Work Text:
“You’d think that work would lessen up a little around the Holiday season,” Therese said with a irritated note that she couldn’t help but feel was growing more and more regular. “Since, you know, everyone’s holed up in their rooms and all that?” Her arms stretched high over her head, looking down at the typewriter in front of her. She’d been punching out an article for the better half of the past eight hours, pausing only to grab a drink or snack from the icebox.
She was expected to have it printed, typed and ready for red lining in about three days, and though Therese was not a workaholic in any sense of the word, she also had a photo editing session at eight in the morning the next day. Not to mention the fact that Rindy was over and Therese had an awful thing for getting distracted by the young child running around and demanding her attention. The other thing was that she thought she’d be done in four hours, tops. Double that time later and here she was, lamenting over a typo she’d have to whiteout and retype later. Curse the office-issue standard and the lack of a smudge key.
"It's the Holidays. Everyone's rushing and nobody wants to work."
"Fair enough." But that didn't mean that Therese couldn't be at least a little whiny about it.
Carol fished a glass water bottle out of the icebox and made a humming noise. “Do you think we should get an electric refrigerator?” Therese ripped her eyes away from her paper, leaning back into her chair to watch. “Maybe.”
Closing the icebox with one hand and taking a swig of cool water with the other, Carol looked over to Therese. She swallowed. “You’ve been at that for quite a while, haven’t you?” she said, with the very slow start of a smile. “Want to head out for a little while? Clear your head. You’re going to go cross eyed by staring at your work for too long, my love.”
Therese sucked in a breath. “Mmm…” She began to formulate excuses in her head (of course, not that she wanted to deny Carol in any way shape or form). She wanted to have this done today so that she didn’t have to worry about it for the next little while. Wanted to have it done before her photo editing session. But at the same time…
“Please?” Carol’s lower lip jutted out in a mock-pout, and Therese’s unsure expression broke into a smile. And just like that, her resolve crumbled. “See? You’re not the only one who can pull that puppy-dog eye trick.”
“You and Rindy have too much power over me,” Therese said in an accusatory tone. Rindy was starting to pick up on the fact that all it took was a well-timed ‘pweeease?’ for her to start blowing her disposable income from work. And Carol was starting to pick up on the fact that it took a well-timed ‘please’ for Therese to bend to her will. “But sure. Any longer and I may as well go mad. Where did you plan to go?” Her smirk turned almost sensual.
“God! No, not that kind of break.”
“Ah.” Therese shook her head, though the smile remained. “Alright, fill me in.”
“Well,” Carol hesitated. “Rindy wants me to take her ice skating. She’s getting her outdoor gear already.”
Ah. “You’re not expecting me out on the ice, are you?” Because there were things that Therese wanted to repeat and things that Therese did not exactly want to repeat. The (admittedly humorous) nightmare that was the Rockefeller Center fell into the latter category. “I love you, Carol, I truly do, but I am only one woman with a very specific set of talents.”
Carol laughed, “Oh, no, not if you don’t want to. But I thought you’d might like to get some fresh air. We’re uh, walking to an indoor ice rink.”
Therese stood up and stretched again. How long had she been sitting in this exact position, carefully typing away at a typewriter just so that her fingers didn’t fumble on the keys? She felt oddly fatigued. Perhaps a little bit of walking would do her some good. Yeah. “Sure, why not? I could stand to spend some time away from here.”
“Excellent,” Carol said. She put the bottle down and clapped her hands together. “That’s that, then. Start bundling up, babe.”
They were out the door in ten minutes, Therese having decided that she could just throw on a coat and mittens and be done with it. Rindy walked between them with a rather cheery expression resting on her face. “Has Therese ever been skating?”
Carol’s look turned devious. “I’ve only seen her skate once. And once was all she needed, really.” She took Rindy’s hand. Rindy reached for Therese’s. “She didn’t even seem nervous about it, up until she was on the ice. Didn’t one tell me that she doesn’t know how to skate!”
“I don’t skate,” Therese interjected with a small frown. “I tried skating once. One time! And I’m awful. Plainly and simply; I’m just bad.” Therese had only mentioned this little fact when they were in Carol’s car, driving down to Rockefeller.
Rindy didn’t really seem to notice the words, only continuing on her own little tangent. “Our class goes skating every winter. I’m one of the fastest in the class.”
“Better than your mother?”
Rindy’s nose scrunched up. “I’m better than you, definitely. As for mother…” Therese felt her breath catch for only a fraction of a second. It probably meant nothing, because children said such odd things and she had no clue how to deal with them and oh dear but on the other hand…
Carol didn’t seem to notice. “Don’t downplay yourself, darling. I’m growing old and senile.” Dramatically, Carol placed her free hand to her forehead. “The only skating I’ll be doing is skating around on a hospital bed at the discretion of a nurse.”
“Don’t say that!” Therese hissed with an amused smile. Carol was still relatively young. She only liked to dramatize how old she was because Therese was younger. “You skated a hell of a lot better than I could ever dream to.”
“Right,” Carol breathed out. Her smile was pleasant. "And you do a whole hell of a lot of other things that I could never dream to do."
Rindy swung their hands between them. “Swearing is bad! Don't do that,” she said in a very no-nonsense tone, and for whatever reason, Therese and Carol found this funny, and the only thing they could do was laugh.