✅3️⃣ Treating the Babysitter [Camp NaNoWriMo July 2023]

26. The Other Shoe

This chapter is dedicated to Mimic. Thank you for all your support!

"I hope you two had a good time while we were away," Mrs Cartwright said, peering at Adam as if she would be able to see any sign of impropriety just by looking at him.

"Good to see you too, Mum," Claudia said, helping to take her mother's bags and putting things away. "Was the drive back okay? They said it was going to rain hard this evening."

"I think we just missed it. Your friend was a gentleman, was he? Not taking liberties?"

"We did have fish for dinner yesterday," Adam answered for her. "I hope you don't mind. But I lit some scented candles to make sure the smell doesn't linger." It wasn't entirely true, but it was true enough, and he didn't think she would think any more about it.

"He's been great," Claudia said. "Doing everything he could to help me out. We did the laundry, and Adam's even been teaching me to cook a little better. Dinner's almost ready, by the way, if you want to sit down.

Lorelei hadn't said much after getting home, but it seemed she was mature enough to get her own coat and shoes off without needing anyone to remind her. And then she was walking nervously up and down the hallway, looking cautiously at Adam. When he stepped into the lounge, the little kid followed. But he didn't say or do anything, just watched her. After a little while he could see that she was starting to get used to his presence again. He could understand she was a little nervous around him, after all the things that had happened when he came to visit in the past.

"Did you have a good trip?" he asked, after waiting a little longer.

"Yeah! We saw the museum, and there was strings and music and dinosaurs!" Once she started talking, the little kid didn't know when to stop. She'd clearly seen some interesting things while she was away for the weekend, and the fresh memories were too exciting to refrain from recounting every detail. From the food in the hotel to the view from their windows, and a couple of different museums, she seemed eager to talk about everything at once. And then she was pulling souvenirs out of her pockets and setting them on the coffee table. Many of them were just generic gift-shop tat, but she was proud of them and Adam thought it was wonderful to see a child so happy.

He wondered if he should go to serve dinner, but he didn't want to be rude now that Lorelei had decided to open up to him; and he could just about hear what sounded like Claudia serving up food in the kitchen. He was sure that her mum would help as well, if necessary; they wouldn't call for him to help if they realised he was distracting the child while they got their work done.

A couple of minutes later, the four of them were gathered around the table in the dining room, and Lorelei was so curious about the crispy beef pieces that she couldn't wait until everybody else started eating. She just grabbed one piece from her plate and put it straight in her mouth. After that, there was a little laugh and then they were all tucking into their meal. Claudia served the drinks this time, but Adam watched her carefully from the corner of his eye this time. He didn't want to find himself obeying without thinking again, and he didn't entirely trust either of the women here not to try something behind his back.

Mrs Cartwright talked about the things they had seen, although the words "educational", "aesthetic", and "revisionist" cropped up a lot more in her speech than they had in Lorelei's. She asked what Adam and Claudia had gotten up to as well; and they answered as vaguely as they could get away with; mentioning computer games, walking down to the park, shopping, and cooking, but none of the other things they had done.

"I suppose it's good to catch up with people from school," Mrs Cartwright conceded, although she clearly still didn't trust Adam too far. "But I hope you'll be trying harder to meet people in your office when you go back. You need friends your own age, you know. And once you meet people, I'm sure some of them might help set you up with a nice young man. I mean, you can't be single forever."