Text from Tanya Fox

< Tanya: Hello. Are you available for another hotel booking?

Her text came as a surprise. Aaron blinked twice, contemplating his decision. It was the morning and he elected to take another emergency day. His supervisor called him and asked if it was due to his hospitalised sister. While glancing at Chloe, Aaron said yes.

He didn't mind railing her. His stamina had returned and he could certainly use the millions. His concern was Chloe. Where would she be while he worked?

He checked his contacts. 'Hadiyah…? Hm, too risky. I don't trust Jaina or Vicki either. Definitely not my supervisor or Tam Fox. That leaves…Shug-R. Hell no.'

Chloe was busy playing games on his TV console. Unexpectedly, she was adept at FPS games. A little too good. Aaron wondered if it was a good idea introducing her to these types of games.

"Die, die, die," he heard her mutter under her breath. She sprayed an entire magazine on a basic zombie and showed no remorse as she killed the zombies. Good stuff.

Anyway, his only option was somebody who didn't know him too well but still trusted him.

Claire. His downstairs neighbour.

Before he knew it, he was on the second floor of the complex. She said she lived directly under him. He knocked on her door and waited. It took perhaps two seconds before it opened.

"Hi!" Claire smiled widely, like she had been expecting him. "Aaron! Oh wow! How are you doing?"

"Great. How about you?"

He unconsciously glanced inside. Her apartment unit was a mess. Clothes were strung everywhere/ Bottles of coke and Mountain Dew were empty and tossed uncaringly, and there were seven or eight boxes of pizza lying around. It was a college student's room, alright. Aaron pretended not to notice.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Claire replied, giggling nervously. She leaned on her door, arms spread wide, attempting to hide her pathetic excuse of an apartment unit. "What can I do for you?"

Suddenly, Aaron lost all desire to ask her. Wearing polka-dotted shorts and a light-blue gown, she did not look responsible in the slightest. She was a mess. He should have figured it out from his prior interactions with her.

"Well…I need somebody to babysit Chloe for a few hours."

He had never seen someone's eyes shine so brightly. She leapt up at him and gathered his hands into hers. "Really? I can help! I had an older brother–he was pretty much a baby! I can do it!"

'Had? Past tense?' was his immediate thought.

"Right…" Aaron eyed her sceptically. "Are you sure? Do you know how to take care of a child?"

Claire scoffed. "I am a grown woman. Of course I do."

"Hm. Do you know what date it is?"

"H-huh?" Claire laughed his question off. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Aaron's eyes flickered at the cans of soda in the background. "You probably haven't slept for days, right?" Before she could give a rebuttal, he added, "Let me guess, a late assignment? An exam next week? It is exam season."

Claire faltered. She craned her head back to her unit, ears flushing red, before turning back to him. "I know what this looks like…but it's not."

"Sure," he said flatly. "By the way, it's the 17th of December. A Friday."

"Ah. R-right." Claire rubbed the back of her neck. She did that a lot when she got anxious. "Er…so about Chloe…"

"I don't have many options, to be honest, so I'm afraid I have to leave her in your care." Aaron sighed and handed her a checklist.

"What's this?" Claire asked, reading through it like a superhuman.

"Things Chloe likes and doesn't like. Foods, habits, do's and don'ts, those kinds of things. I've been keeping notes."

"Oh. Ohh." Claire glowed with a new fire. She looked up at him, smiling, and said, "You can count on me!"

"I hope so."

He gave Claire the keys to his apartment and left her in charge. He told her–with no offence–that her place was a garbage heap. There was no way he was having Chloe stay there. Claire was surprisingly okay with it. She said she had always wanted to see his place.

Kind of weird but okay.