Page 76 of Over the Edge

Alina moves past me and further into the entryway and there’s a jingling of keys followed by the sound of the door as she leaves.

“So, what would you be up to if I weren’t here?” Evelyn asks still watching me from the piano

“Trying to snoop?”

“Or just interested in what you’re like when no one else is looking.” A tempting edge cuts into her voice. As more time passes it’s getting harder and harder to write off the invitation in her flirtations. But there’s one thing I don’t have to write off. She’s shown up here without going through all the hoops that we tend to jump through to spend time together.

“What if it’s boring?”

“I know for a fact Alina wouldn’t keep you around if you were boring in your free time. And I don’t think there’s genuinelya single person who is boring.” Her words cause the corner of my mouth to tug upward. I guess Alina talked to her about her children then. “There are just people who don’t know how to ask others the right questions.”

“But you have all the right questions,” I state.

“I try to. I think it makes up for having none of the right answers.” Doubt flickers on her face in a way that lets me know she’s gone straight into that place that makes her intensely aware of everyone around her.

“I think you know more than you allow yourself to believe. You’re pretty damn smart,” I remind her.

“Playing nice?”

“Telling the truth.”

“So, what are we going to do?”

“Chess.”

“You’re saying that if it were just you here, that’s what you’d be doing?” Her brows pull together in confusion.

“That or playing music, but I don’t think that fits the criteria you’re looking for.”

“I think I’m more caught up on the part where you play chess alone. You know, the game that traditionally takes two people, a board, and pieces that are supposed to emulate some sort of feudal system court dynamics?” she teases.

“It’s what I’m usually doing on my phone. Not answering emails, just so you know. I do it when I’m stressed,” I explain, setting the record straight.

“You were stressed waiting for me?”

“You make me nervous, Evelyn.” Always. For the last few weeks I’ve logged more hours than I have in years.

“Do I still? Am I right now?”

“Yes.”

“I guess that means we should play some chess then,” she says.

“Okay, to recap, so this one goes on a diagonal?” Evelyn asks, pointing to the bishop. “Knight is two in one direction, then one in the other. Why the hell do people say it moves in an L? It’s so ambiguous?”

“People like patterns,” I explain. “They like seeing how things fit together and make sense.”

“Is that how you feel about work? That there are things that fit together?” she asks, and with how quickly she jumps to the question, I have the feeling Alina said something about my time upstairs resting.

“Sometimes, sure. I think that’s why I chose it over other things. It’s not always black and white but you have problems and you have solutions. It makes sense,” I explain. The structure of it, the endless rules and regulations to reference were part of what attracted me to working with contracts and negotiations over specializing in anything that could put me in a courtroom.”

“Do you like it?”

“Why do you care?”

“C’mon, Larson, I’m allowed to care about you,” she says. “We’re friends, remember.”

I’m really starting to hate that word even though it means we get to have moments like this. Alone, together.

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