Reggie sipped her coffee and waited for Sophia. They were meeting at the same coffee shop where they’d met for the first time. Reggie didn’t feel any more at home than she did the first time, but she did feel a thrill of anticipation every time the door opened.
Since her meeting with the Zookeeper, Reggie had taken pages of notes, trying to follow her suggestion and think outside the constraints of the current system. She still wasn’t entirely sure what the Zookeeper had meant by that, but there was some weird stuff in her notebook. If Sophia laughed at her she was blaming it on the Zookeeper.
While Reggie was lost in thought she missed Sophia’s arrival. When she sat down at the table Reggie nearly jumped out of her boots.
“Don’t sneak up on me.” She slammed her pen on the table.
“Good afternoon to you too.” Sophia crossed her arms.
Reggie shuffled her papers. “Sorry. You surprised me.”
Sophia didn’t look convinced but seemed willing to let it go.
“Ready to get to work, or do you need something first?” Reggie pointed over her shoulder to the counter.
“I’ll be right back.”
“And I’ll find my manners while you’re gone. I know I have them around here, somewhere.” Reggie peeked under her notebook.
Sophia ruffled her hair on the way by.
When she returned Reggie was ready to apologize again, but Sophia jumped right into work mode. Reggie was disappointed there wasn’t any flirtatious banter, but she’d probably blown that chance when she’d snapped at Sophia.
“Look, before we get started, I’m sorry for the rude way I said hello.”
Sophia cocked her head and smiled. “I don’t believe you said hello at all.”
“Right, well, hello. It’s very nice to see you. I’m not used to being so lost in thought people can sneak up on me. That can be a little dangerous at work.”
“I handle prickly, grumpy people all day at work. You don’t scare me.” Sophia folded her hands on the table.
“Just how is it you handle them?”
Sophia winked. “Shall we get to work?”
Reggie shook her head then dropped it to the table dramatically. “Fine.”
Sophia tapped a pen on the back of her head. “Up you go, I need you to talk to me about that notebook full of scribbles you’re sleeping on.”
After an hour, Reggie got them coffee refills. When she worked with Sophia it was easy to forget about their lives away from the table. Sophia was so beautiful she stunned Reggie every time she saw her. Women like her should only exist in movies or imaginations, but it was her intelligence that was especially attractive. Sophia, Reggie was learning, was in a league of her own when it came to strategizing, thinking of all sides of policy, and working a problem. It was fun to work with her even if she was always three steps behind.
“Since that night we had an early dawn hot dog party, I’ve been thinking about the supervised injection site. It’s a non-starter, at least right now, and I’m not interested in writing it into our recommendations, but are there other, less dramatic things we could suggest that would hit the same target?” Sophia took the offered latte.
“Why couldn’t we suggest it? It doesn’t seem that different from the politics of needle exchanges when they were first suggested. They were controversial, and getting those programs off the ground was a huge lift. The opposition was loud and unrelenting, but think of all the lives that have been saved. How is a supervised injection site different?”
Sophia nodded slowly. “Sure, I get that needle exchanges were controversial, but at the end of the day, reducing the chance of deadly disease transmission by making clean needles available was the extent of the services provided. Inviting active substance users to come to a specific location staffed with medical personnel with the express purpose of using illicit drugs seems altogether different.”
“But the end goal is the same, right? Both programs are intended to reduce the negative consequences for the one using the drugs and to a lesser extent the community at large. One through disease transmission and the other by overdose prevention.” Reggie leaned forward, her elbows on the table.
Sophia took a sip of coffee and sighed. “It doesn’t matter, Reggie. The public testimony on the injection site proposal was eighty/twenty against. It never made it out of committee.”
“But what do you think about it? People change their mind when leaders they trust explain to them why they should reevaluate their beliefs.”
“I think, politically, it’s a non-starter, at least for now.”
“If you want to know why I dislike politicians so much, this is why.” Reggie’s knee was bouncing at the rapid pace of her heart, which had started double-timing the more strenuously she and Sophia disagreed.
“I know.” Sophia looked down at the table.
When she looked up, her expression was sad. Reggie felt guilty. It wasn’t Sophia’s fault Reggie found the constant calculations and transactional nature of politics repugnant. It was the world Sophia lived and thrived in so decisions she evaluated came through that lens.
“It looks like you have more in that notebook. Surely you sketched the blueprints to common ground in there somewhere.”
Reggie slowed her knee and relaxed her shoulders. “Hey, I don’t think we’re doing this right if we don’t disagree. If there were easy solutions to this stuff someone else would have come up with them already. Didn’t they tell us during the orientation we’re supposed to argue?”
Sophia smiled. “I think they did, but honestly I was pretty distracted by you that day. Well, you and Bert’s fabulous glasses.”
Reggie laughed. “His glasses are half the reason I show up every week.”
“I wanted to steal the last pair he wore. Maybe I’ll see if Lily wants to branch out into eyewear.”
“They would have looked much better on you.”
It was easy to picture the vibrant glasses against Sophia’s dark brown skin. Reggie didn’t like the idea of anything covering Sophia’s expressive brown eyes, but those glasses had been so inviting and fun, she could imagine them enhancing Sophia’s playful side that she’d only seen during their discussions of giraffes and in the pre-dawn hours. She’d happily rip the glasses from Bert’s hands if she could see more.
“Share your thoughts. Don’t hold back.”
Reggie froze. What was Sophia asking of her?
“Your notebook. What did you write down for us to talk about today?”
Sophia must have picked up on her confusion.
“Of course.” Reggie tapped the notebook and flipped back and forth between pages a couple of times to reorient herself to what she’d written and to get her head back in the game.
Now it was Sophia’s turn to look confused, but she didn’t say anything while she waited for Reggie.
“The first thing I think we should figure out is where folks find roadblocks to access. I can think of a couple, but we’re going to have to talk to people who have firsthand experience. Second, what kind of treatment should we be expanding access to? I don’t know who to ask there.” Reggie checked things off on her notes as she talked.
“These are good. Keep going.” Sophia was taking her own notes now. She scooted around the table closer to Reggie.
“The last thing is where, or how, would we expand access? I don’t think we’ll put up flyers on telephone poles, although I wrote that down, along with singing telegrams, and bus and gas station ads. We have to get the word out somehow.”
“Singing telegrams?” Sophia looked like she was holding back laughter.
“It’s applesauce.” Reggie tried to wave it away and move on.
“If you say so. Okay, so where are the roadblocks, what is the access needed for, and how do we communicate? I’d also add why’s it needed because any change in policy is going to need to have a sales pitch to the general public. You don’t have to like it. You can say it’s dumb politics, but you have to get people on board if you want it to work.” Sophia wrote WHERE, WHAT, HOW, WHY in big letters across the top of a new page in her notes.
“That seems easy enough. Shouldn’t be a problem to knock this one out. What do you think, a couple of days? We did the hard part in coming up with big block letter headings.” Reggie pointed to Sophia’s notes.
Sophia moved her chair even closer to Reggie. She leaned over and circled the same words she’d bolded at the top of her page in Reggie’s notes. “There, now you’ve identified keywords too. We’re on a roll.”
Reggie sat back and put her hands behind her head. “All in a day’s work.”
She was rewarded with a poke in the stomach.
“I met Frankie’s friend Kit at my brother’s construction job site the other day. I think she might be a good person to start with for a couple of these questions. She might not be able to answer them or might not want to, but she might be able to point us to someone who can.”
“The prison system should go under the ‘where’ category. I can be our source on that one. Treatment options dry up as soon as someone’s behind bars. I think it’s one of Parrot Master and the Zookeeper’s most lucrative business arenas.” Reggie leaned over to Sophia’s notes and added Prison under the proper heading.
Reggie pulled a blank sheet of paper from her notebook and started a list of the people they wanted to talk to and the questions they wanted to ask.
“I wonder if we should talk to Natasha Parsons. Do you know who I’m talking about? She’s that social worker who works for the police department, the one who made the news for stepping in front of about a hundred police to stop them from shooting a mentally ill guy?”
“You’re right. She’d probably have some fabulous insight for us. Valencia Blackstone, you met her at Lenny’s. She’s her sister-in-law. Might be good for an introduction.”
Natasha Parsons went on the list.
“You’re the only person I know who keeps notes on paper.” Sophia looked over Reggie’s shoulder as she wrote.
“You’re taking notes on paper. The Zookeeper does too, at the meetings.” Reggie pulled her notes closer to her and pointed at Sophia’s handwritten sheet.
“True. I left my iPad in my office, and I admit I still like to do things like diagraming on paper. Can’t imagine the Zookeeper likes to put much on electronic devices waiting for snooping hackers to take a peek at her underworld super highway.”
Reggie shrugged. “I’m not interested in going all digital. I’m rather analog myself, so pen and paper suit me.”
Abruptly, Sophia stood. She touched Reggie on the shoulder. “Add whoever else we should talk to initially to our list. I’ll be right back.”
Reggie watched Sophia weave between tables, then turned back to the list. She could have added a slew of community organizations but decided to keep their initial contacts minimal. Each person they talked to would likely lead them to another contact.
She did add the Zookeeper to the list. If she minded her flock as she said then she would certainly know the flaws in the system operating above board.
As she finished and surveyed their work, Sophia returned. She set a plate containing a single, enormous chocolate chip cookie on top of the pile of notes strewn across the table. She retook her seat which wasn’t right up next to Reggie’s, but still she adjusted to close any remaining distance.
“This is to celebrate a first rush of success.”
“Are you sure it’s not because you want to watch me drool over a cookie? Chocolate chip cookies are my favorites.” Reggie kept her hands in her lap so she didn’t make a fool of herself diving for the cookie.
“I wouldn’t be altogether upset to watch you drool, but maybe not over a cookie.” Sophie looked at Reggie out of the corner of her eye.
Reggie opened her mouth to say something but closed it again. What was Sophia implying? Not what Reggie thought, right?
“Cookie?” Sophia broke the cookie in half and slid half to one side of the plate.
Reggie picked up the cookie and inched closer to the edge of her chair. Their shoulders were touching and she could feel the heat of Sophia’s body. The sweetness of the cookie was mixing with the subtle scent of Sophia’s perfume. It was making Reggie’s head spin.
She’d seen beautiful women before and not lost her head. She’d worked side by side with intelligent women before and not been knocked off-kilter. What was it about Sophia that had her barely recognizing herself or her reactions? Why was she giving a second thought to someone in a profession she swore she’d never interact with again?
Reggie told herself it was because she believed in the work and that was more important than past hurts no matter how deep. She looked at Sophia who smiled at her with a dab of chocolate stuck to her bottom lip. What if while the past was buried deep, new feelings were allowed to grow? What could befall her then?