Page 83 of So Steady

“Should we go?” she asked, slipping her hand into his.

“Sure, hang on a sec.” He crushed his cigarette into the bottom of his shoe and flicked it onto her—Aaron’s—front lawn, where she noticed several butts were already lying like discarded bullet shells.

“Noah!”

His expression was deadpan. “What?”

She shook her head, unable to stop smiling. “Take me to dinner, please.”

He opened the passenger door to the van and, feeling oddly like a princess, she got in. “Thank you.”

“Sur…” He faltered, looking, for the first time since she’d known him, shocked. “You’re not wearing your—”

“I know. Don’t say anything. I’m raw and I might cry.”

“Fucking hell, Nikki—”

“I mean it, don’t talk!” But she laughed because it was so ridiculous to have to tell Noah Newcomb, the living wall, not to talk.

He leaned in and kissed her, soft and sweet on the mouth. “I won’t talk.”

“Don’t,” she warned as he pulled away. “Still don’t say anything.”

He didn’t, but there was a smile on his face as he headed around to the driver’s side of the van.

She directed him to The Lighthouse by memory. It was her favourite restaurant in Adelaide. She was always trying to drag Aaron, her friends, and colleagues there. It was, she reflected, probably the only thing she was going to really miss about the city.

“What kind of food do you like?” she asked Noah. “I know you have burgers all the time at work, but do you like Italian, or Indian, or Mexican?”

He smiled a little. “Sussing me for future date potential?”

Nicole felt herself flush. “No, just curious.”

“S’alright. Thai’s probably my favourite. You?”

Nicole almost said her automatic response—sushi—then realised she wasn’t at work or with friends or on a first date. Noah knew her family, which meant he’d probably already heard about her nugget obsession. “Fried chicken.”

His grin confirmed he had already known that.

“Tabby?”

He shook his head. “Sam. She told me this story about the two of you. You were sixteen and you’d gotten someone’s brother to buy you a box of wine and…”

“No!” Nicole pressed her hands to her ears. “Stop!”

“…and you drank about half of it on your roof because your dad was downstairs running a silent mediation workshop…”

“Stop!”

“And then you decided you had to go to McDonalds, or you’d die—”

“It was KFC, thanks very much.”

Noah cackled. “The dirty bird.”

Nicole put her thumbs in her ears again.

“And then you ate twenty-six nuggets?”

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