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He nodded. “When I dropped Jacob off a little while ago.”
Paige had smiled at the unexpected mention of Valerie, but was now a little confused. “What’s wrong with that?” she asked, trying to think of a reason, only to have one hit her like a brick to the face. “Wait. Does that mean she knows you’re seeing me tonight?”
David nodded again and the utter dismay on Paige’s face made him quickly add, “But that’s all she knows.”
Her purse slipped from her hand, hitting the hardwood floor with a thud that echoed in the entryway. “That’s all? That’s too much, David. How does she even know that?”
“She got it out of me.”
“How did she get it out of you?”
“She tricked me.”
Paige stared at him. “What, are you five? Seriously. How does she know?”
“I swear I didn’t tell her,” he said, cringing at his childish, defensive tone and then went on to make it worse. “Not directly, anyway. But she has mom sorcery or something—”
“I’m sorry … mom sorcery? Is that something she learned at Hogwarts?”
“Okay, your sarcasm isn’t helping.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know how else to respond to hearing about your mom’s ‘sorcery’,” she said, going against her hard-and-fast rule of never using air quotes and using them, because the situation absolutely called for it. “Anyway, my apologies. Please continue.”
The apology had been pretty sarcastic too, but David managed to overlook it because it wasn’t part of the bigger picture. “She asked about my plans for the evening and when I wouldn’t tell her who they were with, she started badgering me. Then, she asked if I was being secretive because I was hooking up with some random woman and I told her no—”
“You should’ve just said yes. That probably would’ve been the end of it.”
“Actually that would’ve been the end of our date,” he told her. “If I’d said yes, she wouldn’t have watched Jacob, so I’m glad I didn’t. Not that I would’ve, anyway, because I don’t want her believing I was hooking up with some random woman.”
Paige took a moment to appreciate the importance he placed on his mother’s opinion, even if it had led to Paige’s cover being blown. “So how did she find out, then? And please don’t mention sorcery again.”
He gave her a dirty look before answering. “After I told her you weren’t a random hookup, she asked if you were someone I was dating and I had no choice but to tell her yes. But I made it clear that it was very casual. She then wanted to know the name of the person I was dating, and I refused to tell her—”
“You should’ve just given her a fake name. That would’ve ended it.”
There was a long pause. “I could have ... if I’d thought of it.”
She threw her hands up in the air. “Why am I better at this than you?”
“I don’t know. That’s a good question,” David said, before shaking his head. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Even if I had thought of it, I probably wouldn’t have done it. Mainly because I don’t like lying to her, but also because whenever I have lied to her in the past, she always knew I was lying. She’s a bloodhound for lies.”
“So,” Paige said slowly, “you can’t lie to your mom, but you can lie to me?”
“When have I ever—”
“You lied to me about all those songs that night at dinner. Then you lied to me again, an hour later, when you told me I looked fine and sent me out to talk to Dolly in the hallway, even though I looked like I’d been mauled by a bear.”
“Okay, in my defense, the lies about the songs were harmless and I came clean almost right after, so that negates those lies—”
“Not really, no.”
“—and I only lied about you looking fine because it was necessary. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have gone out there and that barracuda would’ve gotten into your apartment and seen me with my massive hard-on, which I really didn’t want to happen. So I lied for the greater good.”
“One could argue that lying to your mom tonight would’ve been for the greater good,” Paige pointed out. Then, before David could respond in any way, she went back to the main issue. “So, if you didn’t tell her my name, how does she know I’m the one you’re seeing tonight?”
“Like I said, she tricked me. She pretended to give up, so I thought it was over. As I was getting ready to leave, she told me to have a good time, and—”
“She told you to have a good time?”
