Diane glided into the living room
to find Josh sitting on the couch stroking his temples in a circular motion.
The television reflected the sunlight filling the room into his eyes. His
tablet floated in front of him, only a blankpage visible to them. “What are
you hiding?” they asked.
Snapping out of his funk, Josh opened his eyes and pulled his tablet to his chest. “Nothing. You know I always have my privacy screen up. The windows have eyes, but you like natural sunlight.”
“You’re not a vampire, and no one’s trying to hunt us, my lil gothic ghoul,” they teased, brushing his long, jet black bang out of his face. They draped themselves over the couch and his shoulders. “Now, break your little enchantment and show me what you’re working on.”
“Well, that’s the thing. I realized I’ve barely done anything.” Exhaling out his nose, he wrinkled his forehead and stared intently at the tablet’s screen until words were visible to his partner. “I made this list five years ago, and it should have been completed two years ago. But look at how many objectives remain! It’s embarrassing.”
They scrolled and read the title of the document. “‘101 tasks in 1001 days? That sounds daunting and exhausting.”
“It was supposed to be fun and exciting. It was supposed to push me into becoming the man I wanted to become. See, I never visited the West Coast.”
His partner jumped over the couch and snatched his tablet. Perched on the arm, she searched for rebuttals. “Yeah, that’s an expensive accomplishment but we visited Ontario four years ago, so you crossed out ‘Visit an non-european country.’ So international. Definitely better than seeing another lousy state.”
“That reminds me, I still need to vacation alone, meet strangers, have an adventure. Another point for the fail column.” Josh started to lean back on the opposite arm but shot up to add, “Oh, and I don’t know how to bake.”
“Ok, that’s an easy one to knock out, but you’re right; it’s not easy. But this one after it, you learned so many different cooking techniques. More than me. Like, um… the one with the pork belly?” Diane could already feel their tongue salivating as she recalled the meal.
“Scoring. I scored the meat, but I haven’t scored a song yet. Or written one yet.”
Diane resisted throwing the tablet at him. “With what knowledge of music theory?” Josh could only shrug in response. “Actually, no. You wrote that parody to perform at karaoke last year.”
“Mikey led that project.”
“Fine, co-wrote a parody. I’d still count it.” They slid from the arm of the couch to the cushion, intertwining their legs with his. “I can’t believe I have to build a white man up this much, but darling, you’ve accomplished so much. For each task still at large on this list, there’s one accounted for. And think of all you accomplished. Like that promotion at work.”
Josh finally stopped darting his eyes across the room to look into theirs. It was clear they were his biggest cheerleader. “Yeah, you make very good points. Some of these are barely important to me anymore. But at least I accomplished the fulfilling task on the list.”
Diane stared at him as he reached for the tablet. Scrolling down, he highlighted an entry and handed the glorified paperweight back to them. The 99th task read: Date a guy, maybe a girl? Who knows, you’ll date someone. Blushing, they placed the tablet face-up on the table and leapt across the couch. As the two shared an embrace, a squirrel on a branch outside their window stared intently at the tablet as its eyes glowed red.
Word
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