So this appointment was my idea. But I know it wasn’t on my calendar three hours ago.

Oh, boy. Lucy and I are quite a pair. I’m told that I function as about three quarters of a real adult. Lucy also seems to operate at seventy-five percent. But between us, we’re good for a person and a half. So I figure I’m still ahead.

Plus, even though she dresses head to toe in navy blue Talbots, and her aura doesn’t exactly scream fashionable photographer’s assistant, real talent, though, is telling it like it is to her boss and I need that.

My business has taken off these last couple of years, and before I hired Lucy, I struggled to keep my own calendar.

That led to some regrettable screwups. Just ask my ex-boyfriend. Garrett hated the way I was often late for our dates and all the times I was double-booked, or jet-lagged. It had been a huge transition from the life of a professional athlete in Europe to running my own small business here in New York.

But I wanted Garrett to be happy with me. In a great leap of faith, I’d decided to ask him to move in with me.

I made reservations at the Kimoto rooftop lounge in Brooklyn, left early. But then a truck jackknifed on the Williamsburg Bridge, leaving me stranded for forty-five minutes in an Uber.

When I finally arrived, Garrett was waiting at the corner table in front of the sweeping city views, a designer cocktail in hand. I gave him a big, hopeful smile, fingering the copied key to my apartment that I had for him in my pocket.

But the moment he spotted me, his expression shuttered. The moment I sat down, he said, “Asher, I can’t do this anymore.”

“There was this truck! It will probably be on the news tonight. Seriously—”

He’d shaken his head. “It’s not about tonight. I met someone else.”

That was not what I’d expected. “What? Who?”

When I’d pressed him for details, the breakup turned even worse. He’d met a lawyer, who worked as in-house counsel, and took every weekend off in East Hampton.

“That’s what you want? A lawyer?”

“What I want is someone who’s not a hot mess,” he’d said bitterly.

That was the low point. Even though I knew he was gone for good, I needed a change. So, the very next week I hired Lucy. I couldn’t afford to be known as a hot mess. It had already ruined my chances with Garrett. I wouldn’t let it ruin my business.

Since then, my bookings are up. Screwups are down. But I’m still lonely. Garrett’s Instagram is full of pics of him paddle boarding in the Hamptons with his lawyer.

I know I shouldn’t look. That’s just dumb.

“Asher!”

My head snaps up, and Lucy is standing next to me. “Google says it’s a forty-three-minute trip via the F-train. Or forty-eight minutes if you take the ferry. I suppose you could chance it in a cab.”