After the Nemo incident, I decided that working with Percy was to be strictly professional, nothing else. Not even a slight mention of Alice.

Although I thought this was a solid plan, Percy had other ideas. He mentioned her regularly, asking me how she was doing, and even asking me how I was. It almost made me want to invite him over again. Almost.

"Hey, Chase, how's my favorite architect?" he said with a grin as he made his way over to my desk, leaning against it.

I rolled my eyes as I typed away on my computer, replying to some email I'd recently gotten. "Oh, I thought you weren't suppose to show favoritism."

"Well, I'll let you in on a little secret, you're my only architect," he said with a wink. "So, how's Alice?"

"She's fine," I replied back plainly. "Have you chosen a building exterior yet? We still haven't settled on one, and I emailed you a few more options if you're interested."

Percy's smiled dropped and he readjusted himself so he was standing up straight. "Uh, no, sorry. My email's actually pretty flooded. Can you show it to me? Maybe over—?"

"Okay, here it is," I interrupted as I pulled up the email that I'd sent him. I scrolled along and pointed out the different exteriors. "This one matches the other buildings nearby the lot you chose, but this one is really unique but still matches, and it might make your building stand out—"

"Hey, are you busy tonight?" Percy interrupted, looking bored to death of my architectural ramblings.

I shrugged. "Just a busy night at home, I guess. Thalia has night classes tonight, so it'll just be me and Alice. Anyways, back to exteriors—"

"Oh, never mind then. I just got a ticket to some fancy architectural conference I've never heard of before, I thought you'd be into that type of stuff," he said as he pulled out his phone and started scrolling through his email before finally locating the last one.

When my eyes caught the name of the conference my heart skipped a beat.

"Is that real?!" I managed to sputter as my eyes scanned the email, confirming what I'd thought. "How the hell did you get this?!"

"I got it from my company," he explained, his eyes narrowing as he studied my reaction. "Why? Is it super rare or something?"

I blinked slowly and took a deep breathe as I almost choked. "Percy, that must've cost a fortune! And that conference, it's famous! At least amongst architects. I've been saving up since, well, ever."

"So you're interested?" he asked with a chuckle as he closed his phone and placed it back in his back pocket.

"I—yeah!" I said with an intensive nod. "If I went there, oh god...all the big shots are probably there. I could even get discovered or something!"

Percy's eyes lit up. "Okay, then it's settled. I'll transfer my ticket to you, I didn't wanna go anyways. No offense, but this architect stuff bores me. So, tonight at seven."

I sighed and shook my head, causing him to frown with confusion. "I....I can't. I have Alice tonight and, like I said, Thalia is busy. And finding a sitter this late is nearly impossible...."

"Oh, come on!" Percy urged me. "You have to go! This is, like, your dream or something!"

"But Alice..." I murmured.

Percy shook his head and sighed, peering down at the floor with disappointment. Then his eyes lit up like he had an idea. "I'll watch her for you!"

I blinked several times as my brain processed the preposterous idea, and I nearly laughed before realizing that he was serious. "W-what? No, you can't be serious!"

"One hundred percent," Percy replied proudly. "I have a baby sister, you remember Estelle! I was great babysitting her. And if I babysit Alice, then you can go!"

Every ounce of me wanted to scream no and phase Percy out and remain professional, but the conference and the idea of getting discovered swam in my head, causing me to nod. "Okay, but only if you're sure you can handle it. I'll try to stay as little as possible—"

"No, no," Percy assured me with a shake of his head. "You will go, stay the whole time, have a great time, and be discovered. Alice will be fine."

"I....okay," I whispered, nerves slipping into my voice. "Call me if anything goes wrong, though."

He raised his eyebrow. "You see, that's sort of hard when I don't have your personal number, and I'm assuming you're not planning on bringing your work phone with you as an accessory."

I bit my lip before sighing and grabbing a nearby sticky note and jotting down my personal number. I handed it to Percy and he grinned. "Don't abuse this. Check in every hour or so, and I'll get you the numbers of our doctor's office, Thalia, emergency contacts, etc. She isn't allergic to anything I know of, but be careful—"

"Annabeth!" Percy said with a laugh, which caused me to crack a smile.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I've just never left her with anyone besides Thalia before," I responded.

Percy smiled, which seemed to put me at ease. "It'll be okay, Chase. She'll liv, don't worry. Remember when we used to babysit Estelle back in high school? I was excellent at that!"

A grin appeared on my face as I remembered the times Sally, Percy's mother, would allow me and Percy to babysit for Percy's younger sister, Estelle. He was so sweet, caring, and careful with her, it almost made me want to cry.

"I trust you," I decided with a small nod, which made his eyes lit up with joy. "But I'd anything goes wrong—"

"You'll kill me," finished Percy with a wink. "I know the drill. And nothing will go wrong, I assure you! Don't worry about us, to have the night of your life!"

"I'll try."