December never stayed this warm where she came from but it wasn't worth complaining. Despite the change in climate, the overcast drizzly day reminded her too much of her home. The gray sky over the San Antonio Medical Center clashed and contrasted with the intense green of the swaying trees. It reminded her too much of Britain. She lifted her cup from the table and took a sip.
Madeleine pressed back against the mesh backing of the chair. Her chestnut hair was half-heartedly styled in a wind-whipped ponytail with a group of tendrils hanging in her face. She swept it back, only for the wind to blow it back in the way.
Madeleine spent very little time out of town apart from when she was working. Lounging at Starbucks, like this, was a rare commodity. Things had gained new complexity recently. The world seemed torn asunder, the center couldn't hold.
Horns from cars honked down in the street in front of the hospital, all in rows like shiny metal crops. With her eyes half closed she blew out pushing the hair back out of her face. The engine sounds, the aroma of steamed rain spewed up into the air, Madeleine wasn't much of a city girl, but it all fed into this soothing urban rhythm.
Her cellphone broke the cadence, she rolled her eyes and then plucked the phone from her purse and dropped it face up on the table. From the small square outside screen she could tell the call was coming from her apartment phone, obviously it was her roommate, Dee.
She slipped the blue-tooth device over her ear and then answered the phone, “Is everything okay?”
Dee was still recovering from being badly injured only a week and a half ago.
“Yeah,” came the high pitched voice on the other side of the phone. There was the sound of someone exhaling a long breath, as if they were smoking, “I was just calling to see where you were?”
“Over here in...” she looked down at the newly placed key chain ring, “...the Alamo City—that's what this little fucking key thing says.”
Dee snickered, “San Antonio, nice—well if you get the chance run downtown to Sam's Burger Joint and bring me one back.”
“We'll see.”
“Sofiel,” Dee spoke slowly.
There was a moment of silence, Madeleine's lips parted slowly as she searched for the words,“Let's forget you called me that, Azrael,” Madeleine's words dripped with sarcasm.
“I needed to get your attention to tell you something important,” Dee said, her voice slightly garbled over the static of the phone.
“What?”
“What would you think if I stopped...” Dee said.
There was a short burst of confused laughter, “Stopped? Stopped what, what do you mean?”
For a moment Dee was silent on the other end, “I want to stop being the Angel of Death?”
Madeleine's eyes darted around as she searched for an answer in anxiety, “I didn't know you could just stop being the Angel of Death,” her accent was especially apparent now.
“You can stop being anything,” Dee said.
“Stopping is easy, but it'll never get you anywhere, don't you want to learn from your mistakes and try to come back stronger?” Madeleine asked.
With a sigh Dee said, “I'm going to have to let you go, Maddie.”
“Just think about what I said.”
“I'll talk to you later,” that was when Dee hung the phone up. She was notorious for hanging up before the other person could respond, it was just what she did.
Madeleine glared down at her called ended screen, “Bye, Dee.”
She closed her phone and place it back on the table before taking another sip of the coffee. The sound of an approaching ambulance drowned out most of the other traffic and noises in the area. She clasped her hands over the table and waited for her mind to sink back into solace.
Before she could take her mind of anything, the phone rang again, she hissed under her breath, “Damn her, she's just too bored for her own good...keeps bloody calling me.” This time when she looked at the screen on the phone the call wasn't from Dee, it was from Brian. She answered it in a hurry, “Hello.”
“Hey, are you busy right now?” Brian's voice sent a little wave of excitement into her.
“Not really, just over here at a Starbucks in the Medical Center,” Madeleine calmed herself some, “Did your lecture let out early?”
“Yeah,” he responded, “Do you want to meet up somewhere and get some food?”
Madeleine stood up from the table gathering her stuff and glancing around the parking lot, “Um yeah, sure.”
“Alright, where should we go?” he asked.
“I saw some place off to the side of the freeway over near the hotel, I think it was called Olive Patch or something...” Madeleine said.
Brian chuckled, “You mean Olive Garden?” he paused to laugh again, “You've never been?”
“That was it?” she started as she reached the car and opened the door, “is it some kind of popular place?”
“Yeah its very popular and pretty good, you want to try it?” he asked.
“Sure.”
“We'll meet there,” he said, “Oh and I just wanted to thank you for coming along on this trip, I know its kind of quick for this sort of thing.”
“It's not a big deal really...” Madeleine answered, “But um thanks for honoring my request, I know it might have sounded a little strange and whatnot.”
“The separate rooms thing?” Brian said, “You already said this, and I told you it doesn't bother me...it would have just been a lot cheaper the other way...” he added in a joking manner.
She giggled lightly, “Sorry about that.”
“So where exactly was this Olive Garden?” he asked.
“1604 West just before the Mall,” Madeleine said, “I can't believe I remembered that.”
“I know, when we first hung out you couldn't even remember how to get home from where we were,” he quipped.
That's because I can pretty much teleport anywhere I need to go, Madeleine thought to herself. Being an Angel did afford her some advantages in travel as well as in other areas. She couldn't teleport now, she was in the middle of the city. Too many people and too much risk of being found out, plus there was the rental car to worry about.
Madeleine hunched down inside of the open door of the car with her arms stretched out over the top of the car and door. A small tap alerted her to something, she glanced up to see a small dome of water atop the maroon car.
With an upward burst of air from her lips she removed a tendril of hair from in front of her face, “Just like home.”
As she stepped into the car and sat down the rain came down harder. The pitter-patter of rain drops against the metal was something that she found somewhat soothing. The door to the car was closed and only the sound of rain was clear.
Madeleine glanced up to meet her own eyes in the review mirror. A coy smile plastered on her face, for some reason her own glance made her turn red. Suddenly she was nervous at the thought of seeing Brian. Which didn't even make sense, she'd been there with him for more than a day now.
She pulled the car out of the space to thoughts of his broad tan arms wrapped snug around her body, his lips moving down the side of her neck. The dull sound of a car horn cut through her daydream. Behind her a sedan was blocked from moving any further into the lot. With a sigh she pulled back into the space to let the person pass. As she pulled out int the street the deluge increased around her. Water splashed under her car and she turned and drove off down the road.
This was the afternoon's twilight time, there wouldn't be other drivers on the road in high numbers and she would have a pretty much clear shot back down Wurzbach and out to Interstate Ten, from there it was just a matter of miles to her destination.
Most of the drive there it was like the conscious part of her mind operated on auto-pilot. She drove without the radio, but that doesn't mean it was silent. On her mind's stage the events between herself and Brian were acted out in perfect clarity. Something about him puzzled her, he was able to get so close to her so fast. It was as if her defenses just wanted to let him in.
She parked the car around to the back of the restaurant and got out in a hurry, worried that he would already be waiting for her, possibly mad. Deep down she knew that he wouldn't be mad—she always thought that someone was going to react more violently than they ever did. It never failed to be anything but a vast exaggeration.
Her trot through the parking lot turned out to be a wet one, the rain hadn't completely abated. Yet it was just a cold mist falling from the sky and sometimes moving up and whipping with the wind. The drops hit her in the face, even on the eyes but were too small to bother her. She rounded the corner turning her attention to finding him now.
Madeleine spotted Brian standing off to the side of the front door of the restaurant. His tan muscular figure stood out against the lush foliage that decorated the exterior of the eatery. He stood taller than her, but not by much. His body was naturally toned, not like those waxy body builders.
Even then Madeleine had never envisioned herself with this kind of man. He was overtly charming and charismatic, but still well read and intelligent. It might have been a little biased of her, but she still hardly believed that a guy like this wanted to be a Marine Biologist.
He was well dressed, which he always seemed to be. He wore a maroon polo shirt that fit him slightly loosely and it was tucked into his black slacks. At least she wasn't under dressed, she let her hair down in the car and and was wearing her light suede jacket that only reached to about her waist. Below that she wore a white button up with a black vest over it and a velvety black skirt that reached to about her knees.
As she approached him through the misting rain a Cheshire smile spread across his face, “Maddie, Honey, I didn't expect you to be here so fast,” his stout arm was tucked behind his back.
She pointed, “What have you got behind your back there?”
His smile turned into a sheepish grin, “Looks like you caught me,” he produced a cornucopia of assorted flowers.
Her eyes grew wide and she ran up to meet him. Just when she stepped within arms reach he pulled her in closer, the small droplets of rain hung in her hair and made it twinkle slightly. The smile on her face grew as the shock subsided, “You got me flowers!” she tilted her head to one side as he embraced her, “Aww bless.”
With her face in his hands he kissed her, “I love when you say that,” his voice was low and smooth.
Her face warmed with embarrassment, “I...I know it...”
“And you still get so nervous when I kiss you,” Brian said, “its kind of, sexy,” he brushed her hair back.
She stifled a giggle as she pulled off to the side, still situated within his arms, “You Americans are weird.”
They're embrace continued as they moved through the door, “Yeah we might be,” he paused, “But admit that its part of the attraction.”
Madeleine rolled her eyes, “Mm, perhaps.”
Inside of the restaurant they were seated promptly, the gentle sounds Italian music playing soft in the background. The place was empty mostly, down in that crater-like-lull between lunch and dinner. The whole place was styled like a small farm house, with bundles of grapes and other fruits sitting in shutter covered windows and farmhouse pictures hung all around.
Madeleine was actually kind of impressed, she was expecting something far more gaudy. But even having been to small villages in Tuscany, she could see that this place was pretty authentic. The meal progressed without out incident, since they were the only ones there.
The food was actually much to Madeleine's liking, as she enjoyed anything Italian. But more than anything the salad struck her as being especially delicious. With the food was done and the check paid they stayed behind conversing even until some of the dinner crowd started to leak in. Madeleine kept pulling her slender fingers through her bistre locks.
Brian's eyes never wavered from hers. All of the things that passed by them, all of the other women, all of the sounds that filled the place couldn't pull him away from those emerald colored orbs. He reached out grasping her around the pale wrist gently, “You seem to be enjoying yourself.”
“What if I am?” she said shyly.
He chuckled, “You've got this sarcastic self defense mechanism...”
“Mmm, is that what that is?” She was doing it again.
“How do you think you got it?” he asked.
“It might just be something cultural,” she said through a yawn.
Brian started to gather up his things off the table, “Hey you want to get out of here.”
“Um sure, anything else I absolutely have to try?” Madeleine asked.
“Have you ever heard of the River Walk?”
Before it seemed that she had even asked what the River Walk was, they were already there. They'd taken his car and from where they were it just a matter of getting down town to Saint Mary's Street. The up close parking was expensive, but he opted to take it instead of making her walk all the way down there.
They circled back around under the freeway so that they could park the car in the shadow of the convention center. The River Walk was actually sunken down below the city streets in a cement canyon of sorts. The original river that it was built around had been walled off at either end and corralled to fit the city's needs.
On one end the river was peaceful, with wide sidewalks on either side and a bridge ever so often marking where a street ran above. At the other end the end there were businesses everywhere, some of the finest restaurants and tourist attractions in the city. At the river's end was a boisterous mall with all of the normal shops and things found in a mall.
They started near the end where the restaurants had just began and walked along the side of the murky waters, Madeleine on the inside and Brian against the water's edge with his arm thrown around her waist. People swarmed past them and Madeleine had to admit that it was a little more crowded than she would have liked.
Still she turned to him and smiled upwards, “It's so beautiful.”
He kissed her forehead, “I'm glad you like it.”
Her face warmed as her cheeks reddened again, “Indeed,” she quipped. This was becoming a constant symptom of being around him. They moved past the multitude of businesses and different types of shops.
Brian pointed with his free hand over to an ice cream shop wedged between two other eating places, its large sign hung part way out over the water, 'Cold Stone' it read. “Have you ever been there?” he asked.
Madeleine shook her head, “An ice cream parlor?”
With a sly smirk he glanced down at her pale face, “You people have so many ways of expressing things...”
“Oh what did I say now?” she asked.
He chuckled as he led her off towards a small bridge that transversed the river, “It was nothing Mads,” he reassured her.
It must have been too cold for most people to even entertain the idea of getting ice cream because there was no one else inside of the place except for them. They took their time eating and there was far less conversation at this junction. Madeleine hadn't yet admitted to herself that she was beginning to get tired. She hadn't used her powers today so she really couldn't tell why.
But Brian must have noticed her eyelids sinking, “You getting tired?” he asked reaching out to touch the side of her face as she took a spoon full of ice cream into her mouth. She nodded slightly, “Well we can finish up here and head back, we've got three more days here—there's no need to rush and do things.”
Madeleine nodded in agreement, “I've been seeing adverts for this theme park on the television, Fest of Texas I think its called?
“Feista Texas?” Brian asked.
“Whatever, I'm not reading the screen—but I want to try that out tomorrow if we have time,” she said.
Brian nodded, “Then that's just what we'll have to do.”
No comments:
Post a Comment