Natural Enemies by Roan Parrish

Author:Roan Parrish [Parrish, Roan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Monster Press
Published: 2018-04-16T18:30:00+00:00

By ten p.m., I’d outlined my plan for my application. Since I didn’t know who else Sorenson had tapped for the opportunity, I didn’t know what I was competing against, but it seemed logical to cover all my bases, so I’d spent the first half of the day catching up on all the research my colleagues had been working on in the last year. Once I had an idea of where my work was situated with regard to theirs, I knew how to argue for its relevance and its centrality.

Satisfied that I’d cooked up a plan I could execute in a week, I turned to actual cooking. I grabbed my phone to put on a podcast while I cooked and realized I’d never replied to Milo’s text from this morning.

There he was, frozen in time, the morning light painting his hair, his garden blooming around him. Damn it, I was smiling again. But the picture also filled me with a kind of melancholy ache. The opportunity for me to share that moment was gone.

It is a good opportunity, thank you, I wrote back. Then, when that seemed unsatisfying: I hope you had a wonderful day off.

I hit play on a podcast about architectural design because I didn’t want to dwell on what Milo might be doing on a Saturday night. He was so warm, so easygoing—it seemed a given he would have a large group of friends. And probably lovers as well. Certainly the level of…aptitude he displayed in bed last weekend didn’t develop without ample experience.

I chopped carrots vigorously, the thought of Milo’s bright smile turned on another man making my stomach churn.

But the ding of my phone came almost immediately.

It was p nice. Woulda been better with you tho. Then one single smiley face.

My heart pounded and I stared at the phone with no idea how to respond. Before I could, Milo wrote: Listen idk how long yr work things gonna take but you should come to the BBG tomorrow and chill w me and the Erasmus kids.

Then: I mean, you probably want to check on yr baby anyway, right? Then a gif of Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors captioned “Feed me, Seymour!”

I ignored the horrible movie reference and let that offer rattle around as I chopped broccoli, onion, and cauliflower. Could I afford to take the day off? I had gotten a lot done today…but I’d have to be working on the application on top of all my regular work this week.

After a few minutes, another text came through: If you want—no presh. Listen if I’m coming on too hard lemme know ok? I can’t tell with you.

This was why I hated texting. The expectation that if you didn’t respond immediately it implied some kind of intrinsic disapproval or rejection. But the last part of Milo’s message brought me up short. How on earth could he not tell the kind of effect he had on me? He was the first person in years I’d had more

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.