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I leaned against the doorframe. “You need an RB.”
He raised an eyebrow. “A what?”
“An RB—a roommate break. Come on. You’ve been killing yourself in the office, working way too hard, and you need a break.”
“As nice as that sounds, I don’t really have time for a break.”
“Well, you need to make time. Otherwise, your body will start to break down, and you need your body to function correctly. Nothing good comes from working yourself to death.”
“You sound like my mother,” he muttered before growing wide-eyed. “Ah, shit, I forgot to call my mom back. She’s going to leave me a million messages about it.”
“It’s okay. You can call her tomorrow after a night of good rest and some RB time. Come on.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t going to let up on this, are you?”
“No, I’m not. Plus, I have a surprise for you if you agree.” I pulled the box from behind my back and held it out in front of me.
His eyes narrowed. “What’s in the box, Red?”
“I guess you’ll have to stand and walk away from your paperwork to come find out, Captain.”
With hesitation, he pushed his chair back and walked in my direction. He ripped the tape off the box and gasped when he saw what was inside.
“Are those…?” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“And they’re for me…?”
“Uh-huh.”
He reached into the box of treasures, also known as Cheetos Paws, and I smacked his hand away before he could grab a bag. “Nope! None for you until RB is agreed upon.”
“Where did you even find these?”
“A good player in life never shares her secrets. Now what do you say? Do we have a deal?”
He swiped one of the bags from the box, opened it, and began shoving the Cheetos Paws into his mouth. “Deal,” he said, with his face stuffed, grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.
We took the chips along with some other snacks and drinks up to the rooftop to talk. My only goal for the night was to get Connor to relax a little. I could tell he put too much pressure on himself to take over the world and do good with the power. All I needed was for him to take over himself for a bit of time and learn to slow down.
We asked each other all kinds of questions. Like always with him, the conversation came easily, and I witnessed when the relaxation finally began to settle over him as he chose to live in the moment.
“If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be?” he asked me as he finished off his third bag of chips.
“Oh, that’s easy. A dog.”
“I knew you’d be a dog person.”
I nodded in agreement.
“I used to volunteer at a humane society for abused dogs. It blew my mind the kind of torture humans would put those poor babies through. We’d gotten some who had been hurt and harmed more than they ever deserved. They had a lot of trauma, anxiety, and depression when they arrived, but over time, they still let us near them. Did it take time for them to build up their trust? Yes, but once it was there, they gave us love so freely. No creature on the planet loved unconditionally like a dog. Sadly, if their abusers came back, they’d still give them love. This world doesn’t deserve dogs.”
“I couldn’t agree more. If I had time for a dog, I’d definitely get one.”
“Sometimes in life, you have to make time.”
He smiled. “I think I’ll start with RB time and ease my way into getting a dog.”
