Joyce and Shannon sauntered back to the branch an hour after lunch was scheduled to end. Shannon felt washed out, almost naked wearing her new, Joyce-approved color palette.
None of the other staff appeared to notice their tardiness or Shannon’s new face. Fred gave them a wave and Shannon and Joyce opened up their window.
The effect of the new face was marked. No more stink-eye. Most of the customers immediately warmed up to her. It was a revelation.
When they closed, Joyce watched as Shannon counted and reconciled her till.
Fred then had her puppy-dog while he went through his shut-down procedures. “We are big on cross-training here. We are a small shop and with these open farm fields we get a lot of snow drifting. No telling who will be able to show up when we have a blizzard.”
The drive home held no appeal to Shannon. She had a vague impression that Heller’s house might be closer so she entered his address into the mapping app on her smartphone. He lived 17 miles and 20 minutes away.
She needed a hug.
Ten miles of Interstate, five miles of state-highway and two miles of gravel road and she was pulling into his driveway.
She shot him a text “When are you going to be home?”
A minute later he responded “Be a couple hours”
Well, crap. Now what?
Lacking anything better to do, she changed into the “grubby” clothes she kept in the trunk. Looking around she found the riding mower in the shed, checked the oil level like her dad had taught her. Then she mowed Heller’s yard. That took a whopping half hour.
She texted Heller “Where do you keep the spare key. I can have dinner waiting for your”
He replied “The door is not locked. Just let yourself in”
It took Shannon a while to figure out Heller's kitchen. It was not an organized workspace. He had enough food in the refrigerator for tacos, a bit of green-salad and he even had a couple of ears of sweet corn in there. Shannon would make it work.
She was looking for a knife when she found the "junk-drawer". She was just about to close it when a picture caught her eye. It was a just-expired, student ID that had belonged to a red-head named "Stephanie Metzger". She felt guilty when she popped it into her purse. Clearly, Stephanie was going to need it.
Walking through the door a half hour later Heller said “I stink. I gotta take a shower.”
Then he sniffed the air. “Boy, that smells good.”
“Don’t use all the hot water. I need a shower too” Shannon said.
“That is going to be tough. I don’t have a very big water heater. But I will try to hurry” Heller said.
A couple of minutes after hearing the shower start running, Shannon turned off the stove, skinned out of her grubby clothes and joined Heller in the shower.
Later, over a cold dinner, Shannon said, “I wish I could stay the night but I don’t have any clean clothes.”
“That is easy enough to fix” Heller said. “I’ll drive.”
And just like that, Shannon found herself back at her apartment. She picked out four days’ worth of work and causal clothes. Minding Joyce’s advice, Shannon didn’t pick form-fitting clothes but chose looser fitting blouses and pleated skirts for work.
On the way back Heller said “I didn’t mean to rush you. If you think this is too fast, you can sleep in the other bedroom.”
“I think we are past that point” Shannon said. Yes, it did seem to be going fast but it felt right. Heller didn’t play games and give her all kinds of tests. He was a black-and-white kind of guy. Shannon was his and he was hers. All the other stuff could be sorted out.
Living well... you know the rest. Actually, while that is indeed good, the best revenge is still destroying your enemies.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be interesting to see intestinal distress make another complaint and Jeff defends Shannon, or even better shows it's false and intestinal distress gets fired.
DeleteP.S. what was done to Shannon is a good reason to limit tour online presence and especially to keep personal and work separate.
C Diff did not make the complaint, her "cut-out" did.
DeleteNow the question is will said cut-out consider her job done now that Shannon is in 'Siberia'? I'm hoping Shannon gets wise and starts sanitizing her social media. I never quite saw the attraction of Linkdin if you aren't in a media or entertainment position. I especially don't see why a bank teller needs a profile....
DeleteAh, the kitchen of the young bachelor. How I remember those days. Enough food for a single meal or two, although not a co-ordinated one.
ReplyDeleteIf Shannon was smart, she would start dumping her online presence now.
Excellent story Joe!
ReplyDeleteWell done!
ReplyDeleteI feel I missed something.
ReplyDeleteOn the spur of the moment, Shannon drives announxed to Heller's abode. She performs multiple acts to ingratiate herself to him. The piece d'resistance is shucking her duds to join him in the shower.
Poor fella. It seems by now he don't know up from down. He even 'apologizes' to her for moving too fast. Certainly he's in no position to repel her advances. He's outflanked and all because her feelings took the driver's seat.
Reminds me of my 19 year old self. It will be difficult to retract. Among other things, I passed up an internship at JPL because my head was swimming. What will Heller forego? His age matters only as an indication of his emotional quotient. How prepared is he for this?
Correction: Shannon drives unannounced ....
DeleteAs I've read things Shannon and Heller have been dating but haven't discussed moving in together because he lives so far away from her.
DeleteWith her penalty reassignment to Siberia suddenly she is MUCH closer to his house than her apartment, so the metric changed. She is also a 'fixer' so with time to kill she looked for something useful to do, and mowing the lawn was something she was familiar with that would free up Heller's time on the weekend.
Rick T, I got that. But that she just shows up and makes herself at home? Heller's culpable too because he drove but she got FOUR days worth of clothes. She's got designs, hoo boy.
DeleteJust like that, they're playing house. They weren't dating, they were rutting. And now its off to the races.
I am not thrilled by the development but I have to let the characters act in ways that are believable for their age and the culture.
DeleteWe now live in the age of the hook-up and there are very popular apps that will find you willing partners for casual sex. You could have a different partner every night of the year for a long, long time...if that is what you wanted.
One of the premises of this story is that we are participating in an undeclared war. Let me rephrase that: The Left declared war on conservatives but neglected to tell us. War makes for strange bedfellows.
But I don't see anything wrong with the character development, Joe. What you say is true, but - what happens next? LR is like just about every young man ever, thinking with his little head instead of his big head when it comes to pretty girls. And yet, he has pretty solid traditional values on manly issues, planning, thinking ahead, being chivalrous and protective. Shannon has a more modern mentality and is taking the initiative as women commonly do these days. What happens when LR starts walking these modern values back, as he has been? Shannon is seeing the value of traditional values - they've been saving her bacon - and is responding within her contextual frame. It's great! Will they work together on retribution to the Woke? I hope so.
DeleteI would agree with ERJ that for this time and this culture, this is likely what the characters would do (and also with his point about not being thrilled by the development). This has come up in my own larger circle of people I know as well and today, seems to feel as if it much more the rule than the exception.
DeleteIs it a great idea? No, and it probably works out badly more often than not. The media pushes this alternative of course, but it strikes me that many young people also lack reasonable role models of healthy relationships and/or want the ability to retain some degree of "ability to leave" at their desire or convenience, not "burdened" by the legal necessities.
Shannon, PUT THE ID BACK!! no matter how good her intentions are, i can see no good from carrying around his ex's ID.
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed. Who does she think she is. Poor Heller, he has no idea the whirlwind.
DeleteI don't qualify for only fans. Unless they want to watch me struggle to clean house, take breathing treatments and laugh at "party unity". I can do the odd repair, so I've got that going for me...
ReplyDelete