Page 89 of Stoker's Serenity

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Serenity…

Work was an absolute fucking drag. Lydia was a bitch, but she kept a lid on it now that HR was up her ass, but honestly, what made it a total drag was the seed Stoker had planted. The one that was growing at a phenomenal rate that said ‘You don’t have to do this anymore if you don’t want to. You can move away from here, get a new job, someplace smaller; someplace where it’s not so full of these entitled monsters who don’t care about you. Who don’t care what you’ve even been through…’

Stoker cared. The rest of his motorcycle pirate crew cared. I was becoming friends with Faith, giving Linny a break from being the only one I could lean on.

Speaking of Linny, if I broke for lunch now, I might catch her on hers in the food court.

“Timothy, am I good to take lunch?” I asked my co-worker. He looked up from where he was secretly browsing on his phone like we weren’t supposed to and gave me a nod.

“Yeah, sure, go ahead.”

“Cool, thank you.”

I clocked out from the terminal and got my purse out of my locker, ghosting past Lydia’s open office door behind her back like she was an angry T-rex, like I was trying not to trigger her visual acuity or something, and stifling a giggle at the image it conjured in my mind.

I found Linny waiting in line for food at our favorite joint to grab salad at.

“Hey, you! How was your weekend?”

I rolled my eyes slightly and said, “I don’t know that I’m going to be able to fill you in on the whole thing in one lunch half-hour,” I said.

“So gimme the highlights and make me dinner tonight and fill me in on the rest.” She stuck out her tongue to one side biting it gently between the perfect, straight white teeth her parents had spent a small fortune on in high school, getting them straightened. She raised her eyebrows and looked strikingly like that blonde actress that played that female super-villain in that one movie.

Problem was, Linny could never be any kind of villain. She was both too vanilla and pure goodness. It was the only explanation I had as to why she was still my friend through the endless string of disasters that pretty much comprised my life until Stoker.

“One, you’re adorable, and two, I don’t even know where to begin,” I said.

We paused to order our food and paid for it, stepping aside to wait for them to make it up.

“Start at the beginning, and like I said, just gimme the highlights.”

“Okay, um, first day great, second day also great, second evening went to hell in a hand basket but Stoker fixed it – because he always does, and third day was awesome. Then, last night, Stoker said I should quit my job and move with him to Ft. Royal and that’s the part that gets me and the part I need your help on, because oh, my God – I really want to, Linny!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Back it up! Did you just say what I think you said?”

“Uh-huh.”

She stared at me, stunned, for several moments, silently just searching my face as our order number was called out. We went up and got it and went to find seats, and she sank into hers like she wasn’t really all the way here. I knew the feeling. My brain had been in Ft. Royal, on Stoker, turning over and over what a life there would be like. Like a bit of sea glass, worn smooth and beautiful by the waves and the sand.

“So, are you going?” she asked, and I crumpled a little.

“I don’t know! I wanted to talk to you first!” I said.

She sank back in her seat and shook her head gently from side to side and I swear to God, if the wheels in her head turned any faster, they’d start to smoke.

“You’re right, there’s no way to process this in a half an hour,” she said finally.

I groaned. “I know, you totally hate the idea of me leaving,” I said and she shook her head spearing some of her salad on her plastic fork.

“Actually, from the few pro’s and con’s I’ve weighed out, it’s just the opposite. You know I love hanging at the beach, and here, the beach is getting too crowded and way too full of entitled male douchebags.”

I laughed and said, “Okay, so for just a second can we focus on the pros and cons for me?”

She gave me a flat ‘Bitch, please’ look. “Honey, Sugar, Sweetie Pie – there aren’t any real cons that I can see. You have needed out of this area for a while, and while, yeah, it seems like really soon after only knowing Stoker a few months, I see how he looks at you. The way he takes care of you. You two are practically fucking made for each other. It’s crazy how good you go together, and to be quite honest, I am more than a little jealous.”

“You, jealous of me? We really are in the up-side-down, aren’t we?”

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