Page 25 of Glass Half Full
“Doesn’t matter.” She sagely shakes her head, hair that’s frizzy like mine but not nearly as voluminous falling into her face. She blows out a huff of air to push the strands back into place. “I just know these things. Now stop interrupting. As I was saying, you just finished your first week at a cool job working with people you seem to like a lot—verya lot, in some cases.”
“Tahseen!”
The girl does not hold back or pull punches. It’s part of what makes her such a good poet. We met at one of the spoken word workshops back when were both in grade eleven, and we officially saved each other’s numbers in our phones as ‘bestie’ about a week after that.
She holds up her hands. “I’m just saying, I’m just saying. You’re moreyouthan I’ve seen you in months. I don’t think you can call yourself a mess.”
“Thanks.” I pat her on the arm. “You’re the best.”
“Oh I know.” She does a little self-satisfied wiggle on the mattress. “So tell me more about Dylan.”
I groan. “I shouldn’t have anything to tell you about Dylan.”
“But you do,” she croons, batting her big brown eyes.
I give up on playing coy. Tahseen might have all the subtlety of a fireworks display, but her brazen approach is what makes our friendship work. She yanks me up out of the dark when I feel like all I do is keep falling. She breaks the silence when I need sound.
“Things have been so weird for the past few days. Ever since the potato incident—”
“I think you mean thefourpotato incident,” she cuts in.
“Right, right.” I can’t hold back a residual snort at the thought. “We haven’t really talked since then. I wouldn’t say he’s avoiding me, but it’s not like he says more than the normal boss greeting their employee bit to me every day.”
“And you want him to say more?”
I hesitate, chewing on my lip. “I shouldn’t. I really, really shouldn’t. This is so messed up. That place means a lot to him, and he could lose his job if...But I mean, it’s not like anything ‘if’ related is going to happen. I’m sure it’s all in my head. I’m like a stupid teenage girl with a crush again, only this time the consequences are so much more serious. I should quit. I should just find a new job.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Tahseen sits up and starts waving her hands around like she’s conjuring some sort of force field. I honestly don’t know what Tahseen is trying to convey with her hand gestures half the time; mostly they just seem like they’re supposed to look dramatic. “That escalated quickly. Let’s slow this down. You feel something for Dylan, right?”
“I shouldn’t.”
She pounces on me. “Renee Amélie Nyobé!”
“Okay, okay, I feel something, but I don’t even know whatsomethingis. Mostly I just...I want to talk to him. I want to spend time with him. Something about being around him is...It’s like remembering a dream you forgot. It’s like I’ve been walking around all day smiling and not knowing why, and then I see him and I think, ‘Oh, right.’”
“Reneeeee!” Tahseen throws herself completely on top of me and starts rolling us around the bed. “That is so cuuuuute!”
“Tahseen, we are both going to end up on the floor.” My voice is muffled by her shoulder where it’s mashed against my face.
“Shhhh. Let me have this moment. My parents don’t want me to date until I have my Masters, remember?”
“I’m not going to date him!” I protest.
“Indulge the fantasy, Renee.”
“That’s the point!” I manage to get her partially disentangled from me. “I can’t. I can’t have this fantasy. He’s my boss.”
“He’s also a human being who clearly cares about youandhas the hots for you.” I smack her, but she keeps going. “It’s not like he’s the president, Renee. He’s not the CEO of Microsoft or something. It’s not going to be the end of his personal and professional life if you guys have a thing. Did you even sign anything about not dating co-workers?”
“He’s technically a manager not a co-worker, but...no. Nothing I signed was about that.”
“Look, Renee, I think this whole ‘Oh no, he’s my boss’ thing is just an excuse, on both your parts, for the real reasons you think you can’t date each other.”
I sit up against the headboard and cross my arms. “Is that so? And what would those reasons be?”
She taps her chin. “I, um, don’t know yet, but mark my words, I am so totally right about this.”
“What you are is so totally crazy.”
