Allison tried to pay attention. Really, she did, but every time she let herself think for a moment, her thoughts just drifted back to Christopher.
She should have asked him to the party.
She shouldn’t have chickened out.
Now it was probably too late for her to try to claim him as her party date. Oh well. He was out of her league, anyway. Besides, it was never a good idea to try to date your boss. Really, who did that? Not girls like her. Girls like Allison dated safe people. Safe guys. They dated guys like James, the new project manager at Monster Brothers Security.
Should she ask him?
Chances were that James didn’t have a date. After all, he was brand new not only to the office, but to Sapphire Island itself. Nobody really knew very much about James, and from what Allison had gathered, he was pretty anti-social. Maybe he was just a little shy. Did he need someone to help bring him out of his shell? Could she be that girl? She wasn’t attracted to James. Not by a long shot. Still, maybe it would be nice for her to invite him to the party. She could view it as a sort of outreach kind of situation.
He was new, and she was experienced. It would be her way of welcoming him to the office. Yep, that was exactly what she would do. The very next day, Allison promised herself, she would ask James. She would make it clear that they would only be going as friends.
She just had to work up the nerve to do it, and she needed to find a way to stop wishing James was Christopher.
“Allison?” Lyla’s voice broke into Allison’s thoughts, and she realized that her mom had called her name a few times.
“Sorry, I was thinking about work,” Allison said truthfully.
“I just asked if you wanted to play a board game.”
Allison glanced at the clock on the wall. It wasn’t super late, but she was tired. She could tell that Yvette didn’t really want to play a game, either, and if Allison ended the night now, they could all go home and go to bed.
“I’m actually feeling a little beat,” Allison said. “I’m going to call it a night.”
Yvette breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.
“Me too,” she said.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Lyla sounded disappointed, and Allison felt a little bad. She knew her mom often felt tired from chasing the little kids around all day. Maybe she’d come over and babysit for her one afternoon next week. That way Lyla could have some alone time, and Allison could bond with her brothers.
“Raincheck?” Allison asked.
“Of course,” Lyla nodded.
After hugging Lyla goodbye and making her promise to give Steve and the boys hugs from them, Allison and Yvette headed outside of the little house.
“So, back home?” Allison asked Yvette.
“Yeah,” Yvette nodded. “I’ve got a busy night of eating ice cream, watching movies, and fighting with my roommate to get through.”
“You fight with your roommate?”
“Uh
, yeah...” Yvette’s voice trailed off and she looked away. Allison stared at her sister. What wasn’t she saying?
“Yvette?”
“Yeah?”
“Is Frank your roommate?”
Yvette blushed and looked over.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“Ouch.”