Cubicle Monkeys
And I Know This Much Is True
I Have Lived Inside Of You
You Have Always Seen Me Through
Willow rubbed her nose on her pillow as sleep left her and she was roused into morning.
Sometime during the night, they’d moved about so Tara was spooning her and Willow smiled contentedly at the warmth curved around her back.
Tara’s skin was soft and enveloping and between them, encased by the light blanket, she could still smell their sweat and combined essence from the night before.
She loved waking up like this; with the memories still lingering in the air and pressed between their bodies. There had been many mornings where she’d laid like this for hours; sometimes with Tara waking up, sometimes not. She just loved basking in their togetherness.
Of course, now there was a reason to get up and Willow could hear that reason opening and closing the kitchen cabinets, probably spilling some cereal everywhere.
Willow closed her eyes and took ten last glorious seconds before wriggling out of Tara’s embrace with as little movement as possible to avoid waking her. She settled the blanket back around her girlfriend and gave her a light kiss on the forehead before finding her abandoned PJs from the night before and pulling them on again.
She flicked the lock on the back of the door and smiled at her handiwork before closing it again with a soft click.
“Morning kiddo,” Willow greeted brightly as she saw Sally sitting on the couch watching cartoons and eating just a cup of applesauce.
Sally side-eyed Willow.
“Why are you in such a good mood?”
Willow blushed and walked over to the kitchen to hide it.
“It’s a beautiful morning,” she said and flicked the switch on the coffee pot, “You want breakfast? I’ll cook when Tara gets up but I can do some cereal or toast or something.”
“When’s Tara getting up?” Sally asked inquisitively.
“I’m not sure, she had a late night at the club,” Willow mildly lied to give Tara a rare opportunity of an actual sleep-in and not just the desperate catch-up of lost sleep she'd been doing in clutches lately.
Sally looked up eagerly.
“Can I go to the club sometime?”
“Sure,” Willow grinned over as she reached in to get a mug, “In ten years.”
Sally scowled and crossed her arms over her chest as she laid back into the couch cushions.
Willow made herself a mocha, and Sally a hot chocolate while she was at it, and did up some of her famous PB&J on toast which mildly alleviated Sally’s scowl.
Willow actually quite enjoyed the excuse to get to watch cartoons in the mornings. Screen time was a sore spot in getting Sally to settle into healthy habits but Willow knew from her own adolescence that some time in the mornings to watch some easy animation could be a very chilled-out way to start the day.
Some people had tea, others watched cartoons. Granted, most of those others were children but Willow figured she balanced it out with her coffee.
Her half-coffee, half-hot-chocolate.
She sat down beside Sally and felt a little pang between her legs.
She smirked.
Nothing childish about last night.
She put one leg over the other and sipped on her mocha, enjoying her smugness.
They cycled through a few cartoons and argued about their favorite Gem in Steven Universe before a knock came on the door. The mailman, Willow figured, hopefully with the new high-tech headphones she’d ordered for Tara so she could do some mixing at home instead of going to the rented studio every time.
Willow stood and ruffled Sally’s hair, who slapped her off with a scrunched-up face.
“Quit it!”
“Never,” Willow cackled manically and grinned over her shoulder at Sally as she approached the door.
“It’s my body!” Sally called back and as much as she tried to hide it, there was a smile in her voice.
Willow giggled as she opened the door to see a middle-aged woman with reddish-brown hair and glasses. She was holding some files in her hand.
At Willow’s confused look, the woman removed her glasses and looked over Willow into the apartment.
“Oh good morning, you must be Sally.”
Sally shot the woman a scowl and Willow put herself in front of the door again.
“Can I help you?”
The woman tried to stand taller.
“I'm Doris Kroger, from Social Services,” she said, showing Willow her ID badge, “We had an appointment.”
Something clicked in Willow’s brain.
“Oh, for Wednesday.”
Ms. Kroger nodded.
“This is Wednesday.”
Willow's eyes suddenly widened.
“Right! Well…” she turned and bore her eyes desperately into Sally, “Sally, you better…”
Sally looked back confused so Willow mouthed ‘get dressed’ as obtusely as she could while making little flicking motions toward the bedroom with her hands that wouldn’t give her away.
Sally rolled her eyes and stomped off to the bedroom.
Ms. Kroger pushed herself inside the door.
“Little bit on the tardy side, isn't she?”
“School hasn’t started yet,” Willow rattled off as she closed the door.
“The day has,” Ms. Kroger replied pointedly.
Willow gulped and tried to tie her robe tighter.
“Yeah, well, uh, it's been one of those mornings, you know,” she ran her hand back between her hair and tensed her jaw when Ms. Kroger wandered over to the living area, “Hey, come on in.”
Willow picked up the remote, turned off the TV, and fixed the cushions on the couch.
“Sorry about the mess, you know, doing a little house cleaning.”
Ms. Kroger turned back to Willow.
“Is Ms…” she consulted one of her papers, “Maclay present?”
“Oh, yes, of course,” Willow nodded quickly, “She’s, um, up bright and early! Getting a kick on the day! Let me just go get her from our, uh, home office.”
She almost tripped over herself in her desperation to get out of there and into the bedroom. She strode over to Tara in seconds and started violently shaking her.
“Baby, baby, baby! Wake up, wake up!”
Tara awoke with a gasp and wild eyes.
“What? What is it? What’s wrong?”
“The social worker is here!” Willow replied in a panic.
Tara blinked rapidly.
“That’s Wednesday.”
“It
is Wednesday!” Willow replied, grimacing, “We got confused because Sally normally has therapy on Monday but it was delayed until yesterday because Dr. Carter was at a conference!”
Tara suddenly shot up in bed.
“Shit!”
“Get dressed!” Willow stage-whispered as she flew over to the closet to find clothes for herself.
She pulled on her respectful black slacks and a flannel that kind of matched the one Ms. Kroger was wearing under her old fuddy-duddy sweater. She ran a brush through her hair and ran back out to the living room, pulling the door closed behind her when she heard Tara swearing from stubbing her toe.
She spotted Ms. Kroger by the end table, picking up a mesh baggie of herbs with an arched eyebrow.
Willow felt like the room was spinning.
“You know, I know what that looks like, but I, I swear, it's not…what it looks like,” she started waving her hands in front of her, “It’s magic weed!”
Her eyes widened as she realized how that came out and she grabbed the little pouch.
“My mother in law and, and her boyfriend are Wiccans. She said it promotes… harmony… in the… household,” she trailed off and gulped as she wished the earth would open up and swallow her up, “It's not mine.”
She dropped the baggie on the coffee table and Ms. Kroger shook her head dramatically.
“I think I've seen enough.”
She turned to leave. Willow hurried after her.
“No, a-actually, I really don't think that you have. It's just… i-it's been kind of, kind of a, a bad time. Late nights and…”
Ms. Kroger turned to face Willow, face red.
“It's been a bad time now for a while, hasn't it, Ms. Rosenberg? Sally’s grades have fallen sharply in the last year, due in large part to her frequent absences and lateness.”
Willow’s mouth opened and closed; how could that be held against them, they didn’t even know Sally existed back then.
“But there-there are good reasons. Reasons we’re trying to fix. She hasn’t even started school yet, we need a chance to—”
“Oh, I'm sure there are,” Ms. Kroger replied haughtily, “But my interest is in Sally's welfare. And the stability of her home life, something I'm just not convinced that an… unemployed young woman like yourself or your…partner can provide.”
“I can. I, I do!” Willow replied desperately, “I’m not unemployed, Tara and I—”
Ms Kroger turned away.
“Well, we'll just have to see about that then, won't we?”
She went to the door but then stopped and turned back.
“Oh, and I'm, uh, going to recommend immediate probation in my report.”
Willow physically shrank back.
“What does that mean?”
Ms. Kroger looked as smug as Willow had not too long ago, but the satisfaction in her eyes wasn’t borne from anger and not affection.
“It means that I'll be monitoring you very closely, Ms. Rosenberg, and Ms. Maclay too. And if I don't see that things are improving, well, I'll be forced to recommend that you be stripped of your sister's guardianship.”
Willow felt like she’d been sucker punched.
“You can't do that. We just got her. We need a chance, the judge said we had 90 days!”
Ms. Kroger opened the door.
“I do what is in Sally's best interest… as should you. Have a nice day.”
Just as the door slammed closed, Tara came out of one bedroom while Sally came out of the other.
Tara looked all around before her eyes landed on Willow.
“Where is she?”
“She left,” Willow replied dumbly.
Tara’s eyes widened.
“What, why?”
Willow threw her hands up.
“It was like she was looking for any excuse to badmouth us!” she exclaimed, almost hysteric, “I don’t know if she doesn’t like how young we are or that we’re a couple…”
Tara frowned.
“You think she could be homophobic?”
“What does that mean?” Sally asked and in a not great turn of events, it was the first time either of them noticed she was there.
“It’s when someone doesn’t like people who are gay,” Tara explained gently.
Sally took a minute to process that before her fists balled by her sides angrily.
“Only I’m allowed to hate it when you kiss!”
Tara came over and stood between Willow and Sally, putting a hand on each of their shoulders.
“We don’t know that’s the case,” she reasoned softly, though her eyes were more fraught and Willow could tell, “But I do think we should go down to the social services office and clear this up. Apologize that we lost track of the days and try to schedule another visit.”
Willow nodded in agreement.
“Yeah. Uh, Sally, go get your shoes on please.”
Sally clomped away still annoyed and Willow pulled Tara off to one side.
“I didn’t want to say it in front of Sally, but she threatened to take Sally away from us. Said we were on probation.”
Tara frowned.
“But the judge said—”
“I know,” Willow cut Tara off with a pointed eyebrow arch, “That’s why I think she disapproved of us before she ever walked in the door.”
Tara swallowed softly.
“Okay. Well, we can’t let that happen.”
“No way,” Willow agreed and rested her forehead on Tara’s.
Tara held Willow’s face and leaned in to kiss her. After a minute, a smaller voice piped up.
“Okay, you can keep kissing. I’m giving you this one because that lady was a homophone.”
Both Willow and Tara jumped in surprise; again having not heard her sneak up.
“That’s when two things make the same sound,” Willow replied breathlessly.
Sally’s face scrunched.
“Gross, I don’t want to know what kind of sounds you make!”
Tara waved her hands in front of them.
“Let’s just go.”
She rallied the other two out to the car and Willow pulled up the map to the DCFS office they were dealing with.
About halfway there Willow wondered if they should have called first but they were already on their way.
The West L.A. office was not far from where they lived; with traffic, it probably would have been quicker to walk but eventually, they parked up.
“This place looks boring,” Sally said in a monotone as she looked out the window.
“Were you expecting a PlayPlace?” Willow asked sarcastically.
“You two, best behavior,” Tara said firmly as she checked her appearance in the rearview mirror.
Willow felt a pang of guilt that she was the one who had messed it all up this morning.
Tara knowingly reached out and placed a hand on Willow’s knee. Willow looked up and smiled softly.
“You better do the talking.”
Tara nodded softly.
“Sure.”
She kissed Willow’s cheek and squeezed her knee.
“Let’s go.”
As they approached the main entrance, Tara too had the thought that maybe they should have called. But if this social worker was as out to get them as Willow implied, they really had to nip this in the bud. There was too much at stake.
Then again, they probably wouldn’t appreciate one of their own being questioned.
Her hand shook as she reached for the door.
Willow covered it and pushed it open with her, offering a small smile.
Tara smiled back gratefully as they walked inside.
Willow pointed Sally over to sit in a waiting area while Tara approached the reception desk.
“Hi. Um, we don’t have an appointment but we think there may have been a misunderstanding with our home visit this morning. Could we speak with someone?”
The receptionist gave them a long and disdainful look.
“We’re not crazy, I swear,” Willow said in a panic, earning a sharp nudge from Tara.
The receptionist offered a fake smile.
“I’m guessing you don’t have an appointment.”
Sally’s eyes narrowed as she watched the interaction. Tara had literally just said they didn't have an appointment. These people were clearly stupid.
She didn’t like this one bit. She’d heard Willow say they might try to take her away and as much as she didn’t trust
anybody and still gave Willow and Tara a lot of shit, it was a hell of a lot better than foster care. Those people never peppered their frustration with whatever it was Willow and Tara did. She didn't go for mushy words like love but she could see they loved each other and in very quiet moments she thought they might feel something like it for her too.
There were even times she allowed herself to think she had a real home.
Not that she would ever admit it, even to herself sometimes, but she knew she had no interest in packing all of her things up into a trash bag again.
Quietly she slipped out of her seat and under her small height to sneak past Willow, Tara, and the receptionist who was still arguing with them about not having an appointment. Sally went into the offices in the back and almost immediately spotted Ms. Kroger; recognizing the woman and the nameplate on the desk.
Using the cubicle walls to conceal herself, she approached. She found herself just small enough to slip behind a gap underneath the table where she could still reach the desk but was hidden behind an old-fashioned computer tower.
“Hello Ms. Kroger,” she whispered so quietly that she couldn’t even hear herself.
She watched as Ms. Kroger shuffled some paperwork and reached to take a sip of her coffee. Ms. Kroger picked up a pen and noted something but when she reached for her mug again, it was gone. She stared in confusion.
“What—where’s my…”
When she looked across her desk, the mug was returned.
Ms. Kroger laughed nervously and a co-worker from the opposite side glanced over unsurely.
“Losing my mind,” Ms. Kroger said jokingly.
She took another sip, longer this time, and went back to her papers. When she went for the next drink of her beverage, the mug was gone again. She huffed out a breath of annoyance.
“Okay, who’s the—”
She turned and found her mug sitting on top of her old computer monitor. She frowned and reached for it but it started to move back and forth on the monitor, propelled precariously by Sally’s pinky finger underneath, who couldn’t believe she was still getting away with this.
“Kill, kill, kill,” she said in a gruff voice, low enough to make sure it would only go over the cubicle wall.
Ms. Kroger started to look panicked.
“What?”
From the opposite side, the same co-worker looked over in confusion.
“I didn’t say anything.”
Ms. Kroger looked shocked.
“Not you! The mug, it’s—”
When she looked back at the monitor, it was gone. A quick glance to the side showed it to be back in its original spot. She swallowed deeply.
“But…I heard something.”
She poked the mug unsurely.
Crouched back at the side, Sally dropped her voice again.
“Kill, Doris. Kill everybody.”
Ms. Kroger stood up sharply.
“You know you want to…” Sally taunted, grinning.
Ms. Kroger stared at the mug.
“Shut up, shut up, just shut up!”
She paused as she realized she was shouting. Most of the office was staring at her.
Ms. Kroger looked both shocked, scared, and confused and quickly walked toward the break room for a new mug.
Sally waited a moment, then scurried out from her hiding spot between two cubicle walls and rolled into Ms. Kroger’s cubicle. Crouching on the floor so no one would see if they looked over, she moved the mouse around until she found a file with her name on it, already pulled up from earlier.
“Yahtzee!”
She’d heard Willow say it the other day and thought it sounded fun.
She started to move her hands furiously across the keyboard, then copied and pasted the same sentence over and over again.
‘All work and no play make Doris a dull girl'
Her Dad sucked but letting her watch The Shining at eight years old wasn’t the worst transgression, in hindsight. At least at this moment.
“Uh, Doris!”
Sally’s eyes widened and she did a forward roll to get out of the cubicle quickly. Feeling like Peggy Carter, she backed up against the wall and hurried on out of there right back to the seating area but Willow caught her sneaking back and pulled her aside.
“Hey, you can’t run off like that! Here of all places!” she whispered.
“Chill!” Sally replied, motioning with her hands, “I was helping!”
Willow frowned.
“What did you do?”
“I’m little,” Sally grinned and by god, if she didn’t look like Tara, “Sometimes that makes me invisible.”
Willow continued to frown but let Sally sit back down when suddenly a man came out of the offices, pale and stuttering.
“We would, ah, like to apologize for any unusual interaction you had with our social worker this morning. We’ll put a new person on the case and we’ll be redoing your interview as soon as possible. With due notice and reminders.”
The receptionist looked annoyed to be overruled but Tara was pleasantly surprised.
“Of course,” she nodded, “We’ll be available whenever you say.”
“Your patience is noted and appreciated,” the man replied, clearing his throat, “We’ll be in touch to get this all finalized for you posthaste.”
Tara nodded confidently and looked to Willow, who forced a smile back.
“That’s great. We’ll look out for that scheduling arrangement.”
The man seemed eager to get rid of them and none of them wanted to linger so they quickly went back out to the car.
“See?” Tara smiled as she fixed her seatbelt over her body.
Willow tried not to seem sketchy as she glanced in the backseat at Sally, but of course, Tara caught it. She turned her head and looked between them accusingly.
“What did you two do?”
“It wasn’t me!” Willow threw her hands up.
“What?” Tara replied loudly and flung her head back to look at Sally.
Sally looked scared for once in her life but Willow was quick to garner Tara’s attention back on her.
“Baby, remember that ‘Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell’ policy we agreed on in Nepal? I think we should implement it here too.”
Tara slowly settled back in the seat and put her hands on the wheel.
“Okay then,” she breathed out, “In that case…who wants waffles?”
“Me!” Sally replied quickly.
“Me,” Willow added with a soft smile, “Maybe with a side of sassy eggs.”
Tara smiled crookedly and turned the keys in the ignition.
“Maybe a little watermelon sugar,” she said with a saucily arched eyebrow, “Tastes like strawberries.”
Willow blushed and Sally shouted from the back, clueless.
“I want Nutella!”
“You got it, kiddo,” Willow smiled and brushed her fingers against Tara’s on the wheel.
She just had a feeling.
Everything's gonna be alright.
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So funny, Tara acting like a mum chastising her two difficult kids here!
Wise choice, mom!
