"Time check!" Michelle's voice rang out from her bathroom, where she stood putting on mascara.

"Seven-oh-four!" Ellie called back from the couch.

"Crap!" Michelle said, moving even more quickly.

"Watch your language!" her little sister called, turning a page of the book she was reading.

"What? Crap isn't a bad word!"

"Well you never let me say it when I was little!"

"Yeah, you were five!"

Their arguing match was then interrupted by three loud knocks on the door.

"Get the door, Ellie!"

Ellie stood up and opened the door to a flower-bearing Tony who obviously did a double-take at seeing this little girl with Michelle's curls.

"Hi!" Tony said after a second or two of staring.

"Hi Tony!" Michelle called from the bathroom. "Come on in. I'm just going to be a minute."

"Uh... okay." Tony called to the voice of unknown location. Ellie opened the door a little wider, allowing Tony to step into the small entry. "So, you must be Michelle's sister, right?" Tony said. Ellie shyly nodded, looking at the ground.

"Tony this is my little sister, Ellie. Ellie, this is my... boss," Michelle said, hurriedly entering the room.

"It's great to meet you Ellie," Tony said, smiling, and then turning to Michelle. "You look great."

Michelle returned the smile. "Thanks."

"Well, should we get out of here?"

"Sure!" Michelle turned to Ellie, still standing silently by the door, and said, "Don't stay up too late. Oh, and there's some leftover Chinese in the fridge."

Ellie nodded, Tony took Michelle's hand, Michelle brushed a curl out of Ellie's face, and they walked out of the door. "See you later, Ellie."

"Bye," Ellie softly responded as she shut the apartment door.

"So, how are you, really?" Tony asked once he was buckled into the driver's seat of his car, Michelle beside him.

"I'm okay," Michelle responded. "It's... weird. I still feel so... drained."

"I know exactly how you feel," Tony responded, turning his key in the ignition and starting the car. "And I hate to say it, but the aftermath of yesterday is going to take a while to clear up. At work and...Up here," he said, lightly touching his forehead.

"I can see why..." Michelle said, nodding.

"Your sister's cute," Tony said brightly, changing the subject. "She looks just like you."

"Yeah... she's just littler," Michelle said, smiling.

"She's tiny!" Tony exclaimed. "How old is she?"

"Fourteen. Almost fifteen. Next week," Michelle answered. He's going to ask, Michelle thought. Just say it.

"Wow, I wouldn't have known. I'm no good at guessing ages," Tony laughed. "So why is it that-"

"She lives with me?" Michelle interrupted.

"Well, yeah," Tony answered, unsure of what Michelle's hasty interruption meant.

Just say it, Michelle told herself. She took a breath. "My mom left when Ellie was born and I was thirteen and Danny was fifteen and my other sister Kerry was nine and never came back and my dad died three years ago and even though Danny is the oldest he's pretty much screwed up as you saw and plus he's a boy and he never got along well with Ellie so she lives with me," Michelle gushed in one breath.

Tony removed one hand from the steering wheel and took Michelle's hand in his. "I'm sorry," he said gently. "I didn't know."

"It's okay," Michelle said quickly. "It's just, I don't talk about it very often, and I wasn't sure what you were going to think when you found out that I... well, I'm kind of raising a teenager."

"I don't mind at all. In fact, I admire you for it." Michelle smiled, relieved.

"So why doesn't Danny like Ellie?" Tony asked.

"Well, when my mom left, it was sort of because she didn't want another baby, and Danny was really upset and he's always kind of blamed Ellie for her leaving," Michelle said. It wasn't often that she actually said that out loud.

"That's terrible," Tony replied. "Putting that kind of a guilt trip on a little girl..."

Michelle nodded and smiled. Tony Almeida, I am liking you more by the second.

"So what grade is she in?" Tony asked as her pulled up to a red light.

"Ninth. She's a freshman."

"Ooh- high school," Tony said, feigning a look of terror. "How's that?"

"It's alright," Michelle responded. "She enjoys having the older grades there- she goes to a lot of the senior classes and study sessions- she's really smart, but she's also really shy, so all the people are a little tough. But she's okay."

"Ah, here we are," Tony said, pulling into the parking lot of an Italian restaurant. "Have you been here before?"

Michelle shook her head. "I don't think so... and I get takeout a LOT."

"Do you like Italian?"

"I love Italian."

"Good." Tony opened his door, but when Michelle reached for her door handle, he quickly said, "You stay right there."

Michelle remained glued to her seat as Tony walked around to the passenger side, opened her door, and offered his hand. She smiled as she stood up and said, "Wow- I don't think I've had a date do that for me before!"

"Well then you haven't dated very well-mannered guys," Tony said, taking her arm in his and walking in to the front doors of the restaurant.

During dinner, their conversation turned from Ellie to Tony's family to shoe sizes to favorite flavors of ice cream to music to movies to ferrets (for a very short time) to second dates.

"I really want to take you out again soon," Tony said to Michelle as they approached her apartment door. Michelle smiled. "Really soon."

"I had a great time Tony," she said, reaching for her keys. "Thank you."

"I, uh, Michelle..." Tony began. "We should..." Tony stopped himself short and leaned over, quickly kissing Michelle on the lips.

"We definitely should," Michelle whispered before returning the kiss to its rightful owner.

"I'll see you at work," Tony said, giving Michelle one last kiss before turning and heading towards the elevator.