Katy’s Reviews > A Desperate Fortune > Status Update

{Character prefers talking on the phone over texting; finally something that is nothing like me, because it was starting to feel like Kearsley was following me when she wrote Sara}

The levels of spying and counterintelligence had caught my interest so deeply I’d spent the past week or so reading about them, until I knew most of the spies’ and the spymasters’ names--could have probably spotted them, from their descriptions, had I been alive back then. This was just part of the way my brain processed things: nothing by half measures. Every new interest became an obsession.

My whole life I’d been teased by some people and lauded by others for my fierce fixation on time, but it wasn’t a thing I could easily change. And in this instance, turning up late wouldn’t just bother me, it would also be rude to our hostess. I’d have to go down on my own.

I was privately relieved. I didn’t dislike children, but being around them made me feel tense and uncomfortable. They were so unpredictable, bundles of energy, frequently loud and demanding attention--and often affection--in ways that I just couldn’t give them. If Denise’s son was looking for an audience, he’d find me disappointing.

Jacqui stepped out of her shoes. “You were getting that look”
“What look?”
“That look. The one that you get when you’re finding it all a bit much. When you’re tired of trying to socialize.”
I briefly glanced in the mirror that hung on the wall just behind her and couldn’t see any expression on my face but mild irritation. “I don’t have a look”
“Yes you do. You have many looks” Jacqui assured me.