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“And Chris is driving you?”

I nodded, folding shorts down into my bag. “Yeah, Mike went up early to fix some stuff.”

“When’s he picking you up?”

I looked at my watch. “Twenty minutes?”

“Be nice to hang out with Mike, right? He hasn’t come over much.”

No, he hadn’t. Actually, he hadn’t come over at all since the night he fixed the sink almost a month ago. He’d been working a lot, picking up shifts for Tony. I saw Chris more than I saw my actual boyfriend these days.

Speaking of Chris, my phone vibrated with a message from him.

I read the text and slapped a hand over my mouth. “Oh my God…”

“What?” Mom said, eyeing me.

I was dying. “I think I’m going to wait for you to see it yourself.”

16

CHRIS

I texted her from outside the apartment, and ten seconds later she opened the door. The moment she laid eyes on me, it was all over her face.

“You promised you would not laugh,” I said, feigning seriousness.

“I know. I did promise.” She bit her lips together. “It’s just—”

“What.”

She sucked air through her teeth. “It’s just so much bigger than you described.”

“Ha.”

Nancy came up behind her, holding Woofarine. “Oh, hon… Thank goodness you’re cute enough to pull it off.” She shook her head and handed me the dog and wandered back into the apartment, chuckling.

Larissa leaned in to study me. “Explain to me one more time how this happened?”

“I was doing a vaccine clinic,” I said.

“Uh-huh.”

“The store hired a face painter for the kids to try and make it fun.”

“Okay.”

“One of the kids asked if she could paint my face.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “And this kid was how old?”

“Five maybe?”

“All right.”

“I said yes.”

“Clearly.”