One last little detour

The walk across the grass and concrete maze towards our building seemed to take forever. Seriously, I'd catch my gaze drifting to Kaila's ass, then to Carla's exquisite body as she nearly jogged along beside us. I don't think we could move any faster than if we had been running, but that would have been difficult with the bags. Looks like some of the people from the last building are moving in... no wait out and in? Weird.

"It's easier to sing if you say immortal," Kaila complained after another few steps. "Seriously, and it makes the joke funnier if the porpoises have to have baby gulls sacrificed to them to maintain their immortality. Makes it totally evil in a cruel and sick way, which magnifies the shock value of the joke being just a stupid pun."

"But that makes it into a Dad joke, and that means that he has to tell it," Carla's hand smacked against my ass. Dammit, she was having way too much fun with this.

"I'm new at this, so, let me at least get used to the dad role," I argued but couldn't help but feel a bit of a thrill run through me at the thought. I'm... fuck I'm going to be a dad. It was what we wanted, but some little part of me had almost expected it not to work out. In just a moment, everything had... Helen too. Damn... I still couldn't get over that. Maybe Carla. Ok... fuck...

"Do you want to get the mail?" Carla gestured towards the little booth all the way at the other end of the row of buildings.

"Gonna have to anyway," I agreed, dropping the bags near our door. Kaila already was working the lock, and a look of anticipation crossed her face.

"Don't open anything that will make you upset," Carla cautioned me with an upraised finger. "I've got plans for you, and the last thing I need is you mopey for a while. Just grab it and get back here."

I nodded. If there was one bad habit I had to break it was immediately trying to deal with problems. Even if it would make things worse in the moment. It's why the three of us had come up with the Pause deal in the first place. It was a good thing mostly, but right now, it was the time to deal with it. We'd let things sit far long enough.

The lawns were deserted as I weaved my way to the concrete encased boxes. Two brutalitarian concrete slabs, with little cubicles for your correspondence. At random of course, and I cringed when I saw the small edges of newsprint and letters sticking out from the bottom and sides. It had only been a week, but the cascade of messages almost poured from the box as I did so. A few catalogues from the Music Stand and LL Bean... I swear you buy ONE fucking thing... and an avalanche of those lovely little windowed letters that ensured I'd have to check every one to make sure it wasn't a bill... holy shit, I've got hot twins sitting back at the apartment and I actually have to DEAL with this shit... Ugh, being an adult suuuuucks....

Hot twins sitting back at the apartment, and I'm sitting here dealing with this...

Ok fuck, let's see.... uhm... trash, trash, trash, trash, Carla's... Where's the trash can... do they ever empty this thing? Ok... fuck, uhm... Trash, Kaila's, Kaila's, Kaila's, that fucking woman who still won't change her address even though it's been four years, Carla's, bill... uh... maybe bill... nope, trash... Trash, trash, trash, trash, trash, trash, bill... And... trash trash trash... bill, bill, and Trash. And a letter from Dad. Fuck. Nope, nope, not gonna let him fuck over my day. It would be something I MUST do... and I MUST do Today. Now, right now. Not tomorrow, NOW! Dammit, he's already got my mind off of what I'm trying to do with my life just by sending me this thing, and he fucking knows it.

Or maybe he doesn't and it's all a complete coincidence and my brain is screwing with me again. Dammit, why the hell was my brain choosing this moment to decide to attempt to sabotage my life? Fuck this shit... I'm tired of... yeah, that's the real world, but now my real world also includes the fact that I have a wonderful relationship. I don't have to deal with this now. That's what this type of shit does, just... time to ignore it for a while.

I finished the sorting rapidly and retraced my steps back to the apartment. The soft sound of music floated from the TV as I approached the door. I grasped the doorknob and pushed it open carefully, not quite certain what I was going to be walking into.