Hugh chats with me for a few minutes, but he looks tired and slightly stressed, so I don’t keep him long.
I’m quite sure he wants to start working on email.
I made chicken tortilla soup in the slow cooker earlier, and I mention there’s more than enough if he’s hungry.
I can’t help but be pleased when he takes a big bowl with a chunk of bread into his room with him to work.
I’m left alone again, but that’s not a problem. I go to my room to call my parents, and I talk to them for about an hour.
When I come back out, I’m hungry and ready for my soup. I’m surprised to see Candice sitting on the couch with soup and a can of sparkling water. She’s using the remote on the large television.
She responds to my friendly greeting with one of her typical one-word answers, focused on finding whatever she’s looking for on the television to watch.
Undeterred by her unsociability, I ladle out some soup for myself, cut a thick slice of bread, and carry it into the living room, taking the easy chair next to the couch.
I blink when I see what Candice has pulled up to watch. High Society. Grace Kelly. Bing Crosby. Frank Sinatra. Louis Armstrong. My mom was always into musicals, so I watched this movie several times growing up, but I haven’t seen it in years.
“Oh, this is a good one!” I say. “Have you seen it before?”
“No.”
“I really like it. So you like musicals?”
She nods, her eyes still focused on the TV screen.
Since she doesn’t appear annoyed with me, I say, “I really like this one. You just have to ignore some of the patriarchal lectures.”
She makes a snorting sound, and I realize it’s a muffled laugh.
A small victory.
“I didn’t realize you liked musicals too. They were my mom’s favorite, so we watched tons of them. You don’t mind if I watch this with you, do you?”
“That’s fine.” She turns her eyes to me after she hits the start button and the intro music begins. “The soup is good.”
I take that comment as the gesture of grace it’s intended to be and smile at her warmly. “Thanks. I’m not the world’s best cook, but I like to make some basic things.” I glance over toward the hallway. “I guess your dad is still working?”
“No. He’s in the gym.” This building has a small but nicely stocked fitness room, so I assume that’s what she’s referring to.
“Oh.” I blink, my stomach twisting briefly. It’s ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. But the idea of him working out the way Nick does makes me feel kind of sick. “I didn’t realize he was into that.”
That’s a stupid thing to say. I barely know Hugh. I have no right to make any assumption about his habits. And a lot of people enjoy exercise. It doesn’t mean they’re all like Nick.
“He’s not.” Candice is focused on the credits still flashing across the television, but she slants me a quick, dry look. “He gets on the treadmill and walks until he gets tired, all the while doing email on his phone. He calls it his workout.”
Something about her bone-dry tone and the cleverly amused look she slants me hits my funny bone. I choke on a laugh, turning away in an attempt to hide it.
Surely I shouldn’t laugh at my employer, even in response to Candice’s affectionate teasing.
When I look back, her mouth twitches in almost an identical way to Hugh’s.
Trying very hard not to laugh again, I say, “Well, walking is good for you.”
“That’s what he always says.”
I snicker again before I can help it, despite my efforts to control my amusement. It doesn’t help that every time I glance over to Candice, her mouth is twitching again.
We’ve gotten about twenty minutes into the movie when Hugh returns. He’s wearing a T-shirt and gym shorts, and his skin is damp with perspiration. He clearly did do some exercise, although he hasn’t exerted himself strenuously.
“Hey,” he says, striding over to see what we’re doing in the living area.
“How was it?” Candice asks him.
“Good. It was a good workout.” He glances between his daughter and me.
Candice shoots me another one of those quick, dry looks, and I have to hide a laugh behind a cough.
When I recover, Hugh appears even more suspicious, looking back and forth between us. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Candice says. “We’re watching this movie.” She paused it when he came over.
He peers at the screen. “Another musical?”
“Yep.”
“It’s a good one,” I add. “We haven’t gotten very far into it if you want to watch it with us.”
He hesitates. I’m sure his avalanche of email is calling him. But he finally says, “Sure. I’m going to take a quick shower, but I’ll come back after that. Don’t wait for me though. I can catch up.”
Candice restarts the movie, but she shoots me one more quick look as she does. “Told you.”
I really can’t help it. I have to try to hide a giggle again.
3
The next morning, I wake up early—at six thirty—since I have some first-day jitters. When I go out to the kitchen to get some coffee, I discover that Hugh has already left for work.
Well, no reason to wake up at the crack of dawn if Hugh is going to leave the apartment even earlier.
I wait around restlessly until Candice wakes up after eight thirty. Fortunately, she doesn’t appear to be one of those cranky nonmorning people, and while she eats a bowl of cereal, we talk through what her plan is for the next month.
She’s got a whole list of museums and historical sites she wants to see, so I suggest she spread them out so we can take our time and still get through them all. We have the longest conversation we’ve ever had as she ranks the items on her list and we divide them out over weeks and then days.
I get more excited as we talk since her plan means I get to see all those places too.
For the first day, we decide to start with something easy, so we go to see the Roman Colosseum. Then afterward we have lunch and wander around that area for a while, looking at shops and small galleries.
Hugh told me that Candice has a credit card with a specific lowish limit, so she can buy whatever she wants until she hits the limit, and then she has to stop for the month. That method for controlling her expenses is a relief since it frees me of the responsibility of trying to monitor her purchases. She buys a couple of small things. The prices would be serious indulgences for me, but they’re probably not particularly expensive in her perspective.
We’re back at the apartment by four in the afternoon, and she disappears into her bedroom to rest.
So I get free time too.
Since I have nothing better to do, I make my mom’s lasagna recipe, something I rarely do since it takes a lot of time. So when Hugh comes home from work just after six thirty, we have a good dinner, and they both clearly enjoy the food.
Hugh spends most of the meal talking to Candice about what we did today. He seems genuinely interested, and she’s in a good mood and appears to appreciate his interest rather than being annoyed by the questioning. After dinner, Hugh helps do the dishes and then disappears into his room to do more work.