Page 15 of Love Around the Corner
Nick surged to his feet. “Not at all. But at least now I know it’ll involve some kind of machine learning, and that’s more than I knew half an hour ago. And that means I can figure out the solution eventually. I’m getting a beer. Want one?”
“Why are you always so confident you can figure it out? And no, thank you. I don’t drink.”
“Because whenever I’ve tried to figure something out, I always do. Your family owns a bar and you don’t drink?”
“Surely there’s some problem out there you can’t solve. There has to be. Alcohol makes my head feel fuzzy.”
“I haven’t found a problem yet that I can’t solve, so I refuse to believe one exists. And it’s supposed to make your head feel fuzzy. That’s the point.”
“I don’t know if you’re the most confident person I’ve ever met or just arrogant. I don’t like it when my head feels fuzzy.”
“I’m both. So no beer?”
“No beer.”
Livie got up and followed him out of the office. Nick stretched his arms over his head as he made his way to the kitchen, the problem still ping-ponging around in his brain. It was a challenge, for sure, but he’d crack it eventually. He always did. That wasn’t arrogance, that was a fact.
Livie trailed after him into the kitchen. “Your apartment is really nice.”
“It’s Poppy’s. Well, it was Poppy’s when I met her. Now it’s ours, I guess.” He glanced around the apartment briefly. He supposed it looked nice, although he had no sense about that kind of thing at all. He’d have been happy, though, if there was one comfortable place, outside of his office, tosit down. Poppy’s designer furniture wasn’t exactly soft and welcoming.
“How long have you lived here?”
Nick had to stop and think for a second. Common problem when his brain was busy wrestling with a problem. His mind was back there tangled up in Hubble coding, and real life tended to get forgotten. It drove Poppy crazy.
“Um, a year? Nearly a year. Since I met Poppy.”
“Where’d you live before that?”
“Palo Alto.”
“California? You lived in California?”
“Yeah. That’s where I headed after—” He caught himself right before he veered into something too personal to share. “I headed out there after DeWitt.”
“Were you working for one of those tech giants?”
“Nah. I told you, the corporate scene isn’t for me, I don’t care if they have an onsite acupuncturist and free catered lunches, or whatever. I worked with those guys occasionally, jobbing in for a specific project, but I was always more interested in the start-ups, figuring out something brand new. That’s a lot more fun.”
“I suppose it was hard, though, being out there.”
“Why would it be hard?” Actually, his years in California had seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, a blur of freelance gigs and fun. One day, he looked up and seven years had gone by.
“Well, your family is here.”
He let out a bark of laughter. “Thatwas not why I moved back. I haven’t even seen them since I moved to California.”
Her eyes went wide. “Seriously? Not once in all those years?”
“Not once.”
“But they’re so close—”
Nope, not having this conversation. “I came back to New York for a long weekend,” he explained, cutting her off. “Just hanging with a friend. We were in this bar in Williamsburg and I met Poppy. Never went back.”
“You moved back here for her?”
“I can work anywhere, so why not? I didn’t have much to keep me in California.” He pulled open the fridge and retrieved a Lagunitas. “You want something else to drink? Soda? Water? One of these green smoothie things Poppy likes? I don’t know what’s in them, but she swears they’ll burn off ten pounds in a week.”
