Page 55 of A Very No Strings Halloween
And there it is.
“And how, pray tell, do you plan to help me with her?”
“We just want to meet her,” Nolan says. But he doesn’t say it like a concerned family member. He says it like an Irish gangster.
“No,” I say simply.
“Whaddya mean, no?” Nolan says.
“I said no.”
I see Nolan gearing up for a fight. The man doesn’t have a lot of experience hearing no. I don’t have a lot of experience saying it, so we’re both in uncharted territory.
Declan holds up a hand to stop Nolan. “Wait. Why don’t you want us to meet her?”
I open my mouth. Close. Open it. Close it again. The opening feels right. The closing, like me saying no, feels brand new to me.
How can I explain that I don’t want them to meet her because it suddenly feels very complicated with Donna?
“She’s at work,” I say. “Probably,” I add quickly.
“Well, let’s just see.” A real casualfuck youshrug from Nolan. “No big deal.” He saunters over to Donna’s apartment.
“How do you know that’s her apartment?”
“Piper told me she lives next door—it’s either this one or the other.”
Nolan’s feckin’ Irish luck led him to pick right on the first try. I step out into the hallway but am then completely frozen in place as he knocks on her door. She opens it.
“Oh, hello,” Donna says in surprise.
“Hello, lass. My name is Nolan.” He offers his hand, and she shakes it tentatively. It’s then she notices me and Declan standing in the hall. “I’m thiseejit’s far more handsome and intelligent cousin. And this tall pint of Guinness in an oxford shirt is our cousin Declan.”
Declan walks over and offers his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Very nice to meet you,” Donna says. Her voice sounds confident, but her eyes keep checking in with mine.
“We were wondering if you would like to join us for some libations. Our dear young relative, Piper, has had the pleasure and simply raved, and we would like the same opportunity. Drinks are on us, of course.”
Donna looks at me through my cousins. We’re both considering a million conversations we shouldhave had that now we can’t. “That sounds amazing. Let me get my purse.”
Nolan calmly chalks his pool cue as he finishes his story. “So Billy wakes up somewhere dark. He’s hearing loud music, the stompin’ of feet. He reaches up and opens the lid of whatever he was in.”
“What were you sleeping in?” Donna asks me.
I squint one eye, trying to remember. “Some sort of weaved chest or basket thing?”
Donna turns her rapt attention back to Nolan, who continues the story. “So he pops out, and he’s on a stage with dozens of Indian wedding guests doing a choreographed dance to a Bollywood song.”
“Oh my God. What happened?”
“Well, this is where Dec, Eddie, and I found him. We were at the entrance to the ballroom, and the whole wedding party kind of stopped and stared at him. And without missing a beat—rightonbeat, in fact—Billy starts doing the “Night Fever” dance fromSaturday Night Feverhe learned in high school gym class. The DJ quickly changed the music, and they all just sort of went along with it.”
“I can’t imagine. I mean, I can actually.”Donna laughs and grins at me.
I give her a wink. “I just happened to be wearing a gold chain and a sick three-piece bell-bottom suit…” I say with a shrug and then take a pull of my beer. “But they taught me the Bollywood dance after that.”
Donna laughs her beautiful, full laugh. But I know what she’s thinking. She’s thinking she wants to see me do that dance in that suit, and she will one day get her wish. This has been more fun than it had any right to be. I don’t know what I was worried about. Donna’s not interested in making things heavy or dramatic. It’s one of the many things that makes her so amazing.
