The sitter

We were sitting in his apartment, on his oversized couch, with Chinese food set to arrive any minute. Jaxon's grandma wasn't going to drop him off until eight, and it was only four thirty, so I wasn't going to waste any of my Patrick time.

For whatever reason, Patrick was hellbent on teaching me how to play video games. Even though I had lied and said that I could easily beat him at a game that he probably had some part in creating, Patrick let it go and was mumbling out commands while we were playing. He was even kind enough to let me play as the blackhawks, while he took the penguins.

"Who's this loser?" I asked, when the arrow above my character's head was over number 88 for the hawks.

"I don't know, but he looks pretty fucking good. And if you hurry up and press x he might score." I did as he said, and I, of course, scored. But I was still down by eight, and it was the bottom of the third. If (more like when) I loose this game, it will be Patrick's fourth (out of four) win. I'm sure I won't hear the end of it.

We took a small break when we heard a knock on the door, meaning that the delivery man was here. It was a confused-looking, pre-pubescent boy who, of course, saw me in Patrick's hoodie (and hopefully saw the hem of my track shorts) and left with a stupid smile on his face.

We sat down criss cross apple sauce, passing the cartons of food back and forth.

"So," I began, in between bites of chow mien. "How's your day off?"

"Ah. The real question is, how is yours?" Patrick asked back.

"Mine?" I asked leaning back. "I don't have on days. All of my days are off."

"Yeah, but you don't have the baby." Patrick said, struggling with the chop sticks.

I thought about an answer. I was slowly getting used to Jaxon, but I sort of missed him, even though it had only been like a day. "I guess. I'm tired and its only been a week today!"

"Imagine that for 18 years!" Patrick responded, laughing back.

********

I groaned, looking down at the stack of papers scattered across my desk. I completely understood that being fresh out of college and getting a high paying job that I loved was an absolute blessing, but right now I was feeling a lot of things, and the top was frustration. Writing is easy for me because I feel passionate about many things, but I felt nothing about math, and that was what I was doing right now. We usually make our interns go over textbooks, but none of our interns had exquisite math grades, and even though I majored in linguistics and english, I had gotten the job.

Another thing that made me feel worse was that I hadn't spent more than five hours with Patrick in the last week. I suppose that this is what an actual relationship was like in the beginning, people gradually spending more and more time together, not less and less. But not with Patrick and I. The stress of having a job that requires office work was hard, even though I only had to come in for ten hours a week. Patrick had practice (obviously), but the hawks had decided to add more time focusing on their workouts, so when Patrick wasn't at the gym or on the ice, he was exhausted.

On top of that, I was practically being a single mother, and it had really taken it's toll on me. I could feel myself loosing precious hours of sleep, and it showed in my work, and in the three empty cups of coffee in the midst of my work space.

Suddenly, my work phone rang, pulling me out of my thoughts. I answered it, hearing the voice of Megan, the typical slutty secretary. She was a junior in college, and the company actually had to make a non fraternizing policy because she fucked almost every guy worker and tons of people had syphilis.

"There is a man who wants to see you, Miss Viper. Shall I send him in?" Most days I couldn't stand her, but hearing her nasally voice in my current state made me eve more mad.

"Who is it?" I snapped. I had no meeting scheduled.

"Well he's hot, so I doubt it's personal."

I muttered an angry, "Send him in." I poured myself another cup of coffee. Megan's desk was on the first floor, and I was up on the 24th, so it would take a while for whoever to get here.

I looked around my office, trying to see through an outsider's gaze. It was messy with papers, but once those were taken away, there was wall to wall bookshelves, packed tightly with words from multiple languages. One wall was complete glass, giving me a view of the city of Chicago. When I looked down my window, I could see citizens move along with their everyday lives.

I moved back to my desk, and looked down at the book I was supposed to be going over. The actual assignment included doing every single problem in the book, and then mailing it back to the writer. Thankfully, there were ten other writers doing the same thing, so it wasn't all on me. Again,

I was interrupted by a phone ringing, but this time, it was my personal. I smiled when I saw who it was, but I debated answering. I seriously had to do work, but I could seriously use a pick me up.

"Fuck it." I thought, answering.

"Give me good news." I said, before Patrick could even speak.

He laughed before he replied, "Well, I have sandwiches and I'm outside of your office, so if you could let me in…"

***

"… And I was standing there, waiting for my name to be called, and when it finally was, I just completely fell over! In front of the whole crowd, and it was on away ice! It was awful. I mean, we won, and I scored, but it was so fucking embarrassing, my whole team, even our trainer gave me shit about to for the rest of the year."

I laughed not only at Patrick's story, but the way he was so animated. He waved his arms around
when he talked, and made facial expressions that were either totally adorable or really weird (In an adorable way). We had been talking like this for the last half hour, over sandwiches and lemonade.

"Anyway, so I tried to drop something off at your place, well the William's, and I was at the door for like five minutes, but I totally forgot that you actually had a job and stuff, so here I am." Patrick explained.

"What did you have to drop off?"

"Well, " Patrick began. "If I told you, it wouldn't be fun. You'll have to wait until your done writing the dictionary or whatever."

"I told you, it's a textbook." I groaned, remembering that once he left, I'd have to return to actually working.

"Do you have to finish it today?"

"No, thank god. I don't have to mail it in until next friday."

"That's like a week and two days, to do a whole math book!" Patrick exclaimed, his eyes wide.

"Yup." I said, popping the p.

"Well, do you think you will be done with work by 7:07?"

I laughed at the oddness of his question, and the precise time. "I'm usually only come in for two hours, but I think i'm gunna stay 'till four today. Why?"

"So you should be at my game tonight?"

I laughed again. "Are you inviting?"

"Would you say yes?" Patrick asked bluntly.

Of COURSE I would, a million times yes! I had watched him only twice, and I knew that it wouldn't be the same, watching him through a screen versus watching him live. I couldn't imagine what it would do to me. Even watching him pixelated, sweated and flushed had turned me on a little bit. I'm sure this would be worse. But I had to play it cool. I didn't want to seem over eager.

"I suppose." I answered, instead of screaming "Fuck yes!"

"You'll be next to Shawzie's girlfriend, if you don't mind. If you do, I could get you a different spot." He said, sounding nervous. Didn't he understand that he could get anything and anyone he wanted?

"He has a girlfriend?" I asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, but I think she might be blind."

Notes

I'm so so so so sorry it took me so long to update! I just got caught up with tons of excuses. I've started pre writing chapters, so hopefully it will be more regular.

Also, I have no idea what it would be like to work as a publisher, so bear with me when I talk about her job.