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Rook: Good morning, Carrie.
I’m sure a relationship expert somewhere would tell me to wait at least an hour or two to respond, but I’m a woman on a mission to lose her virginity this week, so I type out my reply and hit send.
Carrie: Good morning to you.
I glance up to see Telford disappear into the washroom. He shuts the door quietly.
Rook: How did you sleep?
That’s easy to answer, so I do.
Carrie: Good. What about you?
The sound of water running filters into the lab from under the bathroom door. I glance at the shelf above the counter I’m next to. I need to retrieve at least half a dozen test tubes before we can get to work today. Just as I’m about to place my phone down again, it chimes.
Rook: I slept very well. I’m headed into a meeting shortly, but I wanted to see if we could firm up plans for Friday night. I was thinking dinner and then time at the Beaumont Hotel.
It feels like my body is on fire as I type out my reply. I don’t have to think about it. I want this, and Friday gives me more than enough time to prepare for what I anticipate will be the best night of my life.
Carrie: Friday is perfect for me.
His response is almost instant.
Rook: Good. I’ll text you this week so we can discuss a time for dinner.
My fingers fly over the screen of my phone, typing out I can’t wait. I take a deep breath and stare at it before deleting every letter.
I close my eyes, and will my heartbeat to slow but it’s futile. I’mtoo excited, too nervous, and too everything else.
I’m going to have sex with Rook Thorsen at the end of this week.
The bathroom door creaks open, signaling Telford’s imminent return, so I type out a reply that doesn’t reflect what I feel inside.
Carrie: Okay.
I silence my phone, shove it into the front pocket of my pants, and turn to greet my best friend and lab partner. “Are you ready to get down to business?”
“You know I am,” Telford says as he hangs his bag back on one of the hooks on the coatrack. “Let’s make a little magic.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Rook
“I’m going to quiet quit school,” Kirby announces.
Milo shoots her a smile. “Good on you, kid.”
I shake my head. “How exactly do you think you’re going to quiet quit kindergarten?”
My daughter tilts her head back to study me behind the bright red plastic glasses she found in her dress up trunk. “I’m going to stop going, Daddy.”
“That’s not happening.” I chuckle.
Milo takes a bite of the ham and cheese sandwich he ordered. This early dinner was his idea. He asked Kirby if she was in when he picked her up from school today. She never refuses her uncle, so they headed back to our apartment, and apparently, went through her dress-up trunk before showing up at Crispy Biscuit hand in hand.
That explains the purple and green oversized bow tie clipped to the neckline of my brother’s T-shirt.
“One of the kids is mean to me,” she shoots back before she takes a bite of a raw carrot covered in ranch dressing. “I told him to stop, but then he pulled on my ponytail.”
