Seeing a text from Valerie made him frown. Since he dropped her off at her place Monday morning before rushing to school, he hadn’t seen or talked to her. It’d been three days since he even called her. But this week had been so busy, and now it was only going to get worse. He didn’t even have time to read her text. He had missed calls from the restaurant and Sofie. He needed to check those first.

Without listening to his voice mail, he called Sofie instead.

“Did you get my message?” she asked as soon as she answered.

“No, I haven’t had a chance,” he said, pulling out onto the street from the school parking lot. “I’m driving and I didn’t wanna be pushing buttons. What do you need?”

“Payroll,” she said. “You’re missing a few people this week. Sal showed me how to do it before, and I know you’ve been super busy, so I was gonna try getting it done for you, but I had a couple of questions. I tried Sal first, but he didn’t answer.”

“I didn’t miss anyone,” he explained with a frown. “I just hadn’t finished, but I’m glad you checked into it, because I did forget all about it.”

“I figured as much,” she said.

They went over the things she needed clarification on, and then he finally got some much needed good news.

“Mom called today,” she said as if it just hit her. “Grandpa’s doing better. The swelling has decreased significantly, and the doctors say it looks like there isn’t any permanent damage. He might be awake in a day or two.”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief, mostly for his dad’s sake. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy about his grandpa being better, but the truth was neither he nor any of his siblings had been real close to the guy. His grandpa moved back to Mexico when they were all very young, and ever since, they only saw him maybe once or twice a year if that. The last couple of years none of them had made the trip back for the holidays, the trip his parents made annually. Instead, just like now, they stayed back and manned the restaurant while his parents went. He didn’t mean to be insensitive. It was just one of those things. His grandpa was elderly. It was to be expected. His dad was who worried him. Alex’s dad was still very close to his father, and Alex knew he was taking this especially hard.

After getting off the phone with his sister, Alex made a few other calls he needed make. None of them were to Valerie. He hated that he didn’t have the time to squeeze her in, but there was just so much shit he’d fallen behind on.

Once done with his ankle therapy, he rushed out into his car again. This week was going to be a blur if he ever got through it. The only good thing was the clinic was just around the corner from the restaurant, so that worked out.

As he jumped in his car, his phone rang, and he dreaded checking who it was in case it was Valerie. Not that he didn’t miss her, he just wasn’t up for having to explain why he had no idea when he’d be able to see her again. Telling her about added schoolwork to make up for his colossally shitty grades was out of the question.

The way he’d acted last week when he’d decided things were going to change between them was completely contradictory to how things were this week. But how the hell was he supposed to have predicted how busy he’d be this week?

On top of everything, Valerie had always been such a huge distraction. This was part of the reason why he’d fallen behind in his Time Series Analysis class. When he was around her, he couldn’t help but put everything else aside. As he always said, he just couldn’t get enough of her.

Fortunately, it wasn’t her, but seeing who it was made him smile with relief and he answered. “Gwyneth,” he said as he sped out of the parking lot maybe a little too fast. “I was just thinking about you, sweetheart.”

Gwyneth laughed. “Oh really?” she said, playfully sarcastic. “And sweetheart, huh? Hmm, I can’t decide what I like better—that or when you call me smexy.” Alex smiled, but before he could respond, she added, “Smexy, definitely smexy. It feels more unique, and when you said it the first time, it felt so genuine.”

He pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot, parked, and jumped out. For the first time that week, he laughed. “I’m always genuine.”

“Oh yes, like you were really thinking of me just now? I haven’t heard from you in weeks.”

“Okay, maybe the second you called I wasn’t, but you had been on my mind lately.” Ever since Professor Davenport laid on all Alex would have to do to have a chance at passing his class.

“Really?” she said again, and he could almost picture her timid smile. “Well, I’m glad I called then. I got a couple of last-minute tickets to the Padres game tomorrow night and no one to go with. I remember you mentioning you’re a big fan, so I thought maybe . . . you’d wanna go with me.”

He winced as he walked toward the back door of the restaurant. “I’m actually swamped this week.”

“We don’t have to go for the whole game,” she said quickly. “I never do. We could just sit in for a few innings, have a beer, and leave early.” She paused for a moment. “Maybe go back to your place after?”

About to say no, Alex had a thought suddenly. It might actually be best to get started on this the sooner the better. “You know what?” He pushed the door to restaurant open. “That actually sounds like a good idea. Does the game start at seven?”