Episode-5: The Faux Hawk Butterfly

“Tell me you finished it, Al,” said a man in his mid thirties with soft brown eyes and a salt and pepper faux hawk as Alice unlocked her office door. She shook her head.

“Peter, you have no idea the night I had last night. There has to be some bug we could feed my mother that would eat her from the inside out, do you know of any?”

“I think they’re called parasites, but we don’t study those.” Alice rolled her eyes at him.

“I hate her, Peter. I mean I really hate her.” Alice set her coffee on her desk and dropped her bag on the floor.

“So you didn’t finish it?” he sat down in a chair across from her. Alice heaved her bag onto the desk and rummaged through it.

“She set a date up for me, and didn’t tell me until forty-five minutes before it was supposed to happen.” she handed Peter the paper.

“Oh, you’re a godsend. Thank you. What did you do?”

“I went and then I freaked out and ran away from him. Why are you smiling?” Alice’s mouth twisted into a hesitant smile, “what?” she was almost laughing now at Peter’s infectious grin.

“You’re just such a dork. The least you could have done is gotten a free dinner out of it. But you have to make everything so huge.”

“It is huge, Peter.”

“No, it’s just a date. They’ll all just be dates. And then you’ll meet the person of your dreams out of the blue.”

“Says the confirmed bachelor. And, I already had the ‘person of your dreams quota’ filled for my lifetime.”

“You’re such a defeatist.”

“You’re late for your first class.”

“Shit.” Peter hissed and flew out the door. Alice sighed and shook her head, but her smile lingered as she powered up her computer. Peter had been at the department a few years before Alice got there and they had become immediate friends, despite Peter’s affinity for the convenient monarchs. She did applaud his conservation efforts though. Alice groaned, she had an email from Nick. Her mother must have given stockbroker324 her work email, Alice took a deep breath and opened it.

Alison,

Your mom told me all about your situation. I understand if you need to take this slower. I think we could be great together. I really want to hear more about your butterfly hobby. I think that’s really cute.

Call me, or email me back, whatever,

Nick


Alice hit reply.


Nick,

Alice is not short for Alison. It’s just Alice. I don’t have a ‘situation’. And, I am an Assistant Professor of Biology at California Polytechnic State University. Hardly cute.

Clearly we have nothing in common. I do not see any further need for correspondence.

Good day,
Alice Haze, PhD


Alice hit send and drummed her fingers on the desk while she sipped her coffee. She checked her itinerary for the day. A couple undergrad classes, one on bee keeping which she always enjoyed. She’d thought a lot this past year about giving up her post and moving to the country to keep bees. Peter always talked her out of it. Told her she’d be a terrible business woman, “honey doesn’t sell itself, chickadee,” he would say. He was right too. The screen saver on her computer clicked on, a flying CPSU turned into a poorly animated butterfly against a black background. Alice stared at her reflection in the black screen. Straight dark hair, glasses, a good complexion, she’d always thought she was ok looking, but did it even matter now? She looked down at her clothes, functional grey wool skirt and jacket, with a black blouse, and leather boots, she looked like a teacher. She looked like what she should look like. Sisko had offered a makeover. Alice didn’t want to change anything ever again. Her screensaver clicked back off and a pop up announced incoming mail from stockbroker324.

Alice,

Sorry about the name thing. Didn’t have to be a bitch about it though.

Nick

Alice deleted it without a reply and looked at the clock. She had to get to class.