Jane drove back to the apartment after she dropped Rick off at work the next day. There still wasn’t much on her list to do, and the prospect of the trip back to their respective homes only put off the day of reckoning for a short time. Finding something for both her and Rick to do was still a problem, and it was something she needed to be thinking about now, rather than in two weeks or a month.

She went back up to the apartment, got out of her nice sundress and into shorts and a T-shirt, then sat down with some coffee and a scratch pad, in hopes of getting her thoughts in order.

One thing was clear: things couldn’t continue the way they were going for long. The novelty of Rick’s and her new lives together was fine, but it couldn’t be expected to last forever. Sex was fun, after all, but there was more to life together than sex, wasn’t there?

Right at the moment she didn’t have any obvious ideas about what to do about Rick’s problem with Comsector, and maybe there wasn’t a solution that didn’t involve him leaving the company and doing something else. But that was only part of the problem; there was her side of it, too.

After some thinking about it – and her thinking about it went clear back to the beginning – it seemed like she had three options open to her. She could go back to the Mountain Grove, at least when they staffed up for school starting again. But that seemed like a step backwards, and realistically, for now it seemed important to her to be able to take Rick to work and bring him home, if no more reason than to show her support and understanding.

She could go back to school – grad school most likely, although she had no idea of what she would study. It sure wouldn’t be art history, but maybe there was something else out there. As far as that went, maybe she could take some undergraduate courses leading toward a more useful major, although she wasn’t sure what that would be.

Or, she could do something else. She wasn’t sure what that would be, but right at the moment she was leaning toward the idea of a job that didn’t involve the Mountain Grove. Somehow she had the idea that jobs would be a little easier to find if she really didn’t need the job, and perhaps she was right: she could do volunteer work, or take a low-paid part-time position just for the sake of getting out of the house. After all, the money wasn’t all that important, now.

After sitting and staring at the scratch pad for a while, she at least reached the conclusion that the Mountain Grove was the least appealing of the three ideas, although it was a solid fall-back position of she couldn’t figure out anything else.

Looking for a job seemed like the best idea – but not right now. Serious looking would probably have to wait until she and Rick got back from their trip to the east. Although telling the parents seemed like a good idea in a way, she wasn’t all that thrilled with the idea of making more than a brief stop at Hartford. Worse, she knew that Rick had had some hard times in his hometown of Wychbold, and she suspected it could be a major downer for him. Although things were going pretty well between them at the moment, their relationship was still a fragile one, and there was no point in putting any more stress on it than needed. Still, the way Sophia had put the idea to them, it seemed like something they really needed to do, no matter how much they didn’t want to do it.

In any case, it put that idea off for a couple weeks, at least. That left the idea of going back to school, and that was something she could look into now. “It doesn’t have to be grad school,” she thought again. In fact, after thinking about it a little, it probably would be just as well if it wasn’t. Grad school took up a lot of time in any field, art history or not, unless she limited herself to a class or two at the most each semester. That would be fine; she didn’t want to be full time anyway, not when she needed to be flexible and able to support Rick.

Besides, there was always the question of being admitted to grad school. She could probably sneak around the edge by only taking a class or two, but again, she had no practical interest in art history anymore and she really hadn’t had for a while. That meant there was no reason she couldn’t take an undergraduate level course, possibly in something that might prove to be useful – or at least interesting.

That had the sound of a good idea; since she was a graduate of the university, getting admitted part time for a class or two should be a non-issue. And, as far as that went, maybe Rick might like to take a class or two with her, just for the same reason: something interesting, or possibly useful, at minimum maybe develop some more common interests other than sex. Admission to the university for him as a part-time student might not be any more complicated than it would be for her.

But what courses should she take? She was pretty much at a loss on that idea, but the obvious thing to do would be to go to the university website and see what else was there. Somewhere there had to be a course or two that seemed appealing and she could schedule to allow her to be available when Rick went to work and got home.

With that much figured out, she got her old laptop, setting it up on the kitchen table. She knew she hadn’t used it much for a while, and knew that the battery was at best a little on the weak side, so she plugged in the charger before she even tried to boot it up. At least in messing around the night before Rick had set the computer up to work on the apartment building’s Wi-Fi system. That was good, since she never would have figured it out for herself.

It didn’t take long to get to the university’s catalogue of classes. Since she wasn’t thinking in terms of a major, she had a lot of options open to her. At this point she was looking for ideas: something challenging, something fun, and importance wasn’t necessary.

Over the course of the next couple hours her scratch pad accumulated a few ideas. For a moment she gave some consideration to taking some low-level computer classes, if only to have a little better idea of what Rick was doing. In the end she decided against it since they seemed to involve a lot of math, which wasn’t exactly one of her strong points. Rick probably knew just about everything in all of the computer courses in undergraduate course catalogue, she thought – there would be no catching up with him, and it wasn’t even worth trying. In the end, she decided to give a pass to the whole department, at least for now.

There were other departments she also gave a pass to, notably the art department. She’d spent enough time with that already, although she knew from experience that there were some interesting classes there she wouldn’t have minded taking, because she hadn’t had the time in the past.

The history department gave her a little more hope. She liked history and had taken several classes in it in order to be able to put her art history classes in context with the times of her studies, so she had a pretty good list of prerequisites. There was one there, actually two, split up into the first and second semester, that really did catch her eye: a course on World War II in the Pacific! After talking with Rob and reading that history about the war, she was a little open to the idea. It still wasn’t exactly a favorite topic, but at least she knew enough about it now to know that she wouldn’t mind knowing more. That one could fill the bill, she thought.

After several hours, with a sandwich lunch along in there somewhere, she had a list of half a dozen good possibilities. What’s more, each one of them was on a schedule during the day at a time where it wouldn’t interfere with Rick’s transportation for work. There was also a shorter list of classes she thought Rick might enjoy taking, possibly with her. Those were just guesses, but maybe he ought to sit down and go through the course catalogue to check for possibilities. It was something to talk to him about.

Along in the middle of the afternoon she called it good enough for one day; she was a little tired of looking at the computer screen, although she hadn’t worked her way through the whole list. Finishing could wait until tomorrow; after all, she had nothing planned for then, either.

She shut off the computer, got up, and stretched; she needed to walk around a bit since her butt was getting sore. Just then, the phone rang, the first time she’d heard it in the apartment. She went over, picked it up and said, “Hello, Sophia.”

“How did you know it was me?”

“Who else would know this phone number?” she snickered. “I don’t even know it, and I don’t think Rick does either, unless you gave it to him.”

“No, I haven’t, and that’s something I need to tell both of you. Why don’t you write it down while we’re thinking about it?”

“Let me get a pencil.” Jane found one, and something to write on, then took the number down before asking, “So what can I do for you today?”

“Nothing in particular. It’s pretty dull around here today. Rick is either reviewing some software or taking a nap. I’m not sure which, and when you get down to it, it’s pretty much the same thing. I just thought I’d call up and see how you were doing.”

“It’s not quite as dull around here today. I’ve been spending some time on the computer myself, mostly looking at the possibility of taking some college classes, just to have something to fill my time.”

“That might not be a bad idea for you,” Sophia agreed. “Are you looking at anything in particular?”

“Not really. I’m a little stuck for ideas on that, but I thought I might just look into this or that to see if there was anything that interested me. I came across one class on World War II in the Pacific that sounded interesting, but I thought I ought to ask Rob about it before I signed up.”

“If you’re going to be hanging around Rob and me at all it might not be the dumbest idea. Rob is a nut about it, that’s for sure. If you decide to take the class and don’t understand something, he’d be the one to talk to, that’s for sure.”

“I figured something like that. I haven’t actually made up my mind to take that class or any class, but I figured it was something to look into. I haven’t brought it up to Rick yet, but I want to bounce the idea off of him of our taking a class or two together, something that doesn’t have anything to do with computers or art history.”

“Good luck on that. I get the impression that he wasn’t very good in any class that didn’t have something at least remotely do with computers. “

“I was actually thinking about it with the idea of developing an interest in something that wasn’t a computer,” Jane replied. “But I need to get his input on that, and maybe work on him a bit.”

“That might not be a bad idea,” Sophia conceded. “It’s too bad that he won’t take some classes involving computers, though. There probably isn’t much that he doesn’t know, but there might be something. If it’s in his field, the company would pay for it, and would even let him have time off for it if it’s during the day,”

Somehow that struck Jane as being interesting. “As cheap as you say the company is, that strikes me as odd.”

“Well, it’s a professional enrichment thing,” Sophia explained. “I suppose there are always things coming up that people working on a job wouldn’t normally get exposed to. I’ve mentioned it to Rick a couple times, just to give him an excuse to get out of the office, but he hasn’t seemed interested. I don’t want to guess why.”

“I guess about all I can do is run it by him and see what he thinks. But hell, for what he seems to be doing, maybe a course in basket weaving would be professional enrichment.”

“Do they actually have courses in basket weaving?”

“Sure they do, in the art department. I never took one but knew some girls who did. It always seemed like a big joke to all of us.”

“In an art department, I suppose it makes sense. So have you done anything besides that today?”

“Not really, except that I made up my mind to make a meat loaf for dinner, along with some baked potatoes. That’s something I actually know how to cook. At one point I’d considered having a pot roast, but I got involved with going through the course catalogue on the website and let time get away from me. Maybe tomorrow.”

“That sounds nice. I haven’t made one for a while and I know Rob would like it. Say, I’m thinking I need to pick up some groceries on the way home, and I ought to be coming right by your place. Would you like me to bring Rick home?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Jane replied, thinking about it a little. “I think it’s important that I show the continued interest in him. It may not always be that way, but for now I think it is.”

“You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”

“Yes I am. I know things are a little uncomfortable with me for now, but they have to be a lot worse for him. That means that I need to do what I can to give him support. Sophia, I’ve really come to like Rick. Yes, he’s a little shy and naïve in some ways, but I think I can bring him out of it quite a bit if I work at it. I can see that this job problem frustrates him, and I don’t know what I can do to solve it.”

“I saw that early on, and that’s why I came up with the idea of getting him a wife. It would be so much better if he could just quit the damn job and go write software somewhere else, but he can’t. He could do something else, but what? At least now he’s got you supporting him in ways I never would have been able to, and I’m hoping you’ll be able to come up with an idea on that.”

“There has to be something out there,” Jane sighed. “We just haven’t come up with it yet.”

“I’ll tell you what, whatever it is, it’ll have to be something that’s not too far out of his comfort zone. I mean, it’s going to have to be something he can relate to from where he’s at now.”

“That’s pretty obvious. I mean, I can’t see him just dumping his job to go be a pig farmer, just to pick something out of midair.”

“Me either. Let’s face it, he’d rather hang onto the edges of what he knows, hoping that things will get better, and that maybe someday he can get back to what he really wants to do. But I think he has real doubts that he’s ever going to be able to do that. If nothing else, putting the two of you together has given him something else to think about.”

“I think you’re right, at least for now, but I doubt that it will work in the long run.”

“I know,” Sophia replied. “Well, at least we have someone besides Rob and me thinking about it, and you ought to be able to bring some fresh thinking to the problem. Let’s all keep working on it. Maybe we can come up with something.”

“I hope so, Sophia. I really hope so.”

They talked for a while longer. Jane got some tips from Sophia about cooking a pot roast, and a couple other things along the same line, and she made a few suggestions about Rick and Jane’s upcoming trip back to their hometowns. Finally, after close to a half hour, they brought the call to a close.

Jane hung up the phone with much to think about. The big thing was that she was glad she had Sophia to turn to and was able to talk these things over with her. While she didn’t want to get too far into recounting personal details, especially about their sex life, it was useful to have her experience to draw on. While Jane hadn’t seen much of the meddling she’d come to associate with Sophia since she and Rick had been back from Hawaii, she was sure it didn’t lie very far below the surface. After all, Sophia had done a great deal to set them up in this apartment, and when she thought about it, Jane wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Wouldn’t it have been better for Rick and her to have found a place on their own, and work together on setting it up? That would have gone a long way toward building a bond that didn’t involve sex.

But she hadn’t had much choice in the matter, and what was done had been done. In fact, it had been done rather well; Jane doubted that she would have had the vision to look for a place quite like this, and she was dead sure that Rick wouldn’t have done it, either. He would have probably been just as happy in his old dump over by the college, the place Jane had never been in. It would have been in his comfort zone, even complete with his convenient work bus stop after all, and a place as nice was they were living in now obviously was an attempt by Sophia to push him out of it a little.

It was clear that Sophia was right: Rick was going to have to be pushed out of the familiarity of his job, however much he didn’t like it. The problem was that no one, including Rick, seemed to have an idea of which direction to push.

Jane managed to stay busy enough after Sophia’s call to be a little less than totally bored for the rest of the afternoon. She put together the meat loaf and the rest of the things she would need for dinner, then put them in the refrigerator so that all she would have to do is put them in the oven when she and Rick got home. After that, she got through a few pages of the murder mystery she was reading, but it didn’t hold her attention. She thought about going down to the pool again, but realized that was something she needed to share with Rick.

Eventually it was time for her to get dressed up to go get her husband at work. She was getting a little more familiar with the route across town to get to Comsector, so it didn’t take long. She found him standing at the curb as she pulled up; in a moment he was in the car, and they were off. “So how was your day?” she asked.

“Dull,” he replied. “About all I had to do was to look forward to was you coming for me. So how was your day? I know Sophia said she talked to you a little.”

“Not quite as dull as yours,” she told him. “I spent some time online. I’m thinking about taking a college course or two in the fall, with the idea of exploring something else to do besides art history.”

“Any idea what you’re going to take?”

“Not yet. I’m still working on it. I was thinking there might be something we could both take, just for the fun of exploring some new ideas together. I have no idea what that could be.”

“It might be a possibility. I always enjoyed being in my computer classes, although everything else always seemed to be a drag. They were just something I had to do, and I suppose my grades showed it. But I don’t know of anything we could take together.”

“Something different,” she replied. “Like, I looked at this one class on World War II in the Pacific. I know you know a little about it from working with Rob, and I got interested in it from that book I was reading. That might be a possibility.”

“Could be,” he frowned. “I don’t know much about it except from what I’ve got from Rob, and I don’t care much about it. It was all a long time ago and I do know things have changed a lot since then. But I agree it would be something totally different. It might be a possibility.”

“Tell you what. Why don’t you take a little time when you have nothing to do tomorrow and look through the university course catalogue to see if there’s something that piques your interest? I mean, something besides computers, something that I might be able to understand.”

“Sure, it might be something to kill a few hours. I’ll tell you what, back last spring I was thinking about taking a few courses in some computing fields I’m not very familiar with. I mean, if it’s the right course, I could take it during the day, and that would mean I could get out of the office without anyone getting pissy about it. I couldn’t take a full load, but a class or two would be a big help, and I could do the course work for it at the office.”

“That sounds like an idea that might have some potential,” she replied, thinking that she and Sophia had gotten near the idea when they’d talked earlier, but that Sophia had said that Rick hadn’t been very interested. Well, maybe things were changing.

“I don’t know that I’d get a lot out of it, but at least it would make the days go quicker. The hell of it is that college courses usually aren’t anywhere near the cutting edge of software development. I feel like I’m falling behind, and I don’t think they would help me catch up.”

“Maybe they would at least let you not feel like you’re falling quite so far behind.”

“There is that. And maybe it could get me pointed in a different direction a little. Look, Jane, I know you and Sophia have talked about trying to get me to do something else. Right now, I’m not sure I want to do anything else. Software development is what I know, and until you came along it was about all I was interested in. I know I don’t have to do it, at least financially, but I’m comfortable with it and don’t want to give it up.”

“I realize that,” she replied. “But there might be some other angle on it. Spend some time looking at the catalogue, Rick. After all, right now it isn’t as if you have to make a decision on a whole new direction for your life. All I’m saying is that it might help your days go a little more quickly.”

“I’ll take a look at the idea. At least it will be something to do for a while. Oh, while I’m thinking about it, I went ahead and set up to take next week off so we can make that trip back east.”

“Good. That’ll give us something to do and some time to talk about it. Tomorrow, I’ll see about getting a decent car for us to take, just to show off at home how well we’re doing. And maybe I’ll see if I can get an appointment with a hair stylist, to see if I can look a little more, uh, spectacular, just so you can show me off a bit.”

“I think you’re pretty cool just the way you are.”

“I’m glad you think so, but I think it would be worthwhile for both of us to make a really good impression.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right, Jane. I’ve come to realize that you usually are.”

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