Okay, so this dinner hasn’t been as entertaining or satisfying as I thought it would be. All I can think about is how I’m going to have to do something pretty fucking awesome to make this up to Nina. Even as Sadie paces around in front of me here in this corner of the lobby, trying as always to make everything about her.

“Where the fuck do you get off being so rude to me, huh?”

“Keep it down, this is a nice place.”

“Really? You think I’m the one behaving inappropriately?”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Seriously—how the fuck did you end up with Russell’s ex? Do you even see how crazy that shit is?”

“I know it seems like a bad idea but I also know it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”

“You’re talking about the world’s shortest list of good decisions.”

“Not denying that.”

“Okay but you have to at least tell me—who sought who out? Did she find you?”

“No.”

She nods. “That’s what I thought. A revenge fuck.”

“It is so much more than that and I think that’s obvious to you, or you wouldn’t be trying so hard to get to me.”

Her eyelids flutter and her posture changes, and I know she’s going to try to manipulate me and I’m so immune to this shit now it isn’t even funny.

“Vince, I really was hoping that we could all get along tonight. I wanna clear the air. Can’t we be friends?”

“No. We can’t.”

“Well, I want to see Charlie.”

“You can’t.”

“You can’t stop me.”

“Yes. I can.”

She crosses her arms at her chest. “So what do you think of Russ? You like him, don’t you?”

“I can see why you like him.”

“And I can see why you like her.”

“Fantastic. Are we done here?”

She ignores the question completely, slides her hands down her midriff and slips them into the front pockets of her shorts, hunching over a bit so I can see here cleavage. I know that move. I fell for that move over a year ago, it does nothing for me now. “So, he asked me to move in with him.”

“The principal?”

She nods. “Before the school year starts up again. I don’t know if I should. Everything’s happening so fast.”

“Sometimes good things happen fast.”

“So you think I should?”

“I think it makes no difference to me if you do or don’t, and you’ve got no business asking my opinion.”

“It’s just, you know. What if I give up my room at Darcy’s place to move in with him, and then he realizes this was just a rebound? I’ll never find as good a place with as cheap a rent as I have now.” She bites her lower lip, pretending to be confused. I almost hate her.

I think of Nina and take a deep breath. “Who knows what’ll happen. You either enjoy what you have right now or you don’t, I guess. Personally, I’m actually grateful that you ended up with Russell, or I probably never would have found Nina. So thanks.”

She looks at me, her lower lip quivering, and then her eyes harden. “Yeah, I feel the same way. If you hadn’t made it so unbearable for me to keep being Charlie’s nanny towards the end there, I wouldn’t have gotten my job now and I wouldn’t have met Russ. So thanks for being such a moody dick all the time.”

“My pleasure.” I grin. She smiles. It’s probably as close as we’re ever going to get to a truce. I start to turn to go back into the restaurant. “Just stay away from Charlie. I mean it.”

I gave our waiter my credit card to pay for the table before returning from the lobby, and managed to get through dessert without showing any hint of emotion towards Sadie, but she had to get in one last dig about how “fascinating” it is that Nina and I got together, and I slammed my water glass down on the table. It startled Nina, I saw how Russell gave her a look afterwards, and Sadie had this smug expression on her face. I had to get us out of there immediately.

Now we’re back in our room, and she’s barely said two words to me. The TV is on, probably more to block out any sounds that Sadie and Russell will make when they get back to their room, but also to give her something to look at other than me.

I feel sick.

“I shouldn’t have agreed to go to dinner with them,” I say.

She looks down at her hands. “I’m glad we did, to be honest.”

“You are?”

She nods. “Mostly. I had a pretty good little talk with Russell when you were in the lobby.”

I feel my ears getting warm. “Yeah?”

“Not a lot, I just…I think it’ll be okay for us to work together. I’m not mad at him anymore. I don’t think he’s mad at me.”

“That’s good. I’m glad. Can we turn off the TV?”

She picks up the remote and turns it off.

I sit on the sofa beside her and take her hands in mine. We both jump a little when we hear doors and drawers in the next room slamming shut.

“Uh oh,” she mumbles. “How’d your talk with Sadie go?”

“It was…mildly dysfunctional.”

“She’s very…shrewd.”

“If by that you mean ‘manipulative,’ then yes. She is.”

“I think Russell’s really taken with her.”

I exhale, slowly. “I do too. I’m so sorry I let her get to me like that. Slamming the glass down, and…”

“I saw what she was doing, I don’t blame you.”

“Still, I should have been able to control myself better.”

She gives me a quick glance, and I have no idea what it means.

I can hear Sadie yelling behind the wall, so clearly, “Oh my God just give me one minute!” I can’t imagine the principal’s still going to want her to move in with him now, but maybe he likes the drama. You never know how people are going to respond to each other. Maybe I wouldn’t have found Nina so appealing if I’d met her a couple of years ago, although that’s hard to imagine.

She’s watching the door to our room, as if she’s afraid one of them will knock on it. We hear Russell say “Just come on,” and then a few seconds later their door shuts and Sadie is stomping past our room.

“We’re leaving!” she yells out. “Enjoy the rest of your stay!”

Russell shushes her.

Nina’s holding her breath, until we hear their footsteps go all the way to the end of the hall. It’s quiet again.

“I actually feel bad for the guy.”

She nods. “I think I need to go to sleep,” she says, sounding genuinely apologetic. “Sorry. It’s just hitting me how tired I am.”

“It’s nine-thirty.”

“I know, I just…I haven’t gotten that much sleep since I met you.” She’s grinning. “I’m not complaining, believe me. I guess it’s just catching up with me. During the school year I’m in bed by ten, you know.”

Those words, “During the school year.” She might as well say: “When you’re not a part of my life.”

She puts her hand on the side of my face and kisses me. “Do you mind?”

“Course not. I’ll read in bed beside you. If you don’t mind me keeping the lamp on.”

She smiles. “I don’t. I’d like that, actually.”

It’s the first time we’ve gone to bed without fucking first. Although, yes, we did it multiple times today already, but still. I’m all for domesticity, if that’s what this is a preview of, but something ain’t right.

When I wake up, Nina is standing at the window, looking out at the rain.

Perfect.

“Morning.”

She keeps looking out the window. “It’s raining,” she says, ominously.

“I’m sure it won’t last long.”

“My weather app disagrees with you.”

“Sounds like you should come back to bed.”

She half-smiles. “I was thinking we should get breakfast in the lobby while they’re still serving it.”

“Okay. I’ll get up. Can we bring it back here?”

“Probably. If that’s what you want.”

“Is that what you want?”

“I guess. Let’s see what it’s like when we’re down there.”

“Yeah. Let’s do that.”

Fuck me. It’s like we just fast-forwarded three years into the relationship. Not that I’d really know what that’s like. Right now I would do anything to take back everything that happened from the second Sadie invited us to dinner on. Except for the sex part.

We bring our breakfast back up to the room, and Nina has her Rainy Day playlist streaming on her Spotify app. I hate listening to music from a phone, but it’s so cute that she has playlists based on weather that I do not complain.

I stare at her as she eats her buttered toast, watching her lick her lips, and even though we’re at a resort in upstate New York this feels like home to me. I just don’t know how to say that to her without it sounding totally cornball gross.

She looks up and sees me staring at her. “What?” She wipes her lips with the back of her hand.

“You know, if you ever want to stay in and chill, I mean back home, just tell me. I’d be fine with that.”

“Really?”

“Hell yeah really.”

“I don’t want to bore you.”

“Well, I don’t want to tire you out.”

“You don’t. Not at all.”

“Good. You don’t bore me.”

“But I’m such a lame nerd.”

“You’re my favorite lame nerd ever. I totally geek out over you.”

This seems to make her pretty happy. “I did bring a little something along, just in case it rained.” She gets up for her purse.

“If it’s handcuffs, you are officially not lame, not even close.”

She reaches inside the bag, fishes around, for something, shaking her head.

“It’s gummy bears, isn’t it?”

“I do have them, you want some?”

“Maybe later.”

She pulls out a deck of cards and holds them up. “Still lame?”

“Depends. What’d you have in mind? Go Fish? Slapjack?”

“Possibly. Or…”

After beating my ass at Blackjack twenty times, she suggests Texas Hold’em. I tell her I’d rather play Go Fish, because it’s something I play regularly with Charlie and if she beats me at that somehow I’ll feel like I can retain a little dignity, more so than if she wins at poker. After last night, if I can’t leave this place with my dignity in tact, and a sense that I deserve this woman, then I don’t even want to know what that’ll do to me.