Willa & the Extraordinary Internship

CH. 28

"You smell nice," Nate said as he pulled Willa into an exuberant hug the moment she crossed his threshold. Using his foot, he nudged his front door shut.

Willa laughed in embarrassment; she had made more effort with her appearance than she normally did, replete with a spritz of Chanel No. 5 under her pits, a smidge behind the ears, and a dab on her wrists. "Why'd you call me over here?"

"Were you busy?" Nate's eyebrows came together in a frown.

"No." She was unemployed, remember? How easily he forgot her sacrifices, she thought with a twinge of of irritation.

"Look at this." Nate led her to his kitchen table. On top of a week-old newspaper was a proof copy of the latest Simeon Lee novel.

Willa's eyes flew to his in amazement. "Oh my god, Nate!" Beneath the title was his name. But how was it possible? For continuity, wouldn't the publishers have preferred to keep Paige as the author?

"I know, it's incredible," Nate said with a sigh. "They forced her to turn over all her work she'd done for the new book - which, as you can guess, wasn't too much. Guess she was running out of my ideas." He paused, letting his words sink in. "They wanted me to write the third book and wrap up the series."

"And you...you had the time to write it so fast?" Confusion laced Willa's words as she picked up the book, flipping to the last page. There were three-hundred-and-ninety-four pages.

"It's been a couple of weeks." Nate shrugged nonchalantly. "Writing Simeon may have been a struggle for her but..." He let the rest of his sentence trail off.

Willa understood. It wasn't difficult for him to write his vision of Simeon since he'd been living and breathing it for years.

"Right. No, it's just...I didn't know." Willa felt feeble and needy even as she was speaking the words. Nate didn't technically have to tell her anything about what he was up to, but it would have been nice. Considering everything she'd done for him.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry?" Nate looked concerned instead of offended, but Willa couldn't help but think that he wasn't sure he actually had anything to be sorry about at all.

"Yeah, forget about it." She traced his name on the cover.

"I'm getting a cut of her royalties from the first two books, too," Nate continued, taking the book back from her and smoothing out the cover with a proprietary air that Willa found insulting. It wasn't like she'd creased it.

"Congratulations." The words were hollow, but Nate didn't seem to notice. As he continued talking about how his life had changed, Willa tuned out. There had been no hello kiss, no electricity in hug, not even a thank you for the part she'd played. It felt a bit like she had been his short-term co-conspirator - and that was all.

Her thoughts drifted to her friends and what they would do in her situation. Cyn would have plopped herself right down on Nate's couch and demanded to know if he was her boyfriend, and if not, what the hell was stopping him? If it was Maryam, she would play coy and try to gauge how Nate responded to her. But Willa had neither Cyn's bold charm or Maryam's coquettish flirting.

"Willa?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry." Willa chewed her lip, trying to think of how to phrase what she so desperately wanted to ask.

"I said, would you like something to drink? I don't have wine, but maybe some beer to celebrate?"

Old-Willa would have said yes just to be polite. She would have gritted her teeth and tried to gulp it down without letting her tongue taste it. She would have smiled and pretended to enjoy it. But she wasn't that girl anymore. She never should have been, Willa realized.

"I'd rather talk about us." The confident words alarmed even her.

Nate's eyes widened. "Us?" he repeated dubiously, like he was unsure of the meaning of the word.

"You kissed me," Willa reminded him.

He scratched the back of his head.

It was an awkward stalling motion, Willa thought. "Sorry, I don't want to be 'that girl', but I just...can't read you," she admitted.

"I like you." Nate shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. "It's just...I kept my distance for a while because I didn't know if I liked you for the right reasons. I should have said 'thank you' weeks ago but I couldn't, you know, bring myself to talk to you because I wanted to kiss you again. And that would have been bad because I didn't want to start something if I couldn't be sure I could see it through."

A guy wanted to see her through? Not the most eloquent of declarations, but it still thrilled Willa to her core. "I understand. I wouldn't want you to start anything with me because of gratitude or whatever. I get it. It's not like we really know each other."

"Would you like to?"

Willa considered this. "Yes. But without all the subterfuge and stealing." She sent him a teasing smile.

He returned it easily, the corners of his mouth stretching wide. "Definitely no subterfuge," he agreed, taking a step closer. "I swear, after Paige and what happened with my book, I am all about the truth now."

"People who tell the truth aren't usually compelled to point it out," Willa drawled.

"I'm just saying, after everything? I don't think I can deal with any more lies." His eyes darkened as he looked down at Willa. Reaching out, his hands took hers, then slowly moved up her arms to her shoulders.

She stayed still as a statue, watching him. His hands gently trailed up her neck, then clasped the back of her head. Each and every single one of her senses were on hyper-alert and Willa didn't dare close her eyes - she didn't want to miss anything. But as his lips came down over hers, she didn't have much choice; her eyelids fluttered shut instinctively as she responded to his kiss.

"Do you want to...?" Nate cocked his head to the bedroom.

Willa nodded mutely. Yes, please.

Maryam would have definitely fretted about how it was too soon, Willa! but Cyn would probably be cheering on that Willa got her groove back! Even though she should have been totally engrossed in kissing Nate back as he led to her his room, there was still that small voice in the back of her head that wondered why she was still thinking of her life in terms of her ex-friends.

Author's Note: So basically lots of good things happening for Nate and Willa in this chapter. After the crap she's been through, I hope you guys like this relatively sweet, calm chap xD Please vote/comment! :) xoxo