Nothing to Lose Read Free Page B

You’re never home. You don’t have a cell phone. You don’t even have an answering machine.”
    â€œI can’t afford stuff like that,” he said. He sounded hurt. Worse, he sounded ashamed. It bothered him sometimes—actually, a
lot
of the time—that I had the latest of almost everything while he had to scramble for the basics. He thought I cared about stuff like that. I don’t.
    â€œAll I meant was. . .” What
did
I mean? “You never call me, Nick. I was beginning to think maybe you’d found someone else.”
    â€œSomeone else?” he said. He sounded surprised, and that made me feel a little better. “No way, Robyn. It’s just that with school and my job, some days I come home, collapse on the couch, fall asleep, and wake up with just enough time to do my homework and get to school. You know what? I have a whole lot more respect now for people who work fast food. You can’t believe the kind of people you have to put up with. And you can’t yell at them because they’re customers and the customer—”
    â€œâ€”is always right. I know,” I said. “So, how are you, anyway?”
    â€œTired.”
    I was glad we were talking on the phone instead of in person. It meant I didn’t have to try to hide the disappointed look on my face.
    â€œMe too,” I said. “And I have to be up and out of here in a few hours.”
    â€œA few hours? Robyn, it’s nearly eleven o’clock.”
    â€œI know. I have to be out of here by four thirty.”
    â€œIn the
morning?
”
    â€œYeah.”
    There was a long pause on the other end of the phone before he said, “Does that mean you’re going somewhere for the weekend?”
    â€œIt means I’m going somewhere for a couple of hours,” I said. I filled him in on my plans and smiled at the relief in his voice. Maybe he hadn’t been great at staying in touch lately, but he obviously cared about what I was up to.
    â€œBarry finally gave me a weekend off,” he said. Barry Osler was a shift manager at the restaurant where Nick worked. He was also a senior at my school. His father owned a dozen restaurants in one of the biggest fast-food chains on the planet. Barry was aiming to outdo his father. He boasted that he’d be a fast-food king himself by the time he turned thirty. He’d also asked me out a few times. I made up excuses every time. I hadn’t mentioned to Nick that I knew Barry—he’d been glad when he finally landed a job and I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about working for someone who asked me out now and then. I hadn’t mentioned Nick to Barry, either, for more or less the same reason.
    â€œSo how about it, Robyn?” Nick said. “Why don’t you meet me first thing tomorrow morning? We can spend the day together—celebrate.”
    â€œCelebrate?”
    I heard a sigh of disappointment on the other end of the phone.
    â€œI guess that means
I’m
the sentimental one in this relationship,” he said. Relationship? I liked the sound of that. “Check your calendar, Robyn. I met you exactly three months ago today. At the animal shelter.”
    This past summer we had both volunteered—well,
sort of
volunteered—at an animal shelter. Nick had been there as part of a court-mandated anger management program. I had been there to placate a storeowner who wanted to press charges against me as a result of an incident during an animal rights demonstration. But that wasn’t the first time I had laid eyes on him.
    â€œWe
met
in middle school,” I said. “Remember?”
    â€œThat doesn’t count.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause back then I wasn’t smart enough to appreciate you.”
    â€œ
Appreciate
me?”
    â€œYeah. Back then I thought you were a pain. Now . . . well, you know how I feel now, Robyn. So will you meet me?”
    I forgot all about