May I have your attention, please. May I have your attention, please. A tornado warning has been issued for this area. A tornado warning has been issued for this area. Please take all appropriate safety actions at this time.
That notification repeated over the automated emergency alert system in our building for over an hour this afternoon. It was a malfunction but by the time someone figured out how to turn it off we were all praying for the sweet silence that an E-4 twister might bring.
Jacob, one of my favorite coworkers (there are quite a few), got wind (via the breeze Susannah) that Eve and I are going to New York. He was there last month with his family and shared some information that caused us to rethink the plan we had so carefully mapped out for our free day. We’re up to three plans now. I suspect we’re at a point where we’ll figure it out as we go.
Eve had to leave early for an overnight work trip. Paul stopped in before she left to pick up some things she didn’t want to take with her or leave in the office. She was out of her office when he arrived, so I talked to him for a bit. They’re going to go out of town a couple of times over the next few months, and I’ll take care of Izzy. “Are you sure this isn’t too much?” he asked. I thought it was nice of him to check. I told him no, not too much.
I told Blaine about it tonight when he came over after work. “Do you have the option of saying no when they ask?” he asked, surprising me.
“Sure, but before they got her I promised I would dogsit when they needed it as long as it didn’t interfere with taking care of [the little white dog], so I always say yes.” Blaine moved his head, a nod but not necessarily one indicating agreement. “Is it a problem?” I asked. He tilted his head, shrugged. “An aggravation?” I guessed.
“How can I move up in that priority chain?”
I didn’t expect that. I stumbled over “Oh” and “I didn’t..” and “realize” and “think.” I finally had to stop, sweep all that away and try again for a sentence. “It didn’t dawn on me until now that our weekends are entwined.”
“Does that bother you?”
“The opposite.”
He smiled. His arm had been across the back of the couch and he let his hand drop so his fingertips could mess with the back of my hair. Weekends, I thought, weren’t the only things to be entwined if he kept it up. He said he had been kicking around the idea that we might do something special that weekend.
“Go somewhere?” I asked, intrigued.
“Hmm mmm.”
“Where?”
“Oh a quick trip to that beach town you’ve mentioned.”
For half a second I was thinking Izzy who? That beach town is in Michigan. “You’re just saying that because you know we aren’t going anywhere, right?” I nudged him in the ribs when he laughed. His real idea was closer to home and not near water but it was a lovely idea all the same.
“I think you like me a little bit,” I allowed.
“I think I do,” he agreed.
He has definitely moved above Izzy in the priority chain.
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