She frowns, though. “Your gym is already legit, Elias.” I smile. She really doesn’t know how these comments make me feel like I’m the most successful businessman on the planet. “This will just give you more time to do things. Especially if you take on more clients.”
“I do need more time,” I admit.
I sit down next to her and we look through the software together. It really does seem like it’ll make my life easier. After exploring all the different functions, we decide to split up the tasks. I grab my laptop from my room, and together, we enter shit from the Excel spreadsheet into the software. We upload forms, set up an online payment portal. She stands up periodically and gets us snacks from the kitchen. I take a few minutes to rub the knots out of her neck from bending over and looking at her laptop. It takes us all day, up until we need to leave for dinner.
“Look at all the time we have now,” I say, pulling her across my lap to straddle my waist. “Can I spend this time showing my gratitude for all your help today?”
She laughs, and something pulls at me. “I have to get ready,” she says, after a good few minutes of making out. It’s just too easy, or too hard not to.
“Does getting ready involve a shower?” I ask hopefully.
We’re late for dinner, because getting ready did indeed involve a shower.
And after she came on top of me for the third or maybe fourth time today, she looked at me, eyes sparkling with that same look, that one of affection and awe. And there’s something else there, something that’s a feeling more than a look. And I knew what it was, because I’ve been feeling it, too.
TWENTY-THREE
Mia
I takea big gulp of my Sancerre. My family loves their Loire Valley wines.
We’re seated in the exact same configuration as last week. It’s a different restaurant, but the same stuffy, business-bro vibe. It’s harder not to reach out and hold Elias’s hand in my lap, and I can see he’s struggling with the same issue. The hand closest to me twitches periodically, and more than once he sneaks it under the tablecloth to squeeze my knee.
My parents will ask how Leo’s job is in three… two… one…
“How’s that project going, Leo?” booms Dad, right on schedule.
I roll my eyes.
“It’s much better. We’ve moved onto the next phase?—”
I swirl the wine in my glass, thinking about the day Elias and I had together. Elias, the person whom I love. I’m fine admitting this, at least to myself. Elias is a different story.
But there’s something in the way he looks at me now that makes me think the conversation may not be so bad.
“—Mia?” Leo asks me.
I’m shocked that I’ve been deigned to speak to. “What?”
Leo and Elias both smile at me warmly, to my left. “Elias just told us that you’re doing something really cool with your class.”
I glance at my parents, who are pretending to be interested, probably because Elias’s outburst during the last dinner made them look bad.
Elias smiles at me encouragingly.
“Well… Yeah. My principal right now sucks?—”
“Not a great idea to say about your superiors, Mia—” Dad has to say.
Elias shoots my dad an incredulous look, and it spurs me on.
“I can say whatever the hell I want about my superiors, Dad. She’s not here. Plus, I’m unionized, which is about the only good thing about being a DOE employee. Well, that and the free health insurance. But even if I did say something, with the backing of my union?—”
“Plus the fact you worked your ass off to get tenured—” Elias chimes in.
I grin at him. “Thank you, Elias. The strength of our union combined with my tenure means that I would have to straight up dangle a kid out the window to get fired. So excuse me if I want to speak honestly about my absolute cunt of a boss.”
Elias stands and gives me a round of applause. Leo cracks up beside him. My parents look mildly horrified.
