She set her food and a glass of water on the upside-down apple crate she used as an end table and picked up her well-loved copy ofPrince Caspian. A few pages in, the celery and almost all of the carrots and hummus were gone, but she couldn’t focus. Her mind wasn’t on her favorite book in the Narnia series. It was on Hunter.
Right after she’d sent her looooong message about anime and manga, she cringed. Surely he hadn’t expected her almost textbook explanation. Then she’d gone and invited him to do the challenge and, immediately, doubts set in. She didn’t want him to feel obligated. But then he responded so quickly, saying that it was not only totally fine, but he was going to do the challenge.
A tiny thrill went through her when she read that.
There was no use trying to read when she was so distracted. She shut the book and munched on a carrot as she used her phone to check on her channel. She could barely admit to herself that she was hoping for another message from Hunter tonight. Why, she didn’t know, only that she liked talking to him about art. From his questions, she guessed he was a beginner and possibly a complete novice. He also passed her personal private message test—he was courteous, stayed on topic, and kept all communication appropriate.
For some reason, she found herself wishing she knew a little more about him. Like what state or country he was from. What he did for a living. His age even. Not that age mattered during professional correspondence.
But she couldn’t help but want their correspondence to be a little more personal.
Mom poked her head inside the doorway. “Still up?”
Nodding, Britt set her phone in her lap. “I worked late tonight, so I’m not quite ready for sleep yet.”
“That’s definitely not my problem.” She yawned. “Everything going okay? I feel like we haven’t talked much lately.”
That was true, and right now Britt was fine with that. A part of her felt extremely guilty for seeing her dad on the sly. But now wasn’t the time to bring him up to Mom. She was in the middle of ending another school year, and her focus should be on that. There would be time in the future to tell her about him. “Everything’s fine. Good actually. I told Savannah I’d be her maid of honor.”
Mom’s eyes grew wide. “Really? Britt, that’s wonderful! I’m sure she’s happy about that.”
“She is.” Britt smiled.
“You’re doing the right thing, honey. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks.” But her smile dimmed a little. First Dad, and now Mom, expressed their pride in her. And she’d be happy about that if she were actually doing something impressive instead of what any normal best friend would do for the bride-to-be.
“Why don’t we do something fun this weekend? We could go to Grimaldi’s, maybe do a little shopping after?”
“Sure.”
Mom yawned. “All right. One more day. I can do this.” She gave Britt two thumbs up. “Good night. See you tomorrow.”
“Night, Mom. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Britt yawned, surprising herself. Guess she was tired after all. One more check of her channel and she’d call it a night. She picked up her phone, went back to YouTube... and saw three new notifications. Quickly she looked through the first two that alerted her to new comments on several of her videos. Then she clicked on the third one.
Hi Britt. One more thing, and I hope I’m not bugging or bothering you. I noticed one of your sponsors is K&B Art Supplies. I was thinking about buying my supplies from there. Do you have any recommendations?
While it was great he wanted to patronize a sponsor, she wondered why he chose them. She had several art companies sponsoring her videos, and she appreciated every one of them. But K&B was special. It was where Mom had bought Britt’s first paint for her set when she was a child, and she was good friends with Maude and Xavier—X, as he preferred to be called—the eccentric, long-term owners of the store. She shopped there at least once a week, often more. It was one of the few places where she didn’t feel anxious.
Did he live in Plano? No, that would be too much of a coincidence. Maude and X had a thriving online business. That made them a perfect place for him to order his supplies.
She messaged him back with a list and their website.
Thanks for purchasing from them. I’ve been going there for a long time. They’re my favorite art store. B.
Nibbling on the last carrot, she waited to see if he would reply right away. Ten minutes later, he hadn’t, and she started to log off—
Thanks, Britt. Have a good night.
You too, Hunter.
She smiled and turned off her phone.
Chapter 5
