A week passed before Leah talked to Nick again. She knew that he was incredibly busy, and she had been too, but she couldn't help but wonder if he was beginning to distance himself from her and their friendship. The enthusiasm in his voice when he called her finally, told Leah that her assumptions had been incorrect and, frankly, stupid. She worried about him when he was on the road, even if he was 22 and could easily take care of himself, which she knew he could. And though she knew he would survive, she also knew he got lonely while traveling. Leah had told him countless times to try and become closer with the many girls in his life and possibly try to get himself a girlfriend, but Nick seemed uninterested and awfully vague on the topic.
"Hey, Lee ... you wanna run down to Taco Bell with me? I need to talk to you," Lisa, Leah's other 22-year-old friend, asked over the phone.
Leah had just been contemplating trying harder to talk Nick into dating someone when she'd received the call from her best friend. "Sure, Lis. Anything I need to brace myself for, or just be concerned about?"
"No, not really," Lisa responded, already at the restaurant. Leah was so reliable that Lisa knew she would come and had decided to go to Taco Bell before calling Lee. It would give her time to think of how she was going to tell Leah her news once she arrived. "Nothing to get yourself killed rushing over here for."
Leah nodded, knowing Lisa couldn't see her and deciding not to care. "Be there in a few."
It was more than a few because Leah had needed to take a quick shower and throw some make-up on, but Lisa didn't complain, knowing that she had taken Leah away from whatever she had been doing by calling her on such short notice. But her news had been on short notice, too.
"I'm just gonna come out and say it," Lisa started once they were seated in a corner booth, munching on crunchy tacos and cinnamon twists. She paused to take a sip of her Sprite. "I'm moving to Florida, Lee," Lisa blurted out once she'd swallowed. "The Keys, to be exact. Let me get this all out before you say anything negative." Leah hadn't made any move to respond, but Lisa had just wanted to be sure. "Do you remember Sheena? The brunette from the Allure spread? We got our big break, Lee. They're moving us to a beautiful condo right on the water -- it's gorgeous. Look at me, I'm gettin' ahead of myself. We're gonna be full-time Cosmopolitan cover-girls, Lee!"
Lisa's eyes were shining and Leah felt a surge of happiness well up within her for her friend. She knew that nobody deserved it more than Lisa, who was beautiful, blonde, and all-legs, and most of all had worked her tail off in her modeling career. From crappy unknown magazines, finally up to being seen in a few more classy spreads, and now this, Lisa had kept her head straight on her shoulders, a gorgeous smile on her face, and had remained strong and confident. Lisa Welks deserved this like no other. But Leah knew that deep within her she had mixed feelings about this; underneath all the excitement and encouragement there was sadness to see her friend leave, and even jealously. Because Nick lived in the Florida Keys and Lisa was the one that got to move there. Leah found herself wanting to move with Lisa and Sheena too, but said nothing, knowing that she was still in school for one more year.
"And ... Sheena and I have talked and have decided that once you graduate we want you to move in with us. Just think of how close you'll be to Nick!" Lisa spoke hurriedly and excitedly, finishing her statement with an enthusiastic drink from her soda. Maybe she was talking and being irrational, but she didn't care. She liked how her life was going and she wanted Leah to enjoy it too.
Leah sat there stunned and at a loss of words. She didn't answer for quite a while.
~ * ~
"What did you say??"
"I told her I'd have to think it over, talk it out with some people... For starters, my parents, and then ..." she paused, "you." She was explaining the situation to Nick, telling him word-for-word what had happened that day when she'd gone to meet Lisa for lunch, and Nick was hanging on every word that she said, enthusiastically grabbing for 'what happened next?' and 'what'd she say then?' Leah was a little surprised by his response, a little surprised that Nick wasn't more surprised at the situation she was finding herself in. "Nick, I want your opinion on this," Leah was explaining as she tried to slip out of her shirt to change into a tank top to sleep in, without having to put the phone down. "It would mean so much to me." But she was afraid of getting a response based on the fact that he was her best friend and would love having her closer to him, and instead wanting an opinion from a best friend who wanted what was best for her and would honestly tell her if this move wouldn't be that. And Leah told him that much.
There was a long pause as Nick juggled what she said around in his head for a while. He tried to decipher if his "I think you should move" answer was out of selfishness or if that's what he really believed. Finally after minutes of silence, in which Leah took the opportunity to change, giving Nick time to think it all out, Nick answered quietly, sincerely, warmly. "I don't see anything that would be holding you back in Seattle, Lee. Besides your parents, who you aren't intensely dependent on, you don't have anything going on that really ties you to Seattle, besides graduating. Then you seem to be free to roam the country if that's what you felt like doing."
Leah felt grateful for his honesty and she expressed that much to him, but she was getting tired and her eyes were beginning to water because of it. She told him how much she loved him and appreciated him and he reciprocated the feelings, and then they hung up from each other for the night.
As Leah lay in bed that night, thinking of Lisa moving to the Keys with Sheena, the possibility of doing the same, and of needing to find Nick a girlfriend in order to quench the possible loneliness that he was feeling, a sudden thought came up. Two of those situations seemed to be working together to help the other. Nick and Lisa. It was perfect. They would be perfect. And suddenly Leah had made up her mind: she would move to The Keys once she graduated, if for nothing more than to make sure that her Nick and Lisa plans came about.
