((Continued timeline-wise from
Paper Thin Walls))
Better.
She was feeling better. Much better, after her dinner with Aleksei.
Not that she could have felt worse. Fate being in the hands of a deranged bird man aiming to spread bird seed, and all that... it kind of sucked eternally. But it was okay. She'd dramatized it far too much before. Had one of those 'teen moments' that reared their ugly heads from time to time, like the pimples of youth. This was manageable. Still mope-worthy, but...
The jacket fell onto the back of a wooden chair as Lenna drifted into her room on crashing wake of a good meal. Up went the light switch. The door clicked shut. She flopped onto the bed, and untied her shoes.
Curiosity wandered out of the corner of her mind.
Just what was Slate's business in Paris? Then a shoe kicked off, and with it, the thought sailed to land neatly, tongue-side down on the floor. A second flopped end over end to land tongue-side up on the first shoe's sole. Lenna patted down a yawn, and groped with her right hand for the book on her nightstand. Her fingers missed it. They fell on a navy blue cellular phone. Lenna paused, then brought it in front of her.
She might as well check to see if she had any missed calls… all of a sudden, the cellphone rang.
BRING BRING! BRING BRING!Bring bringing the phone to her ear, Lenna answered in French.
“Hello?” “You missed me~” A very familiar voice made her choke.
Lenna gripped the phone tighter as she held it to her ear. She had to be careful… didn’t want to gouge holes in it, or crush it in her hand.
“I thought you’d be saying you missed me.” Death-wishing smiles looked good on her, Lenna decided, as she rose from the mattress to pace the line of carpet before mirror.
“Nope!” The voice chirped back to her. “I knew right where you should have been. Where you were, and where you weren’t. You weren’t by your cellphone. Naughty naughty.”
She had a feeling he was waggling a finger at thin air here. Lenna didn’t like the image.
“I forgot—““And now it’s too late in the evening to eat with me, and you screwed everything up! … I’m sorry. That came off sounding wrong. I mean, ‘You missed my call. I’m sorry you did. We’ll have to reschedule.’” Bird-man composed himself. Lenna wondered whether composers still wrote melodies with feather quills.
“Fine. We can reschedule. You found the best restaurant. Where, and when?” Lenna glared at her reflection, spoke carefully.
“It isn’t that simple…” Bird-man mourned. “You see, I had tickets… and now, tickets… tickets… tickets! Are no good! You see my dilemma…”
“You’re making me feel awful here, Hero-boy. Give me a chance. It can’t be that hard purchasing new tickets… can it?” A childish smile reflected back at her in the mirror. Hee hee, she’d told him to ‘can it’.
“For the opera? You’re kidding. Right?”
“. . . Maybe?” “I’ll get back to you on this. We’ll see what I can set up…” The voice trailed distractedly.
“You could always just give me the information I need, you know.”“You’re kidding. Right?” The voice laughed. “Ciao.”
Lenna’s phone snapped shut as the conversation ended. The phone was clenched in her hand. She looked up from it, and didn’t like what she saw. She was too tense… this was ridiculous. Sighing, she went back to the mattress, and laid down.
