The Neighbor Favor(30)

Nick glanced away from the book to look at Lily. “Yeah, yeah. Of course.”

He followed her to the couch and sat beside her. He was still holding her copy of The Elves of Ceradon, then his gaze zeroed in on Tomcat, who was stretched out on the floor right in front of them. He glanced back and forth between Tomcat and the book and slowly his expression morphed into one of alarm. Was he really that afraid of cats? Lily didn’t like shutting Tomcat up in Violet’s room, especially because Violet didn’t like Tomcat being on her bed, but Lily would have to temporarily remove Tomcat from her current situation if she wanted Nick to relax.

She walked to the hallway and took off her Keds. Tomcat eagerly followed behind because he had a weird obsession with smelling her shoes after she’d sweated in them all day.

She approached Nick again, but now he was staring at her bare feet with that same alarmed look. She slowed her walk, feeling self-conscious for a moment. She knew her feet were okay-looking. Plus, she’d given herself a shimmery lavender pedicure before Violet’s engagement party last weekend.

He pointed at her right foot. “Is that a tattoo of a lily flower?”

“Yes,” she said, lifting her foot. “My sisters have matching ones for their names. Violet and Iris.”

Nick’s eyes became the size of golf balls. He quickly stood and dropped her copy of The Elves of Ceradon in the process. He fumbled to pick it up and haphazardly put it back on top of her book stack.

“I, uh, I have to go,” he said abruptly, brushing past her toward the door.

What?

Lily had the strongest feeling of whiplash. He’d just had his tongue down her throat and now he was leaving? She hadn’t even brought up the wedding!

“Wait!” she called, sliding on her shoes and rushing behind him.





5


“My sister Violet is getting married at the end of summer and I made a bet with her that I’d find my own date to her wedding.”

It all came out like word vomit as Lily hurried behind Nick into the hallway. Where had that come from? She wasn’t supposed to tell him about the bet! Whatever, it was too late. She might as well plow through while she had the chance.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go with me,” she continued, right on his heels. “To the wedding, I mean. There’ll be free food and an open bar. We’ll have fun! What do you say?”

Nick whipped around, displaying an expression of pure panic. He stared at Lily like she’d just spoken to him in gibberish.

“I—I, no. I can’t. Sorry.”

His immediate rejection stabbed her right in the heart. “Oh . . . um,” she stuttered.

“It’s just that I remembered I’m not trying to date right now,” he said quickly.

“I don’t want to date anyone either!” Her painful embarrassment at being rejected was swiftly replaced with a feeling of relief. He was confused about her intentions. That was all. “It’s just one night. I don’t want you to be my boyfriend or anything.”

Then she laughed, like the thought of Nick being her boyfriend was the most absurd idea she’d ever heard. She didn’t even want to imagine how ridiculous she must seem right now.

Nick was still looking at her with that wide-eyed, confused stare. “I . . . I can’t even commit to one evening. I’m kind of avoiding anything like that altogether.”

Now Lily was confused. “But we just kissed.”

Well, actually she had kissed him now that she thought about it.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I got caught up in the moment.”

Before Lily could even process that Nick was really, truly turning her down, the stairwell door opened and a woman dressed in a dark magenta wrap dress stepped into the hallway holding a folded piece of clothing in her hands. Her diamond bracelets jangled loudly with each step as she walked toward them. Lily recognized her as the woman who owned the loud Pomeranian puppy that liked to bark at everyone.

“Nick, honey,” she said, “you forgot your boxers the other morning. I washed and dried them for you.”

Honey?

Nick took the navy blue boxers from the woman and cleared his throat. He glanced at Lily, looking both apologetic and embarrassed. “Thanks, Yolanda. I—uh, this is Lily.”

Yolanda then turned her attention to Lily and smiled. “Hi, sweetheart. So nice to meet you. Well, I’m off to meet Henry for dinner. Have a good night.” She kissed Nick on the cheek and raised an eyebrow mischievously before hurrying down the hall to get on the elevator.

Lily was slow to understand what she’d just witnessed. That woman had returned Nick’s boxers . . .

“It’s not what it looks like,” Nick said quickly.

“Riiiight.” Lily backed away from him.

“Last weekend was Yolanda’s half birthday,” Nick said, lowering his voice. “We had a small celebration at her apartment and I forgot my boxers.”

“It’s really not my business. But how could you possibly have forgotten your boxers, of all things?”

“It—um. It was a mistake,” Nick said, shaking his head. “Just a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?” Lily repeated, frowning. Maybe this was his thing. He went around trying to hook up with each of the women in their building for sport and then begged off when they expressed real interest in him. And Yolanda . . . Why did that name sound familiar? Wait a minute. Wasn’t Yolanda the woman that Nick and Henry had been talking about in the elevator last weekend? The woman Henry had wanted to ask out on a date? He’d been so nervous yet excited to give Yolanda his cupcakes.