Wrapped Up With Her
Chapter 1
“Lucy, are you paying attention at all?” Molly’s voice echoes in my head.
I look down and see her stern face staring at me from across the desk, her grey suit angular and sharply contrasting the golden sunset pouring in through the front windows of the office building. A sunset that reminded me that I was resigned to the night shift.
“Yeah, of course, you have my full attention.” I say, even though I would at most be giving her a quarter of my attention.
“Can you tell me anything I just said to you?”
“That it’s December 22nd, and that the office will probably be pretty dead tonight, but that’s no reason to slack off or not do what I’m supposed to do?” I shrug, my purple hair brushing against the collar of my jacket.
“Well…ok, yes, that was pretty much it…” Molly says. “But if you could at least act like you’re paying attention, that would be great.”
“How do I act like that other than what I did?” I put my purse down on the desk and resist the urge to get my phone out, knowing that would only serve to piss Molly off entirely.
“Lucy…” Molly gives me a tight smile. “I have so much going on right now, and I just need to make sure the people I have doing things for me will do those things as I expect...”
“So, I shouldn’t be a sarcastic little shit about things when you talk to me, right?’
“That’s exactly it.” She nods. Molly’s face softens a little as she looks around the lobby while I’m getting settled in. “So, when the office is closed, do you have…anywhere you’re going?”
“Molly, you know the answer to that.”
“Lucy…” Molly looks at me with genuine concern.
“I have friends, they’re just all out with their families now because, well, they can still go back to families that still talk to them.” I say.
“And yours…”
“You know how it is.” I shrug, “once I became Lucy, they still thought I’d be Lucas for them for…
some reason. Once I started showing up to family gatherings looking like this…
” I sweep my fingers up and down, indicating the form I’d worked so hard to craft, “things were awkward, and…I mean, I’m hot, so I’m not going to change for them. ”
“You know I want to tell you I’m proud of your strength and resilience in all of this, but you’ll tell me to not say that.”
“Correct.” I smirk. “I do tell you to not say that.” I pause. “But I appreciate that you feel that way, and I appreciate that you want to tell me.”
“Were you always this prickly and standoffish?”
“I was worse before, if you can believe it.” I slide my phone out of my purse and put it in between my monitor and keyboard.
I figure the situation with Molly has diffused enough at this point that I’m good.
And based on how she walks away, probably rolling her eyes as she does, I figure it’s at least not my problem.