“She’s babysitting?”
“It’s not the first time,” I pointed out. “She babysits for me often now… I haven’t had to call my backup babysitter in weeks.”
“A girlfriend and a babysitter all in one hot package, huh?”
I laughed. “Fuck you…it’s not like that. I care about her.”
“I can see that,” he nodded. “And, she obviously cares about Noah.”
“I’ll admit, that was a relief,” I said. “What if Noah didn’t like her; what if she didn’t like him? That would have been terrible.”
“If that had been the case, then you and Kristen wouldn’t be together in the first place.”
“Good point,” I nodded. I took another sip of beer and then looked at Luis. “I feel like we’re always talking about me. What’s new with you?”
He gave me a cheeky grin, and I knew immediately something was up. “Something is new with you,” I said. “Am I right?”
“Well…”
“Do tell,” I insisted.
“I met someone,” he admitted.
“Well, well—”
“Shut up,” Luis laughed. “Her name’s Catherine. She’s a nurse in the pediatric unit of the All Saint’s Hospital.”
“How did you meet her?”
He laughed. “It’s a funny story, actually,” he said. “We had this party for my brother’s kid, and he ended up having an allergic reaction to some cupcakes that Dad bought for the party. We had to rush him to the hospital, and Catherine was the nurse that attended to him.”
“Fuck, that’s some story,” I said.
“Some would call it a meet-cute.”
“Is that the technical term?” I laughed.
“I think it’s the movie term.”
“Since when do you know about movie terms?” I asked.
“Since Catherine loves romantic comedies and old romantic movies,” Luis said.
I raised my eyebrows. “You watch old romantic movies with her?”
“Well…yeah.”
“Wow, you must really like this girl, huh?”
Luis looked down at his beer without responding immediately, and that small action by itself told me that he liked this girl a lot, probably more than he wanted to.
“She’s not like any of the other girls I’ve been with.”
“What’s different about her?”
“She doesn’t seem scared by the fact that I’m in the military,” he said. “In fact, she’s interested in hearing about my life there. She’s honest, she’s straightforward, and she’s… I don’t know; she just has something.”
I smiled. “Sounds like you more than just like this girl,” I said. “Sounds like you might be falling for her.”