Chapter 176: We Need A Plan
If Emily were to be asked if Mondays at work had a taste, not that anyone in their right mind would ever ask that. But on the off chance that somebody did, Emily would answer them honestly.
And her response would be this. Mondays tasted overly buttery. With a hint of sourness added to them. That was the best way that she could think to describe Mondays. There was really no getting around the depression of the day.
The only people who ever seemed to dodge it, were the eternal optimists or those who after being unemployed for a long time had finally managed to get a job. Emily, unfortunately, was not one of those people. She was more pragmatic than optimistic. And even though she was new in a sense, to the job, it was still her old job. So nothing about it was shiny, and unfamiliar to her.
It was all just things she knew. And to make it worse, the Thursday and Friday that she had spent being able to sleep back to back had spoiled her.
Now that she knew that there was better out there, that there was a way for her to close her eyes and go to sleep, stay asleep and then wake up refreshed. Emily wanted that and she wanted it on the regular.
The only thing that was keeping her upright at her desk was sheer force of will. And when her mind began to wander as she tried to go through her tasks. The only way she was able to keep on track was by looking over at the door to Derek’s office from time to time. Reminding herself that her solution was close by.
It was not a good thing to console herself using him. But it was working, because as bad as Emily felt. Derek looked like he was having a whole lot of difficulty. Even more than she was, with the lack of sleep thing. Which Emily supposed made sense. After all, she could close her eyes most nights and get a little bit of sleep before a nightmare woke her. But for Derek, he got nothing at all most of the time. So that had to affect the body a whole lot more. It did not in any way take away from Emily’s own struggles.
At the end of the day both of them were still suffering. She was just suffering a little bit less. It was like the two of them were those students at the bottom of the class. The one who got ten percent in a test feeling better because they did better than the one who got her five percent.
Both of them were still in hot soup, but ten felt a bit better than five. That was how Emily saw it. And to look at Derek, it was very clear that he was the five in their situation.
His beard seemed to be trying to eat his face. And every once in a while when Emily went into his office, it was to find him squinting at anything and everything. Clearly his eyes hurt. And whenever he had to do something that required him to stand. He did so with a deliberate slowness that spoke of aching joints and muscles. Anybody who did not know the truth would think that Derek had had a wild weekend. But now that Emily knew of his problems.