Blaine felt emotionally exhausted. It was late, he had spent the majority of the day crying over what happened with Kurt and just being frustrated over the entire situation. He just wanted to get out and do something fun for a few hours. He lived in Manhattan, for god’s sake, there was so much to do and he’s spent most of his time recovering cooped up in his own apartment.

He decided to call Cady since she was really the only friend he knew of in New York, besides Rachel, but she was so busy with her own life and he didn’t want to bother her. He was sure Cady had a life too outside of Blaine, with school and work, but she wasn’t a Broadway star like Rachel Berry.

“Hey, buddy,” she answered, her voice sounding a little concerned. “You okay? Did Kurt come and talk to you?”

“How did you know that?” he asked, suspicion creeping into his tone.

“I kind of barged into his apartment and yelled at him,” she admitted. “I’m sorry, I was so mad after you told me what happened between you two. I told him that he had to talk to you.”

“It’s okay,” Blaine sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. It actually wasn’t okay, but he didn’t want to talk about it right now. The whole point of him calling her was so he could get off the topic of Kurt. “I don’t want to talk about him right now. It’s 7 at the moment, how fast can you get ready?”

“Are we going out?” Cady sounded interested now.

“Yes, we’re going to try to get tickets for an 8 o’clock show despite that being in an hour. Think we can do it?” Blaine asked, he wanted to see a show and then go to a karaoke bar somewhere. He just wanted to immerse himself in what he loved right now, theatre and music.

“I can try and get some online right now, so we can get them quicker. Stay on the phone,” she told him. He waited as Cady started searching for tickets. “All right, there’s 8 o’clock showings for Waitress, A Bronx Tale and Dear Evan Hansen. There’s one for Wicked too but they are way too expensive.”

“How much?” Blaine asked, he had always wanted to see Wicked live.

“$300 a ticket,” she said, a little wistfully. She must have wanted to see it too. “The Wicked tickets are always really expensive, though.”

“Damn,” Blaine clicked his tongue, he couldn’t help but be disappointed. “What about Waitress? I listened to a few of the songs already. It sounds really good.”

“Still expensive. About $115 a ticket. I say we go down to Times Square ASAP and go to TKTS so we can get a discount. It’ll probably bring it down to $90, which is better than $115,” Cady suggested. Blaine was already grabbing his wallet.

“Sounds like a plan,” Blaine said. “Is your apartment or my apartment closer to Times Square?”

“Yours,” Cady answered. “You live in Midtown, if you haven’t noticed by now. I’ll be there in 10.”

“Great!” Blaine exclaimed, already excited for their little adventure. He hung up his phone and went to his bedroom to look in the mirror and see if he could look a little nicer. He was in dark blue skinny jeans and a red polo, his hair was a little all over the place though. He went over to his dresser and found his hair gel on top. He opened it and squeezed some into his hand. He smoothed his hair back so his curls were tamed and it made him feel a little more like himself.

He walked back out of his bedroom and grabbed his shoes, and slipped them onto his feet before walking to his closet and grabbing his coat, slipping it on and buttoning it up. He checked his phone, and Cady had texted him that she was already at the apartment and was on her way up. He didn’t even bother to wait for her, he already darted out of there. Once he reached the elevators, one opened, and Cady started walking out before she noticed Blaine.

“Someone’s a little eager,” she commented, stepping back into the elevator with Blaine following her.

“I had to get out of that apartment,” he replied, shrugging like it was no big deal. He hit the button on the elevator that would bring him back down to the lobby.

The elevator doors closed. “Are you okay?” she asked again, concern written all over her face.

“I’m fine,” Blaine waved her off. “I just wanted to have some fun with my best friend.”

Cady eyed him suspiciously. “Okay…” Cady decided to not push the subject any further, and Blaine was grateful. “You know, we’ve already seen Waitress together.”

Blaine glanced at her, the concern still hadn’t left her face. But he realized that it was a different kind of concern now. Blaine wish she’d understand, he wished they’d all understand, that he wants to be able to remember all of these things. He really does. He just can’t. “I didn’t know,” Blaine said, as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. He knew he’d seen it with Rachel, but not with Cady. “But what’s the harm in seeing a musical twice?”

“There is none,” Cady gave the same shrug he gave her when he was trying to mask his own feelings. Cady walked out of the elevator and right out the door. She immediately walked right to the curb, and the minute she saw a taxi she started waving her hand in the air and snapping her fingers at it. The cab pulled up in front of them, motioning for them to get in. Cady opened the door and scooted to the other side, and Blaine sat down beside her. “47th and Broadway, please,” she told the driver.

He nodded and started speeding down the road. Cady and Blaine didn’t talk the way there, but it only took about 5 minutes for the cab to pull up at 47th. Blaine really did live that close to Times Square and he didn’t even know. Cady attempted to pay the cab driver, but Blaine stopped her and took out his own wallet. She rolled her eyes and mumbled something under her breath like, “loses his goddamn memories and still refuses to let me pay for anything.”

He tipped the cab driver generously, than him and Cady stepped out of the car. Blaine’s breath caught in his throat as he took in the city. He had been here before, but never at night. It was breathtaking. The way the bright city lights seemed to challenge the darkness of the night, the way the people never stopped moving despite it being so dark outside. It was beautiful.

“I know, right?” Cady said after the driver pulled away and was standing next to him. “But we’ve got all night to admire the city, we only have half an hour till the show starts and there’s a line. We have to get them now or we’ll never make the show.”

“Okay,” Blaine said, a little hesitant. He could just stand there and watch the city all night and still be happy. Cady pulled his hand and directed him to the line, which wasn’t as long as he expected to be. He breathed out a little sigh of relief. They should be able to get the tickets in time, it was a weekday in the middle of October anyway.

Thankfully, the line went quickly and there were people advertising other shows on the way to the ticket booths. He took a brochure from pretty much every person he could, politely smiling and occasionally engaging in conversation about a few of them.

Cady seemed to be doing the same thing, but she seemed a little antsy too. “Are you okay?” he asked, sensing her nervousness.

“Time is the one thing I can’t control, Blaine Anderson,” she said seriously. “I hate being in situations like this.” She pulled out her phone. It was 7:40. They had twenty minutes to make the show. “What if we go up there and the tickets are sold out? What if we do get the tickets and then they shut the door on us?”

Blaine couldn’t help but smile, he’d never seen Cady so anxious before. “We’ve seen it before anyway, right?” Cady nodded. “So, the first part won’t be so bad. Maybe they’ll have tickets for another show. Or we can just walk around Times Square, which would be equally as fun. The second part will be bad because we wasted money, but we can still have fun.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” Cady breathed, seeming to calm down at Blaine’s words. It only took another two minutes before her and Blaine were at one of the booths and a lady was asking what show they would like to see.

“Can we get two tickets for Waitress?” Blaine asked. “Cheapest you got.”

The woman told us to hold on for a second as she looked something up on her computer. “You got it,” she answered. “Are you paying together or separate? It’s $95 a ticket.”

“Separate,” Cady answered for him before he could protest. Cady unzipped the wristlet she was wearing and took out a debit card, handing it to the woman. She swiped Cady’s card and handed it back to her. They waited as her ticket printed and once it was, she gave it to Cady.

Blaine pulled out his wallet and gave the lady his own card, and the same process repeated. Once Blaine got his ticket, him and Cady maneuvered their way out of the crowd. “We did it!” Blaine exclaimed, waving his ticket at her.

“Put that in your wallet before someone steals it!” she warned, laughing a little. She checked the time on her phone and her face dropped. “We got 15 minutes. I know where the theatre is, follow me!”

Cady started speed walking down Broadway and turned on 47th, checking to make sure Blaine was still following behind her. He didn’t know why she was in such a hurry, it had only taken them a few minutes to arrive to the theatre and they were still checking tickets. They could have just walked.

Cady checked her phone again. “12 minutes to spare!” she beamed at him and held her hand up, he obligingly gave her a high five.

“You had no reason to worry,” he told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She just gave him a small smile and walked up to the theatre doors, and handed the usher her ticket. The usher scanned her ticket and then Blaine handed over his. Once they were done the whole ordeal, Blaine excitedly looked around the hall and admired how cute it looked, with all the pies and sweets painted on the walls.

They eventually reached the doors and walked in to find their seats, a young woman had her show them their tickets and she escorted them there. They had actually scored pretty good seats despite getting them so late.

“I’m so excited!” Blaine said to Cady once they sat down. “The music I’ve heard from it is amazing! I can’t wait to see the entire story!”

“You’ll love it,” Cady promised. She would know that, too. Considering he had already seen it, so of course she knows that he’d love it. He pushed the thought out of his head, and soon there was a jingle erupting through the theatre, telling everyone to shut off their phones. Cady and Blaine did so, and Blaine stuck his in his pocket and Cady put hers in her wristlet.

Only a few minutes later, the lights dimmed and he started hearing, “sugar, butter, flour,” and the show had begun.

Blaine was in tears by the end of it. He didn’t know why he was so emotional lately when it came to watching people sing, but he couldn’t help it. The musical was wonderful and the main character had a phenomenal voice and he was in awe. He was also crying a little because they had renamed the pie shop after Jenna’s daughter which his heart melted at.

Blaine and Cady gave it a standing ovation. After they had left the theatre, he pulled Cady aside to get out of everyone’s way. “Do you know any good karaoke bars?”

“Not any I can get into, I’m not 21 yet,” Cady said, which Blaine had honestly forgot about.

“Don’t all college students have fake ids?” Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Cady didn’t seem like the person to go out drinking all the time, but it didn't mean she didn't at all.

“I have one, I just didn't bring it with me. I didn’t know we were gonna go to a bar,” Cady explained. “We can head back to my apartment if you want so I can grab it.”

“Sounds fine to me,” Blaine shrugged. “Are we going to walk or do you want to grab a cab?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to walk all the way to my apartment this late,” Cady pointed out. “Let’s just catch a cab, and we can go to one closer to my apartment.”

That’s what they decided on, and this time the cab ride was a little longer and in turn, a little more expensive. Blaine insisted on paying again, knowing Cady was a college student and didn’t have the money.

Cady lived in a tiny studio apartment in the Upper East Side, the space only about the size of his bedroom. “Did you ever think of living outside of Manhattan so you could have more space?”

“I don’t particularly care how big my apartment is,” she replied, walking to her nightstand beside her bed. She opened it and started scanning for her id. “I wanted to be close to school and close to everything in general, and this was the cheapest I could find despite still having to take the subway to Lower Manhattan. It’s also only a few minutes away from work, so that’s a plus too.” She then shut her drawer and spun around, waving her id for him to see. “Let’s go.”

She stuck her fake id in her wristlet, and walked right out of her apartment, Blaine following her. “Do you know where to go?” Blaine asked her once they got outside.

“Yeah, I’ve been there a few times,” she answered. She continued walking down the street, then made a right at the end of it. “With you. We actually went there the first time I met Rachel.”

“Really?” Blaine asked, even though this didn’t surprise him. Of course Rachel would want to meet someone in a place where she could show off her voice. “Are you and her friends?”

“Do I seem like the type of person who’d be friends with Rachel Berry?” she asked, grinning over at him.

“Absolutely not,” Blaine said. From what he noticed, the only thing Cady and Rachel had in common is that they loved theatre. That’s it.

“She’s just very...opposite of me. It’s hard for us to get along,” Cady explained. “I know you think she’s changed and all, but she’s just snotty to me. I hate it. I’m also a little jealous of her, but that’s besides the point.”

“Yeah, Rachel’s definitely an acquired taste,” Blaine said, chuckling a little. Cady wasn’t the only person who found it hard to get along with Rachel, but Blaine had always admired her. He’d pretty much been friends with her since they met, though it did help that she was Kurt’s best friend. “But she’s extremely talented and yeah, she can be snotty sometimes, but she’ll lose an arm and a leg for you if you’re her friend.”

“I know, you’ve tried to get me to like her many times. It’s never worked,” Cady started slowing down, and Blaine started to hear music. She pointed to a building at the end of the street where the music was playing out of. “It’s right there.”

Blaine followed her as she stopped in front of the bouncer. “ID, please,” the bouncer asked. Cady kept a straight face and unzipped her wristlet, pulling out her id and handing it to the bouncer. He glanced at it and then gave it back to her, nodding that she can go in. Blaine did the same thing, and once they were cleared to go, they headed into the bar.

Blaine immediately started searching for where he could sign up to sing. Once he found the little machine, he typed in his and Cady’s names. He’d never heard her sing before, and he wanted to see how well he was doing with teaching her. “Hey,” he turned to her before selecting a song. “Any specific song you want to sing?”

She glanced over at the screen. “Well, if we’re doing a duet, and we seem to be reliving old moments tonight, I have the perfect song,” Cady smiled and took over. She scrolled through the categories, and then clicked on Disney. Blaine saw that there were a few new Disney movies that were on the list that he’s never seen before, that he would have to rewatch if he doesn’t get his memories back soon. Cady clicked on Tangled, and Blaine had to bite his lip to contain his excitement. He loved that movie and the entire soundtrack. She clicked on “I See the Light” and then confirmed their slot.

“Why is this the perfect song?” he asked, and they went to go find a table to sit down and watch the people already singing.

“Tangled is pretty much what made us friends,” she told him. “I wore a shirt with a picture of the boat scene on it to work one day and you ran up to me practically squealing about how Tangled was your favorite Disney movie ever. Then, you invited me over for a Disney movie marathon and we’ve been inseparable since.”

“I do really love Tangled. Flynn Rider is so-” Blaine stopped talking because all of the sudden a very familiar voice had taken stage and started singing, and Blaine looked up and there he was. Kurt Hummel. Somehow at the same goddamn karaoke bar as he was. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Shit.” Blaine looked away. “Why is he here?”

“Clearly you two think alike, or at least you and Rachel do,” Cady said, nudging Blaine and then discreetly pointing to the far end of the bar, where Rachel was sitting with her fiance, who were both smiling and cheering on Kurt. Cady looked like she wanted to kill them.

“Why don’t we just go?” Blaine told her, putting his hand on her arm in effort to calm her down, though he was really the one that needed to be calmed down. “I can’t be here. Not with him.”

“No,” Cady decided. Suddenly, the look on her face changed from angry to like she was making a very elaborate evil plan. “You’re going to sing. You’re going to have fun. You are going to ignore him the entire night. Pretend like he’s not here, not matter how much it hurts. Even if he gets up on the stage to sing again, don’t look at him. Let him see what he’s missing. Tonight’s about you. Not him.”

“What if he tries to talk to me?” Blaine asked, a little wary of Cady’s plan. He appreciated her trying to make him feel better, but he doesn’t know if how he’s going to feel better if Kurt’s in the same room as him.

“I’ll be beside you all night. If he tries to talk to you, he’ll just have to deal with me. Is that okay with you?”

“I don’t know. You kind of look like you want to beat him up.”

“Dude, I’m 5 foot tall with zero muscle mass. I couldn’t beat him up even if I wanted to.”

“Good point,” Blaine nodded. Soon, Kurt was off the stage and somebody was calling Blaine and Cady to go on. Blaine couldn’t help but look at Kurt, trying to see the reaction at the names that were called. Kurt had stopped halfway to Rachel and whipped back around, a shocked expression on his face. Blaine resisted the urge to go up to him, and walked right to the stage with Cady.

The music from the song began playing and Cady started out the song. Blaine was pleasantly surprised to hear that she was actually pretty good, not nearly as good as most of his friends from high school, but she was definitely much better than Sugar Motta. But that wasn’t that hard.

She stopped and it was time for Blaine’s solo. He took a deep breath and began singing into his microphone. He knew he was supposed to be ignoring Kurt, but his eyes betrayed him as they went searching for him. Kurt was sitting next to Rachel, who had her hand on his shoulder as they watched. Kurt’s eyes were glued to him.

He almost forgot the lyrics.

He tripped over the line “now she’s here, shining in the starlight” but quickly got back on track. Kurt’s not here, he reminded himself. He finished the rest of his solo out to the audience and then when it was time for him and Cady to sing together, he turned and started singing to her. She did the same.

The song came to an end and they put the microphones back on the stands and laughed and gave each other a hug. “You did great,” Blaine said once they were off the stage. “You definitely don’t suck like you said you did.”

“You would have disagreed two years ago,” Cady laughed. “I’m only better now thanks to you.”

“I would have never said you sucked,” Blaine argued. Though he didn’t know because he did a lot of things he never thought he would do in these past seven years.

“No, you wouldn’t have,” Cady agreed, maneuvering past the group of dancers. “However, I am an expert at detecting lies and I knew you were lying when you told me I was amazing. So, in exchange of you teaching me how to sing, I tried to teach you how to be more blunt. I honestly think you’ve had more success in the teaching me how to sing department than I have with the bluntness.”

“I just don’t like hurting people’s feelings,” Blaine said as they took a seat. Blaine glanced up at the stage, two young girls, even younger looking than Cady took the stage. He wasn’t going to judge though considering he did just encourage Cady to come here when she was 19 and he still felt like he was doing something wrong being here too, despite being 25.

“I know you don’t. But nobody likes a liar, Blaine,” Cady pointed at him. “And I can confidently say that you don’t lie anymore, at least not to me.”

“You say that like I lied all the time before I met you.”

“I wouldn’t know. I guess I do know now though, considering you have your 18 year old brain. I’m technically older than you.” Cady looked particularly smug at this (not so correct) fact. He hoped she realized that 18 and 19 is not much of an age difference.

“That technically makes no sense,” he countered. “I may not remember the past 7 years, but it doesn’t change the fact that I am 6 years older than you.”

“5 and a half. I turn 20 next month.”

“It’s so weird. If I had known you when I was actually 18, you would have been in like 7th grade.”

“You and my sister are the same age, so it wouldn’t be that weird. But if you had known me when I was 13, you just wouldn’t have associated with me. I was terrible.”

“Why do you say that?”

“One Direction, Blaine. One freaking Direction.”

Blaine remembered her telling him about her old One Direction obsession, and suddenly he got an idea. “We should totally just sing One Direction songs for the rest of the night.”

“Absolutely not,” Cady looked horrified. “Everyone will hate us.”

“C’mon,” he nudged her shoulder. “It’ll be fun. You can reminisce.”

“I truly don’t like remembering those days,” she rolled her eyes at him. “But fine. It’s your night. If this is what you want to do, I guess I’ll comply.”

“Yes!” Blaine said, clapping his hands together. He only knew a few One Direction songs by heart, but he was totally going to have Cady do one by herself. He grabbed Cady’s hand and pulled her over to the song selection machine.  

“Oh my god,” realization seemed to dawn on Cady’s face. Blaine didn’t know what about though. “You only know their first album. You’re going to make me sing ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, aren’t you?”

Blaine put his hands up defensively. “You can choose any song you want.”

“Ugh,” Cady glared at him, but looked through the songs anyway. “Hey, we could do ‘Tell Me A Lie.’ It goes well with our recent discussion. You know it?”

“I do,” Blaine confirmed. He’d heard it once or twice. (He may have listened to their entire album when it came out). He’d have to go over the lyrics on his phone first, but he was a quick memorizer.

“Great,” Cady selected the song and put in their names.

“How do you even remember the song if it’s been so long?” he teased as they made their way back to their seats.

“Are you kidding me?” she looked at him incredulously. “I listened to that goddamn album so much that it will forever be ingrained in my brain. I will be on my deathbed and still remember the lyrics to every single song on that album.”

“Excuse me,” they were interrupted before taking they could sit down. Blaine looked away from Cady and found Rachel Berry standing right in front of him. He’d expected Kurt to show up and try to talk to him, but not Rachel.

“Uh...hi, Rachel,” Blaine said, glancing nervously at Cady. She stepped forward so she was next to him and so Rachel had to address the both of them.

“Hi, Blaine,” she gave him a warm smile, then looked at Cady and nodded at her. “Cadence.”

“Cady,” she corrected her.

“I don’t know why you call yourself that when Cadence is such a beautiful name,” Rachel sighed, then looked back to Blaine. “Blaine, you know I love you, but I took Kurt here because he was upset about you. So, could you maybe, um, find somewhere else to go?”

“He was upset about me?”

“No, we’re not going to-”

Cady and Blaine answered Rachel at the same time, then both stopped. Both of them were furious. Cady gave Blaine a look, letting him know that she wanted to talk. He let her.

“Blaine had the same idea as you. He wanted to come here because he wanted to stop being upset about Kurt. We’re having fun, and we aren’t going to stop doing that just because you are here. If Kurt can’t handle that, that’s on him,” Cady had her arms crossed and was glaring at Rachel. “You can leave. We’re staying.”

“Fine,” Rachel held her head high. “We’re staying too. Just know that you aren’t even going to want to get on that stage, because Kurt and I are going to blow the roof off this place.” Rachel turned on her heel, and stalked away.

“Okay, maybe she hasn’t changed that much,” Blaine noted. “She still likes to solve battles with singing duels.”

“I swear whenever I’m in the same room with her I feel like I’m in a scene from High School Musical,” Cady rolled her eyes for what seemed like the fifth time that night, and sat down. “She’s literally Sharpay Evans.”

“It’s a Glee thing,” Blaine said in attempt to defend his friend. “We like to sing through every situation we get into.”

“I went to an arts school, Blaine,” she did not look amused. “There were like, eighty singers at my school. Nobody felt the need to sing as much as you guys do. It’s more like it’s a Mckinley High School thing.”

“You’re telling me nobody at your school ever broke out in song? I don’t believe it.”

“Oh, they did,” Cady assured him. “Just not full on performances like you guys tend to do. A few times a year they would run through the halls and sing or perform on the staircase. They also went door to door during Christmas and caroled. But that’s it.”

“I guess you do have a point,” Blaine shrugged. “We can be a little dramatic sometimes.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

Cady and Blaine started to just watch the people who were performing, Blaine didn’t recognize most of the songs though, which made him a little upset. They were all songs that were released post-2012, and he couldn’t help but feel really out of the loop. Soon, he heard Kurt and Rachel’s names be called to the stage.

“You don’t have to watch this,” Cady said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“I know,” Blaine looked at Cady and then back at the stage, Rachel and Kurt had took their places. “But if he’s got to watch me perform, I might as well watch him too. It’s only fair.”

Cady nodded and then focused her attention back to the stage. Blaine instantly recognized the song as soon as Rachel began singing. They were singing “For Good” from Wicked, and Blaine breathed a sigh of relief after realizing that they weren’t singing a love song or break up song. Blaine probably would have started crying again.

Blaine was beginning to suspect that Rachel gave Kurt the same talk that Cady gave him, because Kurt was completely ignoring him and just singing with Rachel.

It only made Blaine a little jealous.

Kurt’s voice sounded amazing and it wasn’t doing anything to help him feel better, it just made him wish he didn’t come here.

After they were done, everyone had given them a standing ovation except for Blaine and Cady. Blaine turned and put his elbow on the table, chin in hand. “Why are they so talented?”

“Hey, you’re talented,” Cady put an arm around his shoulder. “And this may be a little biased, but I think you are 10x more talented than them.”

“You are being biased,” Blaine laughed, then moved his hand so he could face Cady. “But thank you, I appreciate that.”

They sat through two more people singing, and then they got called up on stage again. Blaine took the first verse, despite it being sung by two different people. He looked at Kurt on purpose this time because the lyrics felt very true to how he was feeling about him at the moment.

Once they got to the chorus, both Cady and Blaine took their microphones off the stand and turned to each other, jumping up and down on the stage as they sang. Cady took the second verse, and Blaine caught a glance at Kurt who looked visibly uncomfortable. But when the chorus came around again, his attention focused back on the song and him and Cady performed it at full energy, finishing it off in complete laughter.

After that performance, he decided it was best to ignore Kurt as much as he could (he couldn’t do that when Kurt was on stage, but he tried his best) because he really was having fun with Cady. They got along really well and performed great together which he was really happy about.

It was midnight by the time Blaine decided he wanted to go home. Him and Cady sang a few One Direction songs like they said they were going to do, but also wound up doing a couple of Disney songs and songs from musicals. Kurt, Rachel and even Jesse sang a variety of songs, but mostly musicals. He was impressed that Jesse had actually toned down his theatricality since high school.

They were halfway back to Cady’s apartment when he heard someone shouting his name. They both swung around and Kurt was running towards them, stopping in his tracks once they had turned around and he reached them.

“Kurt, please not now,” Cady warned him. Blaine knew Cady had good intentions, but he was getting a little irked at her speaking for him.

“What do you want, Kurt?” Blaine asked, shooting Cady a look that he hoped she would understand that meant that he had this.

Kurt looked at Cady like he was deciding if he was okay saying with whatever he was going to say in front of her, then looked back to Blaine.

“Can we talk? Alone?”