Re-Arranged

Chapter Twenty One

Time moved slower and faster at the same time with the house so crowded. By the time next morning rolled in, it already felt like a month had gone by.

For a second, Kelly thought they were back to being alone in the house. She blinked and her sight came into focus... on her dear friend, the office room ceiling.

Last night drifted into her mind too. The last thing she recalled was the happy chattering going on in the living room. She had been listening to it and chuckling where necessary, while leaning her head on Darian's shoulder. She must have drifted off to sleep there itself. She possessed no clear memory of heading upstairs, changing clothes or making up the bed.

She felt around for her phone under her pillow and pulled it out to check the time. In bold, big letters "6:06" stared at her and below it was an unread message from her boss, sent some time last night. She quickly unlocked it, perused through it, and chuckled.

Sighing contentedly, she put the phone back under the pillow and turned to her side, slipping an arm over Darian's midsection, feeling it rise and fall in a lulling rhythm. She shifted closer to him and was once again asleep before she knew it.

~

"No office today?" asked by the fifth person today led to her repeating the same reply of "Nope. The boss asked me to take a leave" with surprising patience.

"How do you manage to get two leaves in a week without batting an eyelid?" Evelyn continued, slapping the table with both hands and blinking in disbelief. "And not too far apart either! You basically showed up one day sandwiched between two leaves, not to mention it's a Friday today! How did you do it, really?"

Kelly had just taken a mouthful of cereal and she mumbled incoherent words with her chin turned upwards so as to keep the contents of her mouth within the premises of her cheeks and teeth.

"Ugh. I can wait. Swallow and talk! It really irks me when people talk with their mouths full!"

By the time, she finished saying it, Kelly had swallowed and partaken another large spoonful portion of her cereals. As she said, she waited.

"By keeping things simple is what I had said," was the long awaited reply she finally got. It only made her feel more incredulous and she demanded details.

When provided with it, only one other person in the room laughed along with the narrator. The twelve year old even walked over to his aunt and raised his hand, palm out. "That's my aunt right there!"

Kelly smiled and readily high-fived him. She would have grinned at him had her mouth not been full yet again.

Other than Maisley and Paige, who were least interested in the tales of the two grown-up ladies, nobody else in the room seemed to be curious or scandalised by what had just been narrated. Ted, Darian, Amelia and Katherine were all animatedly discussing the decision the referee had given just now in whatever sports was playing on the television.

Sawyer was listening to them while eating his own breakfast and he too showed no signs of finding the story ridiculous. Then again, to expect him to react was an overstep, even Evelyn knew that.

"Maybe I'm the only one not acclimatised to your style of decisions yet," she finally concluded and nearly made Kelly choke on the milk.

Without a word, Sawyer passed his glass of water over.

"Th – thank you." After it all went down, Kelly looked up and sighed in relief. "Ah, that was touch-and-go for a while. Please don't make me laugh while I am eating!" she added in genuine protest as she picked up the spoon again and took no mercy in the amount she scooped up this time too. Only after she had properly chewed and swallowed it did she speak again. "Can you blame my boss though? Two of those managers took sick yesterday itself, and while I don't know whether it's genuine for them or wherefore they acquired those germs from, the boss believes it was my doing, so he'd rather keep the rest of his chicken coop as safe as possible."