Saturday, November 19th 2022

“ me it’s cold. I always forget how frigid it gets here. And then November rolls around and I worse than my menopausal maternal motherly figure.”

“You know most normal people would just call her your mom.”

“, since when the are we normal?”

“Point taken.”

“Plus she doesn’t even like it when I call her ‘mom’, says it makes her feel her uterus and no-longer-tight twinge with PTSD.”

“…I don’t even know what to say to that.”

“Shut up and drink your coffee. Dear ing Hades and Persephone’s perky , my is frozen to this ing bench.”

“How would you know how perky Persephone’s are?”

“Don’t be an idiot Jessica. Force of gravity is almost zero at the core of the Earth. Everyone knows that. So assuming Hades and Persephone live in the Underworld in the mothering depths of this piece of rock, her must be perky as . The perkiest in fact. Wispy probably makes me look like a ing oaf.”

Jessica snorted into her coffee, “Always a way with words Conrad.”

“What? Would you prefer I call them ‘organic milk bags’ instead?”

Jessica laughed softly and hummed distractedly to herself. Stacie sat there for a bit, studying her friend as she drank her coffee absentmindedly. She narrowed her eyes at the blonde, trying to figure out what was different. The brunette quirked her head to the side, observing the way Jessica was swinging her legs out of sync like a kid on the park bench they were sitting on, fingers tapping the side of her coffee, humming some nondescript little tune.

“Oh my god. . You’re happy!”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re ing happy! In a way I haven’t seen you in a long time! Did you and Tiffany finally ?!”

“Jeezuz Conrad! Crass much? And no, we haven’t.”

“Then explain to a why the not and why you’re all Joe-ing-Merryweather!”

“Stacie! Language! Dear god I swear you’re worse than a trucker with that mouth of yours! And we just haven’t gotten there yet. That’s all.”

“Fine. Your ovaries on the line. Not mine. And for the record, a trucker couldn’t do half the things I could do with this mouth of mine.”

“Stacie!”

“What?!”

“How do you not get in trouble at work?”

“Did Tiffany turn you into a goddamned nun or something? Or is it because you’re not getting any from Gumdrop so it’s turning you into a prude wrinkly hag Jung?”

“I am not a prude and I am far from wrinkly, anywhere, thank you very ing much.”

Stacie cackled at Jessica’ miffed tone, making the blonde smile as they sat for a bit more, just enjoying each other’s company. Jessica breathed in deep and slid a hand over to Stacie, placing it warmly and affectionately on the brunette’s leg.

“What’s gotten your thong twisted into a wad today? Your interns kill another patient or something?” Jessica asked quietly, still sipping her coffee evenly as she looked straight ahead, half her face hidden behind her shades, intuitively giving her friend the space she needed.

Stacie gave an irritated little grunt.

She never could hide anything from Jessica. She really was stupid to have tried. The blonde could read her better than anyone else she had ever known. It unnerved Stacie at first, made her avoid the blonde the first time she had asked her what was really bothering her. It was just a week after the two of them had met at some mutual friend’s dinner party, and Jessica had stumbled across Stacie while she was grabbing coffee before making rounds. They had exchanged the usual light pleasantries when Jessica slid a hand over to cover Stacie’s fidgeting ones and point blank asked her, “What’s really bothering you?”

It was the way the blonde had asked it too. Even,