Chapter 12

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving was usually a relatively easy day for Tasha.

Clients were generally already on holiday and Kevin was just assigning busywork. She had a couple of big client projects going on, but she had those mostly handled at this point and was waiting for the clients to get back next week. Plus, she had finished that freelance work for Lauren the night before. Lauren was ecstatic about the new website design. Speaking of Lauren, Tasha received a delivery alert on her phone. Apparently that “sample basket” was arriving today in the late afternoon.

Tasha grinned devilishly and called Megan. “Hey, Tasha! What’s up?” Megan asked.

“Kevin caught an early flight, so it’s really quiet here.”

“What about ‘being dedicated to the company’ and stuff?”

Tasha laughed bitterly. “That only applies to us worker drones, not to Kevin.”

“Of course…”

“Hey, so I was thinking. Why don’t you drop Sophia off here with me? Then you can go down to Dye Dye My Darling to get your hair done, and I’ll have some ‘girl time’ with Sophia.”

“Are you sure that’s okay?”

“Yeah, totally. Kevin’s not here and there’s plenty for her to do. We’re one of those ‘fun offices’ with video games and ping pong.”

“Oh, that sounds nice!”

“Trust me, it isn’t. Anything that might be relaxing or fun means that you aren’t showing dedication and we all know how Kevin feels about that.”

“That guy is such an asshole!”

“He really is the worst.”

“Okay, sounds like fun. I’ll bring Sophia over after lunch.”

Tasha enjoyed her afternoon with Sophia, especially getting to show her how graphic design worked. Sophia showed some artistic flair, and Tasha enjoyed watching her get engrossed in using the design tools to create pictures. They stayed until 4:56pm, because of course Kevin sent a Slack message at 4:55pm about something trivial, clearly checking to see if Tasha was still there. Goddess, she hated his stupid games.

Tasha grabbed the delivery from the mailroom when they got home. Sophia asked, “What’s that, Aunt Tasha?”

“Nothing, sweetie. Just some food for Nocturne that I ordered.” There was no way that Tasha was going to explain what was almost certainly a box full of sex toys to an eight-year-old. If Megan wanted to, that was totally up to her, and Tasha would be happy to observe that conversation.

“Did you have fun today?”

“Yes! I liked your computer games. Is that what you do all day?”

“Well, it’s a bit more complex and not always as fun for me, but yes.”

“That’s really cool! Maybe I should do that when I grow up.”

“I bet that you can do anything when you’re grown up! I’ve got an idea. How about we have a girls night, just you me. I’ll make us some mac and cheese, and then we can go roller skating. Does that sound good?”

“That sounds fun, Aunt Tasha! What about Mommy?”

“Your mom has had a lot going on lately. I think that she might like some time to do mom things. Think of this as a present to her.”

“Okay, I like making Mommy happy!” Sophia paused. “Aunt Tasha, you make Mommy happy. She laughs a lot with you.”

“Thank you, Sophia! That’s very kind of you to say.”

Tasha made them dinner, fed Nocturne, and then started working on a surprise for Megan. She opened the box from Lauren and gave a soft whistle. Lauren had been very generous. There were quite a few interesting objects in the box, some of which Tasha had never seen before, and the quality of the contents was really good. She would definitely have to send Lauren a very nice thank you. Once Megan texted with her estimated return time, Tasha set her plan into motion.

As Megan was walking in, Tasha was bundling Sophia out the door. “Sophia and I are going to have a ‘girls night’ tonight! We’re going roller skating. I have dinner for you on the stove, there’s wine in the fridge, and I drew a nice hot bath for you. Oh… and Lauren’s care package arrived today. It’s in the top of the closet. Have fun!” Tasha scampered out the door with the image of Megan’s shocked face dancing in her brain. She laughed as she took Sophia’s hand. It would be an enjoyable night for all three of them, in very different ways.