Last Friday Night (ManxMan) ✔️

Chapter 21

Josh arrived at the top floor of the building, wiping unceremoniously at the side of his mouth. Kellie said he looked fine but Josh remembered the mortification he felt the last time someone asked "is that lipstick?"

It would have been triumphant to announce, "Yes, I'm into makeup these days," when it happened last year. But the reality was that Josh snuck away from work to makeout with his girlfriend. And, having just done the same thing with his fiance probably didn't make it better.

The elevator doors slid open and Josh halted in his cleaning efforts to find his boss, Hunter, standing right in front of him.

"Oh good, I was looking for you."

Hunter spun back around and Josh caught the hint to follow. Josh stared at Hunter's tan shoes, taking note of the man's long strides. Strides so long that white socks appeared from behind his meticulously ironed pants. Josh entered the office last and the door had barely swung shut when Hunter blurted out,

"Did you know that some period cramps are more painful than a heart attack?"

To which Josh replied,

"Why the hell are you looking that stuff up?"

Josh went to sprawl on Hunter's couch while the taller man headed for his desk. Hunter grabbed a single sheet of paper and handed it to the shorter black man.

"I was thinking about Melodie and then about how she's a girl and then about how I know so little about women."

Josh looked down at the paper and if he could have 'gone pale' he would have. There had to have been 29 bullets on this list.

"If I'm gonna keep watching her, I need to be able to answer her tough questions."

Hunter snatched back the list and Josh watched in awe as he flipped it over and finished writing "heart attack" on the other side. Very low on that side. How many facts had he found?

"If this helps me do that, so be it."

Josh was kind of amazed. This version of Hunter looked so different from the man who slept on his office couch most nights.

If Hunter thought about it too long, he might have thought so too. That morning, he was focused. His meetings went well and he took tons of good points of improvement after making his rounds. But the second he sat down to sift through emails, his mind strayed to last Sunday.

He was progressively spending more and more time with River which now meant more and more time with his daughter. A young girl with a single father who was now allowing another man into her life. The more Hunter thought about it, the more honored he felt. But what qualifications did he have to be a caregiver in this little girl's life?

If Hunter watched Melodie even two more times, he wanted to have more prepared than just animation knowledge and the ability to draw a perfect circle. But what exactly did he need to know?

Fortunately or unfortunately, the first thing that came to mind when he thought about women was periods.

Now, two hours later, Hunter was in too deep. He now knew that most women were misinformed about the true formula behind bra sizes and were eternally poked by metal wires. He also discovered that–despite categorizing viagra as a necessity–21 American states still classified tampons as optional, or luxury items and taxed them as such. Which was a little unnecessary as a Canadian but interesting to note nonetheless.

Hunter's mind swam with all the new knowledge and it almost hurt to think about how all of this could apply to Melodie one day. From his place on the couch, it was like watching a TV depiction of Einstein. The mad scientist vibes in Hunter's high rise office were overwhelming. And somehow, the troubled genius had missed the simplest detail.