Chapter 22 - Braden

A lot of things surprised me that morning. I was surprised at how few belongings Nadia had. I was surprised by the state of the apartment—quite literally a dump, with garbage overflowing from the trashcan in the kitchen and dirty dishes filling the sink.
But most of all, I was surprised by my instinct to protect Nadia.
She was a tough girl. She could take care of herself. But when her roommate had started shouting, and the other guy stood up like he was going to try and stop her…
I don’t know. The overwhelming instinct to keep her safe took over. Action without thought.
“Thanks for your help,” Nadia said when we were on the train back to the city. It was a lot more crowded now, so we stood in the middle with the duffel bags on the floor between us. “I really appreciate it.”
I waved a hand. “It would’ve been stupid for you to make two trips.”
A smirk slipped onto her beautiful face. “I meant the help with Carla and Vitaliy. You were awfully intense there for a few moments. I thought shit was going to get real.”
I chuckled. “Thank God it didn’t. It was all an act. I’ve never been in a fight before.”
She gave me an appraising look. “Seriously?”
“Didn’t I just tell you what I was like growing up?” I teased. “The closest thing I’ve ever gotten to a fight was throwing a fake punch during my high school’s rendition of West Wide Story.”
“Well, you put up a convincing show. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”
I felt my cheeks redden, and I couldn’t hold back a smile for the rest of the train ride.
Dorian and Andy were drinking coffee in the front parlor when we got home. “The queen of the townhouse returns!” Dorian declared in a Shakespearean tone. “Why did you not requisition our assistance? We could have gotten everything in one trip!”
Nadia hefted her bag. “This is everything. My entire life in two duffel bags.”
“Oh,” Dorian said, suddenly embarrassed.
Nadia took it in stride. “The benefits of being poor,” she grinned widely. “Easy to move around.”
We carried the bags upstairs to her room. Ryan was coming down the hallway from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. He smiled at us.
Well, more at Nadia than me.
“Morning, roommate,” he said cheerfully. “Need help unloading?”
“I can handle it,” she replied back smoothly. “I’ll let you know if I need anything.”
“Be sure you do,” Ryan replied. He nodded at me, then went into his room and closed the door.
I frowned at the back of Nadia’s head as we went into her room. Was that sexual innuendo? The two of them hadn’t hit it off yet, or so I thought. Maybe they’d bonded over their drinks last night.
“He’s in a better mood today,” I mentioned as I dropped the duffel bag on her bed. “I guess he’s resigned to his fate at work.”
Nadia turned and had a weird look on her face. “Actually, I have something to do with his mood.”
I felt my chest tighten. “Oh?”
She nodded slowly, and wouldn’t meet my gaze. In a flash of insight, I realized that they probably slept together last night.
A jealous ache filled my chest at the realization. I immediately fought it back down. They were supposed to be friends-with-benefits. It was part of our proposition to her. So why did I feel so strange?
But Nadia suddenly twitched and said, “Yeah, I told him that Dorian and I heard a noise in the catwalks before rehearsal yesterday. We’re going to go to Director Atkins and tell him about it. Ryan might not be fired.”
“That’s great!” I said a little too excitedly. “That he might not lose his job. That’s really great.”
Nadia turned to her bag. She still seemed uncomfortable. “What time are we meeting your sister for brunch?”
I looked at my watch. “We’ll need to leave here in 15 minutes. I want to get there before her, so we can prep.”
Her back was still to me as she fished inside her bag. “Works for me. I’ll meet you downstairs in 15.”
Dorian and Andy were discussing the theater in the front parlor. “My point is that it’s something,” Dorian was saying. “Nadia didn’t see anything when she poked her head up there, but it’s awfully coincidental that we heard something right before the spotlight fell.”
“The noise in the catwalks?” I asked as I joined them.
They both whipped their heads in surprise. “You heard it too?”
“No, but Nadia told me about it. It’s got Ryan in a better mood, too.”
“As it should,” Andy explained, adjusting his glasses. “The connection between a strange noise in the catwalks, and a potentially fatal equipment malfunction, is tenuous at best. But it is better than nothing, and it is worth mentioning to the director. Ryan and I are going to gather more evidence today.”
“Maybe the place is haunted, like Ryan keeps insisting,” I suggested.
The three of us smiled at that. None of us were as superstitious as Ryan.
Nadia came downstairs wearing a tight-fitting pair of jeans and a deep blue blouse that hugged her chest just enough to show what she had. Her hair was down and brushed smooth, showing off the layers of gold and bronze. The tips had just a hint of curl to them along her shoulder blades.
“How do I look?” she asked, doing a little twirl. “Girlfriend-worthy?”
“Darling, you look fiancée-worthy,” Dorian announced. “You’ll knock them dead.”
“It’s just my sister, not my parents yet,” I explained. “But I agree. You’ll crush it.”
She beamed at me.
We walked the few blocks to the restaurant. The sun was peeking above the buildings now, which slowly warmed things up. But there was still a crispness to the air, and without our coats we would’ve been shivering.
“Okay,” Nadia said. “What’s our background story?”
“Easy,” I replied. “We met during The Proposition rehearsal when you took over for the lead. Our scene was very sexy. The chemistry was undeniable, and then we started dating.”
She gave me a sidelong look. “Sounds implausible.”
“Good thing you’re an actor then, huh?”
“How long have we been dating?”
“Two or three weeks, I figure.”
“Which is it?” she asked. “Two, or three? The devil’s in the details.”
“Let’s say three,” I replied after a moment. “Two is too early for meeting family. Three is a bit more serious.”
“I wouldn’t even think of introducing my family to a boyfriend until it had been at least a month,” Nadia said. “And even that would be pushing it.”
“Normally, I’d agree,” I said. “But I’m making an exception since I’m head-over-heels for you.”
I smiled widely at her. She blushed as we walked along.
“Any other details I should know?” she asked. She took on the haughty tone of a daytime soap opera star. “Tell me about my character. What’s my motivation for this scene?”
I chuckled. “Your motivation is you want to procreate with all of this.” I gestured down at my body.
“Oh, so we want kids?” she asked.
I pointed. “You do. I’m going to need some convincing, but eventually I’ll cave because I want to make you happy.”
“How sweet of you.”
“That’s at least two years into our marriage,” I added. “We’ve got a lot of traveling to do before then. First our honeymoon cruise along the Seine River, then hopping along the coastal cities on the Mediterranean. You want to spend more time in Italy, but I convince you that the Greek islands are a better use of our time, and in the end you admit I’m right.”
She glanced up at me while we waited to cross the street. “You’ve thought pretty hard about this, huh?”
I realized that I’d elaborated a bit too much. That was the kind of future I fantasized about when I was bored. With whoever my wife would someday be, not Nadia.
But imagining it with Nadia copied-and-pasted into the role was easy. It felt right. I’d always been the kind of guy who struggled with commitment. I threw myself into relationships with an addictive personality, and then got burned out and sick of the person after a few weeks. That was the bigger reason why my parents thought I was gay: because I never dated women long enough to bring them home. That’s just who I was. I’d probably never find a long-term relationship that stuck.
Yet Nadia made me wonder…
“Like you said, the devil’s in the details,” I said awkwardly. Hopefully she didn’t think it was too weird.
“So where are we having brunch?” Nadia asked.
Thank God, a change of subject. “A place called Ernesto’s. It’s two more blocks away.”
She scrunched her face. “Ernesto’s… Isn’t that the place with the big pink sign? And the name written in cursive?”
“That’s the one.”
She gawked at me. “I thought that place was fancy!”
“It’s not.”
But when we got to the restaurant and went inside, Nadia groaned even louder. “This is super fucking fancy!” she hissed at me while we approached the hostess station. “I’m totally under-dressed!”
“Reservation for Braden Williams,” I told the hostess, then lowered my voice for Nadia. “It looks nice, but all the hip people dress casually. See that guy over there?”
A 20-something guy with messy hair and a dirty t-shirt was typing on his laptop from a nearby table, ignoring his poached egg sandwich.
“I still feel weird about it,” Nadia insisted as the hostess led us to our table. “And now I’m all flustered right before meeting your sister…”
“We’re early,” I told her. “You have time to relax, and practice some of the things we’ll say. Just…”
I trailed off as I saw our table.