Page 126 of The Baller

Her eyes were a slightly darker shade, and didn’t have the same ring of dark green that Radley’s did. Her face had lines whereRadley’s didn’t, fanning out from the creases of her eyes and smile, but she’d definitely passed on her bone structure; soft, rounded cheekbones, and a sharpened jaw. She was Radley in thirty years, and it made me wonder what I’d look like next to Radley then.

“Are those pancakes?”

I glanced down at the stack she’d nodded to, even though I had to have made fifty this morning, I still needed confirmation. “Um, yeah.”

“Great, I’m starving.”

I was definitely on autopilot as I pulled a plate from the cabinet and forked out a couple for her, adding strawberries and dollop of the coconut yogurt Tanner liked.

I placed it in front of her.

“Syrup?” Ace asked, picking up the jug.

“Yes, please, and I wouldn’t say no to some coffee either.”

Before she’d finished her sentence, Parker had sprinted around to the machine and flicked it on.

We all watched as she cut into the stack and bit into her first mouthful.

“Wow, these are good,” she nodded. “You know there’s still juice dripping, right?”

“Fuck!” cried Ace again, his eyes immediately shooting to the President, though she hadn’t noticed the swearing, or maybe didn’t care.

“Did you make these from scratch?”

I nodded. It was all my brain could cope with as most of it was taken up with wondering what alternate universe I’d found myself in. Parker silently placed a coffee in front of her, Ace finished mopping up the juice and the remains of the soggy Coco Puffs, and Tanner kept eating. We stood and waited.

It was only following a swift kick to my shin that I realized Ace was attempting to get my attention. I looked up to find his eyes wide and wildly flicking back and forth between me and the countertop, though it was anyone’s guess what he was trying to do, or what he was trying to mouth to me. His entire face clenched and turned an alarming shade of pink. Parker didn’t seem to know what he was doing either. But then my eyes landed on the stack of Cosmos, and the one open to Ace’s rating.

If you had told me that within two hours of waking up, the President of the United States would be sitting in my kitchen eating pancakes while I tried to figure out how to remove fifteen issues of Cosmo, including the one in front of her open at a page graphically detailing a sexual position I nevereverwanted put in her imagination, all without her seeing it, I’d have laughed in your face.

Yet here I was.

Parker and Ace were still glaring at me with crazed eyes.

“Tan, pass the President more strawberries,” was a sentence I’d never expected to say, but she turned enough that it gave Parker the time to whip the magazine away and cover the rest with a hoodie he’d left on a stool.

Jesus. I take back everything I said about being fit for the C.I.A.

I was going to have a heart attack at this rate. I’d never live to see Radley again. The tension was too much; I couldn’t take it any longer. Then I realized I’d completely blanked on how to address her. Mrs. President didn’t sound right. Madam…

“Um… Radley’s not here.”

She pushed her empty plate to one side. “I know. I came to see you.”

Of all the things I hadn’t expected this morning, her answer had to top it.

“Radley doesn’t know I’m here,” she continued. “I didn’t think she’d be here if I told her.”

“Do you always turn up unannounced?”

She laughed, the same laugh Radley had, and picked up her coffee. “Never. This was quite fun. Maybe I’ll try and do it more often.”

“Does anyone know you’re here?”

“No one that doesn’t need to.”

“How did you get here?”

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