Patience is a virtue

You’ve never been to Eleanor’s sister’s place – you’ve never actually had any reason to know where it is, other than “too far for Eleanor to comfortably walk there, but close enough that Miranda can stop in and visit Eleanor at the coffeehouse, so probably still in Marklin” – but the ride seems to be taking longer than it maybe should. And not just because of the traffic and the road closures and the detours.

Usually, when you’re around Kate for any length of time, it turns into a fascinating deep conversation that goes off in all sorts of directions and feels utterly wonderful. And the same thing happens with Eleanor. So, in principle, being in a car with Kate and Eleanor should be amazing. Instead, there’s an awkward near-silence.

You know that friendship isn’t a transitive relation, but objectively, Kate and Eleanor have a lot in common (including that you’re crushing on them both, which you know is inappropriate of you, and shouldn’t be a factor in anything), so you’d think they’d get along.

Then again, Eleanor has just lost her apartment in a fire.

Then again, so have you, and you’re trying very hard to not think about it.

You glance in the rearview mirror. Eleanor’s got her backpack on her lap, with her arms wrapped around it.

“What do you have in the backpack?” Kate asks, startling you badly.

“What I was able to grab,” Eleanor says sadly. She unzips the backpack and digs in it. “Uh, my purse – it had my wallet and my phone in it already, thank god, and my tablet was in there too – and my laptop… my abuela’s old cookbook… a jar of cardamom pods… one sketchbook… a tshirt, some socks, one shoe, a bra… a USB drive… oh god, I’ve got the remote control for my fucking TV! Why did I grab that!!!”

She’s sobbing.

Kate pulls over to the side of the street.

“Do you need a hug?” she asks gently. Eleanor is shaking, but manages to nod.

“Okay,” Kate says, then unbuckles her seatbelt and gets out. “Come on.”

Once the three of you are standing on the curb next to the car, Kate wraps her arms around Eleanor, and after a few seconds of hesitation, Eleanor hugs Kate back.

“You too, Jacob,” Kate says. “Yeah,” Eleanor says, looking at you.

Your cock twitches – for all the times you’ve fantasized about Kate and Eleanor, you’ve never fantasized about Kate and Eleanor – but you’ve got a lot of experience in not letting yourself get an erection when Eleanor hugs you. Because Eleanor hugs you a lot.

Also, you’re in public. And Eleanor is crying.

You wrap your arms around them both.

“It’ll be okay,” Kate says. “You’re alive, and that’s the most important part. You’re both alive.”

Cars whoosh past as the three of you stand there, holding each other, for almost two minutes. Finally, Eleanor shakes her head and extracts herself from the hug.

“Okay,” she says. “I’m ready to go.”

The next fifteen minutes in the car don’t have much more talking than before, but now the silence doesn’t feel as awkward. Eventually Kate pulls up in front of Miranda’s place, and Eleanor gets out.

“Thank you so much,” Eleanor says to Kate, and gives you her number so you can text her about the building. Then she looks very shy. “Uh… could you both roll down your windows?”

Once you and Kate have done this, Eleanor leans in through Kate’s open window and kisses her on the cheek (your cock twitches), then goes around to your side of the car and repeats the action (thank god she didn’t notice, you don’t want to be rude to her!).

“Bye,” she says, and walks away.

“Thank you for helping her,” you tell Kate once you’re back on the road.

Kate makes a dismissive gesture. “It was the right thing to do,” she says. “Also… I guess I’m glad I met your… your friend.”

She has a weird expression on her face. “You always make her sound really interesting.” She sighs.

You’re about to ask Kate what’s with the facial expression, but then she clears her throat. “So!” she says brightly. “You hungry?”

“Sure?”

“I have leftover stir-fry in the fridge, or we could get takeout?”

“Takeout sounds good. Any preferences?”

She shrugs. “You’ve got a lunch randomizer, right?”

You nod, and take out your phone. There’s an icon you don’t recognize immediately, but you are hungry, so you just open the randomizer and ask it for takeout places within 1500 feet. Mystery icon can wait.

Twelve minutes later, you and Kate are at a little Greek place, about to pay for your salad bowls and stuffed pitas.

“That’ll be twenty-nine fifty,” the cashier tells you. She’s actually pretty cute – tall, slender, dark brown hair with one long braid.

You get your wallet out, but then Kate puts her hand on your arm.

“No, no,” she says. “I’ll pay for it. You’ve had a bad enough day.”

“Oh?” the cashier says. “What happened?”

You sigh. “A fire,” you say. You suppose you should have expected that people will ask. And you’ll have to keep telling them.

“You lost your job?”

“No, I lost my apartment. It burned down.”

“OH!” the cashier says. She looks horrified. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! Are you okay?!”

You shrug. “I… I don’t know. I’m sorry. Thank you for caring.”

“Here – the food is on the house!”

You weren’t expecting that.

“TEOFANIA!” someone yells, and an older woman stomps out of the manager’s office and starts (you assume) berating the cashier in Greek. The cashier argues back. After a moment, the older woman looks at you.

“You were in fire?”

“…yes?”

“Tell me address of fire.”

You blink. “518 Anglesey? It’s just off Preston Street.”

The older woman pulls out her phone and starts typing on it. You spell ‘Anglesey’ for her. After a moment, she looks up from the screen.

“Okay. Is a real fire. I am sorry for you. That is not excuse to ask for free food.”

“Mama,” Teofania protests, “he didn’t ask for free food! He was going to pay, and then his girlfriend was going to pay, and then I offered!”

That’s the first time you've ever heard someone describe Kate as your girlfriend. You feel the impulse to say “she’s just my friend”, but that’s absolutely not worth interrupting someone else’s argument for. Maybe Kate didn’t notice. And if she did, well, you’re sure she’ll let it slide.

“Look,” Kate says. “We’ll pay.” She holds up her credit card.

“See!” Teofania says angrily.

Teofania’s mom’s lips twist and wiggle as she considers that. “Fine,” she says after a moment. “Your food,” and she points to Kate, “regular price. Your food,” and she points to you, “free. And you can have free soft drink. One free soft drink.”

You and Kate look at each other. “Thank you,” you both say.

Teofania’s mom looks at you. “Again, I am very sorry for you about the fire. But Teofania is too nice.” Then she strides back into her office.

Teofania processes Kate’s credit card, and begins loading the meals into a bag.

“Teofania?” you say quietly.

She looks confused for a second, then obviously realizes how you know her name. “Call me Tiff. Please.”

“Okay. Tiff – I’m sorry about…” and you tilt your head in the direction of her mom’s office.

Tiff waves that away. “She’s just worried that people will rip us off.”

Kate picks up the bag. “You coming?” she says.

“Yeah, okay,” you say, then turn back to Tiff. “Well. Thank you, and here.” You give her a $5 bill. “It was nice meeting you. Well, ‘nice’. Under the circumstances.”

She nods. “I understand. Good luck.”

Soon the car is approaching the on-ramp. You blink, and you realize you’re on the expressway now.

“What – how did we –”

“You fell asleep for a few minutes,” Kate says, smiling.

“Oh.” You stretch. “Actually, speaking of that – sleeping arrangements at your place?”

Kate shrugs. “I’ve got a couch. And if that’s not big enough, you can sleep in my bed.”

Your eyebrows rise. So do hers, and then you both blush. “While I take the couch, I mean!”

“I know,” you assure her. You gaze out the window for a moment, and realize you’ve just passed a Leopard’s Spot outlet.

The part of your brain that keeps track of irrelevant details reminds you that your sister Tammy used to work at a Leopard’s Spot.

“Oh, I just realized,” you say. “I should call my sister, tell her what happened, let her know I’m okay.”

Kate nods. “Good idea.”

You pull out your phone and make the call.

Tammy answers almost immediately.

“Hi, Jacob!” she says cheerfully. “Great timing – I just had a bath and some wine! What’s up!”

Her voice sounds a little weird. Intellectually, you know that Tammy is thirty-four, and thus able to legally drink alcohol, but somehow it never occurred to you that occasionally she might like to get a little drunk.

“My apartment building is on fire,” you say.

“OH!” Tammy exclaims, loud enough for Kate to hear her and be startled. “Oh fuck! Oh my god! Oh fuck! Oh fuck, I’m so sorry! Are you okay?!? Oh fuck!”

“Emotionally, I think I’m still in shock. Physically, the fire started while I was at work.”

“Oh, thank god. Okay, um, well, hold on – it’s Jacob,” she says, and you realize she’s talking to someone else. Most likely your niece Molly. “His apartment building burned down. One second, putting you on speaker.”

“Hi, Jacob,” you hear Molly (aha!) say. “Really sorry to hear about this. You okay?”

“Hey, Molly. Thank you. And… I don’t know yet. I wasn’t there when it started, but… I don’t know. Thank you for asking. I’m sorry, I’m just a little… just a little out of it.”

“Totally understand,” she reassures you.

“Do you have a place to stay?” Tammy asks. “Do you need to stay with us?”

She sort of sounds hopeful, which you’re sure is your imagination.

“Thank you so much for offering,” you say, “but I’m staying with my friend Kate. She has a couch.”

“Oh,” Tammy says. She can’t possibly sound disappointed about that. You must be imagining it. “This is Kate Prasad from your work? The short one?”

You blink. “Uh, yeah. I’m a little surprised you remember her last name?”

Next to you, Kate looks a little surprised by that too.

“Well, you talk about her a lot,” Tammy says. “Where is she right now? Can I talk to her?”

“We’re still in her car. And… okay, I’ll put you on speaker.”

Kate raises an eyebrow. You tap the ‘speaker’ icon on your phone. “Go ahead,” you say.

“Hi, Kate?”

Kate looks a little uncertain. “Uh. Hello, Tammy?”

“Thank you so much for helping Jacob,” Tammy says. There is absolutely no reason for her to sound reluctant to say that, and yet she sort of does. “Be good to my little brother. He’s been through some bad shit in his life.”

“I will, I promise,” Kate says. “He’s my best friend ever, I’d do anything for him.”

Your cock twitches again.

There’s a little static just then, so you can’t quite make out what Tammy says next. It sounds almost like “Yeah, I bet you will,” but it doesn’t make any sense that Tammy would say that, so obviously that wasn’t it.

“Um, okay,” Molly says. She sounds a little nervous, and is talking a lot faster than she has any reason to. “Mom’s had maybe a bit too much wine, I’m sorry. Kate, thank you so much for helping Jacob. Jacob, let us know how things go, if you need any help, okay bye!”

That was… weird.

You shift in your seat to put your phone back in your pocket, and you notice something odd on the screen just as you hit the power button.

Oh, right – the mystery icon from earlier.

You turn your phone back on and examine the icon.

“Hmmm,” you say.

“What is it?” Kate asks.

“I don’t recognize this icon.”

It’s a black circle with a red AMA on it.

“Weird,” Kate says. “Maybe it’s an updated version of something you already have? Same app, different icon?”

You shrug. “Maybe.” You pick through your phone, but all of the apps that are supposed to be there, are there. There’s nothing that this could be an update of. It’s clearly something new. You report this to Kate.

She shrugs. “My guess is it’s malware, then. Uninstall it?”

“Mm… yeah, probably for the best.”

You touch the AMA icon and keep your finger there until the option to Uninstall App pops up, and select it. The icon vanishes.