Chapter 21

July 21, 2000

Coralis got back home to her UK flat around noon. The Northerners won the semifinals against South Africa the day before and the team had stayed in town for the night to celebrate. When leaving Johannesburg in the morning, her teammates flew directly to Bulgaria, where they were going to play the next day, for the finals, but Coralis decided to fly to her UK flat instead, and to head to Bulgaria later on that night.

Her roommates weren't home, so she took advantage of her time alone to listen to her voicemails. Frank had left five messages. She listened to them while sitting on the foot of her bed. She enjoyed listening to his messages, in which he would simply talk about how his day went. Knowing she would soon have more time to spend with him, she wanted to give him a call. She looked at the time and calculated the time difference. Hoping she wouldn't be waking him up, as it was 7:00 on a Friday morning for him, she dialed his number.

"Coralis?" answered Frank, in a raspy voice.

"It's me, yeah… hmm did I wake you up?"

"Yeah, but it's fine," he said while sitting up and pulling the cover off, "I'm just happy I didn't miss your call. How are you doing?"

Frank got up and went to the bathroom.

"Busy with work, as usual. Just got home this morning and have to leave again later on tonight, to go to Bulgaria."

"And for where were you traveling from?"

"Johannesburg, in South Africa."

"Oh wow. Maybe I should start asking you to send me postcards," he said, while going to the kitchen to make coffee.

He wasn't supposed to be up for another hour, but he didn't want to mention it to her. She could be calling him in the middle of the night, he wouldn't mind.

"You could, but I think that a lot of times, I would get back to Montreal before the postcard gets to you."

"What if I ask you to send me one from Bulgaria, would that be the case?"

"Yes, and that's actually why I was calling you. I will be coming back to Montreal on Sunday, hmm when it's morning for you. Want to meet for coffee? I'll have three weeks off from one of my works, so I should be more available for the next few weeks."

Frank was supposed to meet his family for brunch on Sunday morning. After he hung up with Coralis, he called his mother to let her know that he won't be able to make it, but didn't tell her why. He wanted to tell her that he met someone, but didn't want her to ask questions that he wouldn't know how to answer, so he just told her that something came up and that he had to go to get ready for work.

During the summer, Frank worked for a coffeehouse and had a shift starting at 10:00, so he wasn't lying about that part. Despite having been woken up earlier than he was supposed to, Frank had been in a joyful mood for his entire shift at work. Not only was he going to be able to finally take Coralis on a date on Sunday, but she'd have more time for him. He was thankful that he wasn't scheduled to work this Sunday.

Coralis arrived in Burgas, Bulgaria, late on Friday night. The game was at 18:00 the next day, but they had an hour practice around noon. The Northerners won their game, making them the Silver Cup winners for this flyball season, the second one they won since she'd been playing for the team. She went to celebrate with her team after the game, but didn't stay out late: she had to be in London early in the morning for a meeting with the EBEE and combat training.

As soon as her training was over, she went back to her flat to pick up a suitcase, and took off to fly to her Montreal apartment. Her friend Victoria had moved there 3 weeks prior. Victoria didn't have much to unpack, but was waiting for Coralis' flyball season to be over to decorate: she wanted to do it with her.

Coralis landed on the rooftop of their building and turned her elemental paraphernalia into keychains before shifting into her black form. She grabbed her invisibility cloak in her mouth, jumped down to their back balcony and up to the kitchen window's ledge. Victoria was in the kitchen making coffee and saw her friend appearing by the window. She opened it to let her in.

"Hey Cheetah! Awesome game yesterday. Ready to tackle the decoration of this place?" she said while Coralis changed back into her normal form. "Unless you want to unpack your stuff first."

Coralis had been there twice since Victoria moved in, but never stayed long to be able to unpack anything. She didn't have much stuff, as she didn't have an apartment in Montreal, but she brought a few suitcases full of clothes and a box containing elemental books and accessories, which she glamoured to make it look invisible to human eyes.

"I'm about to go meet Frank for coffee, wanna do it when I get back? My stuff can wait to be unpacked."

"Ohh so Frank, uh? I guess I should have expected it, I know he was looking forward to you to be back in town. You know he really likes you, right?"

"Too soon for that, but honestly, I like not having to question his intentions towards me when I'm with him. He doesn't have a family scheming and wanting to turn me into a weapon. I don't think it'll last anyway, because I work too much, but for now, I'm going to go enjoy a coffee with him, while he's oblivious to my world of mess."

They were supposed to meet at 11:00, at a different coffeehouse from the one Frank works at. At 11:20, Coralis wasn't there yet, so Frank decided to call Victoria's landline, wondering if something had happened and if he needed to worry. He was hoping that Coralis didn't stand him up.

"Is Coralis with you?" said Frank when Victoria picked up the phone.

"No, she left about 45 minutes ago, she said she was going to see you for coffee. She's not with you?"

"No, but if she's on her way, I guess she'll be here soon."

"She doesn't drive, and well, buses and metro are on weekend schedule. She probably miscalculated the time it would take her."

Coralis entered the coffeehouse and spotted Frank.

"She's here now, I gotta go," he said, hanging up.

There was no line, so she quickly made it to his table with two coffees in her hands, thinking he probably would need a refill soon.

"Sorry for being late. I don't use the public transit system that often. Had I known it would have taken me so long to get here, I would have taken a taxi."

He got up to hug her. He was very happy to see her. It had been two weeks since the last time he saw her.

"Don't worry about it."

"So, what have you been up to this weekend?"

An hour later, he was getting hungry, and wanted to take her for lunch elsewhere. Coralis declined because she promised Victoria that she'd help her out to decorate their apartment, but agreed to meet with him later on to play pool, as a date.

She didn't want to be late again, so she took a taxi to go to their agreed meeting place. She got there at 19:55, 5 minutes earlier. He was there already. Frank was supposed to work the next day at 10:00, but he didn't want to think about it.

After 3 games of pool, which Frank all won, they sat down at a table to talk. It was a round table with 4 chairs around it, and they sat next to each other, with her sitting to his right. Coralis was enjoying her time with him and didn't want the evening to end. She listened to all of his stories with interest. She caught herself wanting to get closer to him, even if it wasn't likely to last.

She remembered things that two of her social workers had told her and other kids. Despite her dark past among humans, she knew very well that not all of them were bad and always refused to join the movement against them. If it wasn't for them, she never would have been able to give a chance to anyone who wanted to get close to her. She wanted to have a chance with him, even if he didn't know what she was, thinking she'd cross that bridge, to reveal herself, if she ever got there with him, but she couldn't throw caution to the wind. She told herself that she'd make sure that she would always have her eyeglasses on when with him.

Their chairs kept getting closer as the evening progressed. His right hand was on her left tight, and she let him. Unbeknownst to her, he also didn't want the evening to end. At some point, he forgot where he was going with the story he started and just stared at her. She turned her face toward him, brought her right hand to his left ear and pulled his face toward hers to kiss him. He quickly responded to it and moved his right arm around her waist, his left hand went behind her left shoulder.

This time, they weren't interrupted. A few minutes later, as things started to get heated, they decided to leave the bar and head to his dorm, where they would have privacy. It wasn't far, but neither of them wanted to waste time waiting for a bus, so Coralis hailed for the first taxi she saw and paid for it.

As soon as they got to his room and the door closed behind them, their hands were all over each other's and clothes quickly went off.

At 4:00, she got woken up by her pager beeping. She was lying naked in his bed, with his right arm over her body. It was the EBEE. She sat down, careful not to wake him up, and looked at him. At that moment, she was thankful for her advanced lessons with Martha, where she learned how to lock memories behind cemented walls, although she was still having nightmares once in a while.

She got up, collected her close and put them back on. She walked out of his dorm room to find a payphone.

Meanwhile, Frank's bladder woke him up. Looking around him, he wondered if he had dreamed his night with Coralis. She walked back into his room while he was putting on a pair of boxers to go to the bathroom.

"Oh sorry, I was hoping I hadn't woken you up. Work paged me, so I had to go call them back."

"You didn't, nature woke me up. Do you have to leave right now?"

"Hmm yes, so I guess it's a good thing that you woke up after all. There was an incident near Mirabel, I have to go meet Eva at metro Henri-Bourassa and uh… I don't want to look more elusive than I already am."

"So Eva is from your other work, uh?" he grabbed her face with his two hands and kissed her. "I really need to go to the bathroom before I pee myself, but don't worry, I'll talk to you later."