“I’m sorry. Why? What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“I don’t get it.” He sounded as confused as I felt.
“Well…I don’t know. It’s just that.” I took a deep breath. I needed to explain it, if for no other reason than to understand it myself. When my emotions were involved, it often helped me to figure it out by explaining it to someone else. “I’m bored. The Pride Trip was so much fun and now getting back to work, it’s like anti-climactic.”
“Uh-huh. What else?” He knew me too well.
“I kind of said it before, but I don’t want to do this job anymore. I’d already been thinking I didn’t like it so much and didn’t want it to be a forever career, but more of a for-right-now job, but today solidified it.”
“You don’t have to work, Cody.”
“I know. I know. You’ve said that, but I can’t do nothing. I need to do something. I want to do something. I just don’t know what. And I feel like I’m stuck doing this until I figure it out. I know you can help financially, but I don’t know how that makes me feel.”
“Cody, I will support you any way you need. Emotionally, physically, financially. Or all of the above rolled up in one.”
“Wow. That sounds like where I am right now. A hot mess all rolled up in a mixed-up Cody-burrito.”
Warner laughed his amused laugh. “You’ll be fine.”
“I know that too. I’m frustrated. That’s all.”
“What will make you feel better?” As if he didn’t know.
“Probably little time at your house. I’d like to color and be quiet.”
“Can you take the rest of the day off?”
I needed to get those quotes out, but after that, I could probably take off. “Not the whole rest of the day, but I can leave early.”
“Leave early. Come over. We can color, watch a movie, have some dinner.”
Looking at my sorry lunch made me want something good and fun for dinner. “Can we have hot wings?”
“Yep. I’ll order your favorite.”
“Yay. Don’t forget blue cheesy squeezy.” That’s what I called the salad dressing I liked, which had a bigger hole at the top so the cheese chunks could come out more easily.
“Always the blue cheesy squeezy.”
“Okay, Daddy. I’ll go finish at work, then go over to your place. Love you.”
“Love you too, Cody.”
We hung up, and I cleaned up my mess, having hardly eaten any of it, but before I got to the door of the office, my phone binged with a text. It was Joey.
Why would he want me for that? We had other friends better suited. Royce had a marketing degree, and that’s what he did for Jax’s company.
Well, it was hard to argue with that. We set up a time for me to go to his place on Saturday. After we worked on his thing, we could have lunch together, then maybe play a board game or Uno or something afterward. Sounded like a good day to me.
I tucked my phone away and went inside, finding my quotes waiting for me. I blasted them off, then sent my boss a message that I was leaving a few hours early. John didn’t normally care as long as I was hitting my goals, and even with the time off for the Pride Trip, I was at the top of the board. But before I could get out of there, he showed up.
“Hey, Cody. What’s going on?”
“Nothing really. Got a lot done but need some time this afternoon for personal reasons.”
“I get it, but you just took a whole week off. I don’t want you falling behind.”
