Page 26 of Sheltered

Not even with the one I’d asked this morning—I am easy to lift, but hard to throw. What am I?

Sure, I wasn’t around to make sure Blaze hadn’t done a quick internet search to find the answer, but based on what he told me, I trusted he was playing honestly.

I decided to send him one more.

Harlow

What is it that nobody wants, but no one wants to lose?

When I didn’t see him immediately start typing a response, I found myself growing excited. Maybe this would be the one.

While I waited for him to reply, I set my phone down and moved to sweep up around the chair where I’d just cut Angela’s hair. My next client would be here any minute, and the last thing I needed to do was to get myself sidetracked by texting Blaze when I still had things to do at work. I’d nearly gotten all the hair swept up by the time my phone chimed again, so I finished cleaning up as quickly as I could and moved back to the desk to see his response.

Blaze

This is a tough one. I might need some time.

Harlow

Oh, I can’t wait for you to ask me what the answer is!!

Blaze

Not going to happen. I will figure it out. It might be in an hour, a day, or even a week, but I’ll eventually get the answer.

I sent him the eye-rolling emoji. While I thought it was great for him to be so persistent, I was hoping I’d be able to best him on one of these.

Blaze

How is your day going?

The door to my salon opened and my next client walked in. “Hi, Claire.”

“Hi, Harlow.”

“You can come right over and sit down in the chair. I’ll be right with you.”

As Claire crossed the room, I tapped out my response to Blaze.

Harlow

It’s zipping by. My next client just showed up, so I’ve got to get back to work. How about you?

Blaze

Okay. I’ll keep thinking on this. I’m swamped here, so I’ll be busy for hours.

Harlow

Don’t work too hard!

I set my phone down, moved toward Claire, and got started. Just as I’d told Blaze the first part of my day had gone, the remainder had flown by, too. Before I knew it, I had said goodbye to my final client, locked up, and made my way home.

I went through my usual evening routine—showering, grabbing dinner, and relaxing—without a response from Blaze.

Since this was still so new between us, we hadn’t really had enough time for me to be able to work out the specifics of his schedule. On Monday, we hadn’t spoken after the early morning phone call beyond simply exchanging text messages throughout the day. On Tuesday evening, Blaze called me after work. Today, we’d had the texts earlier in the day.

I’d assumed he might not reach out when it got late enough that I was ready to hop into bed for the night.