Quadruple Duty

It was dark by the time I opened the office. As I flipped on the lights, I realized it was even messier than the last time. The folders on Dawn’s desk were either gone, or they were buried beneath all new paperwork. The garbage was full again, and I could smell stale food in the air too.

This time I didn’t care. I made a few calls, did whatever I had to do, and moved three more layouts from my CAD folder onto my thumb-drive keychain.

THUMP!

I practically screamed as I leapt back from my keyboard in shock and surprise. An icy chill shot through me.

The sound had come from the direction of the warehouse door.

It was late. Dark. The weekend, even. There would be no one back there. No one could possibly be—

THUMP! THUMP THUMP!

My heart was pounding. Someone was back there. Only the lights in the warehouse were off. I could see nothing but darkness through the slit beneath the door.

Leave!

Every instinct told me to go. To slip out the front without even engaging the alarm, so it didn’t make a beep on the back panel. Then again, our stuff was back there! All the pieces Dawn and I had put together over the years. Even the hope chest my father had bought me — the only piece that had somehow come with me after the accident happened and the house was sold and—

THUMP!

Anger came knocking again, and this time I let it in. I got up, threw open the warehouse door, and screamed — all at the same time. Reaching out blindly I flicked on the lights, and there it was! Right in the middle of the warehouse floor…

A baby squirrel was staring back at me.

“Oh fuck me.”

The words came out in a long, relieved sigh. My shoulders slumped. My face broke into a crooked grin.

Dawn had left the bottom of roll-up door slightly open again. It was only about six inches, but if you didn’t step on it after you locked it, it tended to stay up like that.

“C’mon little guy.”

The squirrel bolted past me the moment I rolled the door open, exposi

ng the warehouse to the thick night air. I closed it again, locked it securely, and this time, sealed the bottom with my foot.

That’s when I noticed a bunch of the furniture was missing.

The Santiago pieces were still gone, I could see that, but a whole bunch of other stuff had been taken too. I thought about the folders on Dawn’s desk. Tried remembering if she had any pieces slated to be lent out for either one of those projects.

But I was just too tired to think.

It had been a long, weird day. A day filled with squirrels and guilt and avoiding Ryan after the events of yesterday.

I locked up quickly, like there actually was somebody in the warehouse. I was just too spooked to shake the feeling. As I got into my jeep I could see storm clouds had gathered while I was inside. Criss-crossing the night sky, they mirrored my already-somber mood.

Pulling away from the office made me feel only slightly better. With my home life in disarray, I really couldn’t function. I had to fix things. Or at the very least, face things. It’s what I always did, and I wasn’t going to stop now.

Driving along, I started wondering what would happen if Ryan and I just couldn’t get along. Were the other relationships off the table? I was pretty sure they were. The guys came together — a package deal — all or nothing. Or at least, that’s how I perceived it.

If Ryan and I never ‘clicked’, there was a definite possibility I could lose them all.

My stomach turned. All at once I felt sick. I wanted to be held tightly by Kyle, or curl up on the couch in Dakota’s big lap. I needed the comfort of their arms around me.

I needed them to tell me everything was going to be alright.

Twenty-Eight