Fuck, Will thought, but he didn’t show it, because he wasn’t going to let poetry sabotage him, for Christ’s sake. He raised a hand, though he didn’t so much know why it was even necessary, since he had a feeling every single piece of paper in that basket had been, since shortly after his arrival, marked with the number sixteen.

“Well!” said Marian, as Will made his way up. “Wouldn’t you know, it’s a brand-new guest who’ll be starting us off?” There was a ripple of snapping, a smattering of applause, and he waved a hand in casual, embarrassed greeting.

“This here is Dr. Sterling,” said Marian, who obviously had compiled a file on the way he would least like to be introduced, though it was frankly nothing compared to what she said next, right as he pulled up even with her and Nora. “He’s recently moved in to our beautiful building, after we said farewell to our beloved Donny, who was Dr. Sterling’s uncle. We welcome him.”

Will gritted his teeth, tipped his chin in a nod, a feigned gesture of gratitude to the murmur of sympathy that went through the crowd. He almost said “Pass,” or at least “I didn’t move in!” but when Marian moved past him toward her front-row seat, Nora waited half a beat, leaning in close enough that he could smell the crisp scent of flowers in her hair. The very edge of her braid touched lightly, briefly, against his forearm.

“I didn’t tell her to say that,” she whispered quickly.

He tipped his head down, putting his mouth closer to her ear, and he thought he could win the smile-off right then, if he let himself have his honest reaction to the way she shuddered, ever so slightly, at his proximity.

“But did you tell her to call my number first?” he whispered back before pulling away, turning toward the crowd like being at a poetry reading was the most natural thing in the world to him.

He waited until Nora was in her seat to take out his scroll again, could feel her eyes on him, but he wasn’t going to look back. He was going to work this crowd; he was going to do the best goddamn poetry reading they had ever seen.

He gently tugged at the ribbon keeping the scroll closed, said a silent prayer that Nora’s scheming hadn’t also involved making sure he got something extra-long or ultra-weird. It’d be trickier for him to sell that, though he’d do it if he had to.