“Excuse me? I make her laugh way harder than some dude she just met!”
“Shh, you’re in my library!” Jenna admonished.
Nicky walked over to join us in cleaning up the remaining blocks. “I only have a few minutes before I have to run,” she said. “I get to go see Luca, the cutest kid ever, even though his dad’s an asswipe.”
“If you stop doing home cares and come to the schools with me, or go to a clinic, you could work with the kids without dealing with asshole parents nearly as much,” I said.
“Never going to happen. I love my families.”
Jenna and I shrugged at each other. We’d had this conversation many times. Nicky did OT in people’s homes and took most of her cases in the lower income areas of the city.
“That’s not why we’re here,” Nicky said. “Guess what?”
“Just tell me.”
“You’re no fun. Guess who just texted me?”
“Nicky! Just tell me!”
Nicky grinned. “Mel.”
My heart pounded. “And?”
“Cole called her.”
“I hate you! Spit it out!”
“Dylan was with him. They asked Mel if she had your number, so she texted me and I gave it to her.”
“You didn’t ask me first?”
“Nope. I know you like him. I wasn’t giving you the chance to say no.”
“I humiliated myself the last time I saw him.”
“Yet he wanted your number.”
I picked up the last few blocks and walked over to put them in the bin.
“Talk to us, Juliette. What are you thinking?”
“I really like him, like in a way that I’ve never felt before, and if he wants to see me again after that mess, he might be the most accepting person I’ve ever met when it comes to my dyspraxia—except you guys, of course. It makes me feel so much pressure to not mess this up, and you know how I collapse under pressure.”
“There is no pressure,” Jenna said. “You just met the guy and had a good time once. When you see him again, hopefully you’ll have a good time again. That’s it. Don’t get ahead of yourself. He could end up being a jerk, or hating animals, or a million other things that’ll change how you feel.”
“He could have a tiny dick or be terrible in bed,” Nicky added in a whisper, showing not the slightest modicum of respect for being in a children’s library.
Jenna glared at Nicky as she continued. “He’s probably not as great as you think he is, so there’s no need to build it up into a big deal.”
“You know, your mistrust in everyone kind of works here,” I said to Jenna before looking at Nicky. “You…not so much.”
Nicky feigned indignation. Jenna and I laughed, and Jenna beckoned for us to follow her to the crafts and kitchen section. I threw Jenna an appreciative smile for the distraction. The threeof us shared almost everything, but some things were easier to talk to Jenna about than Nicky. Like how being terrible in bed was a huge worry of mine.
More than a worry, actually. My ex-boyfriend, Jake, told me to just be quiet and lay still, that it was distracting when I jerked all over like I was having convulsions. I shook off the memory of that crappy and thankfully short-lived relationship.
“What the hell happened here?” I asked, looking around the room. It looked like a tornado had torn through.
“Three young kids and a mom who thought the library was a playground.”