Page 90 of Meet Me at the Metro

She stares at me for an agonizing beat. “You know what? Just forget it.”

“Nora, come on.” She stomps off again.

I dodge body after body to keep up. When I finally reach her again, I gently steer her into an outside alcove of a closed bookshop. “Don’t be upset.”

“I will be upset.” She defiantly crosses her arms against her chest and settles back against the storefront’s glass windows. “I saiddon’t.”

“You’re upset about that? WhatI said to those men?”

“Why even engage with them? You gave them the attention they wanted.”

“What they were saying about you was fucking disgusting. Did you not hear them?”

“Of course, I heard them, which is exactly why I didn’t want you to say anything, Theo. It’s easier just to ignore men like that. It was embarrassing as is.”

“I wasn’t going to sit back and listen to them talk about you like that.”

“I wish you could have. Everyone was staring.”

“Theywere staring. Seriously, the way those two men were looking at you made me sick to my fucking stomach.”

She glances down at the ground, avoiding my eyes altogether. Where we stand is darkened with the night’s shadows, but with the radiance of the lamp posts lining the sidewalk, I can make out how flushed her cheeks have become.

I feel terrible. My intentions were never set on embarrassing her.

“I saw how uncomfortable you were about the things they were saying. You don’t deserve to have anyone talk about you like that. I’m sorry if I embarrassed you, but I’m not sorry for what I said to those fucking wankers.”

She snorts, her angry, blue eyes finally softening. “You love saying that word, don’t you?”

“I do,” I chuckle. “You still pissed at me?”

“A little.”

“Well, what can I do to make younotpissed at me?” She breaks eye contact like she’s hesitating on whether or not she wants to give me an answer.“What can I do, stubborn thing?”

“Tell me who you were texting back there,” she says timidly like she’s ashamed even to ask.

“It was Kimberley.”

Her shoulders relax. “Kimberley?Your stepmom?”

I nod. “She wants me to come over and have dinner with her and my stepbrother.”

“That’s great, right? It’s been a while since you guys have caught up. Won’t it be nice for you to see them again?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“You don’t want to go?”

“No, not really,” I mutter, settling back against the brick wall beside her. I look up at the awning above us and let out a weighted exhale. “Shit’s just been complicated between the three of us since my dad passed.”

“Complicated in what way?”

I take another deep breath. “In every way.”

“Maybe it won’t be so bad. I mean, you’ve seen Kim recently.”

“Yeah, but not my stepbrother. I haven’t spoken a word to him inyears. I don’t really want to change that either. Kimberley, I can deal with, buthe’sanother story.”

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