Amelia had put off seeing Nate to the next day. She was nervous of what his answer might be to her request, so she made Mikey come along with her to Nate's apartment. They stood in front of Nate's door for a few moments while she gathered up her courage to knock.
"I'm sure he'll be all for it," Mikey said. "He's always seemed like a pretty easy-going guy."
"Yeah," Amelia said. "I just don't want him to be disappointed that I'm jumping into this blindly."
"Well, we can't just sit around down here forever," Mikey pointed out.
"Okay, you tell him that," Amelia said.
"Don't worry," Mikey said. "I'm sure he'll be more than happy to help."
Finally, Mikey reached out and knocked on the door. There were a few moments of silence before they finally heard footsteps approaching. The door unlocked and swung inward to reveal a large man with broad shoulders and lemon-colored hair. He looked down at Amelia and smiled.
"Well, lookie who it is!" he said in his warm Southern accent. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes? I feel like I haven't seen ya in weeks, girl!"
"Hi, Nate," Amelia said, smiling sheepishly. "Um, I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Come right in!" Nate said, waving his guests in. "I was right in the middle of making dinner. Mikey, right?" Nate pointed at Mikey. "Do you like beef burgers?"
"Um, yeah," Mikey said. "Do you have hot sauce?"
"Of course!" Nate said with a huge smile. "Yer just in luck, kid! I make my own spicy barbeque sauce. I hope you like jalapenos."
Nate led them straight to his dining room where his three-year-old son was sitting on a stool and drawing with crayons. Warwick smiled brightly and his eyes sparkled when he saw Amelia.
"Amy!" he exclaimed, sliding down from his seat at the table. He ran over her and hugged her waist. "Are you eating here tonight?"
"Yeah, I guess," Amelia said, smiling.
"Yay!" Warwick cheered. "I missed you, Amy!"
"I missed you, too, Warwick," Amelia said, kneeling down and hugging the toddler. She spotted Mikey trying to conceal a wide smile on his face.
"Stop crowding her, little guy!" Nate said, grinning at his son's enthusiasm. "Let her sit down at the table."
"Draw with me, Amy!" Warwick said, pulling her toward the table with his little hand.
"What are you drawing?" Amelia asked as she sat next to him at the table.
"A horse!" Warwick said proudly. "Daddy got me a book with pictures of horses and ponies!"
"He did?" Amelia asked, trying to match his excitement. "That's so cool! Do you want to show it to me?"
"Yeah! Here!" Warwick pushed a heavy book across the table to her. It was open to a page that showed a brown and white horse trotting in a field.
"Alright, everybody," Nate said as he scooped ground beef onto a hamburger bun. "Time to clear the table so we can eat."
"Can Amy color with me after dinner?" Warwick asked.
"Only if she isn't too busy, kiddo," Nate said.
Warwick quickly turned to Amelia with a huge grin. She nodded in response and the child cheered.
"But let's clear off the table for now," Nate repeated. "You don't want to make a mess in yer book, do ya?"
"Okay!" Warwick said and gathered all of his crayons together. He jammed them into their box and carried them along with his horse book over to the living room couch. He dropped everything on the couch cushions before returning and hopping back into his chair.
Nate brought a plate into the dining room for each person. Amelia knew that he had been a server in a diner when he was a young teenager, but she was still impressed with the way that he could balance the plates on his muscular arms.
"I'll be right back with the barbeque sauce and we can talk about whatever it was you wanted to talk about," Nate said.
Amelia looked down at the table as Nate went back to the kitchen. She felt someone lightly tap her arm, and she looked up to see Mikey awkwardly reaching out toward her from his chair. It seemed that he was trying to comfort her but was too shy to put his hand on her arm. He gave her quite an encouraging smile, though.
"Alrighty!" Nate said, sitting down and placing a jar of a reddish-brown sauce on the table. "Let's dig in! Anyone need a fork for the messy bits?"
"No, I'm good," Mikey said, reaching for the sauce.
"Yeah, me, too," Amelia said. "So I wanted to talk to you about, um, Aperture."
"Oh yeah?" Nate asked, looking intrigued. "Have we finally found something? It's about gosh-darned time!"
Warwick giggled a little at his dad's wording, knowing that he was censoring himself.
"Well, uh, no," Amelia said. "We haven't really found anything yet. But I wanted to go there soon."
Nate paused for a moment to take a bite of his food and chew it. "How soon are we talking?" he asked after he had swallowed.
"I was hoping in a few days."
Nate studied Amelia's sheepish expression, then looked to Mikey. "Whose idea was this?" he asked them both.
"It's mine," Amelia claimed. "I just…We can't…"
"We can't sit around down here forever," Mikey cut in. "We need to get outside. Don't you want your son to see the surface? To see sunlight?"
"That's not even a question," Nate said sternly, and looked to his son for a moment before turning back to Amelia. "Are you sure about this?"
Amelia nodded. "We need to take the next step forward," she said. "We've waited for too long."
Nate let out a sigh that made him seem older than he was. "Alright," he said. "You know I'm in. Just tell me when to be ready to leave."
"The day after tomorrow?" Amelia asked.
Nate let out another exhausted sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah, alright," he said. "I'll just have to talk to the nursery first thing in the morning so they can watch Warwick."
"I'm sorry, Nate," Amelia said sadly.
"No, don't be, darlin'," he said. "Please. Yer right, after all. We need to take the next step."
They finished eating their dinner, Nate staying silent most of the time. Warwick started asking Amelia about what the surface was like. Amelia did her best to feign enthusiasm, and Nate didn't seem to notice. Mikey noticed, though. Her eyes were too watery and her smile was forced.
"Are you okay?" Mikey asked Amelia as they walked away from Nate's apartment an hour later.
Amelia nodded but didn't say anything.
They walked in silence for a while until they got to Amelia's door.
"Do you want to meet for breakfast?" Mikey asked.
"Um, yeah," Amelia said, her voice tense with emotion.
"What's wrong?" Mikey asked, taking a half-step toward her.
Her eyes overflowed with tears and her face contorted as she started to cry. She covered her mouth with her hand to muffle the sobs.
"Hey, come here," Mikey said, taking her in his arms. He let her sob into his shoulder and patted her back awkwardly. His heart began to race from how close she was to him. "Here, let's get you inside."
Amelia nodded and fumbled with her keys to unlock her door. It was hard to see which key was which through the tears. She managed to unlock the door, though, and quickly retreated to her room. Mikey was left in the doorway of her apartment, unsure of whether he should follow to comfort her or leave her alone.
Just do it, Mikey! he told himself with determination. Now is your chance to tell her…
Mikey took in a deep breath, trying to calm the butterflies in his stomach. Then he shut the door behind him and walked back to his own apartment. The rest of the night he spent screaming in his head about how much of a coward he was.
