Page 94 of Scouting the Single Dad

“Well, this is a crisis.”

Faith studies me through the screen, eyes scanning my face. “Why are you whispering?” she stage-whispers.

“I’m not whispering,” I whisper.

She takes another bite of the sandwich. “You are.” Looks closer at the screen. “Are you hiding in a bathroom?”

“Affirmative.”

“Why?” Pause. “Did something happen? Do I have to fly to Arizona and help you bury a body? Please say yes.”

I giggle. “I’m just in my feels and wanted to talk through it.”

“Let me get comfortable, hold on.” Faith walks with her phone to the small balcony outside of her kitchen, and plops down on the wicker sofa she has out there. “What’s going on?”

I sigh. “I’m going to leave tomorrow. I thought this was going to be fun and casual, but it’s gotten complicated.” Too complicated.

“How so?”

“Because I slept with Hayes,” I say, words tumbling out like I tripped over them on purpose. “A lot. Like, I’m walking crooked, and his daughter told her friend’s mom that I’m going to be her mom, and the pressure is just like—” I make an exploding sound to punctuate my sentence.

“First off, you slept with a guy you like, and now your heart is freaking out because it’s been a minute since you’ve connected with anyone. Can we agree this is totally normal?”

I nod. “Yeah?”

Faith goes on, gentler. “Second . . . a little kid said a big thing out loud. That doesn’t mean anyone is owed a wedding. It means she likes you an awful lot. That’s what kids do—they daydream.” My best friend pauses. “Once I was babysitting for my niece and nephew, and I asked them what they’d done over the weekend, and Cara told me they’d gone to Disneyland Paris when I knew for a fact my sister hadn’t taken them. Cara was manifesting.”

We both laugh at that.

“I don’t want to mess up their little world.”

“Layla, you are not a wrecking ball.”

I nibble on my lip. “I know, but Faith—I can’t stay here. I have to leave eventually. This was just a quick trip, and I feel like Benny got the wrong idea.”

Faith’s smile is wry. “Maybe. But Benny will be all right. Distance doesn’t cancel feelings; it just means you two need a plan.”

“A plan,” I echo.

“Single parents love plans,” she says with authority, as if she’s dated plenty of single dads. “Just say, ‘Hey, I need to get back to Star Lake and am going to leave tomorrow, but I want to keep seeing you. Can we talk tonight?’ Boom. Grown up, no pressure.”

My shoulders drop an inch. “That sounds so sensible.”

“Because it is.”

I wiggle on the toilet seat cover, shifting from one ass cheek to the other. “If I say it out loud, though, that makes it real. It sounds like I want more.”

I don’t want Hayes to think I’m making demands of him. Or being presumptuous.

“You do want more,” Faith says, not unkindly. “Why are you afraid to tell him that?”

“He and I haven’t known each other long. Who am I to throw that out there like that?”

Faith exhales as if growing exasperated by the conversation. “Layla. Wouldn’t you rather know if he never wants to see you again so you can go home and not dwell on it if he wanted casual sex?”

Yes.

No.