PHONE SWAP | drew starkey

30: TESA

'Thank you for having me at the party, by the way. I know it was Marianne's decision, but I had fun. And your friends are really nice.'

  'I'm glad! I wasn't expecting you to be there at all, to be honest, but I'm glad you were.'

  Marea tells her more about the bits of the party she missed as they weave through the crowd, the Grubson Law building tall behind them. It's the Monday rush and it's a bit of a hassle to get to the bus, but Addie never opts to walk, instead. Not on Mondays. It's the only days that she catches the bus with Marea, even if just for a few stops. Especially on a day like today, when the last thing she wants is to be in her own head, and rain hasn't stopped since she opened the blinds this morning.

  It's nice hearing the stories. Marea is observant and seems to have caught onto a lot more than Addie thought, including her sneaking out with Drew, even if she doesn't state it explicitly. She's still talking when the bus comes and they're about to board when a middle aged man pushes past – Marea rewards him with mumbling in a language Addie has learnt to be Greek, rather than Italian.

  'I am fed up with Americans,' Marea says. 'No offense.'

  'None taken. I think it's just the Georgia crowd, to be fair.'

  'Hm. Could be. New York iss worse, though.'

  'Yeah, you might have a point, actually...'

  They board the bus and Marea glares at the man, then smiles at Addie as if nothing's happened. There's two seats towards the back and they take them, with Marea taking the aisle seat. The bus sets off and Addie tries not to scrunch her nose at someone's body odour.

  'Did you think we would not show up because of Holden?'

  'Kind of,' Addie admits. 'I wouldn't want you picking sides.'

  'We can support both. Holden is not someone you would expect to approach you to talk, so.' Marea gives a knowing smile. 'He will just hold it in and deal with it himself. With you, at least we could do something.'

  They come to the first stop and people get off, people get on. Nobody pays attention to them. Nobody looks at Addie the wrong way, or the right way.

  'You seemed better at working with him today,' Marea says.

  'Was I weird before?'

  'No, just... what is the word—tesa—tense. You were just tense. And now you are not as tense.'

  'Not as tesa,' Addie says, and she gets another smile out of her friend. 'Anyway, Owen mentioned you're starting to look for jobs. I had no idea.'

  Marea shrugs. 'I have been, for a while. Not much success.'

  'Where are you looking? There's not a lot going in Atlanta right now.'

  'Oh, I am not looking at Atlanta, or even Georgia,' Marea says. 'I feel like I am suffocating here. It has been too long. I need to be somewhere where what choose to do is what I actually do. Not be a...'

  'Lackey?' offers Addie.

  'What is that?'

  'Someone who does whatever they're told,' she says. 'But not, like, by choice. They have to. Because of their boss. I think. I'm not too sure that's the actual definition.'

  Marea chuckles and pulls up her phone, looking up the word with Addie's spelling assistance. Turns out it means a servant, which is not quite what Addie meant, but it gets the point across because Marea agrees.