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Thursday afternoon, Kenzie leans across our table in the library. “Theo’s having people over again tonight.”
“Scrabble?”
“Scrabble, but no Scrabble.” She shrugs. “His roommate’s inviting some people from his floor. Some of us. It’s not a party party. Just people.”
“I’m in. And I’m going to convince him to bring the Scrabble out.”
She nods and goes back to her reading, and I take my phone out without thinking about it very hard.
Me: Theo’s having people over tonight. Come with me.
Nash: Theo.
Me: Yes. Theo. You carried me out of his place. You know who Theo is.
Nash: What time?
Me: Nine?
Nash: Who’s going?
Me: Me.
The dots come up, stop, and come up again.
Nash: Ok.
I’m glad that’s enough. I slide the phone across the table out of my reach and go back to my reading, and Kenzie is looking at me over the top of her laptop.
“I invited Nash,” I say.
“Okay,” she says with a smile, and types something.
He knocks at ten to nine while I’m still doing my mascara. “It’s open,” I yell, and he comes in and stands just inside the door with his hands in his jacket pockets. Tessa goes still at her desk the way she always does, looks past him at the hallway for a second, then gives him a one-over and puts her headphones on. Nash is in jeans and a black jacket, and he somehow already looks bored of Theo’s.
“You look thrilled,” I tell him in the mirror.
“I’m here.” He shows me his palms. “No banana.”
I smile. “No banana.” I do my other eye. “You don’t have to come, you know.”
“I know.”
He watches me put the mascara away and find my earrings. He doesn’t sit down. He just waits.
“You coming Saturday?” he says.
I look at him in the mirror. “To?”
“My game.”
“Are you inviting me?”
“Yeah.”
I turn around. “You want me there?”
He looks at me like it’s a stupid question. “I want you there.”
