you like a cup of coffee?” he asked.
“That’d be great.” She took out her cell phone, walked across his living room, and with her back to him, made a call.
“Hey,” she said to someone on the other end of the call. “Can you pick me up at the bus stop later tonight?”
Lewis set the filter in the coffeemaker and measured out enough coffee for four cups.
“No. Thanks anyway. Have fun,” she said.
“Problem?” he asked.
“I live six blocks from my bus stop,” she said absentmindedly as she scrolled through information on her phone. “It’s bad enough I have to navigate Penn Station and ride the bus back to Jersey with the Friday night drunks. I’d rather not have to walk home, alone, in the dark with one of them following me.”
She shuddered as if it’d happened before. The thought of Scarlet, hurrying home, in fear, with some intoxicated miscreant in pursuit set off a surge of protectiveness he’d only ever felt for Jessie.
“How did you plan to get home after girls’ night out?” he asked.
She looked up from her phone. “I sleep at my friend’s apartment downtown, so I don’t have to make the trek home late at night.”
“If you’d already planned to stay in the city, you can stay here,” he blurted out.
She gave him the ‘yeah right’ look. “Nice try.” She pressed the screen on her phone, lifted it to her ear, and turned her back to him, again.
Lewis added water, replaced the carafe, and flipped on the coffeemaker.
Scarlet spoke into her phone. “Hey. It’s about a quarter after ten on Friday night. If you get this message in the next few minutes and can give me a ride home from the bus stop tonight, call me back.”
Lewis waited for her to end the call and said, “You’re being silly. I think I’ve proven myself a close-to-perfect gentleman. You can sleep in Jessie’s room. I’ll put fresh sheets on the bed,” he held up his right hand, “I give you my word—”
“Stop with the raising the right hand bit,” she said. “I thought we talked about that.”
“A carryover from Boy Scouts,” he admitted. Then, keeping his right hand raised he bent his pinky, held it in place with his thumb to make the scout sign, and recited the oath. “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”
She smiled and nodded. “Very impressive.”
Standing at full attention he added, “On my honor I will not step one foot on the stairway leading up to the loft while you’re up there.” He decided it best to keep the ‘unless you invite me up’ part to himself.
She seemed to mull it over. “Then we could prep for painting tonight and get started first thing tomorrow.”
“Exactly.” Although not his first choice of things to do during their time alone together, that’d work. “I’ve still got stuff I need to move out of there.” Luckily he’d spent part of his afternoon, sorting junk, boxing up his books and journals, and removing the artwork and pictures from the walls.
“I can help with that,” she offered.
So far today she’d cancelled plans with her friends to come check on him, only let him treat her to a slice of pizza and a bottle of water for dinner, carried almost as many bags as he had, without one complaint, and now she was offering to help him move boxes and furniture. “Except for your good looks and fantastic figure,” which he took a moment to peruse, “you are not at all like the women I used to date.”
She gave him a big smile. “Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.”
He’d meant it as one.
“I like my coffee light with one teaspoon of sugar if you have it.” She walked to the kitchen. While he poured she said, “If I stay over tonight, and that’s still a big if, I need to know you won’t tell anyone at work. Or Jessie. Especially Jessie. I don’t want anyone to think...”
“There’s something going on between us,” he finished for her as he placed her mug of coffee within reach.
She pulled out a stool and sat down. “Yeah.”
Most women loved to brag about dating him. But he was fast learning Scarlet was not most women.
He held up the scout’s sign again and said, “Scout’s honor.”
She smiled. “How long were you in the Boy Scouts?”
“Through Eagle Scout,” he said. The highest, most prestigious level.
“That’s quite an accomplishment.”
Yes it was.
“But you don’t seem the camping, outdoorsy type.”
He wasn’t, but his father had made Eagle Scout, and Boy Scouts had been the one father son activity his dad had made time for. “I grew up in Northern Westchester. I didn’t migrate down to the city until I got accepted at NYU.”
She blew on her coffee then took a sip.
With the brief lapse in conversation that followed, Lewis took the opportunity to fulfill his promise to Jessie. “When I spoke to Jessie earlier, she made it clear that if something should happen to me, she’d much rather go to live with you than with my sister. I told her you’re not family and it’s not your responsibility to take her in. I don’t expect you to say yes, so don’t feel in any way pressured. But she made me promise to ask you if you’d be willing, so I’m asking.” He leaned back against the counter and lifted his coffee mug. There. He’d done what he’d promised to do. Now he waited for the backlash. He took a sip. How dare he put Scarlet in such a difficult position? How dare he expect her to take on the role of parent to a child who wasn’t hers? How dare he set her up to be a bad person by saying no when Lewis, Jessie’s father, should have been the one to tell her no when she’d first mentioned the idea.
But Scarlet looked up at him with an expression that was anything but angry and said, “If it doesn’t cause a problem within your family, I’d love to.”
What? “You’d...”
She smiled. “I’d be happy to have Jessie come live with me.”
He stood there, speechless.
“She’s a great kid, Lewis. Don’t look so shocked.”
“You’d have to change your life around.” Like he had.
“If something’s important, you find a way to make it work,” she said. “Jessie is important to me. So I’d find a way to make it work. Not that I’ll ever have to because you’re young and healthy. But if Jessie needs me, I’ll be there for her.”
As simple as that.
