Shay made her way from the kitchen of her West Village townhouse to the living room, taking a place at the window and letting her eyes drift to distant rooftops. Her thoughts had already departed, traveling across the East river to Brooklyn; it was there that 6 of her 7 closest friends would be waking up. Kent would be waking up at his home in the Bronx.
She had not actually seen any of them since Saturday when they had worked with her on one of the Habitat Housing sites. Though everyone stayed in touch through a Snapchat group, it wasn’t really the same.
Shay had posted to the group a few times. She had even dared send a selfie on Monday.
“You’re so beautiful!” Emma had replied.
Jacob had followed with “IKR?”
Shay hadn’t known how to reply, so she just sent a blushing emoji back. She was accustomed to not knowing how to reply to people. Most of her life, she was the wall-flower girl on the outer margins of social circles.
But—possibly due to sharing the time-shifting phenomenon—with the other 7, Shay felt a genuine connection. At the Halloween party, Devon and Emma had gravitated to her and they had shared a great evening playing Addison’s games and watching a scary movie. On the job site, there had been a real sense of connection, too.
On Tuesday, a day earlier, while traveling from the office to her home, one of her body guards—Conner Wiltshire—had said, “Ma’am, just send a Snap. Say, ‘Hey, anyone doing anything fun? I’m bored.’ That’s pretty normal.”
Shay considered his suggestion carefully. With the 6 guards her father kept on payroll, all men in their late 30s or early 40s, Shay had to admit there were real relationships. They were professional to be sure, possibly collegial. And sometimes, there was a little hint of mentoring.
As she let the idea work itself out in her head, she decided she’d do it. Tomorrow, and she’d ask about Friday and Saturday, just to see what happened. She figured she’d word everything wrongly, but she’d do it anyway.
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