"Yeah, it's a guy."
She beamed a broad ear-to-ear grin at me. "It's that hot guy from across the street, am I right?"
I nodded, and couldn't help beaming out a huge smile myself.
"Wow, Viv! What was his name again? He was that high school principal guy, right?"
"Everett. Everett James."
"Ooh, that's a sexy-sounding name."
"Yeah, well it fits then because he’s sexy as hell," I informed her.
"Well go on! Don't hold back, give me all of the juicy details!"
"I don't know about juicy, but there are plenty of details. Remember I told you I babysat his kid?"
"Yeah, I do."
"She's such a little cutie pie, seriously."
"You told me that already. I want the details about the dad. And what about her mom? Did you find out anything about that?"
"I did. Seems her mom was...well, she was an alcoholic, apparently. She walked out on him and Jane."
"What?! Wow, she must be one cold-hearted bitch. No way I could ever leave my kids," Kerry stated adamantly.
"Right? Well anyway, as horrible as that is, at least Jane has a loving father."
"I guess. So, what have you and he been doing? Details, remember?" she teased.
"Well, we were supposed to go on a date last night, but he, uh, he stood me up – kinda."
"Say what? What kinda decent guy stands a girl up on the first date? And if that’s the case, why the hell are you smiling like that?"
"No, no, it was just a big mix-up. He got an emergency call and had to leave 15 minutes before our date started. And he forgot his phone, so he couldn't call and let me know about it."
"Hmm. What kind of problems does a high school principal have that are emergencies on a Friday night?" Kerry asked.
"Actually, there's some pretty serious stuff going on at his school. There's a massive drug problem."
"Well…shouldn’t the cops be handling that?"
"He’s very involved. That’s all I know. And then his daughter got sick, and he had to rush her to the hospital."
"Okay, that's a legit reason…and terrible. How is she?"
"She'll be okay, but they are keeping her to get the meds in her through an IV. He and I got to spend some time together this morning. He brought me flowers to apologize, then we chatted a lot, and uh..."
Kerry gave me a knowing glare. "And uh what? Spill it!"
"He kissed me," I admitted.
"And?! How was it?!"
"It was...yeah. Let's just say he's a really, really good kisser."
"Judging by the look on your face, I bet he is! And, what else? Are there any other juicy details I need to know about?"