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“I really didn’t expect you to just come out and ask. What did he say?”

“He said no, of course.”

“Just like that? He just bluntly came out and said no?” Kirsten stared at her in shock.

“No, he was nicer about it. That almost makes it worse, if I’m honest. You see, earlier on, he’d asked me if I was a Little. I didn’t know what to say so I didn’t answer. But I also couldn’t shut my brain off and go to sleep last night.”

“Right, hence the sleeping pill.”

“Yeah, and hence the lack of inhibitions and inability to think things through clearly, like my actions and my words.”

“Actions and words are difficult,” Kirsten commiserated.

And this was why they were friends, because they always backed each other up, no matter how ridiculous the other one was being.

“Right. Actions and words are difficult. So I ended up in my thinking spot.”

“As you do,” Kirsten said.

“Which happened to be on the roof.”

“On the roof?” Kirsten asked. “You went up on the roof of your house? Is that safe?”

“Hey, don’t tell me you’re a member of the safety police,” she said. “You’re supposed to be agreeing with me. You’re my friend, remember?”

“Right, sure, sorry. Just that your roof doesn’t look very, um, safe, and how do you even get up there?”

“By standing on the railing, of course,” she told her.

“Oh my God, you stood on the railing? Last time I leaned on that railing, it nearly fell over.”

“Hey, you’re starting to sound like Ammo. He was all ‘it’s unsafe to be on the railing, and it’s unsafe to be on the roof.’ You’re supposed to be on my side, remember?”

“Right. Sure. Of course. Sorry. Please continue. The last thing I would want to do is to support his unreasonable demands that you be safe by not climbing on rickety old handrails and falling through roofs.”

Aimee eyed her suspiciously. “That doesn’t sound like you’re on my side.”

“Goodness, doesn’t it?” Kirsten said. “How unreasonable of me. So you are in your thinking spot after having taken a sleeping pill, and Ammo what? Found you there? And you asked him to be your Daddy, because you clearly understood that you need a Daddy to keep you safe.”

Aimee narrowed her gaze at Kirsten again. “He’s the one being unreasonable, not me.”

“Uh-huh, sure. He sounds completely unreasonable. A total and utter monster.”

“That’s better,” Aimee said. “But you could sound more like you mean it. Anyway, I didn’t ask him just then. He insisted I get down off the roof, which I nearly fell off because the gutter kind of gave way under me.”

“Aimee,” Kirsten cried. “You could have been seriously hurt.”

“I know, I know. It wasn’t the smartest decision, especially as I was getting woozy. Anyway, we got safely back into the bedroom, and then, I don’t know, it just came out of me. I don’t exactly know where it came from. Maybe because you said something about him being a Daddy, and it just kept playing on my mind. He does these nice things, and then he does these bossy things, and then he tells me to eat and to sleep and not to leave the house without him, and not to head off on a bus to Lager.”

“You took a bus to Lager? Why?”

“To pawn my flute, remember I told you that.”

“Yeah, I hate that you had to do that. That flute was the one thing that Charlie never managed to find and sell of yours. Does Ammo know you pawned your flute?”

“No. He has no idea how I got the money. Urgh, I can’t believe I asked him to be my Daddy. This is all so embarrassing.”

“What exactly did he say when you asked him to be your Daddy?” Kirsten asked.