Graceful Disaster

I picked Kara up from her job and gladly listened to her rendition of how awesome it was to work as an electronic technician. She was really good with electronics and fixing problems. Thanks to her, my laptop was virus-free and had all of the software I needed for what I usually do. She even hooks me up with the newest Sims games when the store gets the orders in the night before.

“So there was this one Mac that had crashed and the person wanted whatever was on the hard drive. So I had to reboot it and quickly get the files onto a flash drive. But I did it!”

“I have no doubts that you couldn’t do it. You’re a regular Da Vinci when it comes to computers.”

She smiled widely and nodded. “I know.”

I laughed for a moment and glanced in the mirror to change lanes. For a split second, I saw the scene from the parking lot: Louis standing in the middle of the lot looking put out. My head snapped to the side mirror instead and I flicked my blinker on.

“What was that about?” Kara stared at the rearview mirror. “Did you see a ghost in the back seat? Was it Spike stuck between Heaven and Hell again? I would so do him in a second, corporeal or not.”

“How would that be possible if he wasn’t corporeal?” I cast a quick look at her. She was smiling fiendishly.

“I would find a way.”

“Okay then…”

“You know that if you had the hots for a guy who couldn’t hold his physical form, you would find a way too.”

I mulled that over a second. “True.”

“Speaking of guys…Have you uh…heard from Louie lately?” She elbowed me knowingly and arched her eyebrows suggestively.

“Yes, actually.” I turned onto my street.

“Oh! Do tell.” I parked the car and unbuckled my seatbelt, opening the car door slightly.

“I left him standing in the parking lot.” Quickly, I got out of the car and got to the front door of my building, putting the key in the lock as Kara scrambled out of the car.

“What do you mean? He asked you for a ride and you left him?”

“No,” I opened the door, “We exchanged banter and he pushed a button so I left.”

“Ah… ‘Hell hath no fury,’ huh?”

I paused in my trek up the stairs. “I guess like that.” I shook my head. “I don’t know. He just said something that bothered me and I left.”

“What did he say?” She leaned on the wall next to my door as I put the key in the lock.

“He said something about me being a ‘capable human’ and the way he said it bothered me. Like he was insulting me. So I left.” I turned the key and dropped them on the front table when the door swung inward.

“Ah.”

“Yeah.”

“So…” She took another PopTart from the top of the fridge and unwrapped it. “How was the first day?”

I nearly dropped the Cola can I had retrieved from the refrigerator. “It was easy. I think it’s gonna be too tempting though.”

“What do you mean? Because of King Louie?”

As I popped the can open I glared at her. “No,” I said through gritted teeth. “There was a cute orange tabby by the name of Clara.”

“I want an orange tabby!”

“I was so tempted to just smuggle her out of the place.”

“Her name rhymes with mine too!”

I gave a look of amused exasperation. “That was one of the reasons.”

Kara smiled widely. “So…What was your banter with Louie Ratatouille?”

I leaned back on the counter next to the sink and thought. “I quoted Shakespeare, then he quoted John Gay and to test him I quoted half a Shakespeare line and he finished and I admitted that he was educated. Then I asked him why he was in the parking lot and he pointed to the building we had seen him near the other day and said that he worked there.” I put the cool can to my forehead. “He works there, Kara! The guy I rear-ended works in the building next to mine!” She let out another giggle and I rounded on her. “It’s not funny,” I half-whined, “I have to possibly see him every day after work in his handsome glory—“I let out a frustrated growl.

“’Handsome glory’?”

I sipped and shrugged. “No one uses the word handsome anymore.”

Kara tapped her PopTart on my Cola. “True that.”