Seven Year Switch (2010) by Cook Claire

Author:Cook, Claire [Claire, Cook,]
Format: epub
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: 2011-01-14T19:18:42.359000+00:00

“SPELLING TIME,” I said to Anastasia as soon as we’d cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher, and she’d finished her other homework. “Do you want to do it with me or on the phone with your dad?”

Anastasia looked at me like I had three heads. “Dad,” she said. “Don’t you have to use the phone for work though?”

“If I miss anybody, I can always call back. Just don’t take too long.” I unplugged my headphone and handed my cell to her. “Oh, and tell your dad it’s okay for him to come over on Sunday. And that Thai food is fine.”

A minute later Anastasia was sitting at the kitchen table with her pink and purple pen and a sheet of paper in front of her, laughing on the phone with Seth. “Mom,” she yelled. “Dad wants to know what kind of Thai food you want.”

“What ever,” I said from the living room. It was right next to the kitchen, and the house was so small it’s not like I needed to yell to be heard.

I was stretched out on the couch with my feet up on the old trunk. I was imagining biking through the western countryside in Japan with Billy, after we’d closed the deal for new Akira bicycle kiosks in Tokyo. We were triumphant. We were a team. We were taking a little victory tour before we headed home together.

“She likes shrimp pad thai, but vegetarian is fine if it’s too expensive,” I heard Anastasia say from the other room. “And she likes to get flowers, too. Especially daisies. You can pick them from the field next to my school. I can show you if you want.”

I sat up straight and put my feet on the floor. Surely Anastasia couldn’t possibly think that flower exchanges of any kind were in Seth’s and my future.

Anastasia and Seth moved on to her spelling words, and I stretched out on the couch again. Maybe instead of biking around western Japan, Billy and I would stay in Tokyo. I’d try to get us a deal on a romantic corner room with a view of Mount Fuji.

“Believe,” Anastasia said from the kitchen. “I believe you can live happily ever after. Believe.”

I couldn’t hear Seth’s sentence, but what ever it was made Anastasia giggle.

“Again,” Anastasia said. “Mom and I are glad you’re coming over for dinner on Sunday again. Again.”

Okay, so maybe she had a little bit of a fantasy going that Seth and I might get back together. Any kid in her situation probably would. It would just take some time for everything to sort itself out.

“Brought,” Anastasia said. “If you brought me a kitten and my own phone, I would be the happiest girl in the whole wide world. Brought.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Anastasia was a typical ten-year-old girl. She was fine.

Just to be sure, I waited until I knew she was sound asleep. Then, addict that I was, I snuck into her room to find her diary.

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