Still, he was hers. For the first time in her life, she had his attention. He would forget Hudson soon enough, she told herself. Another few days, maybe a week, and he would be his old self. Then they would talk. Maybe she would ask him some of the questions she’d carried around for years, things she’d never even asked her mother.

“Can I ask you something?”

Rhodes’s question shook her from her thoughts. “Sure,” she said.

“Do you have a boyfriend? Back home. In L.A.”

Caddie looked over at him. He was peering intently at his computer screen, steadfastly avoiding meeting her gaze. “No,” she said. “I mean, sort of. Why?”

“Just wondering,” Rhodes answered. “I figured you did.”

Was he going to ask me out? Caddie wondered. The idea struck her as funny. Rhodes? Rhodes, with his pimples and his nervous laugh? She couldn’t even imagine.

She thought about Brian. She’d seen him again, slept with him again, mostly because she was tired of doing it herself. And it had been okay. He’d at least gone down on her, which was more than most guys did. Still, she hadn’t come and ultimately had had to do it herself anyway when she got home. But there was still something comforting about being naked with him. He wanted her, and that was something. It was more than she got from most people. Besides, she reminded herself, if you don’t want them, they can’t hurt you.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” she asked Rhodes, suddenly curious.

“Define girlfriend,” he replied.

“Well,” said Caddie, “how would you define boyfriend?”

“In your case? Probably a guy who takes you out and pays for everything.”

“So you think I’m a gold digger,” Caddie said. “Thanks a lot.”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Rhodes apologized. “I meant that whatever guy you go out with probably wants to pay for everything. Because you’re pretty,” he added.

“I’m not sure that’s any better,” Caddie informed him. “I like to think I’m pretty and interesting.”

Rhodes looked at her, and Caddie could tell he didn’t know if she was being serious or not. “I’m kidding,” she said. “Sort of. I really wouldn’t want to be with a guy just because he thought I was hot.”

“I said pretty,” Rhodes corrected her. “I didn’t say hot.”

It was Caddie’s turn to not know if he was joking. When she saw his mouth trembling as he tried to hold back a smile, though, she knew he was just trying to get to her. “You still haven’t answered my question,” she reminded him.

“Yes,” he said. “I have a girlfriend.”