expired

Chapter 6, Part 1

"False. I love Tom Holland and I've never even met him."

"That's different Tia," I groaned, returning to my romance-cynical form. "Clay and I actually have spoken to each other," I paused before adding, "and have a real connection."

"Connection?!" Tia's pitch rose high enough to shatter glass and she continued to swoon over my newfound "love interest", as she called Clay.

Two in the morning turned into three which turned into four as I continued to tell Tia about every minute that had happened at the Tree over the course of the evening. I swore that Tia was so intrigued she was on the verge of taking notes. As the minutes ticked by I began to drift off to sleep, listening to Tia choosing colors for me and Clay's wedding as I slipped into slumber.

Maybe it had just been a coincidence after all.

***

    Light sept through the curtains and shone on my eyelids, pulling me out of sleep and into the world. Grumbling I turned to Tia's clock, which read 9:03 A.M. I hadn't gotten any more than 5 hours of sleep. Great.

    Tia, who was quite the mobile sleeper, had thrown her arm across my torso in her sleep. Carefully, I freed myself from her grasp and crept out of her bed, scribbling a note that I'd left and thanking her for everything before folding it and placing it carefully on her head. She did move a lot in her sleep, but the girl also slept deeper than anyone I'd met before.

    Mrs. Das greeted me downstairs with a full breakfast as she did every time before I left. I could never tell whether she pitied me or cared for me, but somehow felt as if it was a mix of both. I shoveled in all the scrambled eggs and bacon I could before slipping my shoes on and heading back home to my scrambled life.

    The scene when I got home was not as chaotic as I thought it'd be, but was much more interesting. Dishes from Jane and Matt's dinner last night were laid neatly on the drying rack, and across the house in the living room were Jane and Matt, seated on opposite sides of the couch. Strewn across the living room furniture were parenting books and several highlighters and pens. A few of the books were opened to post-it note marked pages, scribbled on and highlighted to high heaven. Matt looked more focused than he had at any point in his high school career as he highlighted a phrase from Parenting 101: Your First, too concentrated to even acknowledge my presence. Jane's glasses, which I'd never seen her wear, rested towards the bottom of her nose, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration in the parenting styles book she was reading.

    I coughed and they both jerked their heads up, clearly taken by surprise.

    "Eva," Jane pushed up her glasses to the bridge of her nose and stood, dusting herself off. "Sorry your house is such a mess! Matt and I didn't even realize how long we've been at this? Babe, what time is it?"

    "Holy shit, it's 9:30," Matt's eyes widened, putting his book down and stacking up all the surrounding novels. "We have that appointment with the real estate agent at 10:00 downtown."

    "Are you kidding me?!" Jane exclaimed, gathering the books into stacks and the writing utensils into a glass jar on the coffee table. "I look like a mess!"

    "You look fine," Matt said, kissing her forehead before proceeding to help her clean up everything. "We really don't have time to change. It's downtown."

    Jane ran her fingers through her hair, debating what to do. Her clock began to tick down faster while the one next to her (the baby's) maintained it's steady rhythm. I guess he, or she, didn't really have the capacity to experience emotion yet.

    "Alright, let's just go," Jane decided, hustling over to the door and slipping her feet into her sandals. Matt followed her lead and grabbed his eyes off the coffee table, stuffing his feet into his tennis shoes and opening the door for Jane.