Chapter 18: Shared Calendar

They presented the counteroffer at eleven that night, in the dorm laundry room, on the folding table.

I was working the late desk.

Two men in clean clothes and fresh bruises came through the door at five past, each carrying a folder.

Dell was doing her homework on a dryer.

She pulled her knees up to watch.

"We prepared a document," Rowan said.

"It's a calendar," Beckett said.

"It is a scheduling framework."

"It's a calendar with colors."

The calendar was printed on poster board.

Rowan had built it in a spreadsheet, so every cell had a timestamp.

Beckett had gone over it with markers, so every cell had a doodle.

Blue was Rowan.

Orange was Beckett.

Green, in the corner, was a little square with a question mark in it.

"What's green?" I asked.

"You," Beckett said. "We didn't want to assign you."

I read the poster board from top to bottom.

Monday and Wednesday nights were blue.

Tuesday and Friday mornings were orange.

Sunday dinner at my mother's was both colors, in stripes, with a note that said SEATING TBD.

"Who has the weekends?" I asked.

"We split them," Rowan said. "Alternating."

"I get Saturdays," Beckett said.

"I have the first Saturday of every month, and the Saturday of any month with five."

"That's not alternating, that's a loophole."

"It's arithmetic."

"You did arithmetic on my Saturdays?"

"Our Saturdays. Ours."

"Boys," I said.

They went quiet.

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