Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Well, that wasn’t exactly the reaction AJ had been hoping for. She sighed, watching him carefully. So what, he wasn’t even going to try? He was going to give up like that? I can’t convince your mum of anything, she thought mockingly in her head, sinking into her chair a bit more. She had flown all the way from Boston to London in hopes that this guy would at the very least try, and he wasn’t even going to give her that much. She frowned, annoyed but also sad that her seemingly last option was about to fall apart before it even had a chance to get off the ground.

Then suddenly, he paused, lingering on the thought of how long it had been since he had seen Leona. The silence caught AJ by surprise and she glanced up cautiously, watching him think. His brown eyes seemed lost in some other place, and she started to sit up, hope slowly filling her again. The waiting was absolutely killing her, but she was smart enough not to try and push him. She’d already figured out enough about him in the few minutes they had spoken to know that he was not going to be forced into anything.

And there it was. AJ lit up, sitting straight in the chair and leaning forward a bit, a wide smile on her face. “Really?!” she said a bit too loudly, unable to contain her excitement. She was on her feet now, bouncing on her toes and chanting “Yes, yes yes!” to herself. Without thinking she ran around the side of the desk and threw herself at the much larger figure in the chair and wrapping her tiny arms around him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she shouted. Her behavior was hardly surprising, she was only twelve after all. She ran back around the desk to her bag and pulled out a cell phone. “I have to tell KC, she’s gonna flip!” she said, mostly to herself, biting her lip and still bouncing with excitement.