Page 85 of Dr. Single Dad

I creep forward. “Are you sure?” I ask. “You might just be dehydrated.”

“You think I’m hallucinating because I haven’t had enough Evian?” she asks. “I saw a bloody rat.”

I peer behind the boxes stacked up in front of the curtain, but I can’t see anything. I pull out my phone and put on the torch. “There’s nothing here. Maybe it was your ex-boyfriend,” I say. “He’s a good enough reason to call the rat catcher.” I abandon my investigations and head back to the sofa.

“I think outside of nursery rhymes, they call it pest control.”

“I’ll call them tomorrow,” I say. “While you’re at work.”

“So, we just let the rats roam today?”

“We live in London. I heard you’re never more than a meter away from a rat at any time.”

I get a cushion in my face. “You’re not helping.”

“It’s going to be fine.” I learned that lesson before I realized I had. Eddie was right; I can figure out most things, and that makes me powerful as fuck. “At least they’re our rats.”

“We don’t own this place, you know. We’re renting.”

“Okay, so the rats are on loan until we move out.”

“I don’t want them.”

“So I’ll have them. You’ll come home tomorrow and I’ll have trained an entire family of rodents to fold laundry and unpack boxes.” I shrug. “You never know, I might take that show on the road and make millions.”

“How much wine have you had?” she asks.

I ignore her question. “I feel free. Like I could do anything. I don’t have to be a nanny anymore if I don’t want to be.”

“Doyou want to be?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” I reply honestly. “I don’t know if it’s what I truly want to do. I think I need to try some other stuff as well.Maybe I’ll take a night class. The idea of finishing at six and leaving the place I work is…”

“Let me tell you,” Callie says. “It feels fucking fantastic. It’s not healthy to live where you work. You’re going to love it so much. Even with the rats.”

“I am.” Moving out of Dax and Guinevere’s was definitely the right thing to do, but it doesn’t mean I don’t miss them. I do. Every day.

It’s been two weeks and I go to bed every night thinking about them both. About how much Guinevere will have changed since I last saw her, whether she’d remember me now and if she smells the same. About how Dax’s skin felt against mine, the hard smoothness of it. The comfort. The strength. How protected I felt by him.

I wake up every morning and think about how he cared for me while I was sick. Drove ten hours to bring me home. Pulled my hair back when I vomited. He’s a caring, kind man. I’m sure Callie thinks I’m a fool to take a step back, but I need to be sure I don’t want him because he needs me. I need to know I want him…just because.

My phone buzzes. “It’s Eddie,” I announce. She’s sent me a link.

That’s on the University Website. Just to remove any doubt.

I’m not clear what she means until I click through to find a page titled “Awards and Scholarships”. I search for her name and it’s listed just under the “GCC Scholarship Fund”. I pause.

GCC.

Those letters mean something to me. I’ve seen them before.

I type back.

What’s GCC?

The name of my scholarship.

“What does GCC mean to you?” I ask Callie as I type out the same question to Eddie. “Is it a corporation? I can’t place it.”

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