Page 71 of A Light in the Dark
“Her second book nook. She had two. She could afford to sacrifice one to our gaming ways.”
“I don’t know, sir. It sounds like you’ve committed a most serious transgression. You took away abook nook.”
“I see you are a reader. How many book nooks do you have in your home?”
I counted rooms with at least one bookcase in my head, and to narrow it down a little, I only counted the ones where I could comfortably sit for extended periods of time. “Four?”
“Why was that a question?”
“Maybe seven if you just count places where books live,” I admitted.
“I’m sure you’ll be able to sacrifice one for your new computer setup.”
Heaving an overly dramatic sigh, I regarded my boss with my saddest expression. “But are you sure?”
“You may not believe me now, but you will survive.”
I gavemy boss’s little SUV credit. Even if a rather amused Joel hadn’t shown up, who was wearing a pristine black suit made of silk, we would have been able to fit everything. Joel’s SUV made loading the chair simple, and he also took one of my monitors as well.
“When in doubt, I call for backup,” my boss announced, and he double checked everything in his vehicle would survive the drive. “Thank you for coming, Joel. The chair was a concern.”
“Sparing the back of those using a computer is serious business. Do you own a computer desk, Valerie?”
I nodded. “Granted, I haven’t been using them forcomputers, but I actually have four of them set up in strategic locations, and it won’t take but a few minutes to make them ready for all this… stuff.” I stared at the monitor buckled into my boss’s back seat. “I’m still invading for gaming time, Joel. I don’t know what I’m doing, but he said I needed everything to do work and school.”
Joel laughed at me. “The monitor and computers won’t bite you, but I’ll teach you how to use everything if you need help.”
“She can handle the basics, but we had to teach her everything. With our move to digital records with paper backups, she’s going to need to join the modern world, and I was instructed to get her started right now.”
“I’m woman enough to admit I’m scared.” I exhaled, climbed into the passenger seat of my boss’s SUV, and said, “Thank you, Joel. I’ll try not to be a bad student, but I only know the basics of using a computer.”
“It’s much easier to buy digital books on a computer than through a digireader,” Joel informed me before heading tohis vehicle. “I’ll show you how once we get everything inside.”
Well, I foresaw my bonuses rapidly vanishing if I could buy books on my computer. “Interesting.”
He chuckled, waved, and left. Once my boss did a third check of everything, he got behind the wheel. “Getting the chair into here would have been sketchy at best, and I’m not above imposing on your neighbor. If he hadn’t lived right next door to you, I wouldn’t have imposed, instead having the store deliver the chair.”
“It’s probably good for him to dance to someone else’s tune for a change.”
He snickered. “You are probably right. And yes, the black computer for your home usage was selected after conferring with several of the Mirage universities, all of which are interested in having you as a student. They’re about to wage war to have you, honestly. You do not have to take both of your degrees at the same university. Ideally, you wouldn’t, because the one that excels at business education isonlygood for business education. If you’re interested in legal work, the law school there offers a dual degree program with several of the other universities, so in theory, you could triple up. Your testing records are excellent, and all the schools don’t mind students that take the slow approach. You’ll even be able to go to Mirage for in-person labs; they offer an exchange program and temporary residency program in three month sessions. When I first saw your apparel, I suspected you might have been interested in legal work, because at the time, it was very much what young attorneys would wear.”
Busted. “The degree was too expensive even with thegrant. I was better off getting a home and then penny pinching to maybe get a degree later.”
“You’re smart and wise, and that’s a rare combination. If you want to pursue a law degree, go for it. If you want to do a creative dual degree with your legal degree, that’s obtainable, too.”
“Joel told you about my craft problems, didn’t he?”
“He took a few pictures of you in the store, as he found it endearing you exited reality and entered a state of pure bliss when in the presence of silk.”
“I blew out almost the entirety of my first bonus on silk,” I confessed. “Do you know what silk does? Silkshatters. I bought an entire bolt of silk to use for embroidery and cross-stitching. Itshatters.”
“Shifter silk doesn’t actually shatter often, and it’s the sole type of silk that you can reliably use for such things without it shattering on you. I made the mistake of asking, as I’ve had a silk suit before, and it shattered on me.”
Ah-ha! That explained why Joel wanted shifter silk, especially from his parents, for his suits. “That makes me feel a lot better about it, honestly.”
“Your bonuses are there to be used and enjoyed. Enjoy them. When I get my bonuses, I plan a vacation. I highly recommend that you plan a vacation somewhere. Stonecreek is not the only area with luna moth shifter silk, and the shifter silk textures are different based on region and food source for the shifters. Joel explained this to me. His cousin is one of the few luna moth shifters that actuallysellsthe silk, but luna moth shifters give each other their silk often. It allows flutters to interact with each other.”
“You knew Joel is a luna moth?”
