“Avatarwas in the early 2000s.She-Rais new. I mean, there was an old one, but it wasn’t the same. Not as good.”
He dropped his fork and it clattered on his plate. My heart jerked to a standstill. “That’s low.” His smile let my heart start beating again just in time to stop me from keeling over to hide behind the palm next to our table.
I snickered. “That’s right. WhenAvatarwas on TV, you would have what, been starting your own business?”
“College! How old do you think I am? What about that?” he asked, lightly tracing over the line of code Kyle had written and then frowning at his signature. Was he jealous?
“Oh, that? It says get well soon.”
“No, it doesn’t.” He glanced up at me, and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. I shivered.
“Gotta pen?”
He fished a fancy fountain pen out of his coat pocket, and I tugged a napkin toward me as he passed it over. I spread the paper out so I’d have room and started. I filled the entire napkin with ones and zeroes, and he watched me as I worked. When I was done, I handed it to him.
He huffed. “Okay, I give. What does it say?”
“Thank you for helping me.” I took a long drink of my lukewarm tea. “Well, it says thank you for help. I ran out of room. Anyway, I lovedAvatar. It was what first got me drawing, but I never had a place to keep sketchbooks. When I was really young I wanted to draw comics. I don’t know if I could write stories, but I wanted to be the person who did the art.”
“You stopped?”
I shrugged. “Kind of hard to be excited about something like that when the only encouragement you get isnone, and your expensive pencils that you save every birthday dollar from your grandparents to buy keep getting trashed.”
The change that came over him was so fast it had my stomach quaking, which wasn’t good because I’d just put food in it. His lips curled down at the corners. “Your father again?”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t talk about it. It’s just what happened,” I said, slightly embarrassed and sad that I’d ruined our nice time with shitty stories about my life.
He took a deep breath and looked at the napkin again. “That’s impressive.”
“Eh, it’s geeky. I don’t know. Anyone who does computer stuff long enough learns how to do that, for fun and profit!” I said, feeling goofy. It had been a long time since I could be myself, and he smiled along with me. My insides had whiplash with how they’d gone from good to bad to good again. I couldn’t remember ever hanging out with someone like this, at least not since my mom was still home.
“None of this stuff is important. My drawings weren’t that important.”
He folded the napkin, pulled out his wallet, and tucked it in the money part before he laid down a few bills. “They weren’t? Or someone told you they weren’t?”
I shrugged.
Casey put his wallet away and then sat back and rested his arm across the seat beside him. I really wished I’d sat next to him, and maybe he thought the same thing because the longer he looked at me, the more his gaze heated.
“Would you like to have a time each week dedicated to things you enjoy? Like drawing?”
Excitement burst to life in me but dwindled quickly. “Yeah, but you know. Dad. I wouldn’t have the time—”
“We’re talking about you right now.”
“Maybe? Yes.” He watched me, and I glanced down at my cast. “This is a weird conversation. Who cares what I want?”
“I do.” He drummed his fingers on the chair back, and I tried to decide if he was mad or something, but no, he smiled at me. “Would you like to come to my house and watch that movie with me”—he pointed at my shirt—“and draw? You could watch the cartoons you like, too.”
“They’re not cartoons. I mean they are but—” I laughed. “Yes, that would be fun.”
Casey nodded carefully and there was a little wrinkle on his forehead. He opened his mouth and closed it again. After a few seconds passed, he said, “You have to earn it.”
“What?” I sounded as outraged as I felt. How could he dangle something good only to take it away? I wasn’t sure why, but I felt fucking betrayed. I slumped in my seat and didn’t even care.
“Stay in my office this afternoon. Raven has her own work to do, but you’re going to get online or call around and find someone to go in and take care of your father a few days a week. There are a lot of people who do that type of thing for a living. One of my sisters worked for a man in a wheelchair for a while.”
“How many sisters do you have?” I asked. Confusion washed over me. He wasn’t telling me we couldn’t do the movie night? He just wanted me to do something first. “I’m used to people taking things away. I don’t… I don’t like how you said all that.”
