“Could be worse,” I told him seriously, standing up straight. “Could have been Krispy Kreme. Imagine going around with that moniker.”
He nodded. “Or Dunkin. Everyone would think she couldn’t spell and that I should be an a.”
“So,” I smiled at him, “should I call you Winchell, Mitchell, or Winch, or what?”
His posture relaxed. “Winch or Winchell is fine. And I gotta tell you, they really do make the bitchingest donuts. And they do coffee and make sandwiches now, too. Hey, when I go down to visit Grammy and Pops in San Diego, you should come with me so you can try some. Or I can bring us some back.”
I chuckled. “Could be fun, if your grandparents wouldn’t mind.”
“Naw. They’d be all happy and shit because I have a friend I don’t mind bringing to meet them and hang out with. Being the fat kid with the weird name was not good for school popularity, even in elementary school.” He pursed his lips. “Anyway! I’m here because I’m Tallie and Hugo on Playtime Fleet.”
“You do their puppets?” That sounded really cool.
“I do,” he replied. “And I just got the news today that I’m also going to get to play Fred, who’s mated to Jorel. Jorel is a shuttle pilot, and Fred owns the new bakery.” His lips twitched. “See, I can’t get away from the donuts!”
I laughed along with him. “That’s great, man! Um, I’m Alec, and I’m here because I signed up for the training program at a job fair.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “During Basic, they found I had an undiagnosed medical condition, so I was out, but apparently the Mylos don’t care about how long or anything like that, and have so many spaces that they allowed me in.”
“Job fair, huh?” Winchell said, sitting down on the couch.
“Yeah. I had a job cooking and washing dishes at a small all night diner, and did a bit of DoorDashing to keep things ticking over, but then my roommate started not paying his share of things, and instead of paying me, left most of his junk and told me to sell it to get the money as he was moving back to Ireland. Needless to say, his stuff didn’t cover nearly enough, but my cousin showed up and wanted to move in, but she did like only three or four days of DoorDashing over two weeks before taking off in her car again. Of course, then the diner shut all of a sudden, and there I was. I couldn’t pay the personal loans I’d taken out, my rent, the utilities, nothing. So I moved back in with my folks, but I knew something had to give. And here I am, six months after crashing and burning big time yet again.”
“Your own cousin left you in the lurch?” he looked horrified.
I shrugged. “Yeah, well, she showed up and told me she was living in her car, but growing up, she’d always been a good person, just a bit wild. I thought if I let her stay, she’d find her feet.” I sighed. “I’ll be honest, I’ve been worried about her ever since she left. She just up and left me a note that said she wasn’t vibing with the town and actually signed it off saying, ‘so it’s so long, and thanks for all the fish.’ And her stuff was all gone. She’d waited for me to go out DoorDashing and just packed up what little stuff she had and boogied on off. I’m just hoping she’s found somewhere else and is safe, but she’s refusing to answer texts or anything else from me or anyone else in the family. Her mom told mine that was par for the course for her, ever since she turned eighteen and told them she was going to go see the world and find what opportunities it wanted to give her.”
“Sounds like a free spirit. I hope she’s safe, too. I can’t imagine not knowing if someone I cared about was sleeping in the car or not, had food to eat, or whatever.”
I nodded. “All we can do is hope and keep our doors open, I guess.”
“Yeah.” He stood up. “Oh! Let me show you which room is yours, and you can set up the cat’s things.”
“Floof probably should have the box set up sooner rather than later,” I agreed.
The room he showed me already had a single bed and a dresser set up in it, along with a set of bedding still in packaging, sitting on top of the mattress.
“They delivered the bedding just before you got here, right after letting me know I was getting a roommate assigned. I didn’t know it would be you until you showed up, though.” He grinned ruefully. “I probably should have read the message I got after that, but I figured I’d see who it was soon enough.”
“True enough,” I replied, already liking Winchell very much. He seemed to be a really nice, easy going kind of guy, and with no worry about paying bills, all we had to do was get along as friends and roomies.
“Oh, hello,” Winchell said as Floof decided he was in a safe place and to come and say hi to him. He bent down to give his head a gentle stroke and a few scratches behind the ear. “Aren’t you gorgeous?” he crooned. Yep, he had the Floof seal of approval. I should have known when he ignored Kelly and Rory both that something was up with them. Floof was a very good judge of character. I needed to listen to his furry butt more often.
10
KITTINIR
“So, when exactly were you going to tell me that you’d been recalled to the ship?”
I winced at Carl’s disappointed tone and expression. He tapped his chin.
“If only there had been the perfect time to do it before you took off into outer space! Such as, oh, I don’t know, when we Facetimed at your hotel room the night before? Or, right before you checked out in the morning? Just a text, even. But nooooo, I had to hear it from Cecil. Cecil! Your TA knew before I did, and I’m supposed to be your best friend.” His lower lip slid out in an exaggerated pout.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you, but first I didn’t want to spoil the birthday evening any more than it was without me being there in person with you,” I began.
“Awww,” he cooed. “That’s sweet, so I’ll give you a pass for that night. But there was the next morning!”
“And I should have then, I agree.” I sighed. “I wasn’t certain how to tell you. I kept hoping that they’d tell me never mind, as not all of us are being recalled, so perhaps they’d decide they didn’t actually need me. Then I got swept up, letting my landlord know and packing my things up, and time sort of slid away from me.”
”Rather like how your bowling ball slides off the lane and into the gutter,” he teased. “You know the guys are all certain that this is merely an attempt by you to avoid learning to bowl properly so you don’t join the league.”
