Page 5 of Taken With You

Meadow

To the outside world, I knew my job was possibly the most tedious one ever. To me, though? I loved it. It wasn’t monotonous or tedious. No, I got to play with words, math, and science. And, somehow, fit them all together in a textbook so someone else could learn from it.

Okay, it did sound a little boring. But I couldn’t help it, it was what I was good at. Other people might get to work with their hands or bake things or create fiction with words and TV and whatnot. They used their bodies, they created.

I sort of made things. I took facts and known entities and blended them all together. And I edited others.

People in school needed those textbooks. They required the information to learn. Some things you needed a teacher for, but others demanded a base. So, yes, while it may sound lackluster to some, I helped people learn. That way, they could go out into the world and be exactly who they needed to be. Not that anybody really knew I was the one behind the work. I wasn’t who came to mind when they thought about their classes. I just wrote and edited the expensive thing they had to buy before they started school. The book they occasionally opened if they wanted to actually learn in class. I was the person who wrote all the words in that giant paperweight, the thing that sometimes got lost in the trunk of your car or at the bottom of your backpack because you forgot it was there.

I loved my job.

Even though my friends didn’t really understand it.

But that was fine with me. I could work in my own little bubble. I didn’t need to leave the house, and I could focus on what was important: helping others. And I somehow made a living while doing it.

It wasn’t always easy, though I was figuring it out. And I didn’t do it alone. There was always a handful of people who worked on this type of project, and we supported one another.

My job was to handle the middle ground. To take what someone wanted to write and make it work. And then edit it before it went to the next phase of editing, or the people went through all of the science problems and tried them out to make sure they actually worked.

I mostly helped with the grammar. And some of the science. My degrees were still useful, even though I didn’t leave the house much.

I wasn’t a complete agoraphobe, but some days, I sure felt like one.

Working from home had made it easier for me to make the friends I currently had, though.

Not that I had many, but I did have a couple of good ones now.

Violet was my neighbor. I think we initially met while I was taking out the trash. She had been all smiles, even though her eyes had been covered by dark sunglasses, and she kept rubbing her temples.

I found out later that she got terrible migraines. So over the months of us getting to know each other, I’d helped her get through them. They were so debilitating, she needed someone to come over and make sure she took her meds and had enough water and food for when she felt better. I had quickly become that person.

She had an amazing family, and they were there for her, too, but I lived the closest.

Through Violet, I had met my other friends.

We’d lost one a bit ago now, even though it felt much more recent. I hadn’t known Alison well, but she’d been kind to me, and I missed her. I knew the others missed her even more. She had been such a huge part of their lives.

But Violet, Sienna, and Harmony were my friends now. And they forced me out of my comfort zone sometimes. And out of my house.

Something I honestly needed.

I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that before. Couldn’t have walked into a bar to smile and laugh and get to know people. I wouldn’t have been able to be around their men, large guys with even bigger personalities.

The Connolly brothers were all broad and tall and tattooed and bearded. Even the one that wore suits all the time, Brendon, tended to be a little bit ragged by the time he finished his day and ended up at the brewery with the rest of us.

It still surprised me that I could even see them and not shrink away in fear. Though, in retrospect, I’d probably cowered a bit when I first met them. But, thankfully, no one had commented on it.

Although there was one person that I should probably still keep away from.

And he had just kissed me a few nights ago.

Beckham.

What was wrong with me?

I couldn’t believe I had let him kiss me, that I had kissed him back. I shouldn’t have even danced with him that night.

It had been a horrible mistake. And I couldn’t let it happen again.