Page 16 of October
What she wasn’t looking forward to was India’s inevitable call or text, asking Finley to talk and probably get together. Finley didn’t see the point, and she was exhausted by the whole thing. On top of that, she’d broken up with India this time for one specific reason: she was ready to move on.
“Um… Yeah, I can talk,” Molly said.
Finley turned her head when she heard Molly’s voice and watched as she walked by their cubicles and toward the kitchen.
“I had a good time, too.” Molly smiled. “Again? Yeah, we can go out again. I’m still at work, though. Can I text you later, and we can set something up?”
Finley turned back to her computer and tried not to eavesdrop, but she was pretty certain she’d just heard Molly setting up a date. Not justadate, butanotherdate, meaning she’d gone out with the woman at least once before. Finleyswallowed and tried not to turn around again because she wanted to follow Molly and listen to the rest of her conversation, but that would be wrong and also a little crazy. Instead, she checked the time and noticed that it was three till five. She decided that was good enough and started to pack up for the weekend.
“You’re leaving?” Molly asked, walking to her desk.
“Uh… Yeah. It’s almost five.”
“You’ve left after me every day this week. I just thought you IT people worked late all the time.”
Molly sat in her chair.
“Sometimes, we do because we have to set things up or fix things when people aren’t here so that we don’t disrupt the business. Like, when a software needs to run maintenance and upgrades, we try to do that at midnight or something.”
“You’re here at midnight?”
“Only a couple of times since I started here. Most of the time, we can do things at, like, seven at night or something. I came in at four one morning, but since the stores open at six, it didn’t seem worth it to try to finish everything when we could run the stuff at night once they’re closed and everyone is done here.”
“Is it weird, being here late or early, when no one else is here?”
“It’s kind of cool. Spooky sometimes. Like, the couple of times I came in at midnight, I got here at eleven thirty, really, and we did the work leading up to pressing the button, so to speak. It was me, Martin, and Rusty. Levi wasn’t here yet. Anyway, we mostly just did the job, but I walked around, and this place is totally different when no one is here. The view out the window is all lit up, and it’s a whole new world out there at night.”
“New Orleans has a way with transforming itself like that, doesn’t it?” Molly said.
Finley nodded and asked, “So, any big weekend plans?”
“Just that football game with you and everyone. Or is that next weekend, and I got it mixed up?”
“No, it’s Sunday. You’re still coming, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there. It’s against Tampa Bay. Big time rivals,” Molly said.
“You hate football. How do you know that Tampa is a divisional rival?”
Molly cleared her throat and said, “Juliet told me.”
“Oh. She’s still coming, too, right?”
“Yes, she will be there with Gwen. Who else is going? You had six tickets.”
“Oh, Rusty and his wife,” she replied. “He practically begged me for the tickets. His wife is a bigger fan than he is, but she’s a Tampa Bay fan, so she’ll be wearing a jersey and a pirate hat, probably. I plan on sitting far away from her.”
Molly chuckled and asked, “Do I have to wear a jersey?”
“No, not unless you want to. Do you have one?”
“No.” Molly shook her head.
“I have one you can borrow, if you want. It’s an old one, but it would still show your Saints’ pride.”
“Why do you have Saint’s pride? You moved here for this job,” Molly noted.
“I’m from Kentucky. We don’t have a pro team, so I adopted the Saints when I moved here. I’m a Kentucky Wildcats fan for college, but they’re usually better at basketball, which I’m not a huge fan of. I follow it if I’m bored, but not as closely as the NFL. I’ve adopted LSU as my college football team since I moved here, so I’ve been to a few of those home games as well, but I haven’t gone at all this year.”
