”Tell you what,” Noah said, serious now. ”Leave what you have, and we can look it over and talk about it down the road. Terminator?” He held up the DVD case.

”Totally,” Freddy said, and grabbed a baseball cap from his bag and put it on backward.

”It better be the original,” David shot at Timmy with an outstretched hand.

”Like I’d put on anything else and call it Terminator. Tina, you game?” Noah asked.

She didn’t have a lot of options here, so swallowing her reservations, Tina summoned her best Arnold voice. ”I’ll be back.”

Did she honestly just do that? Was this seriously happening?

Freddy pointed in Tina’s direction. ”I like her.” And now it was time for Tina and Freddy to high-five.

The armchairs were then reassembled in a movie-watching line via the little wheels that popped out with a push of a button. Before she knew it, the four of them sat in the darkened office, courtesy of blackout curtains, watching Terminator at nine in the morning on a Monday.

She couldn’t make this stuff up if she tried.

———————————————

For the fifth day in a row, Bette had let herself sleep a little longer than was probably wise and now had to find a way to gain time back in her day and fast. After an energy bar for lunch, because she didn’t have time for the real thing, she raced around her small apartment in a hopeless attempt to find her other shoe. Once she located the culprit beneath her bed, she had the task of figuring out where she’d left her keys. She glanced down at her rather muted attire and sighed, as she just wasn’t feeling it. Instead, she traded her black V-neck for a red tank top, because why the hell not? It was already that kinda day.

”Hey, Shawn,” she said into her phone as she locked her apartment and headed for the stairs. ”I’m running a few minutes behind. Do you think you could open for me? I need to stop by the bank and deposit last night’s cash.”

”I came in early,” Shawn said. ”You’re totally covered.” Seriously, the guy never ceased to amaze her.

She descended into sunlight and reached for her sunglasses. ”Oh. Well, that’s awesome. I’ll be there shortly and-”