11. Riley
11
Riley
The south wall of the training complex is a perfect place to get away from the loud noises of the remodelling of the house, while being out of the wind and still enjoy the sun. Caleb found some —very dusty— table umbrellas while emptying out the new living room. Nobody seemed to know where they came from, so they were probably there before Mathew moved in. For being unused for so long, they’re still in good condition.
Caleb helped me carry two of the large umbrellas outside and set them up against the side of the training complex. Then Vera showed up with a large blanket, which she skilfully placed between them, creating our little pocket of shaded heaven.
Vera is sitting next to me, wearing her bright yellow summer dress, clearly her favourite for how often she wears it, and she’s muttering as she intensely stares at the work in her hands. “Knit, purl, knit, purl.” She got the knit and purl stitches down pretty quickly, and is now attempting to do some ribbing, with mixed results.
I’m sewing up the sweater I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks, possibly months. When I got here, I’d finished the back and one sleeve and half of the second, but I’ve now finished all of it. I only have to sew it up along the seams and then I’ll have a sweater done for winter, right in time for summer.
But that tends to be how these things go. You find a great project in the middle or at the end of the winter, and by the time you’re done with it, it’s well into spring and much too warm to wear it. Not that that tends to stop me...
Once I’ve put this one together, I’m immediately starting on Vera’s light purple sweater. The yarn for that isn’t as warm as this is and even though the evenings have been pretty warm lately, I’m sure she’ll still love to have it, even just to have in her nest or to put around her shoulders, simply for the sensory element.
With my own strong preferences for certain sensory experiences and absolute hatred of others, I can imagine it’s probably much the same for Omegas and their need for fluffy and soft things in their nests and lives.
“I think I made a mistake...” Vera holds up her needles, pouting in my direction. “It no longer looks like a nice column, there’s a bump in it.”
I lean her way, glancing over the last row, spotting the issue. “On the previous round, you inverted the stitches. You knitted the purls and purled the knits. That’s why it looks strange now.”
She pulls it close to her face, glaring at the offending stitches. “Fuck. And it was going so well, too. I did more than ten rows without a mistake.” She lets out a deep sigh. “Well, at least I didn’t drop any stitches. Wait. Did I? Is that why I did them the wrong way around?”
I quietly watch her, not wanting to hover too much or push my help onto her when she’s perfectly capable of asking for it if she really needs to, like she just did. Still, I can still look over her, just in case…
She runs her nail over the stitches on the needle, counting. “Two, four, six, eight, ten.” She moves the stitches further apart and counts on. “Two, four, six, eight, ten.” When she reaches the end, she drops everything in her lap. “Nope. Stitch number is correct. I didn’t lose or add any. I guess that’s progress.”
She stares off into the distance, her eyes unfocused. She looks exhausted.
“Are you done for the day?” She’s been at this for hours. She’s been very patient with learning how to knit, even if some things have been frustrating.
“Maybe. I don’t know yet. I want to get good enough so I can start a real project soon. But learning a new skill is hard.” She wraps her arms around me, putting her head on my shoulder as she looks at the sweater in my lap. “Do you have to make everything from separate pieces and then sew them together later? That feels like a lot of extra work.”
“You don’t have to, but I like it for this pattern because it gives it more structure over a sweater that’s made in one piece in the round.” I kiss her cheek. “What do you want to make as your first project? Something for yourself or for the babies or the nest?”
“I don’t know yet. I haven’t decided. Maybe I can make something for the babies. Though, I’ll probably need yarn for that that’s easier to clean. I don’t think it’s a good idea to make something from a yarn that can only be cleaned in some very specific ways. I’ve crocheted some baby things in the past, usually from cotton, because it’s easy to clean and won’t make the kids too sweaty.” She picks her knitting back up. “Well, I’m going to try two more rows and if that goes well, I’m going to try a different ribbing pattern.”
I watch over her for a while longer, as she’s deep in focus, totally unaware of, or simply ignoring, my eyes on her. I love how much she likes learning new skills and I’m glad that she seems to enjoy knitting.
Some people pick it up really quickly and love it and others never seem to get any fun out of it. I’m glad I can share this with her, something we can do together and spend time on together.
Now, let’s finish this sweater so I can start on the next one. I’ve spent more than enough time on this, I’m ready for a change.
And I can’t wait to make something for my darling Omega, my sweet mate, so I can always be close to her, even when we’re apart.
My heart skips a beat. Yes. So I can always be close to her. So we’ll never truly have to be apart.
That feels right.
“Is this the fabric we’re going to make the internal curtains out of, or the ones in front of the balcony doors?” I pull a heavy fabric out of one of the boxes. It’s thick, easy to block light and sound, but it’s light blue, so it doesn’t feel too overwhelming.
We picked up a lot of different fabrics at the store, most of them for various purposes for the nest and some for clothes. We’re going to be making our own pillowcases, so they’ll be easy to swap out if Vera and Mathew need different textures, or to clean, a couple of sets of curtains. We’ll be making permanent curtains, to go in front of the brand new full-length glass doors that open to the balcony, and some temporary ones we can use as-needed to change the size of the nest.
The whole idea of being able to choose any fabric and type and size for whatever we wanted in the nest got all of us so excited that we decided to all work together to make everything ourselves, instead of buying them ready-made. So we’ve now got boxes full of fabric and not really an idea where to start.
“I think that’s supposed to go in front of the doors.” Jorge’s sitting next to one of the other boxes with fabrics. “There should be four pieces of it. So we can cover the whole wall on that side and not only the doors. Oh!” He pulls a cloud of something almost see-through and very sparkly from his box. “This is supposed to go up against the ceiling, and the fairy lights can be put behind it to keep them in place. Gives the idea of a night sky. Vera was very much into the idea.”
He carefully puts it next to him on the floor. We’re sitting in what’s going to be the baby room. The contractors finished the new floor late yesterday afternoon, so we cleaned the room thoroughly this morning so it can be used as our temporary sewing room.
The upstairs room I want to use as a sewing and crafting room isn’t finished yet, and this way we’re close to the nest, which is what we’re going to be doing most of the sewing for anyway. The idea of dragging the curtains halfway across the house, from the library —the only other room we can really use right now— to the nest and back, if we need to make adjustments didn’t seem like a good idea.
“There’s supposed to be some thin cotton fabric, that’s also for the doors, to keep out the worst of the sun, not to make it dark.” He rummages around in his box, but doesn’t seem to find it. “Is it in your box? Or maybe it’s in one of the boxes downstairs...”
He leans back on his hands, grinning at me. “By the time we get around to finally putting together the baby room, I have a feeling we’ll be great at making everything ourselves. Our kids will have the most intricate baby blankets, pillows and curtains. And probably more clothes than they can wear in all their lives.”
We feel like we’ve got all the time in the world right now, but I know that’s only temporary. Mathew’s clients are giving him some time, to let his brand new Omega and pack settle, but I know they expect him to be back to ‘usual’ soon enough. He’s already been given more time and space than most people would have been given, but that’s partially because he’s the best at what he does, so they’re willing to be patient, and partially because he went from being on his own to running a pack of five, which everyone can understand is a big adjustment.
I stand up, stretching as I walk over to the windows, looking outside. “I have a feeling that this quiet time we’ve got going on right now isn’t going to last much longer. We’ll soon be so busy that doing any sewing or other projects around the house will have to be done in small moments of time we can fit around our work.” I’ve not taken any jobs since I got here, mostly so I could focus on the pack, but also because I don’t have many connections in this area, so not many people I can get jobs from.
“I’m thinking of asking Mathew if I can become part of his team. What do you think?” I glance back to Jorge, who’s now looking at me much more seriously.
He gets up, joining me at the windows. “Won’t that create a conflict of interest with some of your clients?”
“Maybe with a handful, but they were on the cutting block anyway. And I can take some of my clients with me, which will let Mathew spread out into regions he’s not got many contacts yet.” I pull up my shoulders. “Of course, not any of the clients that I got through Erika. But I’ve got plenty of my own. And not having to deal with all of it on my own, the money, the contacts, things like that, it would make life a lot easier.”
Jorge touches my arm, his fingers warm on my skin. “You’ve always gone solo. Do you think you can give that all up?” His voice is quiet, his pheromones worried. “That will be a pretty big change, you know? You’ll give up a lot of control and you’ll probably have to work in a team, no sneaking around on your own.”
“I know.” That’s why I’ve not brought it up with Mathew yet. Giving up my independence to do my job the way I like it and what I think is the best way, is scary. But I know that Timothy, Derrick and Derrick’s teams are very capable, so giving some things over to them doesn’t seem like such a bad compromise, if it means not having to do some of the ‘admin’ side of the work. And that would mean I’ve got more time to focus on the pack and that feels much more important than my independence right now.
But this could all just as easily fall apart. I’ve not worked with them before —apart from that short time when they came into the restaurant to help— so I don’t know if this is even realistic to think about.
If we don’t work well together, then the whole idea is void anyway...