Me: Pleeeeeease.
Knox: No.
Me: Why not?
Knox: Because you can get one yourself.
Giving up, I toss my phone aside and go back to staring at the ceiling.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
What the hell?
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Is that the front door? No one knocks on our front door. I think the last person was a kid fresh out of high school, trying to sell us pest control. Because of him, we put a “No Solicitors” sign outside.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
“Ugh,” I complain as I sit up. My feet touch the cold hardwood floor, and I instantly regret not putting on more than a pair of sweats and a tank today. The cold is not for me.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming!” I shout. Taking the stairs down two at a time, I feel my limbs waking up. As I swing open the door, I find what could arguably be the last person I expected to see.
“Katarina?”
“Kat,” she corrects me, firmly, and pushes past me to get inside.
“Uhhhh…” Leaving the door wide open, I spin to face her.
She folds her arms across her chest. “I need your help.”
“Okay?” I massage the base of my neck.
Kat falls into her explanation seamlessly. “I’m babysitting Noah next door, but there’s an emergency at the coffee shop. Tyler called and said that the espresso machine is on the frits again, and my other machine is already jacked up. The company I bought them from said someone would come today to fix the first, but no one showed?—”
“Kat,” I interrupt. “What does any of this have to do with me? I don’t know espresso machines.”
She sighs. “I need to leave, but I’m supposed to be babysitting Noah. Could you go over and watch him until Raven gets back?”
Gets back?
I didn’t even notice her car was gone. It’s true that I haven’t gone outside today, but I feel like I would’ve heard her leaving. Unless she left while I was in the shower…
“Where’s Raven?” I know my tone is a little hard, but Kat doesn’t flinch.
She tries to hide her smile. “On a date.”
What. The. Fuck.
I give Kat the go ahead to leave and take care of her emergency, and she gives me a rundown on putting Noah to bed. In a sprint, I hurry to Raven’s house next door.
“Noah?” I call out when I open the front door.
“Griffin?” Noah responds and comes running down the stairs with wet hair and dressed in pajamas that have trains all over them. “Miss Kat said that you’d be coming.” He snags my hand and drags me up the stairs after him.
Before she even asked me?
