“I tried just having the lock, but then people asked me what was back there fifteen times a day,” she explained at his interested look. “Then I tried just the sign, but you’d be amazed how many people simply disregard signs.”
“I work in a client facing industry so, no. I would not be surprised,” he said. “I feel very privileged to get to see behind the curtain.”
They went up the stairs to a quaint little apartment. It was clear that it had been originally designed as the upstairs floor of a single house, but Eleanor had made it work for her as a standalone living space. One of the bedrooms had a door removed from the doorway, leaving an open living space witha couch, a television, a coffee table, and an armchair tucked in near the large front window. The blankets draped over the chair, as well as several paperbacks stacked on a small side table, indicated that this armchair was where Eleanor spent most of her time.
There was a little kitchenette nook next to the living space, then Eleanor’s bedroom. She showed him the bathroom, the little laundry closet with its stacked washer and dryer, and, finally, the bedroom where he would be staying.
“Oh my gosh, Eleanor!” he explained, trying to sound as though he hadn’t been planning this joke all afternoon. “Did you know there are no sheets on this bed? Weren’t you expecting me?”
“Hardy har har. Sheets are in that closet up there,” she said, pointing. “Just for that little bit, you can make your own bed.”
He shrugged. “Worth it.”
As he headed to the closet she’d indicated, Eleanor stepped back toward the door.
“I have to run into town for a few quick errands. Is there anything you need while I’m gone? Specific groceries, toiletries, anything?”
“You have coffee, right?” Shaneneededcoffee. He might be leaving his tech world behind temporarily, but he’d gone too many years running on fumes to ever risk being without coffee.
“Of course,” Eleanor scoffed. “What do you take me for?”
“Just checking,” he said with a laugh.
With a little wave, Eleanor headed out. Shane took a few minutes to make up the bed, then sat atop the comfortable mattress, the book he had found down in the bookstore in his hand.
He didn’t start reading right away, instead taking a long moment just to sit. He glanced down absently at the tome in his hand.
What was he supposed to do with himself for these next few weeks? Who even was he without his work to organize his days?
Computers had been his identity for so long. Even before his job, that was who he had been: the computer guy. Even as a kid, he hadlovedcomputers. He had helped Eleanor learn how to use them. He had built one himself when he had been a teenager, and he’d beensoproud.
But it had been a long, long time since he’d found that kind of satisfaction. He had to figure out how to get it back. He had to figure out who he was without his job to keep him going.
CHAPTER SIX
Winnie was trying, with no small amount of desperation, to act cool and chill and normal. Like she belonged.
She was starting to feel that this was simply not in her nature, however.
Take, for example, her posture. A simple thing, right?
Nope.
Eleanor was casual in her armchair in the book club room, and Diana looked both elegant and comfortable in her wide-legged trousers. Cadence and June were sprawled on an overstuffed old loveseat, and Miriam, with far more flexibility than one might have expected from a woman her age, was sitting cross-legged on a squat settee.
And Winnie? Winnie was perched on the edge of her seat like she was about to make a bolt for it.
She hadtriedto relax. She had really, really tried. But every time she stopped focusing on looking relaxed, she returned to this state.
She wasn’t an expert,obviously, but she was pretty sure that if you had to try this hard to be relaxed, you weren’t actually relaxing.
“What do you think, Win?”
Winnie jolted at the sound of her name.
“Sorry,” she said. She was hoping for a smile, but she had the sneaking suspicion that she looked like she was wincing. “Woolgathering.”
Eleanor didn’t look anything but kind as she repeated her question. “Time travel. Is that a yes or a no from you?”
