Page 24 of Pierced Pages
The microwave dinged, and Danielle opened the door to remove her small travel bowl filled with potato soup. It was her favorite soup, unless you considered gumbo soup, which Danielle did not. Gumbo was its own food group.
Since potato took the top soup honor, it reigned over Monday lunches during the winter. It always felt right to celebrate a Monday. New week, new experiences. Why not her favorite meal as well?
The trick was freezing a big batch with pureed potatoes in small, lunch-sized portions. Since dairy doesn’t freeze well, Danielle would make it without, then stir some cream into the defrosted portion before taking it to work. Voila! Perfect Monday lunches.
Danielle placed the bowl on a small round table with a melamine top and sat in one of the wood and metal chairs. As she removed her spoon from her lunch bag, she was joined by a familiar face.
“Let’s see them.”
Gerri wore high-waisted dark blue slacks that fit her tall frame. They were perfectly paired with a light blue long-sleevedblouse. Gerri knew how to rock minimalist chic, and she didn’t diminish her style for the classroom.
She hurried over to place her own lunch bag on the table and sat beside Danielle, peering at her head. Danielle tucked her hair on that side behind her ear to give Gerri a better look.
“Nice! Perfect choice of earrings.” She leaned back and looked between Danielle’s face and ears. “Love those on you.”
“Thanks,” Danielle said. “They’re a little sore, but not bad at all.”
Gerri gave her a knowing look as she opened her bag and popped a container of jambalaya, leftovers from a family gathering the day before, into the microwave. “That’s because you were in good hands.”
“Yes, Morgan is very good at her job.”
She blew on a spoonful of soup and took a bite, hoping Gerri didn’t catch the flush she felt growing behind her cheeks.
“I’m sure she is,” Gerri said as she pulled her lunch from the microwave and sat down again. “For real, your ears don’t even look red at all. I’ll bet you’re glad you went there. For a reason other than just to have a hot woman handle your ears.”
Danielle choked on her soup and coughed a couple of times to clear her airway. “It wasn’t about that.”
“Maybe not,” Gerri said. “But I’m sure it helped.”
It was time to get this conversation back on a more comfortable track.
“So how’s the day going over in math land?”
Gerrie waved her fork at Danielle. “Nuh-uh. No deflecting. The math wing is the math wing. Same as always. You and your love life are way more interesting.”
Two other teachers entered the break room. They were both from the history department, and Danielle didn’t know them well. Still, she didn’t need them to know all of her business.
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “There’s no love life.”
“Okay,” Gerri conceded. “Then your potential love life.”
Danielle stirred her soup, too rattled to take another bite yet. “There’s none of that either.”
Was that true?
Or the better question: did she want that to be true?
“What’s that look?” Gerri stabbed a piece of spicy sausage dotted with rice and aimed it at Danielle. “You know you can’t lie to me. Remember that time you, me, Melanie, and Kim all tried to play poker at their house? You’re terrible at bluffing.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It’s not,” Gerri said. “It makes you a fantastic friend. But it also makes you a bad liar, so spill it. What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing,” Danielle insisted, attempting to lie to her friend once again. She decided instead to try something that was the absolute truth. “Lila gets my full attention, at least for the next few years, so there’s no potential anything with anyone.”
She knew plenty of people dated with kids, and Lila was getting older and didn’t need quite so much attention. She had a support team in Melanie and Gerri, but it felt unfair to ask them to step in more than they already were doing. And it would be unfair to ask any potential romantic partner to take a backseat to both Danielle’s career and her child and settle for the tiny scraps of Danielle that were left to share.
Gerri put the bite of jambalaya in her mouth and chewed it, holding her appraising gaze on Danielle. When she finished, she waved the fork again.
