Chapter 5: Popcorn with Dino

Meredith headed home, having gathered up some relevant material to continue to sketch into the night. She usually didn’t bring work home for several reasons. Firstly she wanted to have a work free environment, at least that’s what she told herself. Really she just wanted to resist overworking herself, which would be very easy to do considering her Hermit lifestyle. 

Secondly she was afraid of losing something and having to come up with a lame my-dog-ate-my-project excuse. Or in her case her cat. 

And speaking of her cat, thirdly, she didn’t want her cat to interrupt and felt it was rude to not give him some much needed attention after having been at work all day.

This was a different situation and she had promised herself as she walked down the subway stairs towards her L train that she wouldn’t make a habit of it. This was a one time event and would never happen again. Work and personal life were separate for a reason. There were no if, ands, or buts about it. 

Meredith carefully scanned the cars as the train pulled up and saw a semi full car that seemed safe to get on. She once made the mistake of not scanning before getting on and ended up in a car with a homeless man using a painters bucket to relieve himself. She knew it wouldn’t smell like roses as the song claimed but she never knew it could smell so horrid until that day. She then swore to everyone that hers really did smell like roses in comparison. 

She would never make that mistake again and had been very vigilant to check the cars before getting in. As she found a seat that seemed relatively safe from anyone trying to have a conversation with her she started to think of her encounter with Ben earlier. Had he really asked her out? She didn’t know he was truly into her she just thought he liked to flirt with her in his charmingly shy sort of way. She had no idea that he actually wanted to have dinner with her or anything beyond that. 

What would be beyond dinner? She didn’t even know anymore, it had been so long since she dated. Had she even dated? She couldn’t recall. She had a few dates in high school before she started dating Chad. But those were kids playing nothing more than milkshakes and skeeball. She had no idea how grownups did it. Dinner and a movie didn’t sound so bad but what else was there to this dating life?

She wasn’t a virgin. She had gone all the bases with Chad long ago. But it had also been a long time since she had been to home base with anyone. She shook her head and told herself not to worry about it. First things first, she needed to go to dinner with Ben as promised. It would be good for her to get out and start putting Chad behind her even if it was an innocent dinner with the guard from work.

Meredith got off at the next stop and walked down the street to her apartment building on the northside of the city. She lived in Uptown in a little ancient apartment building with sconces for lighting. She had enough to splurge on a one bedroom apartment. But the bedroom could hardly be called that. It was barely bigger than a closet and fit her bed and a small side table comfortably but nothing more. Her apartment opened up to a large living area, in comparison to her bedroom. It had a tall ceiling, which carried throughout the apartment as well as wood floors. 

She didn’t have much in her living space. A small loveseat and a reading chair. A bookcase mostly full of graphic design magazines and Disney blu rays. She had a fluffy carpet under a small coffee table and a stand with a decent sized tv on it in the corner. In the opposite corner she had an armoire her mother gave her and her bike hung on a hook in the wall. She loved to ride her bike to run errands but it was sometimes cumbersome to take it to work while wearing a skirt or worrying about her fancy Target slacks getting mud on them.

Dino greeted her at the door. He was a large Orange Tom cat with an extended chin that made him look regal she thought. She scooped him up as she kicked off her shoes and padded into the breakfast nook/dining room where she had a small table and chairs and his food bowls. She put him down to fill his bowls then explained to him the situation at hand.

“I have a very very important project that I brought home.”

“Meow.”

“I know, I know I promised not to bring work home but if this goes well I will get a raise and then I can buy you that cat tower you have been talking about for months.”

“Meow.” He began eating.

“I knew you would understand.” She smiled to herself at her great convincing skills and grabbed a sarsaparilla bottle from her small apartment fridge in the connected kitchen. She went back to the living room to get to work. 

She decided to go with two new fonts one to show on Friday and if they wanted a revamp she would already have the second one ready. She would show a conservative version Friday but she really wanted to stretch the limit of her design capabilities and began to sketch. She sketched shapes all night until she couldn’t see straight anymore. Triangles and rectangles and circles and all kinds of squiggles and dots intertwining with each other. It was how she warmed herself up and pulled herself out of her box and into a word of possibilities. At least that was what she told Dino when he inquired about it after his dinner.

She had cold leftover pizza as she continued to sketch and a revelation hit her brain. She was in another world and had created three fonts by 8:00.

“Meow.” Dino rubbed his head on her knee and she sighed, satisfied with her work. 

“Yes I know. I promised you popcorn and Pixar tonight, didn’t I?” She got up and set up her air popper in the kitchen and got a little bowl for Dino’s popcorn. She drizzled melted butter on each of their bowls of freshly popped popcorn and sprinkled it with salt then headed back into the living room. “How about Up tonight?”

“Meow.” She put the disc in the player and pushed a few buttons on the remote then set Dino’s bowl on the loveseat next to her and they both curled up to watch their movie and eat their popcorn. Meredith was so worn out from her shape drawing that she fell asleep before the first squirrel.