Page 33 of How to Dance

Nick mulled that over. “I had no idea.” He looked at Cal. “How do you dial back the sexiness? I’ve never been able to do it.”

Cal scoffed. “The ladies can’t stay away from this.”

“Really?” Nick smiled innocently. “They seem to be doing a really good job of it.”

“Uh-huh. Tomorrow’s coffee is landing in your lap.”

“The eagle has landed,” Mimi cut in. “The rooster’s in the henhouse. The lion is strolling the wide, desert plain of the Serengeti.”

“What?” Nick followed her gaze. “Oh.”

“Dreamboat’s here,” she said.

Kevin Albee had entered the room, and Nick was annoyed.

This wasn’t a new feeling. Nick had been annoyed at the sight of Kevin since they’d both started working at Vivez, and he had spent every day of the last two weeks trying to find a defensible reason why. Every morning, Kevin visited Nick’s table to collect a couple of cinnamon-sugar doughnuts and cheerfully thank him for breakfast. Then, according to Cal and Mimi, the man filled his days with impressively hard work. Kevin wasn’t the class clown, and he’d shown no interest in any of the company gossip, but he was completely and consistently invested in what was going to happen on stage. It was the sort of attitude Nick admired. In fact, the most annoying thing about Kevin was how perfect he was for Hayley—until today. Today Nick could relish how justifiably annoying it was that Kevin had failed to answer his phone Friday night, when Hayley had called from the bar.

“Not to brag,” Mimi said, “but that man would’ve been lost without me.”

Cal said, “You’re not bragging if it’s not true.”

“You take that back. He never left my side.”

“And you never found his phone.”

Cal’s retort grabbed Nick’s interest. “Wait, what?” he asked.

“Mimi was a little too happy to help Kevin find his phone Friday night,” Cal explained. “And then she kicked it under the carts in the kitchen so the search wouldn’t end.”

“I wouldnever,” Mimi protested.

“Then how come Linda found it Saturday afternoon after you’d already looked in there?”

“A lot of people stampede through that kitchen, you know.”

“Shit,” Nick muttered.

Mimi was aghast. “I didn’t hide his phone, Nick. You think Ihidhisphone?”

“No,” Nick said. “I think Cal’s messing with you.”

“Then why do you look so disappointed?”

“Because Kevin lost his phone.”

And now Kevin was strolling toward the doughnut table with the affable confidence of a man who knew life would always go his way.

“Hey, man.” He nodded at Nick. “Thanks for the doughnuts.”

“Of course,” Nick said. “Happy to help.”

Kevin fished his usual out of the box. “Hayley said I need to thank you for Friday too.”

Nick shrugged. “I’m just glad it all worked out.”

Kevin held out his hand, and Nick shook it. “Thank you, really. I owe you a beer.”

“You don’t, but I’ll be happy to collect anyway.”

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