“It’s on the schedule, isn’t it?” she says, and I swear she’s looking at me through her eyelashes. “Of course we’re on for coffee. We’ve got a mission.”
A mission. Yes. A mission that doesn’t include love bites or her hand slowly working its way up my leg or her lips whispering curses when I lick her neck.
I lean in and give her one quick, chaste kiss on the mouth, a perfectly respectable girlfriend came to say hi kiss, and she slides off my desk and waves goodbye.
* * *
Monday, 3pm:Mountain Grind Coffee Outing
Activities:get an afternoon pick-me-up together
Objective:display enjoyment of one another as a couple to coworkers and town busybodies; caffeinate
“Is that enough sugars?”she asks, as I toss the empty packets in the trash.
“Yes.”
“You know if you use the simple syrup you don’t have to deal with—nope, you’re not doing that anyway, all right then.”
I grin at her as I swallow my iced coffee.
“I like the sugar grits,” I say, and Kat makes the perfectly blank face that means she’s hiding a smile. “Makes me feel alive.”
“Gross.”
“I watched you eat a whole cone of cotton candy by yourself yesterday.”
“Not all by myself, sadly,” she says, giving me one of her pointed looks.
“Close enough.” I take another sip and crunch the sugar between my teeth this time, just to watch the way her eyebrows rise.
“You like the weirdest shit,” she says, but a corner of her mouth twitches, and we turn to walk for the door.
“I’m not the one who sleeps with a Pikachu.”
“It’s a Jigglypuff, and what makes you think I slept with it?”
“So you did.”
Kat shoots me a glance that’s supposed to be annoyed, probably, but isn’t and pushes the door open. I catch it behind her.
“I had to put it on the couch,” she admits when we’re outside, on the sidewalk, heading back to the office building. “It’s got this unnerving… stare.”
“Yeah. Right into your soul,” I agree, and without thinking I slide her hand into mine as we walk.
* * *
Tuesday, noon:Benny’s Soup & Taco Lunch
Activities:consume food to fuel continued existence
Objective:eat soup and/or taco, look convincing to coworkers who go there every day
“That’sthe wrongest opinion I’ve ever heard in my entire life,” Kat’s saying, the taco paused on the way to her mouth. A small chunk of tomato falls out, onto her plate.
“Opinions can’t be wrong,” I point out.
“The hell they can’t, because that one sure is.”