29. Daphne
29
DAPHNE
It’s rare that the big boss comes down to our area. On the few occasions we need to discuss things with Will, we do it in his office. I think he knows I was speaking with his nephew, but he doesn’t seem to care.
“Hey,” he says, “just checking in to see how you’re doing down here. Swamped with end-of-month stuff?” Will glances around our space and seems to be disturbed by what he sees. “It is really dark down here.”
Mallory and I glance at each other.
She answers, “No, we’re good. What’s up?” Since we don’t get visitors here, there aren’t extra chairs, but that’s not an issue for Will. He sits on top of a spare desk that got schlepped down here when it was deemed unworthy of being upstairs. Yes, our area is where old office furniture goes to die.
“Nothing, really. You two are in your own little world down here, and I’m nosy.” We all laugh.
Mallory and I glance at each other. She gives me a look that’s clearly a question. Have I spoken to Will about my plans already? I shake my head slightly to show that I haven’t.
“I’ll let you get back to work,” Will says. “My door is always open if you need anything.” Will rises from the desk he’s been sitting on.
Why is he here? Does he know something? Did Logan tell him something? I want to think he wouldn’t because it’s for me to tell, but sometimes he thinks he knows what’s best and butts in where he shouldn’t. I hope he didn’t.
“Cool, thanks, Will,” I say.
“Bye, Will,” Mallory adds.
Our gazes meet as the door beeps, signaling Will’s exit.
“Was that weird?” I ask.
“A bit. Do you think he knows you want to cut back?”
“I don’t know. I spoke to Logan about it last night, and I hope he wouldn’t interfere, but he’s a goober sometimes.”
Mallory rises from her desk and heads to our kitchen area. “I need a double cocoa with extra marshmallows. Want one?”
That sounds scrumptious, so I grab my mug and follow her. I decide to walk on the wild side and add a touch of French vanilla powdered creamer to mine.
“Ooh, good idea,” Mallory enthuses. “Ooh, do you think they make peppermint creamer? That would be yummy in the cocoa.”
Nodding, I say, “We should ask Betty to check when she’s ordering the coffee supplies.”“Speaking of orders, did you have what we need for Saturday?”
“Yep. I borrowed a camera that can mount on a head strap and a microphone. The strap will arrive tomorrow, and I borrowed the camera and microphone from Shelby. The weather forecast says it will be good for Saturday. Her boyfriend, Finn, is a Fish and Wildlife Services officer based at the refuge, and he’s told me some interesting things about the trail I’ll incorporate into my tour.” I dump a handful of marshmallows into my cocoa. “Thank you so much for being willing to do this with me, Mallory. I’ve been researching and watching other online tours around the world, but I haven’t found anything recorded locally. New Jersey is the butt of a lot of jokes, but there are so many wonderful things here that I want to share with the world.”
She smiles at me. “Daphne, it sounds like fun. Thanks for asking me. When you’re famous and have your own show on the Travel Channel or you’re a contestant on Dancing with the Stars because you’re a social media influencer, I expect to be introduced to your famous friends and offered tickets to tapings.”
I don’t want to be famous, and dancing alongside minor celebrities sounds like hell. All I want is a new gig, a lot of time with Logan, and a bit of freedom. This idea that is quickly turning into a new dream—the first dream I’ve had in years—could do just that. This time, I’m going to hope for the best instead of imagining the worst.
* * *
Logan and I have worked out a schedule of texting, leaving each other voice messages, and FaceTiming when our schedules sync. He is in Goleg?, Portugal at the National Horse Fair. All week he’s been sending me samples of the pictures he’s been taking, and they’re gorgeous. Action shots from the show jumping and dressage competitions, scenic pictures of the area, portraits of the horses—they’re all wonderful.
The practice tour Mallory and I did at the wildlife refuge went well. We walked a short eco trail loop that offered a splendid view of the Atlantic City skyline, the bay, and looped through a wooded area. The refuge is on a major migratory bird route, so there’s a ton of different varieties of birds to see. In early November, it’s Canada geese, snow geese, cormorants, ducks, and seagulls. There are always seagulls, but you never see baby seagulls. It’s odd; if you visit in the spring, you’ll see goslings and ducklings but no baby gulls. I think they fly up from the bowels of hell fully grown. Damn devil birds.
I’ve been editing the video after work this week. We did the loop three times to get as much footage as possible. Since I’m wearing a head-mounted camera, I filmed everything from my point of view, so I had to make sure I was describing what I was seeing and not observing one thing while talking about another.
“And we’re live!” My hands are trembling slightly as I hit the keys necessary to upload my video. I add links to my social media accounts to get a few views, hopefully. Shelby is a popular social media influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers, so she’s sharing links too on her platforms.
“Shared!” Shelby says.
Mallory and Shelby have come over to cheer me on, drink wine, and Mallory is going to crash in the guest room. Her parents live in Florida, and she bought the family home from them. They came back up north to attend a family party, announced they were staying with her, and are driving her crazy. She was afraid to admit that to me since I lost my parents, but I get it. I loved my parents, and we were close, but we had our moments where we got on each other’s nerves. I can’t imagine having a relationship with them as an adult, especially if they came into my home and treated it like it was still their house and acted like I was still a child and not a grown woman. Shelby’s boyfriend is going to pick her up and take her back to his house a couple of miles away.
Shelby and I joined Mallory for brunch on Sunday morning with her girlfriends, and it was a lot of fun. I made a promise to myself to not let these new friendships fade once Logan comes home in just over four weeks. It would be so easy to immerse myself in our relationship to the exclusion of everyone else, and I don’t want to be the girl that ignores her female friends when her boyfriend is available. I want to have a balance between my romantic relationship and my friendships.
“Time for wine,” Mallory states, and she opens the cans of rosé so we can kick back on the couch to watch a few fall-themed Howlbark movies. Mallory comes from a family of wolf shifters, and Shelby is human like I am, but her boyfriend is a Bigfoot shifter, so we enjoy the shifter romance movies. It’s funny how they’re formulaic like the regular Hallmark movies with the shifters being seen in their other form and stirring feelings in the others. They usually do shifter/human pairs so there’s the oh no, we’re so different moments of doubt until we get to the no matter what form we shift into, we’re all the same deep down inside moment of realization before the declarations of love. It’s hokey, but it’s what I need right now. We’re ready to relax and pig out with our mini buffet of cupcakes, leftover Halloween candy, chips, cheese and crackers, and bottles of water on the coffee table in front of us. I grabbed fleece blankets so we can be cozy while we binge. I haven’t had a slumber party with girlfriends since before my parents died, and this is fun, especially with the addition of wine. I’ve never had canned wine before. I’m surprised at how tasty it is. There’s a lot of things I’ve never done before, but I’m going to. No more being hide-in-the-shadows Daphne. It’s time for me to embrace the adventurous side of me that I’ve buried for the past decade. Time to embrace a lot of things. And Logan.