“I bet.” The older woman said. “But she'd be an idiot to. She's done all she can there. Can't go higher, if what I read about corporate structure is true.”
'Well..”
“Kerry, it's true.” Ceci insisted. “Andy's the same way, and Dar's come from a very long line on both sides of stubborn traditionalists.”
Kerry eyed her skeptically.
“They skipped a generation with me.” The older woman grinned a little. “But I remember banging my head against the wall with the two of them wanting to find people who dropped pennies in the street to return them.”
“Yeah, I know. I just don't want to egg her into doing something just because I want to.” Kerry admitted. “I know she doesn't care, but I spent my whole life before meeting her being egged into doing things and I feel kinda skunky doing that to her.”
“Don't.” Ceci's expression went serious. “I mean it, kiddo. She'd stay because she thought it was the responsible thing to do. Sometimes it ain't.”
Kerry toasted her mother in law with Dar's cup of milk, and they proceeded back into the living room where they found Dar and Andrew poring over a map of the Caribbean. “What are you two up to?”
Dar stood up and accepted the milk. “I told him to go hang out at that place we went to.” She pointed at the map. “That place on St John?”
“Oh yeah!” Kerry circled around her and leaned on the table. “That was a pretty cool place. Once the hurricane left.”
“And we stopped chasing pirates.” Dar agreed.
“And you all stopped getting into hellacious trouble.” Ceci added.
“Hm.” Kerry regarded the map. “Maybe you should go to Bermuda instead.”
It felt good to climb into their water-bed, and settle under the cool cotton sheets, as the warmth of the heated water cradled her body. Kerry exhaled, and consciously tried to relax as she waited for a handful of Advil to take effect. “What a pain in the butt.”
“You have cramps in your butt?” Dar ambled into the bedroom, turning off the lights and crawling into the other side of the bed. 'Want me to see if I can fix that?”
Kerry chuckled. “You're such a goof sometimes.” She felt the bed shift as Dar came closer, then a gentle touch against her skin as she was enfolded in a hug.
No words. Dar wasn't much for them. But Kerry could feel the affection around her seem to soak into her skin as she relaxed against her partner and finally felt a moment of peace after the long, and somewhat stressful day. “We didn't play with our new gizmos.” She said, feeling Dar's body move in a faint laugh. “I've got meetings all day tomorrow.. let's text each other the whole time.”
Dar laughed harder
“Keep my mind off my cramps.” Kerry added mournfully.
“Take the day off.” Dar suggested. “You're going to have to hold the fort down when I leave for Washington.” She started a gentle massage down Kerry's back.
Kerry had opened her mouth to protest, then she paused. Then she sighed .”I committed to hanging in there until we're out of here, Dar. I can't really just not show up for work, especially since we both flaked out this afternoon.”
“You could hang out here and start looking up how to set up our new company.” Dar continued, undeterred by the demurral. “And .. hey, how about finding out if we could rent an RV for our drive around the Grand Canyon.”
“An RV?” Kerry allowed herself to be distracted. “What kind of RV? Like a trailer?” She could feel Dar's powerful hands working at a knot in her lower back. “You just want to skip out on sleeping in a tent.”
“And you don't?”
“I”d like to try one night in a tent.” Kerry said. “I've never slept in a tent, Dar. The closest I ever came was sleeping in the Dixie during that power outage.”
“We can sleep in a tent when we do that white water rafting trip.” Dar continued working her way around Kerry's body, ending up easing her thumbs in circles just below her navel. “And we'd better time that right cause I was reading that folder they sent us and you've got to pack everything in and out with you.”
Kerry studied her shadowed face, the light from the digital clock just bringing out faint highlights. “Huh?” She murmured, then her face scrunched. “Oh. Ah. Yeah.” She said. “Let's time that right.. and speaking of timing...”
Dar sighed. “Yeah. I'll be bleeding all over Washington.”
“Well.” Kerry, finally, felt herself relax. “At least my PMS is over, so maybe I'll be less of a nut case.” She mused. “Maybe I should come with you to Washington. You can go bleed on the Pentagon, and I'll tell my mother I'm changing my name. Think that'll get them to leave us alone?”
“Hehehe.” Dar snickered, almost into her ear.
“Then we can go kiss on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Did I tell you I found out about all that log cabin stuff?” She felt Dar's body shaking with laughter. “Holy pooters, Dar I should have joined that years ago! Where the hell was I? I should go visit their offices in DC and apologize for my father.”
She felt Dar's forehead press against hers and she looked up, staring right into those ice pale eyes. They were both momentarily silent, then Kerry exhaled. “Take me with you.” She whispered.
“Always.” Dar responded. “I”ll have Maria book your flight with mine. Now.” She kissed Kerry on the lips. “Bedtime for nerds.”
They snuggled up together and relaxed into peaceful silence.
“Can we get one of those RVs that do all that transformer sliding out stuff?” Kerry asked, after a moment of that. “And a barbecue grill?”
Dar started laughing again. “Sure.”
“And a satellite dish.”
Kerry appreciated a moment of peace in her busy morning, leaning back in her chair and sipping on some tea as she gazed out the window.
She was, she acknowledged, going to miss her view. Her fourteenth floor office overlooked the water and Biscayne Bay, and she adored it. She remembered fondly the first time she'd seen it, walked down the back corridor by Dar on her first day working at ILS.
She remembered dressing for work that morning, stressing over the position of every hair, and twitching her new jacket endless times to adjust the drape of it.
Now? Kerry smiled, as she hiked one ankle up on her knee, smoothing the cotton fabric of her loose fitting cargo pants down. She'd been glad enough to compromise with her solicitously hovering significant other, insisting on coming into the office but grateful her boss relaxed the dress code so she hadn't had to deal with a business suit and heels.
So now she was perched in her comfortable leather chair, drinking a cup of honey laced blackberry tea, taking a break from completing her personnel reviews that were due for imminent raises.
With a contented sigh, she turned her chair back around and put her cup down pulling over her note pad and picking up her pen. She checked her list of names and continued making notes, the sound of her writing echoing only slightly as she rested her head on her left fist.
After a few minutes, a soft buzzing interrupted her, and she glanced at the gizmo resting on her desk. “Ah.” She nudged it over and regarded the screen, seeing a new note blinking for her attention. She tapped the screen, and it opened.
Hey. Blue or purple? DD
Blue or purple. Boy that could be almost anything. Kerry picked up the device and using the thumb keyboard, she typed an answer.
Green. She paused, then grinned and tapped again. KD The she put the device down and picked up her pen, checking off the next to last name on the list, and turning over the last review in her pile.
Mayte's. She reviewed her printed comments, then she added a long hand written postscript, smiling a little as she praised her admin, and indicated she thought she was ready for a more responsible position when one opened up.