'Thanks. Sugar.' She opened a cabinet door, taking out a small dish with a lid, and a silver handle sticking out of a hole to the side of the life. I took the lid off to find a tiny spoon inside. I lifted it out, and brought it up to my eyes. 'How cute is this?' Haley looked at me like I was nuts.
'You’ve never seen a sugar spoon before?' I shook my head. She shook her head, smiling as she sipped her black coffee. I put in my usual amount of sugar that would make a fly happy for months, and sipped, letting the warm fluid wash through me.
'Good stuff.' Haley walked toward the small round butcher-block table, and I joined here. There my wallet and keys laid. Haley looked down at them.
'Oh, what have we here?' She grinned, her eyes filled with mischief as she picked up my wallet. She looked at me for a moment, I guess seeing if I’d mind. For just a moment my dander was raised, feeling as though my privacy were about to be invaded, but then it all went away, and suddenly, though nervous, I didn’t mind so much. For the most part.
'Having fun?' I asked, sitting back in the chair, drinking my coffee. She nodded vigorously, taking my credit cards out, setting them aside, and continued to look through all the pockets, as well as at my checks that had their very own little compartment on the side.
'Andi, tell me you don’t have checks with beakers on them?' She eyed me, showing me her find. I grinned sheepishly. She shook her head, and continued to look.
Yip, yip, yip!
With a sigh, I stood, seeing what was Bunsen’s problem. He stood on his hind legs at the window, barking at some kids riding by on their bikes.
'What’s up with that, little dude? You’ve seen kids before.' I picked him up and headed into the kitchen. 'You know, I was thinking.'
'You weren’t?' Haley grinned.
'I was. Maybe we can hit the dojang early, then we can get some good sparring in.' Haley’s face lit up.
'You’re so on. I still need to pay you back from last time.' She began to quickly put everything back in my wallet. 'Let me grab a quick shower, and we’re off.'
The days flew by, Haley and I together so often, our friendship growing stronger day by day. It felt like the early days when were young and carefree. Well, mostly. Oh, to go back to those days. Everything had seemed so intense then, worrying about getting into college, and the Biology test next week, and what sort of stupid comments I’d hear from some popular asshole at school.
A lifetime ago it seemed, now. None of that mattered anymore, all of it gone. Well, almost all of it. I had a very huge reminder, but I didn’t mind so much.
After I had had that dream of what had happened between Haley and I earlier in the summer, I had thought about it often, wondering what would have happened had we both not freaked out, and if we would have had the maturity to deal with it. Would it have mattered? Haley headed off to college not long after, anyway. Would she just have gone off to school, met other people, older, more sophisticated people, and forgotten about me? I like to think that wouldn’t have been the case, but when you’re young, you see the world through such different eyes.
Things were different now. I was different now. So was she. Her days of experimentation long over with, and my days of confusion long over with. Or were they?
I found myself thinking about Haley all too often these days, sitting on my back porch, watching the squirrels run up and down the huge tree I had back there, Bunsen barking up a storm, and I, staring off into space. No, not into space, into the past. Into my memories, stealing from them to feed my present.
What was I doing? Who the hell was I kidding? Certainly not me; that was the problem with being so damn logical.
The sky was gray as I headed to work in early September. A lot of rain was expected today, and none too soon. It had been unseasonably dry over the last few months, and I was excited to see the moisture come. I hated all this dry crap. I felt sorry for the folks in the west with their droughts and wildfires all summer.
There was a bit of a pep to my step as I headed toward the lab. Today was an interesting milestone for me, though it was kept top-secret quiet. Only me and the woman who bore me knew about it.
'Good morning, Dr. Littman.' Samantha Torres smiled as I walked in.
'Hey there. How goes it?' I smiled back, feeling rather swell today.
'Great. You?'
'Can’t complain. Well, I could, but to what end?' My colleague stared at me as through I’d grown an extra nose. 'What?'
'Nothing. You’re just in rare form today. I wondered if you’d run over a small child on the way in.' I pretended to laugh, my hand on my stomach.
'Oh, Sam, you’re killing me! You are so in the wrong profession. Paula Poundstone, watch out.' She chuckled, waving me off as she turned back to her work. I chuckled all the way into my office.
Yeah, it was a good day.
The day began to speed by, lunch coming quickly, though I hardly noticed as I immersed myself in my work. We were so close to a major breakthrough. Sometimes I wished I didn’t have to leave the lab at all. If not for Bunsen, and my self-proclaimed mother, I wouldn’t have to leave.
'Hey, you. Ready?'
Speak of the devil, and she shall appear, with horns in tact. Well, more like a pen behind her ear than a horn.
'Yup.' I noticed the brown bag in Haley’s hand as I stood from my desk chair. She had managed to coax me out of the lab for lunch, and to doctor’s lounge on my floor. 'What’cha got there?' I asked, indicating the bag.
'Lunch. Come on.'
We got ourselves settled in, and Haley handed me the bag, setting her own on the table. She had resorted to bringing me a lunch everyday because she knew I’d never remember to bring my own, and rare was it that I’d actually venture out to the cafeteria to get something. Truth be told, I didn’t care enough about food to bother when I was working.
I walked over to the vending machine and bought us our sodas- Dr Pepper for me, and Coke for Haley.
'Thanks. Now eat. I don’t have a whole lot of time today.'
'Oh? Why’s that?' I sat, grabbing the brown bag, and reaching inside. My brows drew as I felt two individually wrapped sandwiches.
'Eh, I just have some stuff to take care of after work.'
'Oh. What the,' I drew the sandwiches out, and was struck to see that they were cut into two shapes. One was round, and the other an odd, humpy-shape. I turned it around and realized it was the number 3. I put it with the circle, and realized Haley had cut my sandwich into what looked to be the number 30.
'Mo.' Haley grinned, turning my hand so the 3 looked like a curvy M.
'Are you saying I’m a cow?' she chuckled, chewing on her own sandwich.
'Maybe ‘om’?' she asked, sipping from her Coke.
'Yeah, maybe. How did you know?' I asked, turning the 3 the right way.
'Know what?'
'That today was my old day.'
'Old? Andi, you’re only 30.'
'Yeah, old.' She sat back, putting her hand on her hip.
'Excuse me, honey, but I’ve been 30 for nine months.'
'Okay, so you’re old and nine months.' She glared, I grinned, taking the sandwiches out of their bags, and slowly peeling the edge of the bread up.
'It’s your favorite, though after that it should have been tuna and cyanide.' I sniffed. 'Eat, woman!' I grinned, and took a bite.
'Thank you.' I mumbled around the food. 'How did you know?'
'Well, you know about a month back or so when I was being nosey and looking through your wallet?'
'Ah, damn. You know, I had told the lady at the driver’s license place to not put that on there.'
