Page 20 of Convergence

“What music do you like?” he asked.

“Well, I liked typical pop music as a kid and teen. But I’ve been into classic rock the last few years,” I said with a shrug.

“Have you been to any concerts?” he asked as he brought the plates to the table for me.

“I’ve been to some local orchestra performances with my dad, and a few clubs had famous DJs come in when I was an undergrad, but not much else,” I said and set out water glasses on the table.

“What?” Nate exclaimed as he came bounding up the stairs from the side entrance. He was tugging his hair out of the bun he now typically wore in the lab. “You’ve never been to a concert?”

I shook my head, suddenly shy.

“I’m taking you. Tonight. Who’s playing?” he pulled out his phone as he toed off his shoes by the landing.

“We can’t go to a concert,” I reminded him and shook my head.

“Ugh, I’m sick of isolation. We’re in restricted contact officially as of an hour ago and I want to use up all of my contact at a concert,” Nate said, his eyes glued to his phone as he searched for a concert. “I need to rage.”

“That’s not how restricted contact works, and you know it,” Everett warned.

“Just don’t tell Professor Hoffmann and we’re golden,” Nate said nonchalantly, giving Ev a quick wink.

Everett rolled his eyes and sat at the dinner table. I followed suit and Nate followed me, still on his phone.

“What do you mean by rage?” I asked as I cut into my roast. It fell apart as I cut into it, and I was thankful it turned out great.

“Like a metal concert,” Nate explained.

“And you think you’re going to find one for tonight?” I asked, and took a bite of the perfectly prepared meat.

“Uh yeah, this is Cleveland. There’s always someone ready to go berserk,” Nate said like it was obvious. “Aha, found one. It’s not far from here and it starts in an hour. We’re going.”

“I’ll pass,” Everett said and tucked into his dinner.

“Me and Eva will go rage. She needs it, I think,” Nate said with another wink now aimed at me.

I wasn’t sure what that meant but I didn’t question it out loud.

After our quickly eaten but thoroughly enjoyed dinner, Nate ushered me upstairs to get ready. He threw a black t-shirt at me from his room. I was pretty sure he had been wearing it under his sweatshirt all day because of the soft warmth and the male scent clinging to it. “Here, I don’t know if you have anything not cute and girly, so wear this.”

I put it on over my bra and it fell to almost my knees, so I decided it could work as a dress. I wore it with my white Ked sneakers, put on some dark pink lipstick and thick black mascara, and met the guys back downstairs.

Nate was wearing a black and white plaid flannel, dark jeans, his Vans, and his long hair loose and wavy around his shoulders. Everett wore sweatpants and a frown as he looked me over.

“She’s going to catch her death… again,” Everett said with a warning tone to Nate.

“She’ll be fine. She’ll be sweating by the time we leave,” Nate said dismissively.

I blushed from my head to my toes at the idea, and Everett watched me with discerning eyes.

8

Nate picked up his car in the student lot and came back to get me. Everett voiced his unease about us going out in public and to a part of the city neither of us had been. Before we hopped into his warmed-up car, Nate snapped at Ev to call Daisy. Nate’s car was a red Honda Civic, and the inside felt older than it was because it was all manual. I had seen the outside when we walked and checked on the cars, but had not been inside of it.

I went to move my seat back as Nate maneuvered out of the driveway and he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “It’s a bar under the seat,” he said, with the corners of his mouth turned down slightly.

We had taken Everett’s truck to the park when it started being too cold in the mornings for Marie Curie, so I knew his silver Toyota Tacoma well. Everett had always offered to drive, so we never took Nate’s car.

“The windows and transmission are manual, too,” he said in a slightly grim tone.

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