Then, the door opened, and every bit of enthusiasm and happiness drained out of me in a second. Nick walked through the door, heading my way. Suddenly, I couldn’t think of how to talk to him without spilling the secret. It was going to be next to impossible already with just my brothers, and now my best friend was standing across from me and I had to not say anything. He bellied up to the bar, a grin on his face, and briefly I wondered if he already knew and was okay with it.
“Did you get the link I sent you?” he said excitedly. I went blank, unable to remember what exactly he was talking out.
“Link?”
“The board game tournament,” he said. “Next month!”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly remembering the text he sent about three that afternoon. “Right. I suppose you’re going to compete?”
“Damn right I am,” Nick said as I handed him a glass of his favorite beer. He took a pull and looked over the rim, a little foam mustache above his upper lip. “You should come. Bring Becca. She won’t stop making fun of me for it. If she sees you do it, suddenly it will be the greatest thing a guy has ever done.”
I smirked and shook my head. “Yeah, maybe.”
“What’s up?” Nick said, sitting forward and leaning his elbows on the bar. “You look like something’s bugging you.”
“No, nothing’s bugging me,” I lied. “Just a heavy lunch rush, and tonight’s going to be crazy, too.”
“Ahh, well, that’s a lie,” he said, taking another big sip of his beer.
“Alright, fine,” I said, scrambling to come up with something to get him off my back. “It’s these online classes I’m starting. They’re a lot, and I haven’t done schoolwork in, what, twenty years? I just don’t want to get behind and look like an idiot around people half my age.”
“Ah,” he said, nodding. “That I understand. Don’t worry, though, you’ll be fine. This is stuff you like, remember? Don’t think of it like you are so much older than them; think of it like you have that much more experience than them.”
As much as telling him I was only upset about school was a stretch, it wasn’t entirely untrue. His words were pretty accurate, too. Being stressed out about school was silly when I thought about it that way, and I tried to take it to heart, even if the secret was burning in my stomach like acid.
I did my best to avoid him for most of the night, which wasn’t all that difficult. The bar became busy quickly, and aside from refilling his drink, I didn’t have much time to interact with him anyway. Eventually he became interested in talking to Jordan and left the bar area, giving me the chance to breathe a little. When he walked out of the door around ten, I had a moment of relief and then buckled down for the next two hours of work.
Midnight came and went, and I finished up at the bar shortly after. I wanted to get home to Becca early if possible, and since I worked the lunch shift, I had the right to go home first. We were a little shorthanded, so I stuck around for a few minutes to do some cleaning up to help them close that night and then rolled out.
A text from Becca came in just as I was getting into my car. It was only a sad-face emoji, and I smiled. It was still something to get used to seeing someone react to my not being there. Other than my brothers, who reacted with impatience when I wasn’t where I was supposed to be, or Nick, who reacted with ever-increasing and creative insults, no one was ever sad not to have me around, much less feel sad about it. I pulled out my phone and rapped off a quick text telling her I would be home soon.
Pulling into the house, I took a moment to take a deep breath. The conversation had to happen, and it had to happen now. We needed to figure out when we were going to tell people, not just because I was struggling not to let my brothers know, but because I knew now that Nick was going to drive me insane. If he didn’t kill me immediately, he was going to be excited to be an uncle. I hoped he would be excited for me, too. But regardless of how he responded, we needed to face the music. Fast.
I opened the door to the smell of tacos, and my stomach grumbled. I realized I hadn’t bothered to eat all day, and the cumin and spice smell was intoxicating. I walked in, and Becca looked over her shoulder at me from the stove.
“Hey, babe,” I said. “Tacos?”