Mikey and the Chickadee

Chapter 9 - Part 2

"Yes," I said, standing. "You're Sophie?"

She held out her hand and I shook it. "I thought for sure I would be the first one here," she said, smiling. "Mikey's moving his car, but he should be here on time." She resembled him subtly, and even spoke a little bit like him, in that unequivocal way that only close family can.

"It was just a short walk from my work," I said. "Would you like to get a table?"

She motioned for me to lead the way and a host brought us to a table set for four near the back.

"I'm so glad to finally meet you," she said. "Mikey talks about you nonstop."

I sat down to face her and smiled. "Really? I can't imagine there's a lot to say." Presently I said aloud exactly what I was thinking. If Mikey spoke to his cousin about me at a depth even one foot below the surface, it was certain to invite, at the very least, some level of confusion.

"I don't mean to embarrass him," Sophie said. "He just speaks very highly of you. The company kind of consumed him for a while. It's nice to see him hanging out with people outside of work again."

"Yeah, he talked about that. He said he's been making an effort to cut back."

She nodded. "So, you're an accountant, right?"

"I'm getting there. I've only been in the field about six months. I graduated last May."

"Did Mikey tell you we've been starting to look at hiring an in-house person for our stuff?"

I shook my head. "No, he never mentioned that."

"Well, we've only just started discussing it since he's been back. Actually—" She stopped as a server came by to take our drink orders. Sophie ordered a glass of wine and I followed her example. "Actually, I'm the one who really thinks we need it," she continued. "Plus, I'm sure he didn't want to suggest that you come work for us—especially with you guys being close outside of work. It's not always a good idea."

"Right, I see what you mean," I said. "It's awesome that you two work together so well, though. Mikey said he couldn't do it without you."

"He's incredibly driven, so I'm sure he would have done well on his own. But I did study computer science. You could say I'm classically trained. He picked a lot of it up on his own and was missing some of the foundational knowledge. That's probably been my biggest contribution. Anyway, we've been messing around with coding stuff since junior high." She smiled at this. "We were probably destined to do this together."

"That's so cool," I said. "Actually, Mikey never talked about what he went to school for."

"Well, he also started in CS, but he never had a chance to finish. When my aunt and uncle passed away...you know...it really derailed him. In the end, he didn't need to go to school, though. He's a strong self-starter."

"Oh," I said. "I see, okay. He's told me a little about his parents. We haven't really talked much about the accident, though."

"He doesn't mind talking about it," she said. "I really believe he's dealt with it in a healthy way. Obviously he still carries it with him. I do, too. But it's been almost four years, and we've processed a lot of it together."

Our wine arrived. Sophie sipped at hers and I did the same.

"I'm so glad you were there for each other," I said.

"Yeah. And of course he had Alice, too. I don't know if he's talked about her at all." She laughed. "I should probably just shut up and let him tell you this stuff."

"Alice was his girlfriend, right?"

"Right. She gave him a lot of support. Alice wasn't..." Sophie paused. "I don't believe they would have lasted. No matter what had happened."