Sam
See you then!
Our Thursday call,however, never happens. Captain Edwards has Sam and his team out for some sort of physical fitness assessment.
On Friday, I’m tired after having a long day at the museum, but Sam and I are finally able to connect.
“Hiya, Sam.” I’m perched on the couch, sipping on a glass of white wine. “How was your day?”
“Hi, Min.” He’s in the equipment room at Knightsbridge. From the camera angle, it looks like he has his kit spread out on a table behind him. “The same as usual. I spent most of the day sweeping out stables and giving some stubborn horses a bath.” He glances up at the camera. “You don’t mind if I multitask, do you?”
I do, actually, but what am I supposed to say, no? I want to spend five minutes of uninterrupted time talking with my man, but I can’t bring myself to say it aloud. It would sound selfish. We both have to compromise. This is only for the time being.
“No, do what you need to do.” He nods and returns his focus to polishing. “What are you working on?”
“Cross belt. There’s a lot of small brass bits and bobs I missed and lost some points on.”
“Oh, I didn’t think you’d be inspected on it yet since you guys are still in your winter uniform.” I take a sip of my wine.
“Captain Edwards held a surprise inspection of our summer order uniforms this morning. We’re supposed to actively be working on keeping both up to the required standard.”
“Ouch.” I wince. “A surprise inspection? How did that go?”
“I fared better than most. I’ve been working on prepping my equipment. Those who didn’t do so well are beingreinspected tomorrow. They’re polishing at the tables behind me.”
He isn’t even alone? I wish he had warned me ahead of time.
He dips his cloth into a tin of polish. “How was your day?”
“Busy. We had a ton of schoolchildren at the museum today and a huge problem with our stock coming in two weeks early. Mr. G had to scramble to figure out where it was going to go. Our storage room is filled with construction equipment right now for the new water exhibit that’s going in.”
“That sounds like a mess.”
“It was.”
A few moments of awkward silence pass.
Finally, I ask, “When are you back at HG?”
“What’s today, Friday? I’ll be back next Friday. We have the weekend shift.”
I cross my legs and set my wine down. “Oh great, I’ll stop by and come and see you.”
“I’d like that.” His voice softens.
“Do you have any other days off coming up?”
“Not this week, but as soon as I do, you’ll be the first to know.”
He sets the cloth down and picks up the phone. “When do you start your new fashion assignment?”
“This coming week. I’m excited and terrified.”
“You’ll do great, Min.” Looking at his watch, he frowns. “Do you mind if we cut tonight a little short? I’m going to try and get to bed by eight.”
“Sure. No problem. If you, uh... can’t sleep, I’ll be here.” I keep my face neutral, but my voice cracks.
“I don’t think I’ll have any trouble falling asleep, but I appreciate the offer.”
