Page 84 of The Austen Escape
The stream slowed, dark descended, and I ran home.
Chapter 27
The first thing I noticed was the hum. I’d been in my apartment all weekend—the upstairs guy had moved on from Macklemore to Hoodie Allen, my AC unit had chugged away to keep the apartment below eighty degrees, and MoPac had provided its ever-present white noise. But it was here at work that I felt it inside me. There were a variety of computers operating at different frequencies, the AC units, soft chatter drifting in the open space above our cubicles, even a radio somewhere playing Carrie Underwood.
And it was Monday. I secretly loved Mondays. People worked hard at WATT, and it wasn’t until Friday they loosened up and relaxed across the cubicles or in the break room or headed to a brewpub to unpack the week. On Mondays we were warming up, heads down and serious, full of promise. This was the week something great would happen.
I felt displaced as the morning passed by. Moira wasn’t at her desk. No one needed me. No one stopped by. It was a typical Monday, but I no longer felt in the mix. I had no projects to pursue. This was what I’d wanted, why I’d sent Craig an e-mail, and yet...
After about an hour staring at my wire animals, I began cleaning out my desk. It took no time, but more Skittles than my apartment had. Without Dad’s controlled distribution system, I power-chomped my way into my third bag before I cleaned my stash from my bottom desk drawer and dropped it all on Moira’s neat and still empty desk.
By midafternoon I was stir-crazy and on a sugar high.
“I heard, and not from you, by the way.” Moira draped herself over the divider between our cubicles as she always did upon arriving to work. Her now copper-colored hair puddled on my top shelf. “I hate you.” Her tone held notes of sarcasm and bravado. Her eyes held hurt.
“Where have you been?”
“I had meetings downtown. I would have told you, but you aren’t supposed to be here and you’re certainly not supposed to be quitting.”
I twirled a finger at her hair. “In my honor?”
“As if. I’m doing nothing in your honor. Copper is simply a good fall color.” She hiked her chin. “Everyone was talking about you Friday. Word got out about your e-mail. Really, Mary? An e-mail?” She reached over the wall and dangled a Starbucks cup in my face. “I brought you this. An afternoon pick-me-up. I shouldn’t have. But I did, so drink it.”
I took the cup, set it down, and walked out of my cubicle and into hers. I hugged her.
She hugged me back. “What’s going on? Why’d you do it?” She dropped into her chair and scowled at the packs of Skittles. She didn’t comment as I perched on her desk.
“We can’t talk here,” I said. “We’ll talk tonight. For now, let’s say I need a change.”
“Seems to be a thing around here. We all got called into the staff meeting Friday to say good-bye to Nathan.”
“Nathan was here on Friday?”
Moira narrowed her eyes. “Why does that surprise you?”
“Later. But I thought he was finished here a week ago.”
Moira nodded. “He came in to wrap something up, but he’s gone now. I think. He and Craig were closed up all Friday except for that good-bye meeting.” Then she smirked. “He got cake.”
“Word is Dottie got me one too. Ten minutes with Craig and cake.”
Moira scoffed. Craig’s eccentricities bugged her at times. “One of his best employees quits and he only gives you ten minutes? He probably won’t even ask why you’re going. Why are you going?”
“Later,” I reminded her. “And you know him; I’m honored to get ten whole minutes. If he didn’t respect me so much, I might only get two.”
Moira matched my sarcasm. “Whatever.”
“Hey...” I shoved at her shoulder. The gesture reminded me of Nathan and his constant happy shoulder-bumping. My false buoyancy faltered. “It’s for the best.”
“Whose best? You love this job. No one else has got your geeky enthusiasm for everything about this place.”
“Mary? Mary?”
I stood. Moira stood too. We found Benson standing in my cubicle looking around as if he might find me hiding.
“He does,” I whispered to Moira before calling out, “Over here.”
“Oh...” He blinked. “Can I talk to you?”
