Chapter 53: A Seat at the Table

Chapter 53: Chapter 53: A Seat at the Table

I watched Alessandro disappear further into the crowd.

"You and Alessandro seem close."

"We’ve been friends since my sophomore year," Nicole replied.

I turned to face her. She was looking straight ahead, watching the people scattered around the room as though she’d just answered a perfectly ordinary question. Maybe it was.

I looked at her for another second before she finally turned toward me.

"Want something to eat or drink?" she asked.

I took a moment to answer, my brain still stuck on ’friends since sophomore year’. "Yeah, sure."

She stood, smoothing down her dress before looking at me. "Alcohol or nah?"

"One of us has to drive."

Nicole gave me a cheeky smile. "True. I’ll be back."

I looked around while Nicole disappeared into the crowd, and it occurred to me that this was probably the most mature party I’d ever been to, despite the fact that I went to parties once in a very dark blue moon.

University parties had a certain atmosphere to them. The music was usually loud enough to make conversations pointless, someone was always shouting over someone else, and there was inevitably a group of people dancing like they were trying to have an orgy right there on the floor. Even the ones that were supposed to be small gatherings somehow ended up with too many people in too little space, half of them looking for something to do and the other half pretending they hadn’t come specifically to get drunk.

This was different. The music played quietly in the background, loud enough to fill the silence but not enough to compete with anyone’s conversation. People sat in small groups, talking over drinks, while others stood near the windows or moved between tables to greet people they knew. Nobody seemed particularly interested in making themselves the center of attention, and whatever this party was supposed to be, the whole thing was surprisingly relaxed.

I was still taking it all in when I spotted Rebecca across the room. She was talking to a woman in a dark blue dress, but whatever they were discussing seemed to come to an end when Rebecca caught sight of me. Her face brightened, and she said something to the woman before taking her by the hand and leading her toward my table.

The woman followed, her floor-length, off-the-shoulder dress swaying around her legs as she walked. A slit ran up one side, making it easier to move without compromising the look.

Rebecca, meanwhile, looked like she had somewhere important to be, and apparently, that somewhere was my table.

She stopped beside the table, still holding the other woman’s hand, and looked at me with a smile that suggested she’d been waiting to do this.

"He’s the one."

The woman immediately took the nearest chair and sat down, staring at me with bright eyes before looking up at Rebecca, who was still standing beside her.

"Wow. Okay," the woman said.

I wasn’t entirely sure what I was supposed to do with that, so I settled for a polite smile.

She turned back to me and stretched out her hand, her smile still firmly in place. "Theresa, but you can call me Tessa."

Ah. So this is the Tessa.

I took her hand. "Nathan."

"You look good," she said, looking me over with an appreciative smile. "Like, really good."

"He’s taken, in case you’re forgetting," Rebecca immediately added.

I gave them a small, crooked smile because that seemed like the appropriate response when two women were discussing your availability as though you weren’t sitting right there. Besides, Rebecca wasn’t exactly wrong.

"I still don’t know what party you’re hosting," I said, looking at Tessa.

"A birthday party." She smiled. "Mine."

I nodded, still wondering when she planned to let go of my hand. "Happy birthday, Tessa."

"Thank you!"

"Don’t you think you’ve held his hand long enough?"

We both looked up.

Nicole stood beside the table, holding a tray with two glasses of iced tea, a small plate of mini quiches, and another of bite-sized chicken skewers. Her gaze was fixed on Tessa’s hand, which was still holding mine, and the smile on her face was pleasant enough that I probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it if I hadn’t known her.

Tessa finally let go of my hand and turned toward Nicole with a bright smile.

"Nicole!"

She stood up so quickly that I wondered if she’d been waiting for an excuse to do it.

Nicole set the tray down on the table beside me, her expression still perfectly straight, before turning back to Tessa. For a second, she simply looked at her. Then her face lit up, and she let out a little squeal before stepping forward to wrap Tessa in a hug.

"I thought you wouldn’t show," Tessa said, hugging her back.

"I wouldn’t miss it for the world."

Rebecca, who was watching them with an expression somewhere between amusement and exasperation, shook her head. "She’s just afraid you’ll block her if she doesn’t show up."

Nicole pulled back from the hug and looked at Rebecca thoughtfully for a moment before speaking. "True."

The three of them burst out laughing, and I found myself smiling along with them.

I’d seen Nicole happy plenty of times, but watching her with her friends was different.

It was surprisingly entertaining to watch.

After another moment, Nicole finally pulled away from Tessa and took the empty seat beside me, close enough that our arms brushed as she settled in.

I glanced at her, still amused, while she reached for one of the glasses she’d brought.

Tessa and Rebecca took the two remaining chairs at our table, with Rebecca sitting beside Tessa while the birthday girl settled across from Nicole. They seemed perfectly content to join us, which was fine by me.

Rebecca had barely settled into her seat before she turned to Nicole with an expression that told me she had something to share.

"Tessa and Brandon had a fight last night."

Nicole paused with her glass halfway to her lips and looked at Tessa, her eyebrows lifting with immediate interest.

"It’s his fault," Tessa said, leaning back in her chair. "He said he’d come over after work, and I waited for almost four hours before he finally texted me to say something came up. Four hours, Nicole. And do you know when he could’ve told me? Before I spent half the evening waiting around like an idiot."

"Did he explain what happened?" Nicole asked.

"He said he got caught up with something at work. That’s it. That’s the explanation."

I reached for my phone.

This seemed like a conversation best enjoyed by people who knew Brandon, had opinions about Brandon, or had any particular interest in what Brandon did with his evenings. I had none of those things, so I opened my messages and started scrolling through them.

Beside me, Nicole set her glass down and pulled out her own phone, though she was still clearly listening.

"Did you talk to him after that?" she asked, her eyes on the screen as she tapped something into it.

"Of course I did," Tessa replied. "I’m not going to let him think he can just do whatever he wants and expect me to be fine with it."

My phone buzzed with a new message.

Nicole: If you’re bored, tell me and I’ll drive them away ??

I smiled at the screen before typing back: Nah, I’m invested. Let her cook.

Beside me, Nicole let out a quiet huff of laughter.

Tessa stopped mid-rant.

Nicole looked up. "Sorry, continue." She dropped her phone onto her lap and reached for her glass, still smiling.

I glanced at her, and the smile on her face made it pretty clear she wasn’t particularly sorry. When I looked across the table, I caught Rebecca watching us with an amused expression. Apparently, she’d noticed the whole phone exchange.

She simply gave me a knowing little nod and smiled.

I smiled back before returning my attention to my phone, leaving Nicole to resume listening to the story of Brandon’s crimes against his girlfriend.

I opened the university’s general group chat, where someone had apparently decided that everyone needed a live stream of Katie’s party. The video was already attracting comments, most of them from people who were either there or wishing they were.

I watched for a few seconds, and the contrast was immediate. Whatever was happening at Katie’s place, it looked considerably closer to the kind of university party I’d described in my head earlier. The camera shook as the person filming moved through a crowd, the music was loud enough to distort the audio, and someone in the background was dancing with the sort of enthusiasm that suggested they’d forgotten other people had eyes.

I scrolled through the comments, briefly wondering how long it would take before someone did something that ended up circulating around campus for the next three weeks. That was when I heard my name.

"What do you think, Nathan?"

I looked up from my phone.

All three women were staring at me.

Nicole had turned in her seat, watching me with a small smile. Rebecca looked entertained, as though she already knew I hadn’t been paying attention. Tessa, on the other hand, was pouting at me as though she genuinely expected me to weigh in on the matter and was waiting to see if I’d take her side.

I glanced between them, then set my phone down. I had no idea what they’d been talking about for the past minute, so I decided to go with the oldest trick in the book and ask a question of my own.

"Before I answer that, can I ask a question?"

The three of them exchanged curious looks. Nicole’s smile widened slightly, which wasn’t particularly reassuring, considering I was about to improvise my way through a conversation I’d barely been listening to.

"Is this Brandon guy at the party?" I continued.

Tessa’s expression shifted. "He’s supposed to be."

"So that’s a no."

Rebecca snorted, while Tessa gave me a small, offended look.

I leaned back in my chair, considering what little information I had managed to gather. Brandon had promised to visit, failed to show up, and apparently committed enough crimes against his girlfriend to keep the conversation going for several minutes. Yet Tessa was still here, talking about him like she wanted someone to tell her he wasn’t as terrible as she was making him sound.

"You love him, don’t you? Brandon, I mean," I finally said.

Tessa blinked, then nodded.

"And you don’t actually want to break up with him."

Another nod.

I shrugged. "Then if he shows up tonight, hear him out. If he makes the effort to come after your fight last night, that probably means he cares about you too."

The table went quiet for a moment.

Nicole was still smiling, looking at me with an expression that suggested she’d enjoyed my answer a little too much.

Rebecca, meanwhile, tilted her head. "And what if he doesn’t show up?"

I considered that for a second. "Then we put him on eBay. See if anyone else wants him."

Rebecca burst out laughing. Nicole covered her mouth, though that did very little to hide her amusement, and even Tessa laughed, her pout finally disappearing.

"You’re terrible," Tessa told me, still laughing.

"I’ve only known the guy for five minutes, and even that was mostly through a list of complaints. I’d say I’m being pretty generous."

That got another round of laughter out of them, with Tessa shaking her head as though she couldn’t decide whether to be offended on Brandon’s behalf or agree with me. Nicole was laughing beside me, and I reached for my glass, taking a sip of my iced tea while the conversation settled back into easier chatter.

It occurred to me then that I hadn’t once thought about how much the house cost, how expensive everyone’s clothes were, or whether I was supposed to know something I didn’t.

I’d come here expecting to spend the evening feeling like the odd one out, surrounded by people whose lives were probably nothing like mine. Instead, I was sitting at a table with three women, two of whom I’d met barely twenty minutes ago, making jokes about a guy I’d never met, and somehow managing to keep up.

I didn’t feel out of place.

Not one bit.