2008 November 06

Making up the 'bed' for Laura took us only a couple of minutes, as did her calling the two remaining flatmates that had been expecting her to return so there were no late calls to check her safety. As Laura walked off to use the phone I grabbed Veronika around the waist and pulled her down onto my lap as I sat on the chair by the couch. Laura returned to see us talking quietly about whether or not she should agree to the offer from the stranger about her books. There was a little bit of deciding what we were going to do next and the ladies decided that it made sense for sleep, especially when Laura was unlikely to sleep as well as normal.

Veronika and I allowed her to go do what she needed in the bathroom before we headed down the hall so she would have the lounge to herself. Before Veronika went to prepare for bed she informed that I was likely to come home to an empty house again, if the repairs at her place were completed she was going to be staying there again and not bother coming to my place at all after work. I'd figured that was going to be the case but was surprised at how little I was looking forward to having my own space again.

Come the morning I regretted my decision to finish the book I'd been reading bits of for the past week instead of attempting sleep immediately. The neighbour with the dog had obviously returned from their holiday and brought the dog back with them. All three of us were a little bleary eyed when we met in the kitchen for breakfast.

The rest of my day wasn't as bad as it would have been a year ago from starting with interrupted sleep. With age tends to come at least a little wisdom and I'd been sleeping more consistently over each week instead of catching up at the weekend like I used to. I was still a little slower than normal though which was commenting on by Sara. If she'd noticed the way I fell behind a couple of days earlier I'm sure there would have been more of an issue made of things but mentioning the dog seemed to explain everything to her mind. I went for what turned out to be a quick walk at lunch time; to check my second office as I was going to be away all weekend and figured I should see if there was anything already assigned for me to read.

Making my way up to the canteen after the shift ended I was reminded of how I got roped into the first night I'd played these games at work. Sara had asked if I had plans for a coming Friday night, about six months ago and I'd been thinking it was supposed to be an invitation for me to ask her out so I said I'd be probably be spending it with my girlfriend. Getting told to bring her along made me ask what I was supposed to bring Veronika along to, apparently I'd managed to miss a memo asking people if they had enjoyed playing board games as children.

I told Sara that I would ask my girlfriend and get back to her and it just so happened that that Friday was the night that Veronika had a work thing on that I wouldn't have been interested in attending. With Veronika having been worried about how to cancel our plans without making me feel bad about her effectively ditching me it would out well for both of us. And apart from a couple of weeks (that I hadn't shown up to), since that night I'd been one of the last to leave.

Back to the night before the "power party" I was thinking I might leave earlier as I didn't really know when tomorrows thing was going to be starting or how late it would go. With me being only one of the few willing to play the game Sara was itching to play that night I ended up getting roped into it after my first game and we ended playing it until after all the other games had ended and their players had gone home.

Somewhat as thanks for sticking around and allowing the game to go ahead Sara gave me a lift home which I knew would make Veronika happy if I mentioned it, she was never happy about the casual, unconcerned way I would walk home late at night, by myself, in the dark.

Walking into my now empty home when I returned seemed odd, and with it having only been a little over one day that I wasn't alone in the house I wondered if it was because I wanted Veronika to be there permanently or simply that I was tired of living alone. Taking care of the usual things took a little longer than normal as I kept thinking about the changes of the past few days. Of all the possibilities for why the building had been shaking in the evenings I would not have considered it would lead to me being effectively hired as a consultant on space travel technology.
I woke to chirping outside my window, after what seemed like minutes I woke again to a far less pleasant high pitched noise. Getting home when I had was apparently a bad idea for my ability to plan my morning. Veronika was intending to come by in about 30 minutes so I could help her carry stuff around the supermarket, that and make use of my computer as one of her flatmates was still attempting to catch up one what he'd missed over the 48 or so hours between cables being cut and restoration of normality.

That made a change in what I was going to be doing when I got up. Getting dressed probably became a much higher priority and reading the paper dropped to the bottom, behind food and a shave if I had time. Somehow I did manage that before Veronika arrived but it wasn't with a lot of spare time and I had by the time she arrived realised I needn't have rushed as she said during the call that she was going to use my computer.

We ended up sharing the comfy seat as she browsed through the handful of sites she was wanting to look through and I used the time to ask her what she was expecting to pick up at the supermarket while we were there. I also made use of the time to hug her but that was bound to happen a fair amount anyway.