Chapter 15

"Alex, hey, you made it!" I felt slightly guilty at how pleased Debbie seemed to see me; she must've expected me not to show up, again. She gave me a quick hug, shifting the large bag she held over one shoulder. "How are you?"

"Good, thanks," I said with a grin as I returned her hug. "Was I suppose to bring knitting, by the way?" I added with mock-nerves. "Because I really didn't... Will I be tortured?"

"Trust me, there's plenty of extra to go around," she assured me with a grin. "Besides, I thought you just wanted to be a stationary object."

"That is my main goal in life..."

Debbie laughed, her bright blue eyes crinkling at the corners. "It's always good to aim high. C'mon, let's go inside."

 

 

It turned out I actually knew a few people from the knitting group, and so we all got on pretty well despite my lack of knitting knowledge, and although one of the bigger 'knitting geeks' had brought along a yarn-spooling device, Debbie still had me sitting, hands held apart for her to wrap wool around them anyway. I felt a little humoured, but I was grateful to have something to do.

"So," she was saying as she wound the yarn around my outstretched hands, "how's work? Still overloaded with stuff?"

"Not as much, now that I'm getting into it," I said. "There were some teething issues, but I think my boss and I are finding our way onto the right wavelength now."

"That's good, at least. It's always good, finding a balance. I worked for this guy once, he kept changing what he wanted, week to week, and it was the most stressful thing ever... " Though Debbie was in the sciences she had gone into the public sector instead of academia, and as such had a whole different set of experiences than mine, and that made for engaging, rather involved sorts of conversation that tended to result in other people getting bored and ceasing to listen - which worked fine for me as I've always been more of a one-on-one type anyway.

We descended into one of those conversations now, comparing our working environments and the projects we were currently engaged in. Debbie knew enough about my field to asked the right sort of questions, and it felt good having someone outside the office to bounce my ideas off of.

"I really am so sorry about last night," I said eventually - somewhat spontaneously, although we had been talking about time-consuming work meetings. "I swear that's really not like me."

"It's alright," she responded, shaking her head. "I mean, I was annoyed at the time, but I understand. It's not like you can really tell your boss you've got somewhere better to be."

"But I should have called - or at least texted," I persisted. "There's really no excuse for that."

Debbie narrowed her eyes at me. "Do you want to be forgiven or not?"

I held up my hands - although only a little as they still had yarn around them. "I do, I do - I just don't want you giving me an easy ride 'cause you're so nice," I said with my most charmingly innocent smile. "I'm trying to take responsibility."

"Okay, well, noted. As well as your infraction," she said, trying to bite back a grin. "It'll all go on your permanent record, how's that?"

"Acceptable, I suppose," I replied with a congenial smile.

"Good. Now, are you sure you don't want to try knitting? It's really easy, you'll pick it up in no time..."

"I really am all thumbs..."

"Okay, but if you change your mind I'd be happy to show you."

"I'll keep that in mind."

 

All in all, it was a really nice evening. Debbie was smart, good natured and she had plenty to say for herself, and despite my resolution to ignore Lynn's scheming I had to admit that she was quite attractive. We parted ways with another hug and a promise to make good on those missed drinks soon, and as I headed back home I found myself marvelling at all the stuff I had to look forward to. My job was looking up, I was resurrecting an old hobby with a new friend, and it seemed there was even the beginning of what might turn into something good. It looked very much like moving here hadn't been a mistake after all.

 

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