Page 87 of The Likelihood Of You

“Addy told me.” Oh. He ran a hand over his stubble before shuffling closer to me. “Do you remember that day I came into your dressing room? Around the time those tweets came out from—”

“Yeah…wasn’t that the time you told me you got cast as the lead in that book adaptation movie? And you never finished telling me—” I get a pointed stare from him, for changing the subject again. “Yes. Go on.”

“Well, right before I came in, Addy told me everything Florence had told her. She thought I was being too distant with her, and I was." Guilt invades his posture. "It takes a lot for me to be speechless, but after hearing what that scumbag fiancé did to her, I couldn’t speak. And I know I hadn’t been the warmest towards her, given everything that happened with you-know-who.” he sighed. “But hearing what brought her here made me feel like an asshole. Because I was acting like one. I had no right to slip her into the same box as Dar—. I just wanted to apologise for that. I wanted to say it to her in person, but you’ll have to do for now.”

“Nate, you were looking out for me. You were right there with me when she left me, you saw it all at the same time I did. You had a right to be mindful of Flo, even I was at first. I thought she was pretendingnot to know me, to trick me into something. But it took around three minutes for me to see that she was different.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty cool, man. You’ve got yourself a really cool girl there.”

Had. Ihada really cool girl.

“So you need to think of something, because as much as you can’t afford to lose her, we can’t either. Addy is forever glued to her, I think she’s awesome, and you love her.”

I smiled, feeling my dimple deepen for the first time in days.

Hearing Nate list off, why not only did I need her to stay, but my friends needed her too? It ignited something in me, a fresh fire, loaded with all the embers and logs I thought had burnt out.

They were alive again.

“Okay, we can figure this out,” I said, standing up like I’d just learned how to use my legs.

“God, this sounds horrendous, but the last time this happened, did she tell you about what helped her? When she moved here, what did she do to help her recover?”

I turned on my heels to face him. “Well, the big thing was switching continents.”

“Right, well, that’s option one ruled out.”

I begin to pace, which feels weird because this is the most physical activity I’ve done for a day or two. I thought back to our conversation at the lookout, the day I found her crossed-legged and crying. I tried to remember what she’d said, how the conversation flowed.

“Why were you crying?”I asked her.

“So what made you come to New York if it wasn’tplanned?”I asked her.

Her answers to all those questions were stacked up in my mind. As I paced the hardwood floor, I flicked through each other, waiting for the right one to appear. She’d told me what helped her. I know she had. But my God, what did she say? I carried on filtering my questions.

“Why New York?”I asked her.

My feet halted. She’d told me why she chose this place. And what helped her make that decision. Something helped her pick New York. The more I recalled her voice, and what she’d said, it all became clear.

“Oh my God,” I said, turning to face Nate, who was staring absentmindedly out the window while polishing off his burrito.

His head shot around to look at me, bits of burrito spilling from his hands as he did. “What?”

“Call Addy. I need to know what else Flo’s told her.” I said, flailing my pointed fingers at his phone. Florence had made it clear that she and Addy were close friends now, so there was no doubt in my mind that there were things that Addy knew that we didn’t. “Hurry!” I yelled.

“Okay, okay,” he rushed out, carefully placing his dishevelled breakfast on the coffee table, before whipping out his phone and scrolling his recent calls.

“Who the hell is Firefly?” I whispered, leaning my head closer towards the screen and watching as he clicked the name.“Is that…?”

“Shut up.” Nate whisper-shouted at me, as the speaker phone rang and filled the rest of the space between us.

A few rings later, a voice erupted from the speakers. “Nate, for the last time, I’m not signing that contract.” Addy’s voice said.

I immediately lifted my eyes from the phone to Nate, whose face had turned alarmingly white, his eyes wide and mouth gaped. “Nonononononono. That’s not what I’m calling for, and Jacob is present. Okay. Other people can hear you.”

What the hell is going on with these two?

“Oh shit. Um, hi, Jacob. What do you want?”

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