Page 47 of Love and the Laws of Motion
They left the bar and stepped out into the quiet coolness of an early fall evening.Farther up the street, there were more lights, more people, but the block Romano’s occupied was quieter, nearly empty of pedestrians at this late hour.
Nick fell into step beside her as they headed home.Home.Oh, why had she ever asked him to stay?It had muddied up everything, and now she was tangled up in these feelings for a guy who was about as bad for her as it was possible for someone to be.
“You’re quiet,” Nick said.“What are you thinking about?”
How I’m pretty sure you’re going to end up breaking my heart, no matter what I do.
“Um, thinking about you, actually.”
“Me?”
“And Poppy.I’m wondering how you’re doing with that.”
Nick tipped his head back, staring at the flat, starless night sky as he thought.“To be honest, I have no idea how I fucking feel.Is that weird?”His question seemed rhetorical, as he didn’t wait for her reply.“It feels like I should be more hurt.Or maybe pissed?And don’t get me wrong, I’m fucking furious at that asshole, Klaus.I always hated that prick.I mean, his name isKlaus, like some character in anSNLskit.Did you see his hair?Fucking ridiculous.Now I know what that condescending sneer of his was really about.”
“You sound angrier with Klaus than with Poppy,” she pointed out.
“Eh.Too much vodka and good people and good food, I guess.I don’t feel like being mad at Poppy tonight.Maybe I’ll be mad at her tomorrow.Or maybe I’ll just let it go.What’s it matter now anyway?”
“She didn’t deserve you, you know.”
He slung his arm across her shoulders, pulling her into his side in a one-armed hug.“Maybe she didn’t.But maybe I didn’t deserve her either.She was right about a lot of stuff.I would get wrapped up in a project and be lost for days.”
“Because you’re passionate about what you do.”
“Yeah, but maybe if I’d been a little less passionate about work, she’d have been a little less passionate aboutKlaus.”
“You can’t blame yourself, Nick.What she did, that was all her.And it was terrible.”
“True.Cheating is always a dick move.What about you, Liv?”
“What about me?”
“Did you ever get your heart broken?”
Not until now.“I’d had to have had a relationship for that to happen.”
He looked down at her in surprise.“Seriously?Never?”
Ugh, why was it suddenly embarrassing to admit it to him when she’d never cared before?She shook her head, ducking her chin until her hair slid forward.“Never.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Why is it so unbelievable?”
“Because you’re attractive?And brilliant?Somebody must have been into you.”
For a second, she couldn’t speak, still stuck on what he’d said.Because you’re attractive.Nick thought she was attractive?Her face flushed as she processed that piece of information.
Finally, she said, “Yes, butIwasn’t into anybody, and I wasn’t going to do it just because society thinks I should.”
“You are really something, Liv.”
Something?A good something or a bad something?“What does that mean?”
“You’re just...You’re not afraid of who you are.”
“Areyou?”
