“About 45 minutes. Shane is going to come meet us while you are in the room talking and then at the end we are going to go in and talk to Dr. Soden while you hang out in the kid’s area for a bit.”

“Do you think Shane can take me to the skate park tonight?

Carmen flashed him a smile and nodded. “If you get your homework done first I think that can be arranged.”

“Can I get two scoops of ice cream?” He asked hopefully.

“Don’t press your luck.” She looked down at him and gave her best stern face.

He tried his best to act upset about it and followed her through the door.

****************

Carmen checked the time on her phone as she flipped through a parenting magazine—she was disappointed there wasn’t a copy of Rolling Stone. Her clock read 4:30, “Where the hell is Shane?” she thought.

Just then the tall women breezed through the door. She leaned over to give Carmen a kiss.

“Hey babe, sorry I’m late.”

“I was wondering where you were. How was your day?”

“Good. Long, with lots of unhappy actresses but good. Better now that I get to see you.” Shane smiled.

Carmen rolled her eyes. “Ugh, cheeseball.”

“So how was yours?”

“It was good, slept in, grabbed lunch with Tina and Alice, worked on some mixes, picked Shay up—oh hey guess what? Shay has a friend! Yeah! He told me today after school. His name is Marcus and he is nine—yeah he got held back a year in school, but I’m willing to let that go because when I asked him if Marcus was nice to him and he said yes so I think that’s a good start.”

Shane stifled a laugh but a snort somehow managed to escape.

“What?” Carmen said with a confused look.

“You actually asked him that? If the kid is nice to him?”

“Okay can someone please explain what the hell is wrong with that?”

“Nothing…mom.” Shane tensed for the playful hit that she knew would come.

Carmen glared and would have given Shane a pinch but the door opened and Shay came running out.