Chapter ElevenFischer
Chapter Eleven
Fischer
Never in my life have I been a person who sacrificed sleep for something as superficial as a TV show.
Not until Micah. Technically, it isn’t even her fault at this point, and when she went most of the week without sending me a single non-work text, I may have dived too deep into her favorite show.
A part of me hoped she would ask about it, but the more logical side of me knows I watched because I wanted to.
It’s because I see myself in the character Ben Wyatt and want to know if he and Leslie are going to get a happily ever after.
Maybe it’s stupid. No, I know it’s stupid to compare my life to a scripted sitcom.
But when Micah is my own Leslie Knope, my heart has latched onto the idea that maybe we have a shot.
As it turns out, going a few days without texting Micah feels like going a few days without water. I’m addicted, and it’s not going to end well.
Anyway, as much as I would like to blame her for my bad mood today, I can’t.
My sleepless frustration is entirely due to my own lack of self-control, fueled by Micah’s boss.
I don’t hate a lot of things, but I hate her.
I hate that she doused Micah’s light with a single comment this morning.
I hate that Micah wouldn’t let me say anything about it.
Even now, Lila has barely acknowledged the fact that Micah has organized this entire field trip, down to snacks for each car and printed maps in case we lose service on the way.
Lila has been too busy flirting with Grant—a terrible idea—to notice that her usually bubbly assistant is practically silent as she directs the two planners on how to get to the lodge.
Dani and Ava look far too nervous for two grown women planning to drive just a couple of hours.
If I were a betting man, I would put money on neither of them being good with directions.
But they insisted on driving themselves, and Micah doesn’t seem ready to argue.
When she comes back to where my car is parked a few stalls away, she looks like she might burst into tears.
It might just be the contrast to her regular smiles, but she’s not happy.
I don’t blame her.
“Everything good?” I ask as she joins me in leaning against the trunk.
She shrugs. “Lila had me hire a driver to take her and Grant up to the lodge, and Ava is convinced they can make it on their own. I offered to let them come with us.”
Dani glances over and makes eye contact with me, but she immediately turns red and slips into Ava’s car. Either she doesn’t want to ride with lowly assistants, or I scare her. Chances are high that I’m glaring at her right now, so I’m going with the latter.
“This way we can discuss our plans for the reopening,” I say, though I hope we don’t spend the whole two hours talking about work. While I watched Parks and Rec last night, I made a list of questions I want to ask Micah. Things I want to know about her.
After hearing the way Lila speaks about Micah when she isn’t around, I want to learn even more.
If she’s been dealing with that kind of negativity for the last two years, she’s a stronger person than me.
I want to know how. I want to know all the little things that make up this woman who is unlike anyone I’ve ever met.
Micah nudges my arm, smiling for the first time since Lila’s insult. “Are you sure you’re awake enough to drive?”
I have yet to see her with a car, so unless we want to try to convince Dani and Ava to let us squish into their backseat—not an easy option for me—I’m probably our only option. “I’ll be fine.” But, just in case… “It’ll be your job to keep me awake if I’m not.”
Her smile grows. “I’m really good at that.”
“I’m sure you are.”
We wait until Grant and Lila’s car arrives and they’re well on their way, the two planners right behind them, and then we slip into my car. I hand Micah my phone, my music app already pulled up, and she takes it with skepticism.
“I thought the driver picks the music,” she says.
“I defer.”
“You may come to regret that.”
“Try me.” Somehow, I can’t imagine she listens to anything that I wouldn’t like. My taste is eclectic enough that she’s bound to choose something I’m good with. Besides, what she listens to can say a lot about her, and I am determined to learn as much as I can on this trip.
As I pull out of the parking garage, Taylor Swift starts playing through the speakers. It’s from an older album, and I’m pretty sure Micah chose it to test me. Based on the way she’s biting her lip and watching me carefully, she’s waiting for a reaction.
Without taking my eyes off the road, I start to hum along, even mouthing a few of the lyrics.
“Okay,” Micah says, typing on my phone to search up something else.
When the iconic piano notes of “Welcome to the Black Parade” follow the Taylor song, I scoff, shaking my head even though Micah seems surprised when I start muttering the words along with the song.
“At least make it difficult,” I say, raising an eyebrow at her.
We play that game for the next twenty minutes, Micah choosing everything from Elton John to Meghan Trainor. The only song that stumps me is a song from an indie band I haven’t heard of, but I like it enough that I tell her to add it to my playlist.
“I am genuinely impressed,” Micah tells me as she turns the volume down so the music is more of a background sound. She’s scrolling through my playlist to see what I generally listen to. “I pegged you as a classical music snob or something.”
“Clearly you didn’t see Vivaldi in my shuffle next to Rachmaninoff.”
“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.”
I fight my smile as I speed up to pass a semi on the highway. “I’m not joking, actually. Have you ever heard ‘The Four Seasons’? Total banger.”
She lets out a laugh that catches my breath in my lungs for a second. “Banger? I didn’t think you knew what that meant.”
I glance at her with exaggerated offense in my expression.
“Just how old do you think I am?” Too old, but that’s getting harder to remember.
Seven years isn’t completely crazy, and it isn’t like I would be cradle robbing.
She’s been an adult for years. Sure, I was graduating with my MBA when she graduated high school, but…
I’m starting to feel creepy thinking about it.
“I’m thirty-two,” I tell her when she doesn’t answer my rhetorical question. I glance to see her reaction, but her smile hasn’t changed.
“I know. I had my PI brother look into you the other day because he needed something to do, and he told me.”
My grip slips on the steering wheel, making us swerve partially into the shoulder. “Sorry. Uh. What else did he tell you?”
I have no idea what her expression is now because I refuse to look at her. Does she know about what went down with my company? Does she know I’m pretty much blacklisted by any respectable business in New Mexico because of what Miranda did?
When Micah’s hand rests on my arm, I swerve again because I wasn’t expecting it. She lets go, though I wish she wouldn’t. “He really didn’t tell me much,” she says. “He’s annoying like that sometimes, but he only mentions things if he thinks they’re important to know.”
“Like my age?” And why wouldn’t he tell her about my business partner embezzling money from our investors? If I knew my brother was working with someone who got caught up in a scandal like that, I would absolutely warn him.
Ha! The irony of that…
“And he said you went to Columbia. That’s really impressive!”
I wish I wasn’t driving so I could really look at her and try to figure out if she’s hiding any other insider knowledge. Her brother must have figured out my real last name, but did he tell her that part? I feel like she would have brought it up if he had.
“Did you go to college?” I ask. It’s not one of the questions on my list, but it feels like a good segue. And a way to get away from being the topic of conversation.
“Nope.”
“What did you do before you started working for Lila?”
“A lot of things. I was trying to figure out what I really wanted to do, you know?”
Her hand is resting on her knee as she gazes out her window at the passing landscape.
Red rocks and cacti have given way to green hills and pine trees, but we still have a long way to go.
What would she do if I reached out and took her hand?
It might make things incredibly awkward for the rest of the drive.
Or she might welcome the connection. Is it worth risking the former for a chance at the latter?
“What did you study?” she asks, tucking both hands into her lap. Ruining my chance.
“Business.”
“Did you always want to do property investment?”
No. I wanted to change the world one life at a time, but Miranda decided her life was the only one worth changing for the better.
She left me without much of a choice when it came to the work I could do.
“I sort of fell into it, but it’s not a bad gig,” I say.
“Especially with projects like Greenwood. Spring or fall?”
She smirks. “What about summer?”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Fall.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Not spring?”
“Summer is my actual favorite season, but every August I go visit my mom’s grave, and that’s closer to fall than to spring.”
I can’t believe I forgot about her mom. Now I really want to take her hand, but it’s still tucked away. “Is that when she died?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you miss her?”
“I didn’t really know her.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
She smiles, even though she has a great reason to frown right now. “Yeah, I miss her. But I feel like she’s always around. In the sunshine. A voice in my head. In the people I meet.”