“Why are you here?” Leticia groaned. God, she hadn’t been this exhausted and hungover in ages. She’d gotten very good at planning out her schedule when it came to clubbing. She hadn’t stayed up until six a.m. in years, and she certainly hadn’t had that much alcohol since two years ago when she’d puked her guts out over a bad bottle of tequila.

Bastards, not making tequila properly.

“I’m here because student loans don’t pay themselves,” Hal replied. She slid a cup of coffee onto the table. “Four espresso shots? Really? Are you trying to give yourself cardiac arrest?”

“Be grateful I’m not pouring an energy drink into this thing,” Leticia said warningly. God, it felt like there was a throbbing egg inside of her brain that was going to explode any second.

“Let me get you something to eat. The cheese-and-egg bagel sandwich always helps me feel better.” Hal walked over behind the counter.

“I am not eating your greasy, chemical-laden whatever,” Leticia mumbled.

Hal returned a few minutes later. “I promise, it looks nauseating to you right now, but it’ll help. Nice and warm and greasy and filling, ‘kay?”

Leticia didn’t quite agree with her, but it was better than keeping an empty stomach. Hal also helpfully plunked a bottle of water down in front of her, along with two Advil.

“You’ve dealt with this before,” Leticia said wisely, quickly downing the pills and half the water bottle before moving onto the coffee and food.

“I’m a college student,” Hal replied. “Duh.”

Leticia didn’t reply. Instead, she focused on getting everything into her stomach without it coming back up for an encore performance.

God, she’d been so stupid to go out that late and party that hard. If Sharon could see her, she’d be making a huge fuss, playing the mother hen. Which was why Leticia had bothered to drive to the coffee shop on a Saturday. She figured she could let Hal baby her a little, and be conveniently unavailable if Sharon or anyone else called and wanted to stop by her apartment or have her stop by theirs.

“So, what happened?” Hal asked.

“What do you mean?” Leticia asked. “I went out to a club—” Or five, but who was counting? “—and I had some fun. Danced. Drank.”

“Did you pick anyone up?” Hal asked.

Leticia shook her head minutely, trying not to move her head too much. The throbbing had subsided. Now she just felt generally unsteady. “No.”

She could have, she knew that. There were plenty of guys sneaking looks at her all night while she was out on the dance floor, letting the music move into her bones and vibrate in her chest until all other emotions faded away. But when she’d thought about it, all she could remember were the times that she’d gone home with someone only to have them treat her like a cheap hook up. She didn’t want just casual sex anymore.

But she couldn’t have what—or rather who—she really wanted, either.

Hence the dancing.

It had felt like, if she danced enough then, maybe, just maybe, she could forget the ache in her chest and the odd tightness in her face and the way she’d felt letting Carter walk out of her office door. The kiss that had tasted like goodbye.

Needless to say, it hadn’t worked. Hence coffee and self-pity at nine o’clock in the morning on Saturday.

“Y’know, I’ve never seen you in here on the weekends,” Hal pointed out. “And I know you’re not a morning person but you’re never like…” She waved her hand up and down. “This.”

“What are you trying to say?” Leticia said, although she suspected that she knew what Hal was getting at.

Hal sat down, folding her arms on the table and balancing her chin on her forearms. “He really did a number on you, huh?”

“Just let me nurse my hangover in peace,” Leticia replied, more sharply than she’d intended. She wasn’t going to start moaning about her love life to someone who wasn’t even out of college.

Hal just gave her a fond look, proving that she was a better person than Leticia deserved, and stood up. “Okay. But I’m always here if you want to talk.”

She put her hand on Leticia’s forearm for a moment, letting Leticia feel the weight and warmth of it, and then went on back behind the counter to do whatever it was Hal did when there weren’t a lot of other customers. Inventory or something, probably.

The door to the coffee shop jingled and Leticia winced. The sound went straight to her headache like someone had fired an arrow directly between her eyebrows. She kept sipping her coffee and nibbling at the bagel sandwich as the new customer approached the counter.

“Oh, hey!” Hal said, and something about her tone made Leticia look up.

Standing at the counter were Carter and Molly.

Leticia felt like throwing up again—this time for an entirely different reason. Shit, just her luck that the guy she’d gone out partying to forget would decide today of all days to frequent the coffee shop again. Or maybe he always came on Saturday mornings and she just didn’t know, since she never came here on Saturday before?

She didn’t think Carter had seen her yet. His back was to her while he ordered at the counter. Maybe she could sneak out quickly before he turned around…

Molly was holding onto Carter’s hand but gazing around the coffee shop with interest. She turned completely around, and then she saw Leticia.

Her eyes lit up.

Shit, Leticia thought.

Molly waved. “Hi, Leticia!”

If the earth had swallowed her up in that moment, Leticia would have said thank you and praised the Lord. As it was, the earth did not swallow her up, and she was a little more convinced that her grandmother had somehow taken over the afterlife and was orchestrating everything to punish Leticia for having her name but refusing to be like her (which meant getting married right away and having like five kids).

It was also entirely possible that she had unresolved family issues but she wasn’t getting into that right now.

Molly kept waving until Leticia felt like she just had to wave back or it would get even worse, so she raised her hand and did a little wave. Hopefully now Molly and Carter would—but nope, it looked like Carter had ordered for here, not to go, so they were going to all have to sit in this coffee shop together and try not to stare at each other…

Or, Leticia thought, Molly could just take her dad’s hand and march him over to sit at her table. That was apparently another possibility.

Seriously, had she accidentally run over a puppy or something and failed to notice? Where was this bad karma coming from?

“Hi!” Molly said cheerfully—and loudly. Leticia winced.

Oh, great, she was meeting Carter’s daughter again and this time she had a hangover. She was just a shining example of womanhood, truly.

“Hey, kid,” Leticia said, trying to smile. She was pretty sure it came out as a wince instead. “What brings you here?”

“Daddy forgot something at the museum last night so we came back to get it. He said to make it up to me I could get hot chocolate.” Molly beamed and Leticia suspected that hot chocolate was a special treat.

“Sounds delicious,” she said. “Did you get whipped cream?”

“Uh-huh.” Molly nodded.

Carter sat down, looking as reluctant as Leticia felt. “Sorry,” he told her. “We should not be intruding on Leticia’s alone time,” he added to Molly.

“It’s fine,” Leticia said. She didn’t mind Molly too much. It was more that she was hungover and she was worried that Carter or Molly was going to notice.

“Thank you again for bringing me to my dad,” Molly said.

“Yeah, no problem,” Leticia replied. “Did you like the rest of the tour?”

Molly nodded. “I’ve seen all of it before, though. I like the Chinese art best. I’ve been trying to draw Chinese dragons, look!”

She pulled out her sketchbook, which seemed to be ever-present, and showed Leticia her drawings. “I can’t draw any with five toes, though. Those were Imperial Dragons just for the Emperor.”

“This is really good,” Leticia said, examining the drawing. “Have you thought about being an artist when you grow up?”

Just talk about art, she thought. That was safe ground.

“Yeah, like my dad!” Molly said.

Leticia turned and stared at Carter. “What?”

Carter shook his head. “It’s nothing, really—”

“No, he’s really good, you should see his stuff!” Molly said. “It’s abstract.”

“I wouldn’t even call it that,” Carter said. He looked at Leticia. “It’s not anything, honestly. It was just…a way to cope after Olivia. I never had any formal training or anything.”

“I had no idea that you were an artist,” Leticia said. Another secret that he’d been keeping from her.

“He won’t show people,” Molly said. “But you’re the head curator, right? So you know art, right? So you can see it and tell him it’s awesome because he won’t listen to me even though I know art. I know what the golden mean is and disappearing horizons and spirals and everything.”

“Teaching her about the Renaissance, I see,” Leticia said to Carter, raising an eyebrow.

Carter coughed, his ears going pink. “I figured she might as well start if she was going to keep drawing all over everything and asking questions all the time.”

Molly started going on about da Vinci and the rest and, for a moment, Leticia was bowled over. She had heard, of course, that children at a young age were basically sponges. They soaked up all information—it was why some parents pushed their children to learn higher math and sciences at a young age, and why young children were able to learn languages so easily. But she’d never really seen it first hand, especially not so articulately.

It was still a little awkward. She wasn’t going to deny that. But it was great to find that she could actually talk to Molly, almost as if she were another adult. Leticia couldn’t really discuss theory or debate DADAism with her or anything, but she could chat with her about the different periods of art history and share fun details about the lives of artists. Molly would answer with facts of her own and her opinions on various artwork. It was… easier than Leticia had expected, actually.

“We were going to go home and make macaroni and cheese,” Molly said at last, when they’d finished their drinks. “Homemade. You should come home with us! Daddy can show you his paintings.”

“I’m sure Leticia doesn’t need to see those,” Carter protested.

“Sure she does! And you’ll love his macaroni and cheese, it’s the best,” Molly confided. “I hate the out of the box stuff ‘cause Daddy’s is so good.”

“I fear I spoil her,” Carter admitted.

“I don’t want to impose,” Leticia said. “I’m sure you and your dad have much better things to do—and I don’t want to get in the way of your father-daughter time.”

“We get that all the time,” Molly protested.

Leticia waited for Carter to say something else, but to her surprise, Carter didn’t protest. He seemed nervous about the painting aspect of it, but when it came to lunch he said…nothing.

“You won’t be in the way,” Molly said. “You like my art, if you want to see more of it, it’s all over the walls.”

Leticia looked over at Carter. Homemade macaroni and cheese did sound really good, actually, and might be better for her hangover than the bagel sandwich. No offense to Hal or anything. “Sure. If it’s okay with your dad, that is.”

To her surprise, Carter gave her a tentative, almost shy smile. “It’s totally okay.”

Leticia smiled back, feeling warmth spread through her chest. “Okay then.”

Carter gave her directions to his place and they headed out. Leticia waved at Hal as she left, ignoring Hal’s frantic facial expressions and attempts to mime words. She had a feeling that Hal was going to grill her about this come Monday morning.

As they got into their separate cars, Leticia tried to breathe properly. She could do this, right? Just spend an afternoon with Carter and Molly? While still a bit hungover?

…Yeah. This was going to be interesting.