Episode 25: Donuts (Emily)

The next day brought Emily back to Sylem and the donut shop her cousin had put so much energy into. She behaved by waiting until six, as Antoine had demanded, to see Rhyss. When she entered the kitchen, she saw Rhyss mixing dough beside Antoine, focused on the task at hand. She watched him for an extra second then announced herself, “Good morning.”

Rhyss’ hands paused and hesitated then he turned and looked at her, a smile spread across his face, and he went to back work. It was a teasing greeting, but she wasn’t sure what to do in response. She was new to these kinds of games – the kind that excited her and made her crave more.

“You going to tell him where you run off to all the time?” Antoine asked.

She tried not to blush as she grabbed a donut off a tray. Antoine seemed to want to ruin her date; He knew she couldn’t talk about her job much.

“I have a job,” she replied. She had a secret job helping improbabilities learn things they probably already knew, but were deemed candidates to relearn everything anyways.

Teaching the ABCs to someone who knew them in six language was a unique and exciting challenge.

“I have to go to work in a few hours,” she added as she bit into the melty warm glaze of a donut she had grabbed.

“Go ahead after that tray,” Antoine said with a nod to Rhyss.

Rhyss finished at the same time as Emily, and he turned to look at Antoine expectantly, “Is that all?”

“How many days a week can you come in?” Antoine asked.

He had the job. She had helped him. It was going to be a good day.

“As many as you need me,” Rhyss replied.

“How about hours a week? You want full time or part time?”

“Full, if it’s available.”

“Full time. Weekdays. Start at three.”

“So, tomorrow?” Rhyss asked, uncertain. “I can be here.”

“Tomorrow. Pay is sixteen even,” he replied.

Emily tried not to gape at the compensation. Sixteen was well over minimum wage. Either the bakery was doing very well, or Antoine was trying to help Rhyss out with money but hinder him in romance.

“Thanks,” Rhyss replied.

Antoine handed him a few pieces of paper – employment documents.

“When do you need these by?” Rhyss asked.

“End of the week if you want to get paid,” Antoine replied as he finished up glazing a dozen bars and looked over at Rhyss’ work.

“Those look good. We’ll get you making glazes and icings in a few days,” he stated.

Emily went over to look at Rhyss’ work, and Antoine was right – Rhyss was capable of making dough into circles and placing them in the right mold to cook.

Emily reached for Rhyss’ hand and tugged at him to follow her away from the workspace. “Ready to enjoy these?” She asked.

She grabbed a few donuts off of Antoine’s tray, and let Rhyss pick his own as well. They filled a small bag.

“Maybe they taste better when you make them yourself,”  he stated as they walked out the doors and to a small table.

They picked donuts out of their selection and both took a bite before either of them spoke.

Rhyss was the first to say something, “So what kind of hours does nannying have?”

“From nine until four or five on weekdays,” she replied. They would both have weekends and most of the night off. Dating could fall into an effortless rhythm as long as things didn’t come up at work; it was rare for something to come up at work though, and they could work around it.

“That’s not too bad,” he said before adding, “I might be tired a lot at night.”

“We can do dates,” she said. The feeling of decades old butterflies filled her with the reminder that she was here, looking into his chocolate brown eyes, eating donuts.

“We can do dates anytime you want. Before or after naps, days off…”

“Yeah, we’ll have to,” he agreed.

She twitched her toes as she held in the excitement that she was talking about dates, in a way that implied there would be many more. It felt fast and adult and amazing. They were one thing to think herself, but for him to want dates too…

She needed to slow it down before she started planning their wedding; they could find out they didn’t love each other and it was just an intense and long lived crush that needed a little bit of experience to be worn out.

She changed the topic to something a bit more useful, “What have you been up to in the past few years? I didn’t see your pink tasseled bike outfront. It was a great bike.”

He laughed at her silly joke and she took another bite of donut.

“It had the benefit of being free.”

“I’m serious, I loved that bike. I was jealous…”

Most girls on the block probably admired the bike in some ways, but most kids had dingy bikes that they wouldn’t mind if someone stole.

“I would’ve given it to you. It was a girl bike anyway,” he replied. He must not have realized the only reason the bike wasn’t stolen was because all the gangs thought the tall boy on the pink tasseled bike was funny.

If he had given it to her, it would have been gone within hours.

“I’ve mostly been taking care of my mom. I started college for art. What about you?” he asked.

“Can you draw me something?” she asked, curious about his art style.

“No, but I could paint something. It probably sounds weird but I can’t draw.”

It didn’t sound weird at all, the way a paintbrush worked was much different than a pencil or crayon. Using different materials with the boys she watched had been an endless exploration into the way their hands worked with different sized tools and how to apply the right pressure and stroke for the desired effect.

“Okay, a painting. I can get you supplies.”

She realized she had been leaning closer to him, across the table. She sat back in her chair and studied him for a moment, to create some space from him. She tried to look comfortable as she figured out how to answer the other part of his question. It was a long winded answer that she didn’t want to get too much into, especially since she couldn’t tell him about Ms. Anney yet.

“I had some issues with the cult and I found a job that kept me out of it,” she summarized. She nodded toward Antoine, who was now behind the counter watching them as he worked the register. “Antsy pants over there doesn’t love it but it’s a fun job.”

“What’s wrong with being a nanny?” Rhyss asked.

“It’s not being a nanny; the kids are unique,” she replied. It was a fine line and she knew if they dated long enough she would tell him, but she also felt protective of Cy, Oscar, and Max.

“Do you babysit for cult people or something?” he asked, leaning forward himself.

“No,” she reassured him. She would never let the cult get ahold of her. She knew her family had kept some old, strong, magic away from their grasps for a long time.

Her fox, at the thought, curled around her legs in a figure eight before settling in a similar pattern, his tail wrapped around her ankle.

“A group,” she continued, “not the cult. I realm travel to get there.”

“You what?” he asked, his body flung away from the ever closing divide she couldn’t stop noticing. Maybe the magnetic feeling was mutual, now that he had noticed her.

“I travel to another realm. There are tons of them. No one has told you?”

She didn’t know until a few years before, but Ms. Anney wasn’t even from that realm and she had been close to Rhyss all of his life. She didn’t understand how he had not heard of it, unless Ms. Anney didn’t want him to know for some reason.

“No,” he confirmed. He hadn’t heard of other realms. “Like another universe?” he asked.

“Yeah, sort of. Do you want to see? I have time.”

If she showed him her room, he could find her if he wanted to go on a date. She hadn’t expressly been told not to bring someone there, but she would have to warn Rhyss to be careful if he did visit.

“Yeah,” he said before stuffing the end piece of his donut into his mouth.

She gathered their trash and threw it away and stretched her fingers in anticipation, “Ready?”

“Thanks for meeting me today,” Rhyss said after he swallowed.

“You agreed to meet me,” she teased.

He laughed a little, “True. Good thing my water heater broke.”

“It’s a great thing,” she replied. It wasn’t, but if it got fixed and was the reason they ended up together then she wasn’t upset.

“Is this okay?” she asked as she laced her fingers with his. Transporting required contact to go together, and she wanted to use it as an excuse to push things a little further. She felt the spark between them grow as he curled his fingers inward to hold her hand.

“I thought that was the idea. It’s very okay.”

She led him a bit down the street, since she was travelling by dial instead of by travel pack. The group she worked for had special protections on their realm and a dial that had been given access was the only way to get there. The realm itself stood at the heart of twelve other realms, the one she was in currently included.

Once they were free of prying eyes, especially Antoine’s, she transported them to her room. It was mostly white but it had big windows that spanned from the floor to the ceiling across fifteen feet and looked out on the city and the ocean beyond the floating island.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Rhyss replied.

“It’s incredible isn’t it?”

The city itself was mostly white, pure to some but a culmination of every color in their own eyes.

“Yeah, it really is,” he said, facing her.

She tried to focus on the world outside of the room, and pointed toward the familiar dome of the school. “That’s where I start my day. I take them out, though. Three boys.”

Rhyss looked back out the window, but he had moved a step closer to her. “What are they like?”

“Talented, brilliant, an endless source of questions I don’t always have answers to. But I find them – no matter the question. It’s been amazing in that way. I’ve been with them since they were two. They’re six now.”

“They aren’t in school?” he asked. Rhyss hadn’t gone to school, and she could hear how passionate he felt about that with the eager interested response he offered.

“I teach them, so sort of? They’re beyond the needs of normal school.”

The three boys were all on an at least second life, and they had the memories of the last one. Teaching them amounted to showing them an idea to trigger the underlying knowledge for most topics.

“Does this mean you’re not home much?”

She loved how expressive his body was, how when he was tense he made fists, when he was uncertain he tried to be smaller by slouching a little and tucking his hands into his pockets…

“Not often, but I like to see my family and I can go on dates after or before work, anyday.”

“I’m really glad you were at Ms. Anney’s yesterday,” he said as his body uncoiled a little, “I didn’t want to see anyone, but I’m glad you were there.”

She saw two paths – one where she teased him for visiting someone’s house with a desire to not see anyone, and one where she went with it.

She leaned the half an arm’s length of distance she wasn’t sure he realized he had closed in on, and kissed him.

His mind may not have been ready for the kiss, but his body was, and he put his arm on hers and turned her against his body. His lips were hot against hers; eager.

“Wow,” he replied.

“Wow? Do I kiss that well?” she teased.

He laughed, “I just never kissed anyone before. I didn’t expect…”

She wasn’t sure how they had gone from donuts to kissing, but she kissed him a second time, a series of individual light kisses until he pulled her against his body and lengthened them. Each kiss began to bleed into the next.

“Rhyss,” she said. She wanted to know what was happening, why he was so eager, but she wanted him more.

“Yeah?” he asked.

She smiled and kissed him again and found her own hands.

“I have had a crush on you for so long,” she admitted.

“I didn’t notice girls existed. Until yesterday.”

His honesty, almost more than everything else, she craved. “I’m glad you finally did,” she said as she ran her fingers up the sides of his chest, to his armpits where she lifted his shirt.

It fell to the ground beside them, and she knew whatever happened she wanted this. She wanted him.

Somehow, donuts had become hope that this would become a thing, that the way he talked to her and the ideas he had about how things would go were just part of him – someone who would settle indefinitely on something good.

She promised herself she would be something good for him, that she’d talk to Ms. Anney about ending their job.

For the time, the last minutes before reality would set back in, she let hope and desire rule.

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