Better than my parents, my younger sister.
So what was Flowers?
My assistant. Yes. My employee. Yes.
Did I like her? I certainly tolerated her weirdness.
Hot dog restriction. It was preposterous.
“You done?” I asked her, suddenly uncomfortable with the topic. “We should be getting back.”
“Yes, the salad dressing was delicious,” she said with a wry smile, as she gathered up her napkin and plastic utensils into a tidy pile on the salad bowl. “See, that’s why people think salads are good. Dry lettuce and vegetables? Gross. But cover this baby in creamy ranch dressing and you’re like, oh, salads are awesome. It’s a total mind fuck.”
“I do like you,” I blurted out.
She seemed startled by my declaration.
Maybe it was a little awkward, but it was the truth.
“You must be right, then,” I said. “You must be inherently likeable, because…well, I don’t. Like a lot of people, that is.”
“Yeah,” she said, softly. “I get it. You don’t have any time for the bullshit. Too much to do. A lot of people are all about the bullshit.”
Yes!That was so exactly right.
“You can take a longer lunch tomorrow if you want,” I offered. I stood and rolled up the wrapper of my sandwich. “Give yourself a chance to really get to know Claire.”
She hip checked me as she walked by to throw out her trash. “I thought you were supposed to go back to being mean tomorrow?”
“You’ll need to come in early and work even later to make up the difference.”
“Now, that’s my Bossman! Happy to oblige.”
I gathered my trash and dumped it in the bin behind her.
I held on to my iced tea, as it was still half full, and took another sip as we waited to cross the street back to our building.
“I don’t like iced tea,” I announced. “This is unsweetened and it’s kind of bitter.”
“Then why did you order it?”
“Because it’s better for me than soda,” I realized it, even as I said it.
“See. You put yourself on soda restriction and you didn’t even know it. It’s okay to let go every once in a while though. You should remember that, too.”
Let go. When was the last time I’d let go of anything?
Allison. I’d had to let go of Allison.
But had I?
FIFTEEN
ANNA
Empirically, she knew what fun was. She just didn’t know how to get there.
“This is so much fun!”Claire announced.
