The Perfect Escape (The Perfect Escape #1) - Suzanne Park Page 0,90
thing wasn’t all about money after all. It was more in my head.” I shrugged. “I’ve started to pare down my schedule, though, to make more time for fun stuff. Been doing more things that make me happy, like playing games with you plebs.”
A flash memory of Kate popped into my head. Please make sure you don’t forget to enjoy your life, okay? A long sigh escaped. “I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.”
“Oh, I get it,” Lucy interjected.
“What, Luce?” I asked.
“Now I know why the chicken crossed the road.” She paused. “Because the grass was greener on the other side.”
Jaxon gaped. “Nate, dude, I thought you were smart, but I think your sister might be a damn genius.”
“Ix-nay on the amnit-day,” Lucy said.
Jaxon, Zach, and I busted up laughing, to the point none of us could breathe.
Mom came back into my room and handed me a two-liter bottle of Coke. Then she pulled out a postcard from her jacket pocket and handed it to me. “Special mail delivery!”
On one side was an illustration of the Statue of Liberty in sunglasses, GREETINGS FROM NEW F*CKING YORK in bold black letters across her chest. On the other side, to the left of my handwritten address, were three words that took my breath away.
I miss Dicks
Chapter Thirty-Three
Kate
The whoosh of the crisp winter air blasted my face when I propped open the theater door. Being the newly hired stage manager assistant at the Second Street Theater in Queens, New York, had some pluses, but this furnace-like heat wasn’t one of them. The place was either a blistering one hundred degrees or a frigid forty-nine degrees Fahrenheit. And you never got to choose which one.
“Do you know the theater manager’s number? The heat keeps blasting during the performances, and it’s hard for everyone to concentrate. It’s so hot it’s hard to keep my clothes on.”
Zoe laughed. “I do, but he never answers. And when he’s actually around, he’s busy with the frozen pipes and leaky toilets. I’ll call him again. I don’t know why he doesn’t fix it. It’s wasting his electricity.” She hugged me. “But aren’t you happy you get to be onstage with me, even though you’re losing your body weight in sweat?”
It was great to be onstage again with Zoe. I had been in New York only a few weeks, and she had helped me get this part-time job assisting her, and I’d scored a small nonspeaking role in the theater’s modern adaptation of The Gift of the Magi and Other O. Henry Stories.
While pushing a wooden prop storefront off the stage, Zoe huffed, “Oh! I forgot to tell you.” The wheels squeaked with each shove. “Someone. Was looking. For you.”
Who would be looking for me? Raina was the only one I’d kept in contact with from home. Dad and I had just started talking again, but he didn’t know where I was staying or where I was working.
“He asked for you by name.”
I asked, “It’s a dude? Is it the manager or his son? Then I can yell at him. Or both of them. Oh wait, is it my dad? We’ve been in touch—he’s in town for work this month, and he’s coming to one of our performances in a couple of weeks. But…you know what he looks like.”
Zoe smirked and tucked her damp bangs behind her ear. “Yeah. Definitely not your dear old dad. The guy is our age. Prep vibe. Pretty cute Asian guy.”
“Now I’m curious.” I peeked out of the right side of the curtain. Could it be? My stomach sank when it was clear no one was out there.
“Sorry!” a voice thundered from the left side of the curtain, nearly stopping my heart. Damn theater acoustics. “I swear I’m not a stalker or a creep. I’m just looking for—oh, Kate! It’s you!”
Be still my heart. Literally. My pulse picked up the pace from zero to a thousand BPMs when I saw Nate Kim standing across the stage. Ba-boom. Ba-boom. Nate KIM. Nate KIM.