Chapter 3
TUESDAY
Mid-morning Tuesday, one of the Joshes spilled an energy drink across his laptop.
Mel offered to go buy a replacement. Though she had planned a mini road trip later that day, this was a great excuse to go earlier and also seem like a team player.
Mel hopped in the car and headed towards the nearest superstore.
When she hit the main road, her phone beeped wildly as text messages cascaded in. Mel pulled over to safely triage them. Most were from a group chat with her grad school friends. The latest was from Andi, ten minutes ago. Andi picked up on the first ring.
“You’ll never guess who is here at the Delphi,” Mel said.
Andi didn’t miss a beat. “Your ex husband?”
“What? No!” The last thing Mel wanted to think about right now was her ex. “No! Shawn Walker’s here.”
A pause. Did Andi not remember him? It had been six years, not sixty.
“From grad school,” Mel prodded. “Air Force guy.”
“Oooh! I remember him now. He sacrificed himself so his friend could hook up with you. Please tell me he’s single and you’re going to jump his bones.” A rumbling voice in the background spoke, though Mel couldn’t hear what was said. “Eric’s home.”
“Oh, then I—” Mel wasn’t sure what to say. Bringing up one of Andi’s old hookups in earshot of her fiancé seemed inappropriate.
“Nonsense,” Andi said. “He knows that I was a total floozy before we met. Besides,” she started, then raised her voice for Eric’s benefit.
“He has the biggest dick I’ve ever seen and he knows what to do with it.
That’s why I’m marrying him in four months.
” Deep laughter on the other end of the line must have been Eric laughing.
Andi was so lucky to have Eric, who really seemed to adore her.
Andi lowered her voice and a door clicked closed. “Seriously, Mel. Shawn really liked you. Six years ago, he was a total sex god in bed. I wasn’t even his first choice that night! You were. Don’t let my comparisons to Eric fool you. Shawn is plenty endowed. Sex. God.”
A crash on the other end of the line was followed by a muffled male voice shouting. “Shit. Eric just dropped a bottle of wine. I gotta go. You have to bang Shawn!”
The line went dead. Mel looked at her screen, as if it would tell her something more useful than the call was over. Of course, it did not.
Mel moved into the next friend in the chat: Brit. Brit had sat on Mel’s other side in their very first class in grad school, and they had been fast friends. Brit was more cynical than Andi, and Mel needed more levelheaded opinions right now.
“I worried you were dead,” Brit greeted. Brit was extremely literal, so it wasn’t likely an exaggeration.
“Hello to you, too,” Mel replied.
“I was looking for that file with all your power of attorney information. I usually don’t misplace things, but when my brother was here, he rearranged the guest room-slash-office.” Brit launched into a critique of her brother’s organizing skills.
“Brit,” Mel attempted to interrupt. Then again: “Brit!”
“What?” Brit finally replied.
“Shawn Walker is here.”
“Where?”
“I’m at a test site in Alabama. They lease to special ops for training, too. He’s here.”
“Tell him I say hi!” Brit said brightly. “I always liked him. I couldn’t have gotten through without his notes in that East African security class. Hey! Didn’t he hook up with Andi that night of his going away party? You should call her.”
Mel stifled a groan. “I already did.”
“What did she say?”
Mel ran her free hand down her face. “That I should bang him.”
Brit was silent for so long that Mel thought the connection had dropped. Finally, Brit asked, “Did you bring condoms?”
“Brit!” While Mel hadn’t brought any, she did find a box while looking for extra tissue earlier. Mel was not going to open up a birth control discussion with Brit. She would get a whole lecture.
“What? Obviously if you’re going to take Andi’s advice, you need to be smart.” Brit continued by rattling off some statistics on STIs and teen pregnancy.
Mel really loved Brit. But Brit would not let her get a word in edgewise, much less get any useful advice. Mel sighed and let Brit wind the conversation toward whatever was on her mind before making an excuse to hang up.
After obtaining the laptop in the electronics department, Mel perused the grocery section. She put far too many Twinkies in her basket, a six-pack of cider, chocolate-dipped espresso beans, sour gummy worms, and, for everyone else, a mega pack of chips.
Passing the produce, Mel spied carrots. The last time she came to Delphi, the stablemaster had approved her to bring the horses carrots and apples. There wasn’t a ton of extra time this week, but Mel wanted to make some equine friends. She threw a couple of bags of carrots in her basket.
Mel returned to find that the morning had gone from bad to worse.
A simple glitch had erased a database, and restoring it revealed an escalating series of bugs.
They had to fix the code and do regression testing to continue.
Quinton hinted that April, off on some phone call, was in a terrible mood.
Mel dreaded dealing with her like this. As if summoned, April swept into the room, though weighed down by luggage.
“The vice presidents have been summoned by the CEO. I have to go back immediately. Finish up the testing and I’ll see you—” She fixed Mel and Quinton with a glare. “—next week.”
Then she was gone. Though relieved that April wouldn’t be breathing down their necks all week, Mel understood the implicit threat. They better have good news on Monday.
Since she was not a software engineer, Mel could only provide emotional support until the bugs were fixed. Mel finished her pressing tasks and caught up on email. The carrots called to her from the fridge. Mel excused herself under the vague excuse of a phone call, and she went to visit the horses.
The horses were not interested in Mel’s carrots.
When she neared a group by the fence, they snubbed her, trotting away.
She climbed over the fence into the pasture to get closer.
Finally, a white and gray appaloosa didn’t move when she approached.
Spying the carrot in her hand, he pranced over.
Enthusiastically but gently, he picked it up with his lips.
The crunching must have been a clarion call, because the others raised their heads.
The appaloosa let her stroke his soft nose, then leaned down to nuzzle the bag of carrots in her other hand.
“Hey, buddy, you gotta share. I only have one bag,” Mel said, stroking his forehead.
A black horse with a sun-kissed red mane sauntered over, followed by a chestnut and a bay.
The wind kicked up, blowing Mel’s hair in her face.
By the time she pulled the black strands out of her eyes and mouth, all four horses were jockeying for her attention.
They threw their heads at each other, hooves stomping dangerously close to her toes.
Mel backed up. The bay pressed its brown nose against the carrot bag. The gesture alone wasn’t threatening, but then the chestnut nipped its friend. Though the stable master called them a bunch of spoiled house pets, these were very, very large pets.
Mel leapt back and into a patch of mud. It sucked around her boot and held her firmly. The large animals loomed, thrashing heads and stomping hooves at each other. Mel tried to quell the panic rising in the back of her neck.
The mud held onto her like wet concrete.
The horses nosed at the bag in her hand, and she twisted her arm behind her to keep it out of their reach.
Increasingly frantic jerks of her leg did nothing.
The horses encircled Mel, pursuing the carrots.
Mel whipped around her trapped leg, trying to keep the carrots away and stay upright.
She tried twisting her foot to loosen the suction.
Finally, she yanked herself free. Her boot came halfway off in the process, but she was free.
The sole slid to the side when she took a step.
Years of dance classes had taught her how to roll her ankle, but cutthroat ballerinas couldn’t accidentally crush her.
Cautious of her wonky steps, Mel retreated. She held a carrot toward the appaloosa to keep it at arm’s length. The black mare tried to steal it.
“Hey!” The mare let the other horse take its treat, but hovered close. Too close. Mel repeated the tactic, offering the carrot to the black mare. The appaloosa tried to steal the treat in turn.
“Hey!” she snapped again. The appaloosa halted. The chestnut and the bay got their treats before Mel turned back to the black mare.
Mel’s back hit the smooth, plastic fence. The herd crowded closer. She threw a carrot behind them, hoping at least one would pursue. None did. Still facing her overeager pursuers, Mel groped behind her to scrabble up the fence.
Strong hands slid under her arms and lifted her.
“I’ve got you.” Shawn’s reassuring voice in her ear shot warmth down her body.
He carefully settled her on top of the fence, and she wanted to melt.
She dropped the bag of treats where the horses couldn’t reach.
Mel twisted and threw one leg and then the other over the top rail.
Shawn shooed away the horses with waves of his hand and clicks of his tongue. “All this for a couple pounds of carrots,” he mused. “It would have been worse if you brought apples.”
“I didn’t know SOF were trained equestrians. The literal cavalry,” Mel teased, sitting on top of the fence.
“I grew up on a ranch in Montana,” Shawn explained. “I’ve been wrangling horses since I could walk.”