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Andy laughed and held out his watch. “It’s 2:00 in the afternoon.”
I groaned back into my pillow. “No wonder I’m starving. I’ve missed three meals.” I quickly sat up straight. “Hey. Does anyone know what happened to Tatiana?”
“Nope,” Andy said. “Not a word. It’s been radio silence from Atkins.”
“I hope she’s okay.”
Andy reached behind him and pulled a folded up newspaper from his back pocket. “There is this, though.”
It was the Entertainment section of the New York Times. One article was circled in pen:
OFF-BROADWAY SHOW BRIMS WITH POTENTIAL, UNTIL DISASTER
I groaned as I read the article. “So the writer was impressed until Tatiana injured herself.”
“And has serious doubts that the show could be a success without the star,” Ryan said.
“Maybe we can invite him back for the next rehearsal?” Andy wondered out loud. “If he sees Nadia he’ll change his mind.”
Suddenly all three of our phones vibrated at once, and Ryan’s chimed. Andy pulled his out first. “An email from Atkins. He’s called a meeting before rehearsal tonight. That’s all it says.”
“Uh oh. That can’t be good,” Ryan said grimly.
“I guess we’re going to find out what happened to Tatiana.”
48
Ryan
Nadia wasn’t the first fuck-buddy I’d ever had.
The first couple weren’t ones I’d proactively tried to arrange. They just sort of happened. A girl in my high school French class who used to come over to study. We’d have sex, study French, and then have sex again. Then there was a coworker I’d had at a bar in Montreal. I was a line cook while she was a waitress. We went home together after an especially long shift, and for the next month we had a standing sex-date if we were both free at the end of the night.
Pretty great, right? I always thought so.
The problem with those relationships was that someone always developed feelings and ended up hurt. It was as inevitable as the Lincoln Tunnel backing up every afternoon. In both of my previous situations, it was the girl who wanted to turn our friends-with-benefits arrangement into a real relationship. I had to break them off because that’s just not what I wanted, and I knew a guy like me wasn’t boyfriend material. Especially not when things had started off purely physical.
But as we walked to the rehearsal meeting together, I couldn’t help but wonder if this time would be different.
Dorian and Andy were with us, but as we got on the train it was Nadia who chose to sit next to me. She smiled widely, and I smiled back.
“You’re looking more alive than you were an hour ago,” I said.
“A stomach full of food goes a long way.”
“That, and my hangover cure.”
She rolled her eyes. “Alright, alright, the drunken Easter bunny might have helped.”
“Fucking right it did.”
I found myself yearning to make Nadia laugh so I could see that amazing smile of hers. The kind of goofy impulse a kid got when he wanted to catch his crush’s attention in the middle of class. I had to fight down the urge to crack a joke or do something stupid.
I definitely have feelings for her.
After last night, I was certain now. She had been there for me the way nobody else ever had. When shit hit the fan in my life, I always ended up dealing with it alone, so when Atkins fired me I did the one thing that came natural: I ran. Down the street and to the first bar I saw so I could be alone with my vulnerability.
But Nadia had followed. She cared enough to make sure I was okay, even if all that entailed was giving me a hug and listening to me bitch.
