Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Chapter 9: tomatoes

Levi knew he needed to apologize to Alcott, but had accidentally avoided her for the whole morning. He had been sullen and rude at dinner, which he felt particularly bad for when he was the one who had invited her over. It had been difficult to watch Alcott speak with Dylan in a way that Levi hadn't been able to in over a cycle. Seeing Dylan's chopped hair still brought a lump to his throat, but most of all he wanted to take her into his arms and tell her everything was going to be better someday. Dylan wouldn't even look at him.

His head pounded a little from the couple of drinks he had had the night before; he needed to remember to drink more water before he came to work. But he focused on the tasks at hand, though with repeated bathroom breaks to splash water on his face. He looked exhausted, even to his own eyes. He couldn't imagine what the others thought of him.

Levi sought Alcott out before the lunch break, navigating the bins of vegetables and trying to remind himself he had food at home. He didn't have to buy vegetables all the time, especially since he was only ever cooking for one. Winston and Dumas had been promoted to harvest and upkeep now that Alcott couldn't climb trees. The two young men made Levi wish that he had had the change to climb trees before his legs stopped working.

"How's business?" Levi inquired.

"Good. I think people want to stock up a little before the storm, not that it will affect us terribly," Alcott told him. "How's our inventory?"

"Doing well. People are good about returning seeds, which is excellent for us. Anatoly is negotiating with Ibsen and Edison about extending the green house and start diversifying our gardens. She's worried we're going to vulnerable to sterile fruits if we only plant one or two kinds. I'm hoping we can also try to plant a coco plant. You know, for chocolate."

"Keep dreaming, you moonshy man," Alcott laughed.

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday," Levi said, a little sheepishly. "I was upset and I shouldn't have taken it out on you and Walsh."

"Levi, you were fine," Alcott promised. "I can't imagine being in your shoes right now, and I'm pregnant."

"I think I'd make a terrible pregnant lady," Levi offered.

She snorted. "That you would. At least then I'd have someone to compare notes with. Do you have lunch plans? I'm just going to eat here."

"I'm meeting Lully at the printers," he said. "I had an idea last night to start printing some of Dylan's favorite poems, maybe sending them to her. What do you think?"

He watched her face hopefully, wondering if this wasn't a horrible idea after all. But Alcott nodded.

"I think that's a good idea," she told him. "I think she would like that."

Levi hoped so. He had been trying to be frugal with his credits, hoping he could convince Dylan to move back and then take some time off so they could work through this. So far, he hadn't been able to talk to her about this plan, so it didn't seem likely. Printing would be expensive, but Levi could always pick up extra shifts during the weekends. It wasn't like he was doing anything else nowadays.

"Merci," he replied. "I should head over there and talk to Lully. I'll come back before lunch is over, save a tomato for me, will you?'

"I don't think anyone is going to buy five pounds of tomatoes in your absence," she laughed.

"You never know," he called, grinning as he left the botany bay.

Lunch was always a rather strange affair across the base. It was staggered over the course of a couple hours, depending who you were so there were always people at the various departments. Lully and Esperanza often worked through their lunches and went home early. Levi usually went home, wanting to spend some time away from work. The printing bay was constantly busy, with people in and out all the time. Lully had his own office in the back of the printing bay; he was now the queue manager so no one could print without Lully seeing the order first. Levi knew his friend missed printing, but at least he had his own printer at home to work on.