Outside of Moscow: a dacha in the countryside, 9am local time

[mparkerceo]

Parker is dancing to her iPod on the back porch, wearing Casimir's shirt.

No, he's not getting it back.

She's also making a few phone calls to friends today. Some people she IM'd earlier this week and so she doesn't need to talk to now

Comments

[needsaparrot]

Xander didn't call back at 1 in the morning. He would've if the message had been Help, I'm in trouble! or more likely, knowing Parker, Everything's fine and you can yell at me later, but since it was neither, he waited until human people on Eastern Daylight were actually awake.

"Paaaaarker... Why don't Russian people sleep when normal people sleep?"

[mparkerceo]

Parker laughed, and walked out to the balcony overlooking Moscow. "Too much to do! In all senses of the word. Hi!"

[needsaparrot]

"Hi. So who were you - I mean what were you doing at 1 in the morning by the sane clocks?"

[mparkerceo]

"Casimir is sleeping in," Parker said demurely. "We're at a dacha outside the city, avoiding the Russian Unity Day crowds from yesterday. What are you up to?"

[needsaparrot]

"Cleaning my apartment. I know, I know, I should've warned you to sit down first."

[mparkerceo]

Parker leaned against the balcony railing, and said, "I feel faint. If I go plummeting to the ground from fifteen stories up, it's your fault."

[needsaparrot]

"Would it make you less shaky to know I'm doing it because somebody's coming over, and not just for the hell of it?"

[mparkerceo]

"Completely. Thoroughly. Who's visiting? Anyone I know?"

[needsaparrot]

"....Bridge."

[mparkerceo]

"Okay, that's not so much a visit, and more of a drop-in," Parker said, still amused. "But it's good that you're cleaning up for him? And I assume, providing the usual twinkies and snacky foods. Hostessing can be such a chore. This is why I have maid service."

[needsaparrot]

"Actually it's, um, our anniversary. I'm cooking dinner for him. Except not right now because I'm cleaning and doing both at the same time is just a bad thing not waiting to happen."

[mparkerceo]

"Yay anniversaries. So things are still going well? Have you met his parents yet, like he wanted?" Parker asked, shading her eyes against the low Moscow sun. "And you can always order take-out. You're good at that!"

[needsaparrot]

"Nah, I'm doing pasta. I'm reasonably adept at not exploding that." Xander had the phone cradled on his shoulder while he was cleaning; now that the living room was mostly crap-free, he flopped down on the couch and moved it to his hand. "You said the p-word. Don't say the p-word. If you don't say the p-word, I can pretend it's not happening. At least until he tells me when it's happening."

[mparkerceo]

"So you're taking the zen approach, of studiously not-thinking about it until it's in the present and you have to deal with it?" Parker grinned. "At least he's not meeting yours, right? Because I tend to believe that would go worse, from the very little you've ever said about them."

[needsaparrot]

"Asafajkdfalk." Or the verbal equivalent threof. "And you're taking the drop a bowling ball on your foot to distract you from the papercut approach to taking my mind off it?"

[mparkerceo]

"Sure," Parker said, sounding very cheerful. "See, now you feel better already, don't you? The next time your Zen slips, you can just think, hey, it's not my dad, and it'll seem a lot better. Or not my father, for that matter."