Chapter Three
Brock
Today was meeting day. I was at number four already, and each one resulted in a to-do list a mile long. The worst part was, we had an all-staff meeting in an hour, so I couldn’t claim meeting victory and move on to the rest of my work. I was so put-a-fork-in-me done.
I shot off a follow-up email for the most recent meeting and stood to stretch. Everything hurt. If nothing else, I needed a walk before the next meeting began. At least all-staff meetings didn’t require me to lead anything, and they usually had cookies. I could use a cookie about now.
My away message was set to lunch. I wasn’t even hungry, despite having worked through yet another break. That was one thing I promised myself I was going to work on. My stomach didn’t need food at a set time, but the companionship was nice.
I sat back down in my chair and closed my eyes.
I’d take my walk in a little bit. For now, I wanted a twenty-minute power nap.
I’d been up most of the night, thanks to my brain not shutting off.
In hindsight, I should’ve called uncle at two and gotten up to do some work.
It prevented my sleep whether I was getting it done or not, so might as well be productive.
I didn’t manage to sleep long, someone knocking on my door far louder than necessary. Or maybe it was necessary, and I’d slept through the earlier attempts.
“Come in.”
It was Barry. “Sorry to bug you, but your away message said you were at lunch, and I didn’t see you there.” Which should’ve been all the hint he needed that I wasn’t wanting to be found. But Barry wasn’t one to hunt people down for work.
“What’s up?”
“The water main broke, and that means the building’s shutting down for the day.” He started to leave then turned back around. “The city won’t let anyone stay.”
He knew me well because my initial reaction had been, Nah, it’s fine. I can work without water.
But I quickly saw it for what it was, mandatory time off. True, it was only a few hours, but I was taking it as the excuse I needed to get away from this place.
“Then I’ll make sure and get out of here.” I left my laptop on my desk and only stopped long enough to grab my lunchbox from the kitchen before joining the others filing out. For the first time in I didn’t even know how long, I wasn’t the last one out of there.
I decided to run some errands on the way home, ones I’d been postponing. Super-fun stops, like getting more laundry soap and paper towels. The outing dreams were made of.
Surprisingly, I was loving it. Normally when I went to grab necessities, I rushed around, grabbed what I needed, and spent the entire time being mad I wasn’t doing what I really needed to be doing, which was always work. It was nice moseying along the aisles as I picked up my necessities.
I restocked everything from cleaning supplies to paper products.
While I was there, I also grabbed a set of new towels, the most adorable star-decorated unspillable straw cup, a package of socks, and a DVD collection of cartoons popular when I was a toddler.
I didn’t need half the stuff that was in my cart, but that didn’t stop me.
Fitting everything in my car turned out to be a feat. The paper towels and toilet paper alone took up most of the available space.
I was half thinking of hitting up the grocery store next and getting some silly gummy shapes and blueberry waffles to devour with my new cartoons.
I wasn’t sure why that combination was so good, but I adored it.
As I went to shut the trunk, I saw my receipt on the ground.
As I picked it up, the date caught my eye and reminded me of my recent text with Sammy.
Today was the little event Sammy asked me to attend. At the time, I’d said I wanted to go. And now I could. Best of all, I’d be there before everybody was tired and grouchy and cleaning up. I’d be able to attend the entire thing.
I sent Sammy a text. I’m going to be able to make it today. There was a water main break at work.
It was only a few seconds later, the bubbles telling me he was typing back appeared. Good. I caught him on time. If he’d already been there, his phone would’ve been locked up. I’d still have gone, but this was better.
I’m leaving now.
I’ll meet you there.
If he was leaving now, I didn’t have time to go home and grab my little things. At least I hadn’t stopped by the freezer section to get the waffles yet. Nothing in my cart required refrigeration, meaning that if the traffic fairies were on my side, we’d arrive at the same time.
I tried to think if I had any little clothes left in the car from past outings. I didn’t. What I did have was an extra set of work clothes, and they wouldn’t work. I wasn’t a daddy, and they were much more daddy coded than anything remotely little.
I’d pulled up my phone to see if there were any places along the way I could snag something close enough to fit in, when I saw a reminder from my gym that I’d been neglecting them.
It was a membership I locked into before work got so intense, and I was really smart and signed up for three years to get a discount only to never get there anymore.
The notification reminded me I still had a gym bag.
I told myself if it was in the car, I could hit the gym on the way home on nights I got out early.
And that was true, if early nights existed.
My gym outfit was always the same—a crop top and workout shorts. I wouldn’t call them little coded, but they were much closer than work clothes and were clean. They would have to do.
I wouldn’t look like the other littles, but Ms. Lily wouldn’t care.
And there was no “little” way to dress, not really.
Some would have onesies and leg warmers on.
Others would be sporting short shorts and fitted tees.
Others might don some pajamas or twirly dresses or costumes that represented their favorite cartoon character or storybook character. There was always a variety.
Traffic was on my side, and I got there quickly and went digging for my gym bag underneath all my purchases. It was a mess, and I knocked the paper towels out twice and a bottle of dishwasher soap, once. It was safe to say, I was a little excited at the moment and not as focused as I needed to be.
My phone lit up. It was Sammy.
Where are you?
He was probably waiting for me at check-in.
On my way, I just had to grab clothes out of my gym bag.
Might as well prepare him for what I’d be wearing. He wouldn’t care. He wasn’t that kind of person. There were littles who came together and coordinated their outfits. I’d done that a time or two with friends, and it was fun, but definitely not a necessity for me. Sammy was the same way.
Clothes in hand, I jogged inside where Sammy greeted me with a hug. Despite not having everything I’d normally like to have when playing, I was already feeling like I was exactly where I needed to be. Thank you, broken water main.