“No problem.” She slid her eyes to Punc and back to me. “Did everything else go as planned?”
I wobbled my head. “As far as I know. We don’t have to worry about the debt any longer. Dad… might be a different story.”
She raised her brows. “Yeah, I figured that out last night. Dad was blowing up my phone. I told him to stop calling until I called him. He called five minutes later, and I blocked him.”
I kept quiet.
Cat shot me a small smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll consider unblocking him sooner rather than later.”
Punc shut the refrigerator door and opened a can of soda. “He pulls any shit with you, I’m stepping in, Cat. And I won’t go easy.”
Cat turned to him. “Are you living with us now?”
Punc’s gaze shifted to me for a beat before returning to Cat. “Probably. We haven’t discussed that, but I love her. She’s the one for me, that’s been clear for a long while.”
“If it makes you uncomfortable,” I started.
Cat whirled around to me. “Are you kidding me? As long as you two aren’t loud when you get busy, it’ll be great having someone else around here. You take on the weight of the worldand never ask for help. He isn’t going to let you get away with that, and I amherefor it.”
I slowly shook my head. “That went easier than I expected. Did you eat lunch yet?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I just finished. Last night, Muriel asked me about my plans for the future, and I’m meeting her downtown at the hospital this afternoon. There’s some networking thing happening, and she’s going to introduce me to some people who can help me get more volunteer hours with organizations that are medically focused, which will look great on my college applications.”
“What are you going to wear?” I asked.
She grinned. “My turquoise sandals and that outfit you paired them with. Time for me to cash in.”
I laughed. “Fine. I’ll go grab that outfit for you.”
Punc
Half-an-hour after Catalina left to meet Muriel, Punc’s cell rang, and he saw Brian’s name on the display.
“Hey, Brian,” he greeted.
“Hey, you busy?”
“Not exactly. More problems with Darla?”
Brian huffed out a humorless chuckle. “There is no Darla. Not after last night. Found her going through my shit, and I tossed her out. It was… bad.”
“Bad?”
Brian sighed. “More like it got ugly, but she’s gone. You wanna grab a beer?”
“I can do that if you don’t mind me bringing Savannah along.”
“Why would I mind that? She’s hot as fuck in that viral video—”
“Brian,” Punc ground out.
Brian chuckled. “Sorry, man. Knew that would get you, I gotta find humor where I can.”
“You want to hit Rounders, say in an hour?”
“See you there.”
Savannah came back to the couch from the kitchen. “You’re headed to Rounders in an hour?”
