Page 44 of The Fadeaway
“You heard me, weirdo.”
“Who would I be babysitting?”
“Uh.” I rub my jaw. I haven’t mentioned to Blair that I’m talking to Katrina partly because she’s the only one that seems to know her, and I already know how highly Blair thinks of me by her constant reminder that I’m not good enough for her friends. “Katrina’s son, Christian.”
“Why?” She crosses her arms and damn, I feel like I’m about to get Blair’s wrath. All five foot nothing of her is making me more nervous than I care to admit.
“Katrina and I have been talking, and—”
“Oh no. Jooeeel,” she whines, and I grind my teeth because I can tell by her tone that she doesn’t approve. “Katrina is not someone you can screw around with.”
“Again, thanks a lot for the vote of confidence. Can you watch him or not?”
“She’s agreed to go out with you?”
I sigh. “She’s worried about a sitter. From what I gather, she doesn’t have a lot of people here she trusts, but I think she’d trust you.”
She bites at her bottom lip studying me carefully.
“Please?”
“I have stipulations.”
Of-fucking-course she does. “Such as?”
“I want to talk to her first.”
I roll my eyes again. “She’s very well aware of my reputation. You don’t need to warn her off.”
“Yet, it appears she’s still willing to go out with you.” She shakes her head. “That’s non-negotiable. I’ll stop by the café and talk to her.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes, actually. Gabby is moving down next month.”
I smile. “Yeah? That’s awesome.” I’ve only met her a couple times, but from what I know of Blair’s best friend Gabby, it’s no small miracle that she’s finally moving to Valley. “She gonna take classes this semester?”
“She’s going to finish out the semester with her online classes and then take a couple summer classes to help get settled before next year.”
“That’s awesome,” I repeat.
She smiles. “It is, and I want to throw a party in her honor.”
“Sure, that’s no problem.”
“A big party. Think prom meets foam party. Gabby missed senior prom and she’s got it in her head that we have foam parties every weekend.” Blair scrunches her face up. “I don’t know where she got that from, but it doesn’t matter, those are my terms.”
A prom slash foam party? Both of those sound super lame. Combining them doesn’t help. The things a guy will do for a good lay. Shit, that’s not even true. I could get laid right now if that’s all this was.
“Fine. We can work out the party details, but it has to be after the season.”
She nods firmly like she’s CEO of the party planning committee.
“You’ll talk to Katrina today?”
“Oh yeah.” She laughs. “I have so many questions for her.”
* * *
