
But there's weight underneath the lightness. The Martin call —are you safe, your father would have done the same thing.I watched it hit him. I watched years of distance crack in one phone call, and the fracture is still fresh.
"He said your father would have done the same thing," I say. Quietly, under the noise of Jason laughing and Robin texting.
"I heard."
"Are you okay?"
