Free One Real Thing by Anah Crow and Dianne Fox Page A

a hand out to Holly before he’d even realized he was standing up.
    Holly’s cold fingers slid against his palm, and then Holly was clinging to his hand. He was wide-eyed and short of breath, anxious through the drugs. Nick had never expected to witness Holly being stripped bare over and over like this. He had always known there was something lurking under the surface, whatever drove Holly to be so maddeningly Holly, but he hadn’t expected it to be this broken tangle of bones and nerves.
    “It’s okay,” Nick said, guiding Holly to sit with him without letting go of his hand. “I’m right here. I’ve got you.” Jesus, he’d only been gone a day, and Holly was a mess. Weren’t the pills supposed to help? Nick was going to call the damn shrink as soon as Holly calmed down and ate something.
    “There’s a lot of people,” Holly pointed out. He seemed shaken. He’d always waltzed through a crowd as though they weren’t there, as though all those eyes on him were something he deserved. “I was feeling okay this morning.”
    “Just…” Nick wasn’t sure what to do, how to make it better. “Focus on me. It’s just you and me, having lunch. No one else matters.”
    Holly did what he was told, literally, turning to look at Nick again. His gaze locked on to Nick’s face, and the tension drained out of him. Holly exhaled slowly and then managed a smile. “Yeah, you’re right.” His death grip loosened, and then he let go. “You’re right.”
    Nick couldn’t let himself bask in the warmth that filled him when Holly looked at him that way, like he was the whole world.
    “Of course I am,” he said. “It took you long enough to work it out. Now, do you want to have a look at the menu, or do you know what you want to eat?”
    “You can order for me,” Holly offered. “You know I’ll probably just pick the deep-fried arsenic and ice water with broken glass if you let me do it myself.” The way he smiled was vintage Holly, cheeky and on the verge of laughter. For a moment he was cured, like magic.
    “No complaining, then.” Nick couldn’t help but smile. It was so good to see Holly teasing again.
    When the waitress approached their table, he ordered a bacon-cheese omelet for Holly, with a strawberry cup and a glass of orange juice.
    “I’ll eat your potatoes,” he said, forestalling any objections, and then went on to order blueberry waffles for himself and a cup of coffee for each of them. As she walked away, Nick turned his attention back to Holly, eyebrows raised, waiting for a reaction.
    “You can eat more than my potatoes,” Holly said, batting his lashes and looking coy.
    Nick laughed, rolling his eyes. That was Holly. That was what he wanted to see. Holly being Holly, relaxed and flirtatious.
    “That, you’re allowed to say no to.” It was a joke, Nick reminded himself. Holly had been teasing him like this since grad school, and it had always been just a joke.
    Holly made a face, then stuck out his tongue. “No one ruins a good idea like you do,” he shot back.
    “I’m not your type, remember?” The waitress returned with their drinks, and her presence prompted Nick to smile, softening the comment.
    “I keep forgetting.” For a moment, Holly wasn’t laughing. “Then again, I don’t think anyone’s my type these days. Just as well.” There was the smile again, maybe not as bright. “I think you said that was a no.”
    “I did.” Nick hadn’t been sure that particular rule—no random sex—had sunk in, though. Apparently it had.
    And so had the presence of Nick’s ring, the symbol of Holly’s commitment to following Nick’s rules, if the way Holly was twisting it around the middle finger of his left hand was anything to go by. Nick couldn’t ignore the way that made him feel. The heat racing through him wasn’t anything as simple as relief because Holly was acting like himself or pleasure because he was following the rules. Nick shifted in his seat and took a long