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only fancy thing I owned. I lived in sweats and jeans except for when I was at work, and even then, the office I worked at was quite casual and didn’t require anything too fancy.
    I would’ve liked to own more nice clothes, but I simply didn’t have the money to waste on pretty, well-fitting dresses when I didn’t really need them all that much. San Francisco rents were sky high, and even an area like Hunter’s Point swallowed up a substantial portion of my monthly paycheck, seeing as I’d started helping Mom pay it as soon as I found my job.
    As I showered, dressed and swiped on some mascara and lip tint, my mind drifted back unbidden to the other night. I’d hoped to expand my horizons and get back into the dating game by going out on the blind date, but it had failed ever-so-spectacularly, and I was unsure if I ever wanted to try something like that again. It was bad enough that my real date had completely forgotten to meet me, and it was worse that the guy who’d inadvertently taken his place had turned out to be an asshole player.
    Wow, such great luck. Not.
    As much as I didn’t like Mystery Man, I couldn’t stop thinking about his chiseled features and powerful chest and arms. His shoulders were so broad that it wouldn’t surprise me if he had trouble fitting through doors, and I closed my eyes for a second and pictured myself being picked up and thrown over those very shoulders.
    A girl can dream…
    I realized I was absentmindedly chewing on a strand of my hair as I drifted away in fantasy-land, and I shook my head at myself. I needed to get it together. Despite my weird mood, it was time to go out to dinner and play nice for my Mom and her boyfriend. Hopefully they’d have happy news for me, and their mood would rub off on me.
    I should be so lucky.
    ***
    I glanced around as we entered the Balmoral forty minutes later, hearing the hushed tones of conversation and the clinking of wine glasses around us. The restaurant design was similar to the main hotel with a mixture of cream colors and dark woods; modern yet still elegant. I’d only been here once before, on the first occasion upon which I’d met James. Seeing as he owned the place, he’d kindly let me eat for free, and thank God for that, because even the appetizers were way out of my price range.
    “There he is,” Mom announced, waving across the restaurant.
    The hostess obviously already knew her well, because she didn’t even try to stop us and ask for a name as we headed over to a prime booth with leather seats, where James was sitting. He was dressed in a tailored grey suit which contrasted nicely with his salt and pepper hair and blue eyes.
    His eyes lit up as he saw us approaching, and he jumped to his feet. “Anna!” he said, enveloping her in a hug before turning to me and my Grandma. “Adelina, lovely to see you again. Those pearl earrings are beautiful. And Aurora, you look wonderful too.”
    “Thanks. Call me Rory,” I said with a smile.
    “Ah, of course, I forgot you prefer that. Although if I call you that, I can’t collectively refer to you ladies as the ‘Triple A’, can I?”
    I laughed softly. It was a tradition in our family that every girl was given a name beginning with A, but I’d always preferred Rory for myself. It was easier for people to say than Aurora, which had always come across as a little pretentious despite what a pretty name it was. My real name also reminded me that I’d been named after a fairytale princess, which bothered me somewhat due to how un-fairytale-like my life had always been.
    “Finn is going to be a little late. Some trouble at one of our bars, it seems. But he’ll be along shortly,” James said.
    “Finn?” I asked, forehead creasing in a puzzled expression.
    “My son,” James replied. “Didn’t you meet him last time we had dinner? Oh wait, no, he was elsewhere that night.”
    I turned to my Mom with surprise, and she raised her eyebrows as if to say ‘what?’
    I’d had no