I think its the look on her face that gets me
7:26pm
whatever they were smoking then, I wish I could still get that shit now
7:54pm
you still watching
8:02pm
Yeah sorry, I'm still grading too
8:21pm
Clearly they blew their entire budget on this fight sequence :P
8:22pm
lol right
def didn't spend it on stunt men
8:23pm
Haha yeah I'm pretty sure that guy definitely broke his arm for real there
8:23pm
gotta sacrifice for your art
8:39pm
we should watch vortex 9 sometime, I bet you'd like it
*vordox goddammit
8:50pm
I bet I would :7
12:42am
you asleep
12:55am
No. You?
12:56am
yeah
12:56am
Wow. Maybe leave the dad jokes to the old guy :P
12:56am
you're not old
or you'd be asleep
12:57am
Haha got me there I guess
12:57am
just wanted to let Da Vinci know I was thinking about him
12:58am
Funny you should say that, he was just telling me he was having trouble getting to sleep without you here
12:58am
yeah same
1:00am
I don't really wanna go back to my apartment
1:00am
When do you go?
1:00am
monday
1:01am
Do you have to?
1:01am
I mean no but yeah
can't stay here forever
1:03am
Why don't you wanna go back?
1:04am
I dunno
1:06am
maybe if I'm there it'll be like it was before
I know it doesn't work like that
but it sorta does
1:07am
I get that
1:07am
do you
1:08am
Yeah. There are some places I just can't go
1:10am
like where
nevermind
you don't have to tell me
1:13am
Giles Pier. Mal proposed to me there
1:13am
she proposed to you?
1:13am
Yeah haha. Got down on one knee and everything
1:14am
thats cute
I mean I get it tho
1:14am
Also the Applebee's on 17th
1:14am
sorry its probably not cute
wait she proposed twice?
1:15am
Haha no I just can't go there either! But that's just because I'm banned
1:15am
what for
1:16am
Kept taking too many napkins. They get real touchy about that kinda thing
1:16am
oh thats why I thought you looked familiar. musta seen your pic there
1:16am
Hahaha yeah I'm kinda notorious, what can I say
1:16am
I knew you were a bad boy deep down
1:17am
They call me the Napkin Bandit
1:17am
hmm
thats really dumb
1:17am
Yeah you know how it is. The press comes up with these things, I can't even get it trademarked
1:17am
lol
1:38am
does mal call you andrew?
1:40am
Yeah
Just you and my mom call me Henry. I wasn't exaggerating
1:43am
You have to work Monday too?
1:44am
yeah
1:44am
Maybe we can watch Vordox afterward at your apartment?
1:47am
maybe
1:49am
yeah
that sounds good
1:50am
:7
1:50am
:7
~~~
Chapter 23
Seated at her dinner table, now mostly empty of the remains of dinner, Henry exchanged an amused look with Brooke when she reached over him to grab his empty plate and bring it back to the kitchen.
Callie had been chattering animatedly now for a solid five minutes straight, at least. Her two younger brothers had left the table long before that, off to play Fortnite or Roblox or whatever it was they did on a Saturday night.
It wasn't that Henry wasn't interested in what his niece was saying -- he was. She was kind of a geek. Callie's mom's idea of a fun day was a hike up a mountain trail and pitching a tent at the top, and her dad's was a day of adult league basketball at the rec center followed by a night of watching football. So when Henry was around, she finally had somebody she could talk to about a Bradbury book she'd read or whether Deckard was a replicant.
That wasn't what she was talking about now, though. Or at least he didn't think so. She was a nerd, yes, but she was also 16. So the topic tonight seemed like it was a smattering of top teenage torments: teachers, frenemies, how unfair her mom was being by not letting her drive the SUV -- high drama. That really wasn't what was making his attention wander, either, though.
His eyes flicked down to the phone in his lap for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last minute.
He knew he was acting like a teenager himself, one who just found out his crush had a thing for him, too. And he knew it wouldn't -- and shouldn't -- last. The beginning of a relationship was always exciting.
Or at least, that was the common wisdom. Honestly, even though he was 36, he hadn't really had more than a few real relationships in his life. He'd met Mallory when he was 19, and they'd married at 24. So as much as he felt like he shouldn't react like this anymore, he knew it was actually a pretty new experience for him.
Cameron certainly hadn't seemed put off, though. They'd been texting a lot since she left his house to stay with Gram. And in shitty sci-fi movies, they'd finally found somewhere where they overlapped, too -- no matter how small a thing it was.
She seemed more talkative over text. Or maybe she was just more comfortable with him general, like she'd been the other night in bed. He'd never seen her so expressive, and it was like that carried over into her messages.
Except when his marriage came up, that is. Maybe she just didn't really know how to respond. He didn't have much experience dating as a 36-year-old, but as a 23-year-old, he definitely hadn't had any point of reference for what it was like to be married yet, much less divorced.
So once he'd told her that he was at his sister's house tonight to go over the settlement agreement, he didn't really expect to hear from her for a while. And he hadn't.
Maybe Callie should be giving me tips?
He smiled a little bit at the thought of asking his teenage niece for dating advice...then frowned when he realized Cameron was way closer to Callie's age than his. That got him to finally keep his eyes off his phone for an extended period. Just in time, apparently, too.
"--but Kelly was like 'no, you don't need a doctor for an abortion, I met this guy online who'll do it for free as long as you let him take some pictures of you first!'"
Henry snapped his attention back to his smirking niece, wondering what the hell he'd missed.
"I
knew
you weren't paying attention!" she said smugly, more pleased that she'd caught him rather than mad his mind had been wandering.
His niece's eyes and straight, long hair were the same matching brown he and his sisters all sported, and she had Brooke's same sharp features. From a distance, she would've looked just like his oldest sister when she was that age, if not for the glasses and baggy purple sweatshirt.
He gave her an embarrassed smile. "Guilty! You got me. But I think I got the gist. You're pregnant with Kelly's baby and your mom won't let you drive yourself to your teacher's house for an abortion."
She nodded, not missing a beat. "Okay, so you
were
listening."
Brooke came out of the kitchen again, eyeing the grinning pair suspiciously.
"I don't think I even wanna know what you two are up to," she said. Then she clapped Henry on the shoulder. "I gotta steal your partner in crime here for a bit, sorry," she told her daughter. "You can have him back after you finish your homework."
Callie gave her mom a 10-out-of-10 eyeroll. "I
did
it already. And it's Saturday,
God
."
"You can just call me, 'Mom,'" Brooke said, a little bit of an edge to her voice that quickly dissipated. "But fine. You can have Uncle Andrew back when he finishes
his
homework, then."
Henry waggled his eyebrows at Callie and stood up, following his sister to her study.
It was a cozy space, cabinets stacked with years of teetering piles of papers and files kept as neat as could be in a room that was bursting at the seams. A massive wooden desk took up the entirety of one of the walls, filled with spillover clutter in front of family photos lining the back of it.
Brooke closed the door behind her brother and gestured for him to take a seat on the old couch.
"I hope you're sticking around after this, by the way. Callie would probably never speak to me again if you left right after dinner," she said as she took a seat in the swivel chair in front of the desk, scooting closer to Henry. Then she paused for a second. "For a day at least. Of course, she's a teenager, so, 50/50 odds she'll just do that anyway."
"Callie?" he said, settling into the couch. "She doesn't seem like that."
Brooke gave her little brother a pitiable look meant to remind him he'd never had any kids.
"Someday, Andrew, you too shall have a teenage daughter. And then," her face shifted to relishing the future she was conjuring up in her mind, "ohhhh
and then
, my dear brother, you'll see. I will delight in coming over to
your
house, watching movies with her, bringing her crap she doesn't need -- and then leaving so she can scream at
you
for ruining her life when you ask her if she
absolutely needs
super expensive new headphones, because, what's wrong with her old ones? Can't she just wait for her birthday?"
