Learning How to Bend

NaNo Day 4 (Ew, titles)

I spent more time with Thaddeus in the coming weeks. I never looked forward to our biweekly meetings, but I did not dread them, either. The company was introducing a new product, and he wanted opinions on a good marketing strategy. He did not only speak with me; he spoke with many employed by Andino Incorporated, but I felt touched to be included in the elite group. My previous hopes were realized when I did receive a raise, but that was because my workload doubled. Not only was I balancing my "old" job, if you could call it that, I was also trying to incorporate all of the tasks Thaddeus had for me to do. There were many tasks, some particularly mundane or so frustratingly simple that I told him exactly how I felt in multiple emails. Eventually, I convinced him to drop some of the items on the desk of the marketing department's intern, who was more than capable of handling them. I liked the twenty-year-old student quite a bit; he had proven himself a valuable asset, and I would have hired him in a heartbeat had I had that kind of power. But I did not; I did not have that kind of status in Andino Incorporated.

I lowered my speed to a slightly slower pace as I jogged in the park near my apartment building. I had not run in over a week, and my lungs were already burning. I used to easily run half-marathons with Joe gasping beside me at the finish line; all of these projects were starting to affect my physical fitness. Not only that, my nightmares had gotten worse the past week, so I was barely sleeping. I did not want to relive what I saw in my dreams, as I was not blind there. I could see general shapes, but no colors as my brain had never developed definitions for words like red, blue, yellow, and green. The laugher in my ears, though...it haunted me and caused goosebumps to spread across my skin as my breath caught in my throat. It still had not gone away, even after three hours of tossing and turning in bed before I decided to run instead. Chelise hardly complained; this was good exercise for her as well as for me, and thankfully it was not too hot yet for me to take her with me.

When Chelise alerted me of someone else's presence with a soft bark, I shifted to a walk and moved off the side of the paved path so whoever it was could jog past me—I could hear him now; he was running quite fast—with no worry of running into a slower person's body. I had done enough running into people for a lifetime with how much I had run into Thaddeus.

The other person's running slowed, then stopped all together, directly in front of me. I clicked a couple times, waiting to say or do anything until the sound bounced back and built a picture in my mind.

"Mr. Andino!" I gasped, out of breath not because I had just been running.

"We're not in the office; you can use 'Thaddeus' if you'd like."

"Thaddeus." His name felt foreign on my tongue. When he said nothing, I continued. "I didn't know you lived near here."

"I could say the same," he said. "I needed to think, so I took a longer route than usual."

"Something on your mind?" I frowned, brushing a loose lock out of my eye. I should have brought a couple bobby pins, but I did not exactly have pockets.

"No." His voice suddenly turned ten degrees colder.

"Well," I said, patting Chelise's head, "if you 'needed to think' about something, I'd think you'd be considering something past the sky being blue or the grass being green."

Thaddeus said nothing.

"Or at least, I've heard the former is blue and the latter is green. I obviously wouldn't know." I smiled at him. I thought I heard a humming, somewhat amused sound coming from his direction, but I could not be sure.

There was still no response.

"Look, I want to help you however I can. So just let me know, all right?" I raised my hands and let them thump against my sides. "Even if I'm at home, I tend to work late. So I'm available almost any time, as long as I'm not sleeping."