I opened the door.
Punc shifted and held out a grocery bag to me. “Take this. I figure you don’t have beer, and for the hell of it, I picked up a bottle of red wine.”
I took the bag and shut the door after Punc came inside.
“How do you even know where I live?” I asked.
He shot me the cockiest of smirks. “You listed your address on your application.”
I spoke in a low voice. “Yeah, I haven’t told Catalina yet about my new job…I’m going to share with her later.”
With a slow nod, he wandered to the kitchen. “And did you talk tomysister yet?”
I pressed my lips together for a beat. “We’ve both been busy.”
He chuckled and opened the pizza box. “Hope you two like pepperoni.”
I nodded. “Yes, thank you, but you really didn’t need to go through so much trouble.”
He settled a hand on the counter causing his leather cut to fall open. I noticed he wore a black t-shirt featuring the Aerosmith logo on it. With an eyebrow arch, he unearthed a bottle of Landshark and uncapped it. “You drove off before I could tell you, it isn’t any trouble at all, Savannah.”
“Oh my God, that smells delicious!” Catalina said as she walked into the living room. The moment she rounded the counter into the kitchen and caught sight of the pizza box, she beamed at Punc. “Renna’s? How did you know that’s our favorite?”
Punc swallowed a swig of beer and grinned at her. “I seem to recall your sister mentioning something about it back in the day.”
Cat nodded, moved to the pantry, and grabbed three paper plates. “This is so nice of you, Ted. I know I should stick around and eat with y’all, but I gotta put the finishing touches on my project because my AP History teacher wants us to turn in a five-page paper in two weeks.”
Punc stared at Cat for a beat. “Two weeks seems like plenty of time.”
Catalina put two slices of pepperoni on her plate. “Yeah, except she just told us it had to tie into Orwell’sAnimal Farm, and none of us read it because it wasn’t on the syllabus.”
“Ah,” Punc said.
I slipped into Mom’s role and asked, “Do you have the book? Or do we need to get it from the library?”
Cat grinned at me. “I downloaded it on Libby. I’m good as long as I can read it in time.” She turned to Punc. “Anyway, thanks for saving me from a skillet dinner out of a bag.”
“You’re welcome,” Punc muttered.
I couldn’t stop myself from giving Cat crap. “What’d you eat for lunch at school?”
She paused mid-way through the living room. “Pizza.”
I made big eyes at her. “That skillet dinner might have rounded out your daily nutrients.”
That earned me an eyeroll and a scoff. “Whatever. I could eat pizza year-round, and you know it.”
“Get your food, Savannah,” Punc said.
I wandered to the end of the counter where Cat had left the paper plates. A sense of awkwardness filled me. After a beat, I met Punc’s gaze. “Should we be hanging out like this?”
“It’s just pizza,” he said, putting his beer on the counter.
It didn’tfeellike just pizza. It felt like a stay-at-home date. Maybe I needed to get Cat back out here to eat with us, but that felt silly.
“Where’s your corkscrew?”
“Drawer next to the fridge,” I said reflexively. I realized why he asked and shook my head. “Wait. Don’t open that bottle. You should take it back to your place.”
