“Yeah, I’m good. Just thinking.” I give her a soft smile before returning my focus to the laptop. Skye walks around the coffee table and plops down on the couch next to me, bowl of cereal in hand.
“Thought I wanted a nap. Turns out I actually want Lucky Charms.” I look over at her as she slurps her first bite and ask, “Brunch of champions?”
Mouth still full of half-chewed cereal, Skye says, “You know it.” I’m thankful milk didn’t spurt out of her mouth when she opened it to speak.
“You’re gross,” I tease. “Every time you talk with food in yourmouth, you lure Sunny one more step toward your pubescent behavior patterns.”
Skye swallows and smiles. “She’s nearly a tween anyway; I’m just meeting her in the middle. You’re too much of a grown-up to guide her into adolescence. Truly, I’m doing you a favor.”
I shake my head. “You’re ridiculous.”
Skye lays her head on my shoulder and blinks up at me with puppy dog eyes. “But you love me.” It’s true. I do love her. I wouldn’t have been able to move so far away from home and finish grad school without her.
She sits up and grabs the remote on the couch armrest. “You cool with me watching TV in here?”
“Yeah, no problem. I’m just going to work on some grading for Miller until Sunny wakes up. Thanks again for your help with her today.”
“I told you, it was no trouble. That’s why I’m here. I know she’stechnicallyyour kid, but she’s mine, too. She has two moms at home!”
Skye’s eyebrows shoot up and she sits up straight, excited by whatever thought just popped into her head. “Ooooooooh you know what? That’s how Sunny can rise in the ranks with her friends! She’ll be the coolest girl in school if she’s the girl with two moms. Her friends don’t need to know we’re friends without benefits — we’ll be the cool, up-with-the-times, lesbian parents and all those kids will wish their parents were as cool as Sunny’s.”
I close my eyes and rub my forehead. “How in the world do you come up with these ridiculous ideas? And also, why would Sunny need to ‘rise in the ranks’? She’s made friends at school. She doesn’t need a popularity boost, nor does she need to lie to get people to like her.”
Skye laughs and elbows my ribs. “I was joking, dummy! See, this is what I mean. You are too grown up for your good. You can’t even recognize a joke when it’s right in front of you.” I roll my eyes at her before turning my focus back to my computer.
Skye squeezes my thigh and wiggles my leg. “Oh, come on, partypooper. Are you upset that I don’t really want to be your lesbian lover? Don’t get me wrong — if I was into chicks I’d be all up in your business, but right now I’ve got my eye on someone else.”
That gets my attention. “What? Who? Why is this the first I’m hearing about this?”
A smirk plays across her face. “He’s nobody right now. Just an enigma who crosses my path each morning at the coffee shop.”
“An enigma, you say?” Skye is typically great at reading people, especially men, so for her to consider him an enigma is a definite change of pace.
“Yeah. I don’t know that I’m interested in him in the ‘fuck me, please’ sense, but I definitely want to figure him out. He’s a suit — so not my type. And he shows up every morning between 7:27 and 7:30 a.m. Like a robot or something. Never fails.”
“Never?” I look at her, questioningly.
“Not since I’ve started working there,” she replies.
“I wish I had that much discipline with time management. Maybe then Sunny could show up to school with matching socks once in a while.”
“Life’s too short for matching socks.”
“You’re right,” I concede. “But hey, be nice to Mr. Suit. He obviously likes his routine considering he sticks to it so diligently. Resist the temptation to trip him up. It never ends well.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Skye waves me off, then turns back to the TV so she can catch up on whichever reality show she and Sunny are currently following.
EIGHTEEN
Dexter
It’sSunday night and I’m sitting in my office preparing lectures for the week when I receive an email from Alis. I haven’t seen her since Tuesday, and aside from our initial email exchange and grading notifications sent from the student portal, we haven’t had any interaction. I’d like to say the distance has helped me to focus on work without getting carried away in daydreams about my grader, but the truth is the longer she works from home, the more concerned I become about her.
Her email does nothing to quell my concerns — she won’t be on campus again on Monday or Tuesday. What the hell is going on with her? Does she have some sort of autoimmune disease that keeps her down longer than most people who catch a virus?
I’ve tried texting her but she never responds. I understand her desire to keep things professional between us, but surely we’ve developed some semblance of a friendship and familiarity during these past two months working together. I decide I should text her one more time in the hope that she’ll at least let me know if she’s improving.
Dexter: Hey Alis, I saw your email about staying home for the next two days. I’m just checking in to make sure you’re alright. Please let me know if I can help in any way.
