Watching Yute Read Free

that they’re calling? All of a
sudden, there they are, wanting an answer, and you’re totally
unprepared.
    She just couldn’t talk to her now, she
simply wasn’t ready! What was she supposed to say about never being
able to call? Brandy would understand. It’s the career. Brandy has
a career too. She’d understand, right? No, Brandy manages to call.
The look on Brandy’s face in the last message returned to Cassidy,
and the anxiety built up. Her mind went two directions at once. One
side doing just her job, the other side just silently freaking out
inside.
    Mercifully, the wiggle of her terminal
stopped. She took a deep breath, unnoticed by her partner, and
relaxed a little.
    A short time later the terminal gave a
single wiggle. A message was ready. The anxiety rattled its way
back up and grabbed Cassidy by the throat.
    “ Greg.” Cassidy choked
out.
    “ Y.. yeah?” It was not
typical to use a first name.
    “ I gotta... I gotta take
five. Can I catch up with you?” She looked a bit pale, and left
McKinney with the impression that she was feeling ill.
    McKinney spoke with a supportive tone,
“Yeah, sure, take your time.”
    Cassidy kind of wanted to run. At the
same time, she kind of wanted to lie down right there on the
ground. The result was a slow meandering. She put the foremost
thought of Brandy aside, and found herself obsessing on her pace.
Too slow, and people would wonder what the heck she was doing. Too
fast, and they’d think she was in a hurry for important M.P.
business. Both results would be totally inconsequential, but
regardless, she tried very hard to walk the perfect medium
pace.
    The nearest quiet spot turned out to be
a stall in a bathroom. She pulled out the terminal. Sure enough,
the little display read that it was a message from Brandy. Just
when she was starting to convince herself it might not be. She
closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
    She felt as if she sent an order to her
hand to tap the icon, and hoped that her hand wouldn’t obey. “Sorry
Brandy, but I lost the ability to press buttons.” That would be a
good excuse. Sure.
    Cruelly, her hand obeyed. She opened
her eyes to see Brandy sitting with her arms folded, elbows resting
on her knees. She was looking down in silence. Not good.
    A pained, fragile sigh escaped Brandy.
The sigh reached out of the terminal speaker and grabbed Cassidy’s
lungs, making her unable to breathe. Brandy reluctantly started.
“Cass….” This wasn’t going to be good. This wasn’t going to be good
at all.
    “ It’s…” Brandy swallowed
hard. “It’s obviously not working out.” She sighed, her voice
beginning to tremble a bit. “I guess we’re over.
Goodbye.”
    The message ended, and Cassidy was left
staring at the screen, but seeing nothing. She was still waiting
for the message to say more. It didn’t seem long enough. Not long
enough for a breakup from a year and a half relationship. It hadn’t
sunk in. She was alone, silent, but safe behind the levies of
shock, safe from the flood that had just assaulted her.
    Outwardly she did her best to be calm,
but her tightly shallow breathing, clenched jaw, and eyes staring
into nothingness betrayed the surge of screaming panic
inside.
    Eventually recovering a little focus,
Cassidy called Brandy back. In the short eternity while the
terminal made the connection, that reluctant part of Cassidy inside
was screaming at the other half to hang up. She didn’t have
anything planned to say. Apologize? Should she maybe say something
about-
    ‘ BLOCKED’
    Blocked?! Brandy’s not taking her
calls? What? She can’t just block her without a chance to say
something for herself! She didn’t even have a chance to…
    But she did have a chance. She had
plenty of chances. Plenty of chances over the last.. month? Oh god,
was it more? Chances to call back, even if it was just to leave a
message, or wake her up.
    But it was too late now. The terminal
slipped out of her hand and clattered on the