"Kitty," she said. "Not very original. But at three, it was the best I could do apparently."
This whole conversation was the sweetest kind of torture. What I wouldn't give to have it in person, unmasked, with her right in front of me.
A knock on my door made me sit up straighter, and a split second later, Archie popped his head in. "You decent, bro?"
"Yes," I drawled, realizing that having a kid in your house meant you never had a moment of peace. It hadn't mattered before, but now that this mystery woman was in my life, it suddenly did matter. But this kid came first, and I'd have to find a way to make it work somehow.
He waltzed right in like he owned the place and collapsed on the foot of my bed, his body floppy and gangly as usual, like he hadn't quite grown into it yet.
"Who are you talking to?" he asked. "Is it yourgirlfriend?"
"She's not my..." I stopped myself and took a breath. Just because I had a teenager in the house didn't mean I had to act like one too. "What I'm trying to say is I'd like to get to know her better. But with you hanging around all the time, there's zero chance of that," I added, unable to resist ribbing him.
"Hey, it's not my fault you suck with the ladies."
I heard giggling on the other end of the line.
"What do you want, Archie?"
"So I have a project due tomorrow that I forgot about."
My blood pressure rose so quickly, it was probably dangerous. "What? Are you joking?"
"Wish I was."
"It's ten o'clock at night. You couldn't have maybe mentioned this—I don't know—hours ago? Or maybe a few days ago? Over the weekend perhaps?"
One thing I had not counted on when I'd let Archie live with me instead of our asshole dad or his equally awful ex was that I'd be the one doing the fucking homework. Did all parents/guardians go through this? Was I doing it all wrong?
For the life of me, I couldn't remember my parents helping me with a single damn thing as far as school went. It was purely survival of the fittest, and of course, without even the slightest bit of assistance from them, I was expected to excel and get straight A's.
"Sorry," Archie said. "I forgot."
I sighed. The kid really did have a lot on his plate and he'd been through the wringer. It was up to me to help him figure out how to schedule his life and organize everything, and clearly, I sucked at it.
"What do you need?"
"Poster board, markers, the usual."
Good thing I had some on hand just in case, something I learned the last time we'd had to do this, running around Manhattan looking for supplies in the middle of the night.
I returned my attention to the phone and the beautiful woman on the other end. "Looks like I've got to run. Will you be around tomorrow night to talk?"
"Oh, um, no. I'm busy."
Damn. "How about Wednesday?"
"Same."
"Thursday?"
"More work stuff. Sorry."
What kind of game was she playing? Hard to get, or was she actually not interested? "Friday?" I tried again, refusing to give up.
"Friday, Friday..." She hummed like she was deep in thought. "Oh, right, I have a thing Friday night."
"A thing? What kind of thing?"
