May 2, 2000
For the past few months, whenever she stopped by Victoria's dorm, she made it a habit of landing in a remote alley nearby or behind heavily shaded bushes at night. She hated Victoria's dorm: too many humans hanging around and it became too risky to enter through her bedroom window, even if she didn't have a roommate.
Victoria wanted to talk to her about the apartment she found for July 1st. Coralis knew she was still in class so after landing, she went to a coffeehouse nearby for coffee, seeing that she had some time before Victoria returned.
As she got in line to order, Frank, one of Victoria's friends, came out of the toilets and saw her in line. He was on his way out, but for the past few months, he'd been wanting to talk to her. Every time he saw her around the campus, she was either leaving or he was the one who had to be somewhere, so he never could talk to her. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to speak to her, he decided to get in line to get another coffee.
"Hey stranger!" said Frank, getting in line behind her.
"Stranger? I suppose you could say that. Did you manage to get your girl back or is she still drooling over her bad boy?"
"Who said I wanted her back?" said Frank, with a smirk on his face. "I've got to say, I think I now understand why you said you weren't a good girl: you're like an elusive girlfriend, I can't ever catch you."
"Oh, so you have been trying to catch me?"
When it was her turn to order, she told the teenager behind the counter what she wanted and indicated to Frank to place his, but he stayed silent. She shrugged and paid for her coffee. He then ordered his coffee and waited for it beside her.
"Maybe I have."
"I guess that today is your lucky day, then."
"Is it? Or can we argue that it was a matter of time, considering that we have a friend in common?"
"Depends on how good you think I am at being elusive."
Their beverages were ready for pickup at the same time. They grabbed it and walked toward the exit.
"Are you going to Victoria's?" said Frank once they got outside, seeing that she was walking toward the dorms.
"Yes, she said something about signing a lease for a 2-bedroom apartment and wanted to discuss it."
"Then I guess it is my lucky day, I'm also going that way."
Victoria had told her a little bit about the human friends she hung out with. Carlos was in the same medical program as her and they both went to the same cegep. Mark and Frank were his childhood friends. They were also 1st-year students at the university but enrolled in entirely different programs. Mark studied business management while Frank wanted to major in communication and get into journalism.
"Are you coming to study here next semester?" continued Frank.
"No, I work 2 full-time jobs and I barely have any time for myself. Let's not add a school program to it."
"Two full-time jobs? Oh wow. Vic told us you had a very irregular work schedule but didn't elaborate. I thought that you worked while going to school. Where do you work?"
"I work in the national defence field."
"Both works?" said Frank, wondering how she could be working two full-time jobs at her age. "How did you get into that?"
"Yes and no," answered Coralis, thinking about how to explain what she does to a human.
She pretended to blow on her coffee to cool it off while she thought about her answer. She could easily describe her EBEE apprenticeship as being related to national defence but flyball had nothing to do with it. However, she couldn't talk about it for national defence reasons.
"My main one is related to extreme sports, but I can't talk about it because it's considered classified information," continued Coralis. "My other one was supposed to be an internship with an organization related to national defence and is also deemed as classified information, but it became actual full-time work. I was recruited into that field when I was in High School."
She didn't want to tell him more than that. She liked that he had no idea of who and what she was, and not having to worry about whether he had ulterior motives, so she didn't mind talking to him on her way to Victoria's dorm.
Frank was even more intrigued.
"What about you," said Coralis to turn the conversation on him, "do you work outside of school?"
"Not at the moment. I have been able to get financial aid so I could focus on school. Maybe I will get a part-time job next semester to cover the cost of some equipment but I'm not sure. I plan on working during the summer break so it will depend on how much I'll save up."
She pretended to search for the key in her pockets. Because he also lived in that building, he unlocked the main door without her having to buzz Victoria's code.
Coralis wasn't a student so she didn't have any keys to the dorm: she would usually walk in and use magic to unlock the doors. Despite having her eyeglasses on, if she closed her eyes, she was able to push a small amount of energy through her fingertips, palms facing it, enough to unlock a door by hovering her fingers over the locking mechanism. If she needed a prop, she always had keychains on her.
She couldn't explain to a human that she didn't need a key to get into Victoria's room.
"Want to wait for her at my place?" said Frank.
He didn't know when she would have to leave for work and wanted to spend more time with her. He was supposed to work on an essay but figured that it could wait.
"Hmm sure, why not. I will need to stop by the payphone to send Vic a ping so she knows that I'm around."
Frank pulled his cell phone from his back pocket and handed it to her.
"Or just use this."
Coralis looked at him, unsure, then shrugged and took the phone off his hand. She dialled Victoria's pager number, typed in a code after the tone and hung up.
"Thanks!" she said, handing the phone back to him.
"No problem," said Frank, returning to the elevator. "I can't help but wonder, where are you usually staying? I know you're going to share an apartment with Vic in July, and sometimes have to crash here, but where are you at in the meantime?"
"I live in London, in the UK. One of the organizations I work for is based in the Montreal metropolitan area and the other one is based in London, and I travel a lot for work. When I'm in town, I usually stay in hotels, but I don't always have the time to search for where there's a vacancy or go through check-in and check-out. Sometimes, it's just easier to crash at Victoria's for the night."
"In London? Oh wow, I never been there."
"Where have you travelled to?"
Frank spoke about the few summers he spent in the United States with his mother and siblings when they entered his dorm room. He offered her a beer and continued talking about his family, telling her about his younger sister Stephanie and his older brother Raymond.
They drank all the beers and Frank was getting hungry. He looked at the time and saw that it was 18:05.
"Are you hungry? We're out of beer but I think Mark got a couple wine bottles that he forgot he had because we always buy beers."
"I am getting hungry, yes. I don't mind going out to buy beers if you prefer."
Coralis enjoyed talking to him, even if she couldn't speak much about herself, so she didn't mind spending her free time with him. She had a flyball practice that morning and she was free for the rest of the day. She was supposed to return to London the next day after the game and hoped that the EBEE wouldn't call to send her on a case.
Frank opened a bottle of wine and went to the kitchen to figure out what to make for dinner. He hadn't planned for it but was happy to have her at his place. Even if he barely knew Coralis, he wanted to impress her. He enjoyed cooking and could make a decent meal out of basic ingredients, and he hoped that she was going to like what he'd make.
"Need help with something?" said Coralis, curious about what he was going to make, "I can also order us something."
"Nope, I'm fine. I enjoy cooking so it's no trouble."
Coralis' pager pinged while he added mushrooms into a frying pan. Victoria was back.
"Mind if I borrow your phone for a minute to call Victoria? She's home so I need to tell her I'll come later. I can buy you another phone card before I leave or pay for your minutes."
"Sure, and don't worry about it," said Frank, grabbing his phone. "I will instead be flattered that you decided to stay and eat with me instead of running out of here as soon as Victoria got home."
She took the phone from his hand and dialled Victoria's number. Neither of them had a cell phone, but Victoria had a landline phone service in her dorm room.
"What made you think that I would have run out of here as soon as she paged me?" said Coralis, and Victoria picked up the phone before she could add anything else. "Hey!"
"You do know that I have caller ID, right?" said Victoria from the other end of the line. "Mind telling me from whose phone you're calling me? Caller ID doesn't give me a name when the call comes from a cell phone but it shows differently when it comes from a payphone."
"I don't know about any of that, you're talking a foreign language to me. I am with your friend Frank and he passed me his phone to call you. He's currently making dinner, I'll come down after that. You'll be home for the evening?"
"Oh, I see! Yeah, I'll be home, just come whenever and don't forget to tell me everything."
Coralis hung up, gave him back his phone and looked at Frank.
"So, now tell me, what made you think that I would have run out on you as soon as Vic paged me?"
She was perplexed about that and wasn't sure if he was joking or not. The guy had already prepared the food and was taking the time to cook for two, she didn't feel like it would be fair for him to leave just like that.
"You claimed that you weren't good and working two full-time jobs doesn't qualify as bad in my opinion. From where I'm standing, I don't think you're bad and I wonder where's the catch," said Frank, looking at her.
Coralis wasn't expecting that answer. She thought that some girls must have done that to him.
"Well, it is bad if it makes me leave in the middle of a date, and it makes me the asshole if I can't ever have the time to spend time with the guy. I'd think good guys deserve better."
Frank made the plates and refilled their wine glasses as they began discussing previous relationships, sitting on the couch to eat. Coralis didn't get into details and attempted to make her past boyfriends look as if they were humans.
The EBEE discouraged their agents from getting involved romantically with anyone so there wouldn't be any potential leverage to be used against them or to distract their focus. Nonetheless, she tried dating, applying lessons from Martha to cage some core memories, allowing her to give a fair chance to the few men she got close to.
Beside Rowan, she dated a werewolf for a month, until he left her for a girl that he claimed was his true mate. She was happy for him but 2 weeks later, he got killed in a rogue attack. She also dated a vampire from Rome, but he couldn't accept that she wouldn't drop her career and work for his clan instead.
They opened a second bottle and lost track of the time. Frank didn't want to think about his essay. He wasn't drunk but knew that he wouldn't be able to concentrate on it even if he wanted to, so he decided to wake up earlier in the morning to work on it instead. Spending time with Coralis was more appealing to him. He liked her.
Coralis metabolized alcohol quickly so she wasn't even tipsy. She was having a good time, enjoying the feeling of anonymity, being in the company of someone clueless about what and who she was.
As the evening progressed, they sat closer on the couch. Frank was to her right and his left arm was stretched behind her, touching her left shoulder at one point and she let him.
Then they kissed.
As they were deepening it, Coralis felt her hologram vibrating, which made her jump. She looked at the time and saw that it was 22:53.
"Shit, I'm sorry, I almost forgot, I need to go to Victoria," she said as she stood to head to the door.
Frank was still processing what just happened.
"Hmm okay, sure," said Frank, searching for his words and watching her walking toward the door. "Are you coming to the semester party at the end of the month?"
"I think so. Unless I have to go to work, I'll come. I'll see you there," said Coralis before closing the door behind her.
She didn't know what got to her. She used the stairs to go down to her friend, trying to put her thoughts in order. She had a good time with Frank but didn't think it was a good idea to get involved like that with a human.
She knocked at Victoria's door.
"Finally!" said Victoria as she opened the door. "So, Frank, uh?"
"Well, we got hungry and you weren't back. I offered to order something, but he insisted on cooking. I've got manners, you know, I couldn't just bail on him like that the second you got home."
"5 hours later?"
"Well, yes. So, you said that you found an apartment?" said Coralis, checking her hologram.
"Yes, but the moving day would be on July 1st. Depending on when I need to be out of here, maybe I'll stay with my parents for a few days, I need to check on that. It's on the top floor of a triplex in the South-West borough of the city. Quiet area, I think. If for some reason you can't use the rooftop to land, there is a large wooded park nearby."
"Sounds excellent. I don't think I can help with the move, though. I'll be playing in Asia, it's the last week of the season," said Coralis, viewing the recording that Andrew, her EBEE mentor, left on her hologram.
"Don't worry about it, I think the guys will be able to help. I mean, technically it's nothing for us to move… but from here to another human area, it would raise suspicions if no one sees a car loaded with boxes so I'll accept the guys' offer to help and pay them with pizza and beers."
"Do you want me to pay my part of the bills once per month or as you need to pay them?" said Coralis, hearing her pager. "I can also give you a large check and you tell me when my balance is over. Mind if I borrow your phone?"
"I'll let you know once I have a better idea of the total living cost per month," said Victoria as she handed her the phone.
Coralis dialled the number of her pager.
"Did I tell you about the werepanther clan I stumbled into?" said Coralis, waiting for the recipient to pick up the phone. After the 3rd ring, a female answered. "Hey, Samantha! What's up?... Okay, I'll be on my way."
"Werepanthers? Didn't know there were any in the area," said Victoria.
"There's a clan of them but they're quite scattered and their leader is an ass. Samantha, the one who paged me, is only 12 and her mom doesn't know about her. I think her dad was one too but he left when she was a young kid."
"Oh wow, so you need to go to them tonight?"
"Yes, I don't know what happened, but their leader tends to pick a fight with their younger members over anything and that doesn't sit well with me so I told her to reach out to me when there's something. I couldn't guarantee them that I'd be able to show up right away, but that I'd try to help them however I could."
"Well, be safe. You'll come to the semester party at the end of the month, right?"
"Yeah, most likely," said Coralis jumping off the window to take off.
She didn't want to risk running into Frank when getting out of the building.