Page 47 of Bossy Trouble

“Is it?” I commented, and Avery moved to the side as I stepped in. “I think Avery is a cool name too.”

She wrinkled her nose at me. “No, it’s not. I wish I were named something else.”

“Really? Why?”

“There’s another Avery in my class, so everyone calls me Avery P and callsherAvery. I hate it. Especially since she’s not very nice about it.” Avery trailed into the living room after me, hopping up on the sofa. “She always tries to boss me around and says stuff like, ‘Hey, you wanna know why they call you Avery Two? Because everyone likes me more and wishes you would just go away.’”

I smirked, watching her impression of the other Avery. She rolled her eyes exaggeratedly and twisted her features into something resembling a cartoon monster. Then, she stuck her nose up in the air, her hands on her hips like the snottiest little madam I’d ever seen.

“And what did you say?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she replied. “Mommy said there’s no point responding to stupid people. You just gotta let them be stupid all by themselves.”

“Huh.” That sounded like Georgia, the perpetual peacemaker.

“Besides, I knew she was fibbing,” Avery said, then continued in a conspiratorial whisper, “No one in class likes her. They only talk to her because her daddy knows that actor from that show Mommy likes. He’s on TV. And she has lunch with other famous people all the time, which she won’t shut up about either. That’s why when she tells them to call me Avery Two, they do it. So that she’ll invite them to her big party on her birthday, and they’ll meet her dad.”

“I see.” I ran through my head the number of celebrities I knew. It was quite a few, and a lot of them owed me favors. Perhaps, I could pass by the girl’s school with one of them one of these days.

“Yeah.” Avery swung her legs back and forth. “That’s why I wish I weren’t called Avery. I wouldn’t mind being called something else, like Miranda or Stacey. There’s another Stacey in my class too, but she’s much nicer. Sometimes she talks to me, but only when Avery isn’t around.”

“You know what you should do?”

“What?” She eyed me curiously.

“Next time anyone calls you Avery P, don’t respond.” I squatted down so I could be at eye level with her. “Just let them keep talking. And if they come up to you and say, ‘Hey, Avery P, I was talking to you,’ you turn around, look them dead in the eye and say, ‘That’s not my name. If you can’t call me by my name, then don’t talk to me at all.’”

Her eyes widened. “I can do that?”

“Of course,” I said. “And don’t let up either. No matter who talks to you, don’t answer until they call you Avery and not Avery P.”

“What if I get into trouble?”

“Then I’ll come there and bail you out myself,” I said with a wink. She giggled, and I tweaked her cute button nose.

“You teach people how to treat you,” I told her. “Remember that always.”

“Okay,” she said, and she smiled. “I like you, Mommy’s friend.”

“Donovan,” I corrected.

“Donovan,” she pronounced a little better this time, and I smiled.

“Good,” I said. “I like you too.”

She bounced in her seat, happy with the statement, and I smiled. How could anyone not like a little girl like that? How could anyone abandon her? Her father was a fool.

It was weird because I wasn’t much of a kid’s person. I neither liked nor disliked them, but I knew I never wanted any. I didn’t have much time in my busy schedule to accommodate a child and would probably be a terrible father. Not like I had the best example growing up.

But having a kid like Avery might not be so bad.

“Who are you talking to, Avery?” I heard footsteps on the floorboard and watched Georgia descend the stairs. She was in the process of drying her hair and was wearing a baggy T-shirt and some sweatpants. I could see the sway of her breasts underneath the T-shirt.

Her eyes widened, and she started a little when she saw me. “How did you get in here?”

“I let him in, Mommy,” Avery said, and Georgia frowned.

“How many times have I told you not to do that?” Georgia put down the towel, and the movement jiggled her breasts again. “That’s very dangerous.’

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