Page 34 of Glitter

“I know so,” I responded quickly and firmly. He may doubt his parenting skills, but I definitely didn’t.

“Thanks, Hen.”

“Anytime, Dan.” Glancing up at the storefront, I figured I should probably get a move on if I wanted to get back to work before lunch. “I’ll let you go now. I’m sure you’ve probably got a million things to get done before the sun sets.”

“That I do.” He laughed. “It was good to hear from you. Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

“Never am,” I said, grinning at the words he always said to me when we were finishing up a phone call. “Chat soon. Stay safe and well.”

“You too.” He ended the call, and I removed my earbuds, pocketing them as I noticed a text waiting for me.

Blue:

Oh my God, pocket bear! I just found the perfect little outfit for Sir Cattus! Look!!

The warm fuzzy feeling I always got when Blue called mepocket bearflowed through me before I started laughing at the picture he’d sent me of a highly disgruntled cat that looked very much like Sir Cattus wearing a tiny crown and a red velvet cape that made him look incredibly regal.

If we get it for him, should we rename him King Cattus?

The bouncing dots immediately appeared before a response came through mere seconds later.

Blue:

Well, he IS already royalty, is he not?

In his head, maybe.

A stream of laughing emojis followed soon after, which made me smile. Without responding, I popped my phone back into my pocket before I turned around to enter the store that I’d been loitering in front of for longer than I should have been.

It didn’t take long for an attendant to approach me. “Good morning, sir. How can I help you today?”

Still feeling the warm glow from Blue’s texts, I swallowed down the echo of Daniel’s words from earlier, figuring I’d use what I was in here for eventually. It definitely didn’t mean I’d have to use it today or tomorrow. “Hi. I’d like to get a key cut?”

Checking the time on my phone, I realized my brief trip down the street and back had taken much longer than I’d expected.

I entered Eckersley’s lobby, bypassed the throng of people at the in-house deli grabbing an early lunch, and cursed under my breath when I saw the elevator doors sliding shut just as I approached them.

Looking up at the rising and falling numbers above the bay of elevators, I sighed and resigned myself to a bit of a wait. I pressed the call button, then popped out my phone to do some light reading while I waited.

The longer I waited, the more people showed up and decided that they also needed to tap the button, some even punching at it like it had personally offended their mother. I was jostled from side to side, and just when I was about ready to give up and climb all sixteen flights of stairs to get back to my workshop, a tinny bell dinged to let everyone know an elevator had arrived.

We all moved back to let those who were in the elevator out, then surged forward to cram as many people in as possible without overloading. As each person entered, they pushed the button for their own floor until the display glowed with almost every button having been pressed.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

Making my way to the rear corner of the carriage, I leaned against the mirrored wall, focused on my phone, and settled in for the long trip up.

The elevator had about a third of its original occupants when I overheard a voice right in front of me that I hadn’t heard in a week and a half.

“Fuck, I’m so hungry I could eat a fucking horse. I wonder what’s waiting for me in the lunchroom.”

My brain stumbled to a stop, but I kept my attention on my phone to make it look like I was still reading or playing a game.

Blue’s nemesis, Travis, was standing immediately in front of me, talking in low undertones to someone to his left.

If I had any doubt in my mind that he’d brought his own lunch in today, they were obliterated by what I heard next.

“Dude, you brought your own lunch? You got a girlfriend I don’t know about?” his friend asked, chuckling quietly to himself.

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