Excerpt of The Ingredients of You and Me by Nina Bocci

During dinner, Nick’s phone buzzed incessantly. Each time it started up, his fork would hover midair, his eyes would close, his chest would rise with a deep breath, and he would exhale when it finally stopped. The calls had to be from Jillian.

“Dude, just answer,” Henry snapped, his fork clattering to his plate in frustration when the phone rang for a fourth or fifth time.

“Fine, fine,” Nick groaned, pushing away from the table. Snatching the phone up, he walked off toward the bathrooms.

“Everything okay?” I whispered to Charlotte, but my whisper wasn’t exactly quiet, and the rest of the table shook their heads. I immediately wanted to pull the words back. Did I even want to know?

“No,” the table mumbled in unison.

I waited patiently for someone to explain what was going on. After a few moments of awkward silence, I blurted, “Is someone going to fill me in, or is this a secret? It’s totally cool if it is,” I said, holding up my hands.

Cooper shook his head. “No, it’s not a secret.”

I shoved a piece of cold chicken into my mouth. Of course there was someone else. Someone in town. Someone who wasn’t me, because I clearly wasn’t what he wanted. Why was I so shocked?

“So what, no one likes her?” I asked, chewing aggressively.

Charlotte bit her lip, shaking her head vigorously. “No, that’s not it at all. She’s nice and friendly, but she’s also a lot.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s sort of clingy, but I guess that’s just her personality. It’s not like he’s complaining.”

Clingy?

Here I was expecting to hear some juicy dirt. But she’s nice? How could anyone be too nice?

“And being nice is bad, why?” I asked, with genuine confusion.

Henry scooted his chair closer to the table, leaning in. “She’s very . . . invested.”

“‘Invested’?” I clarified.

The group nodded. “She was all in with Nick on day one,”Charlotte said.

“Like all in,” Emma contributed, earning a snort from Cooper.

“Everything is about them. Him. She rearranges her schedule for him. She sends him little notes. No one is that nice. But she is. Ugh, she’s the worst. No, worse than the worst. Is that even a thing? The worstest?” she asked, looking to Henry.

He shook his head. “Someone being the worst is pretty self-explanatory, Ems.”

Cooper added, “And she’s not the worst. He needed someone that put him first.”

Ouch. I knew he didn’t know my and Nick’s history, but man, did that sting.

Henry jumped in. “Jillian doesn’t drive, so he always has to pick her up. Before I left the house, I heard Nick arguing with her on the phone. He was busy with Mancini this afternoon and couldn’t get to Barreton—that’s the next town over—to pick her up and still get back here in time because of the weather. So, she was hurt she couldn’t come, which I get, but the guilt trip she lays on is frustrating. Then of course he feels badly and tries to find a way to do everything. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”

“That sucks,” I said, wondering if the clingy and needy type was really what Nick wanted, and if not, why was he putting up with it.

“It’s just a lot of me, me, me from her and he isn’t saying no.”

“Nick obviously likes her, or he wouldn’t be with her.”

“Maybe. I think he’s lonely. Nick has never dated someone like her. He’s completely changed. He cancels our standing dinners. Forget man dates with the guys. It’s like the invasion of the body snatchers,” Emma said. “She calls him Nicky.”

“Or Schmoopy,” Charlotte added.

“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. They’re a bit sickening together,” Cooper said.

I looked around at everyone’s faces. They were serious.

“So, let me get this straight. You’re hating on her because she’s . . . nice and is super into Nick?”

Emma’s lips flattened. “We know we sound petty. We don’t actually hate her. She’s just a lot to take in . . .”

“They haven’t even been together that long,” Charlotte said. “But I guess when you know, you know.”

“A couple months, right? Has it been that long already?” Henry added.

“I guess the clinginess makes sense. New love and all that,”Cooper said sourly, waving the waitress over for the check.

“You’re such a romantic, darling,” Emma quipped, kissing Cooper soundly. “To be fair, it’s probably the mushy-gushy honeymoon stage, blah blah.”

“When did they get together?” I asked, my masochistic side winning out over self-preservation. My stomach flipped over. I turned to see Nick striding determinedly toward us.

Hearing Nick getting closer, Emma leaned in. “Right after Thanksgiving. He showed up with her one night after dinner at my folks’ house.”

The pieces started falling into place as I began to put two and two together. He must’ve met her and then immediately stopped calling me. Meaning, he ditched me for her. Glad I didn’t rearrange my Thanksgiving plans when he asked me to come the last time we spoke.

When there was the possibility that the girlfriend was a nightmare, I thought it would make things with Nick easier to choke down, but if she was sweet? Nice? Overly affectionate and a lover of PDA? No, thanks. Actively avoiding the two of them would be paramount on this trip. I didn’t need the headache or the heartache, knowing that all the lines he fed me over the few months we were together were basically bullshit. I wouldn’t be rude, but I wasn’t interested in the sideshow with the sidepiece.

Tonight, I resolved, would be the start of the avoidance. Even though she wasn’t here, Nick and I were still walking on thin ice.

From THE INGREDIENTS OF YOU AND ME by Nina Bocci. Copyright © 2020 by Nina Bocci. Reprinted by permission of Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.