Page 54 of Hold Me Today

Not even him.

18

Nick

“Goddamn, youreallyhave a way with women, Stamos.”

I barely take the time to flip Vince the bird before I’m storming after Mina.

“No, but for real, is this the sort of shit we can anticipate happening on that show you went on?” he shouts after me. “Your face was onUs Weeklythis morning, by the way!”

Cutting a quick glare over my shoulder, I thrust a finger at my guys. “Lunch break. Take a fucking lunch break before—”

“He’s cursin’ in English,” Bill says to Mark with a shoulder-nudge and a flat, open palm that he curls in a come-hither motion. “Give me my five bucks, man. I told you he’d crack before noon today. I just had that feeling, like when my bones ache before a bad storm.”

“That’s called arthritis, you moron.”

I slam the door up to Mina’s apartment closed, blocking out the ribbing of all three morons who call themselves my friends. And what the hell did they mean my face is onUs Weekly? Doesn’t matter, I’ll deal with that later.

I take the stairs two at a time. “Mina!” My voice bellows out like a foghorn and I’m surprised the walls don’t tremble in fear. I feel at loose ends, like I’m on the verge of coming undone and all because of a fucking jacuzzi. I thought she’d love the idea. I thought I could ruffle any flared feathers by telling her she could consider it as my thank-you for accompanying me to the crazy shit show that will be Maine in two weekends.

I thought—though all my thinking doesn’t seem to be doing me any damn good—that she’d see I spent more time than necessary studying every pin on her Pinterest board and doing everything in my power to make her dream a reality.

Because I remember being in her position. The worry that it all would come crumbling down around me, should I even blink a little too long. The fear that my good luck was running on a timer, and if I didn’t soak it up quickly enough, it’d all be gone before morning came around. The nightmares, the stress, the unrelenting anxiety of striking out on my own and having no one to fall back on.

But at least I had my parents and Effie to keep me steady and trucking forward.

Who does Mina have? Her parents who I haven’t seen in years? Her siblings? From what I understand, Katya is living somewhere down south, attending graduate school, and her brother, Dimitri, lives in New York City. Besides Effie, Mina has no one.

Except for me.

Because you’re forcing your way in.

Damn straight I am.

“Mina!” I call out again. “We’re gonna talk. In no way was I implying that you’d pay me with sex. Who do you think I am? Some asshole out of a romance novel?”

I palm the wall and prepare to make the short, tight turn up to the next flight of stairs, only to have a dainty fist collide angrily with my shoulder. With fast reflexes, I catch Mina’s wrist to keep her from pummeling me. “Jesus, are you crazy,gynaíka?”

Her honey eyes turn to slits. “I don’t like that word.”

I swear to God this woman is . . .Gamóto. Every time. Every time I think we’re making headway, getting along, we revert right back to our perpetual role of frenemies. That’s what the kids are calling it nowadays, right? Frenemies? Hell if I know.

Refusing to cut her loose in case she turns those flying fists on me again, I stand my ground. “You don’t like the word forwoman? Seriously?”

She tugs at her wrist to no avail. “It’s condescending.”

“How?” I pull her down to the stair rung I’m on, and yeah, maybe I do it because it gives me the advantage. I’m taller, broader, and, if I have to harbor a guess, I’m also the only one who’s thinking rationally in this dark, dank stairwell. “Women call guys ‘man’ all the time. Everyone under the sun says ‘dude,’ and that’s not even historically accurate because not all guys are cowboys.”

“It’s also a pimple on a cow’s butt.”

“What?”

“Dude,” she mutters, her eyes never moving from the wall beside my head, “it’s also another word for a pimple on a—”

“I heard you the first time.” I scrub my free hand over my jaw, all the better to keep the sucker from hitting the floor in shock. “How do you even know this?”

“Jeopardy.”

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