Page 88 of Any Port in a Storm

“I thought we could go out for dinner with Nick tonight,” I’m telling her, sipping on my Americano. “Maybe catch a movie afterward?”

“Sounds great,” she says. “There’s that new Marvel movie. I’d been wanting to see that.”

“Oh.” I pull my lips into a line. “Nick and I already saw that one.”

“No worries,” she returns, her smile slipping.

“But it was great,” I rush. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind seeing it again.”

“I don’t want to make you guys watch it twice.”

“No, it’s no problem.”

She’s looking down at the table now. “I feel like I’m missing a lot.”

I frown. “I know. It’s not the same without you here.”

Grace musters a pleasant affect. “But at least I have Leo now. He’s really charming, Laur. You’re going to love him.”

“I can’t wait to meet him.” Grace has been seeing Leo, an accountant at Grace’s company and the son of an orthodontist, for a little over a year at this point. Somehow, I still haven’t managed to meet him, but I do know all about his father’s line of work—more than I ever expected to know about orthodontics, to be honest. To hear Grace talk, that’s one of Leo’s favorite topics of conversation.

I’m trying really, really hard to reserve judgment, but he sounds like kind of a dud.

Especially because he never manages to join Grace on her trips to Boston. It just feels like he’s not super invested in her. I don’t think he’s met her dads, either.

“I actually asked him if he wanted to pop down for the weekend,” she says, hope brimming in a way that makes my heart break for her. “He said he may. He wanted to catch a Celtics game tomorrow; some friend of his from college is going to be in town, too.”

“So he’ll come here for someone else?” The words are out before I can think better of them.

She blinks rapidly. “Don’t be like that.”

“Sorry. It’s just…hard, you know? I want you to be treated like the queen you are.”

“I know what I’m doing, Laurel. You don’t always know best.”

Her words are like the rush of air from a slammed door, pushing me backward in my chair. “I don’t think I know best.”

“Look, I’m just saying.” She stares at the table. “You’ve made a lot of…interesting relationship choices for yourself. Let me make my own mistakes, okay?”

“So you also think he’s a mistake?” I ask wryly.

“I’m not saying that,” she counters, amusement peeking through. “But if he is a mistake, let me figure it out for myself.”

“Okay,” I promise. “I’ll be open-minded.”

As it turns out, Leo deigns to honor us with his presence after all. He invites Grace, Nick, and me to join him and his friend Steve at the Celtics game on Saturday night.

“I guess he’s nicer than I thought,” I tell Nick while we’re waiting for the others outside the Garden.

“Buying three extra tickets for an NBA game is pretty generous,” he agrees.

“I just want Leo to show up for Grace, you know? I mean, hell…it seems like you do more for me than he does for her, and we’re not even together.”

A violent cascade of pink assaults Nick’s face, and he busies himself with a text message. “Sorry; got a message from Lucy,” he mumbles.

“Tell her I said hi,” I reply, taking out my own phone. Why is he so embarrassed? By juxtaposing our friendship with someone else’s actual relationship, I was only trying to illustrate the latter’s failings. I wasn’t trying to suggest that we’re…anything.

But I guess that is what I’d been suggesting, really. And I should have known better. I curse my tendency to spew whatever comes to mind without thinking it through. I don’t want to make things awkward.