The Bookish Life of Nina Hill - Abbi Waxman Page 0,62
she asked. “Zombie outbreak?”
Tom grinned and shrugged. “They all suddenly had appointments. It was weirdly coordinated.”
“Huh,” said Nina.
“Are you hungry?” Tom asked. “Or do you need to go home and read?”
She looked up at him and smiled. “I’m hungry. Besides, I can always read the menu.”
“Great,” he said, and turned to lead the way outside.
“Did she go for it?” asked Lisa, hiding behind a nearby cardboard cutout of Jabba the Hutt, which was fortunately big enough to conceal them all, although Lauren had to crouch behind the tail.
“Yes,” replied Carter, turning and high-fiving the others. “Yahtzee.”
Luckily for Nina’s anxiety, they found themselves in one of those restaurants where the menu gave the full provenance of every ingredient. Plentiful reading material is so helpful on a first date.
“It says here,” said Nina, “that the fresh mint used in the lamb burger was grown in a hand-thrown but unattractive pot on the kitchen windowsill.”
“Really?” said Tom. “Did they include a photo?”
Nina shook her head. “Not even a witty little pencil sketch.”
“Disappointing.” Tom looked at his menu. “Well, it says here that the pomegranate extract used in the salad dressing was hand squeezed by the middle daughter of the farmer who grew it.”
“Really?” said Nina, hiding a smile. “Well, if one of us orders the steak frites, a young boy named Harold will catch a bus to the the nearest community garden and dig up the potatoes for the frites himself.”
“Well,” said Tom, gravely, “it’s getting a little late for Harold to be out alone. Maybe we should choose something else.”
“I appreciate your consideration for Harold’s welfare,” said Nina. “I’ll have the burger instead. The lettuce and tomato were picked an hour ago by a willing volunteer, so, you know.”
Tom nodded and closed his menu. “I wish more restaurants had backstories for everything.”
“We’re doing fine on our own,” replied Nina. She ran an exploratory systems check and was pleasantly surprised to discover she didn’t feel anxious. Maybe she was still a little hyped from the movie.
“Ripley might be my favorite movie heroine,” she said. “I love the way she’s clearly scared out of her mind and would pretty much give anything not to be there, but she sucks it up and powers through. That’s real heroism.”
“Yeah,” agreed Tom, “my mom always used to say, ‘If you’re not scared, you’re not brave.’ ” He took a sip of water. “Mind you, she was usually saying it to get me to try something dangerous.”
“Isn’t that unusual, for a mother?”
“She’s unusual,” he said, but didn’t elaborate. The waitress came over and they placed their orders, falling silent for a moment once they’d cleared that hurdle.
“I’m glad we ran into each other,” Tom said.
“Me too,” replied Nina. “I’m sorry about the other day.”
“No big deal,” he said, looking down at the table. Nina noticed a tiny scar by the side of his eye and suddenly wanted to touch it. He continued, “Not everyone has as open a calendar as I do.”
Nina was interested. “Why is your time so free?”
He laughed. “Because I don’t schedule anything. I pretty much work, then take the rest of it as it comes. Not a big planner.”
“I like planning.”
“I saw that.”
“It makes me feel better.”
“Better than what?”
“Better than chaos. Better than unpredictability.”
“But doesn’t that mean you also lose out on serendipity? If everything is planned, nothing is surprising.” He regarded her thoughtfully, genuinely interested. While he waited for her answer, he found himself wondering if she was wearing lipstick, wondering what color her cheeks would turn when she was aroused, wondering why he couldn’t stop wanting to go to bed with this woman he barely knew. He wasn’t a teenager, but she made him feel that way.
Nina sighed. “I still get surprised all the time. You can make whatever plans you want, but life still happens, right?” She looked at his face, the angles and planes growing familiar, his gaze intent but his eyes so, so warm. What was he thinking? “For example, I recently discovered I had a father.” She clarified, “Or rather, I knew I must have a father, but I found out he was dead already.” That didn’t really come out right, but she didn’t think she could make it better, so she left it. Bad things sometimes happen to good sentences. What can you do?
Tom took another sip of water. “You thought maybe you were an immaculate conception?”
Nina made a face at him. “Yes. My mother told me I came out of her forehead fully formed.” Tom looked