What You Don't Know

Three Way Call

"Right," I laughed, "and how are you gonna do that?"

Clearly, somebody thinks too highly of himself.

Nick shrugged, "Lunch?"

Lunch?

"I have a thing," I said, lying through my teeth.

Nick raised an eyebrow, "So earlier, inside, when you said your boyfriend wants nothing to do with you..."

"I meant it."

"Come to lunch with me then. Ditch your fake plans."

I stepped forward, suddenly feeling challenged by his accusations. "They aren't fake."

"Oh really," Nick smiled, knowing he had me backed up into a proverbial corner, "then who are they with?"

I locked my jaw and then spat out, "My cousin."

"So you're getting lunch with your cousin, on a Sunday afternoon. Little Alabama don't you think?"

"Fuck you."

"Maybe later." He pointed toward the truck two cars down, "I'll drive."

I scoffed, already irritated by his know-it-all-ness. "It's not gonna be that easy you know."

Nick chuckled, "With you? Shocking."

I clicked on my tongue, already wondering why I didn't just let him walk out of my life, but then I remembered Scotty and the empty apartment waiting for me.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I followed him to the wine-red truck, blinked in surprise when he held the door open for me and slid inside.

****

"This is your idea of lunch?" I stared at him, amused. My mother would have insisted on visiting one of her many hand-selected bistros downtown. "If I would have known we were going to a dive bar, I would have changed out of my dress."

The calf-length paisley ordeal was beginning to make me feel like a nun.

Nick met my gaze, prying his attention away from the burger on his plate for longer than Scotty lasted in bed. "Did you want to wait thirty minutes for a table at Surprisingly Saucy just to get some shitty wet bread that they call a sandwich?'

I shrugged, "Maybe I wanted to be asked where I wanted to go. You ever think about that?"

Nick sighed, "Can't say I did. Can't promise I will later either."

Charming.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're insufferable?" I dipped a crinkle free in a healthy amount of ketchup before popping it into my mouth.

His restaurant taste was superior to my mother's, but he couldn't know that.

"Many people, actually. Mostly my parents," Nick's response snapped me out of my thoughts.

My shoulders dropped; I knew that feeling too well. "Why are we here, Nick? I'm pretty sure you don't even like me."

He glanced up from his food. "I do like you, Fiona. You're not like everybody else. You understand what it's like to..." his voice trailed off, "to have parents that see you but don't really care about knowing you."

That's deep.

"Working on lyrics to your newest single?"

"Always," he winked. "But I'm most interested in getting you out of that toxic relationship you're supposedly in."