1 comments/ 2532 views/ 5 favorites One Star Random Mystery By: PayDay Author's Note: This is my story, I wrote it, stealing is lame. If you don't like it, don't read it. Feel free to anonymously comment with any errors you find, and I will feel free to call you an asshole. Thanks for any votes, feedback, or favorites; Hope you enjoy: ***** "I feel like I know you." Some aspect of her tugged at his imagination, his memory, something he could not place; or maybe something was missing? He knew this feeling well from a romance past, just not the why, not really. "You really don't recognize me?" She spoke in pure blank face from behind her slightly downturned sunglasses, not looking at Felix but speaking to him in a whisper, apparently intently studying the organic vegetation. "Am I supposed to?" Felix looked around. In point of fact, he was one of the few persons in the small market whom did not appear to be whispering, stalking, or gawking, short of the cashiers: both of whom were dealing with credit cards. "Hmm. Maybe I am... Why should I recognize you, then?" "Don't stare at me!" She was hissing before going back to the whisper: "Just act like we're not talking." "Oh ...mybad." Felix, intrigued, but not by the lack of chemicals, began absently fingering produce, staring straight ahead. "So why should I recognize you? Are you like Miss Universe or something??" "Seriously? Think I'm tall enough?" Her speech was quite expressive in spite of the lack of movement and volume. "I'm not going to tell you now, it would ruin it." "Ruin what?" Felix was terrible at trying to act like he was not doing something he was doing. "You're terrible at this..." "At what?" He was really lost, some detail was missing. "Aren't you hitting on me? I thought we were flirting?" Still staring at the vegetables, her face finally started moving. It moved to 'What the fuck?' and stayed there. "I thought you were the one hitting on me?" "You're the one that keeps saying things," She almost spoke at a normal volume that time around. "...and you're standing there, kind of ignoring me..." Felix couldn't help himself and pointed to her grip compulsively, "...and holding a cucumber. That's a pick up line if y'ask me." The unidentified woman smiled at that, relighting the place greater than the sunny day through the windows; some of the gawkers and stalkers gasp, Felix almost dropped his basket. "It's Misses." The woman reached into her purse while dropping the phallic shaped food into the cart, quite stealthily, and removed something from her purse, equally as stealthily, and then placed it in between the cucumbers still on the shelf - also stealthily; a small white card as it appeared to be. "...and you're the one who's massaging the peppers." She flicked her shining eyes at his action and then she pushed her cart along the way. Felix was on his way out, the woman on her way in. He did not look at the card he pocketed, nor the cucumber he was not going to eat, until he got into his car. The simple card had a phone number and the words "leave a message" embossed in glossy black; the other side was blank. He still had no idea whom she was or who she could be. He thought for a moment, but only a moment, about walking up to the photographers waiting outside of the market. "Where's the fun in that?" He spoke aloud as he started the giant old heap that didn't aesthetically fit him, patting the cracked dash and rubbing as it rolled over running. "Good ol' girl." At least the car didn't smell. *** The guys, David and Alex, were rattling off names. They had been all week. "I should never have told you dickheads." Felix knew very few of them. "Doesn't matter, dude. I've been all over the Internet, and like, do you even know how many famous people go to the store and have their picture taken?" David was a bit of a stoner, and much younger than Felix or Alex, but he worked hard. "A lot?" Even if the answer had not been obvious, Felix had already done the same thing; he should have asked the hounds with the cameras at the time. He had had enough of the taunts, and had decided that, for all these two knew, it didn't matter anymore and it was in his past forever. The pair just wouldn't let it go, though, and Felix couldn't push her out of his mind, the memory seemed to made of rubber. "Exactly, and they all wear giant sunglasses and hooded sweatshirts, even in this weather. I could only narrow it down by hair, but they change that shit like once a week." David blew the perspiration off of his lips as he spoke, pausing in his raking while Felix dumped the wheel barrel of three-quarter stone. It was overcast and sticky, about to rain as it had been for days, and sweat poured off of all three men as they finished off the small pathway that connected to a much larger series of pathways; fifteen or so tons of stone, by hand, for the day. It was their third and final day at the jobsite. "Next time can we bulldoze the house and use a Bobcat?" David was almost serious. "It doesn't matter anyway, I already told you both she was married." Felix wiped the sweat from his face with bottom of his shirt, taking a pause. "Maybe she marry a homo? Marriage... is... is no what it used to be." It was Alex and his thick accent that chimed in from the bed of the truck. Maybe Felix's best friend in the world and business partner, Alex was still his opposite when it came to women; Alex was a slut in every sense of the word. "You no know, you no even call her. They always have husband and boyfriend. What? You worried she want fuck you?" "You fucking Europeans." Felix made a frumpy face, Alex in turn to the comment, threw a rock at him.. "I just don't do things like that, I have morals." "How you know? Hmm? Poo-see... How you know? What if she forget you now?" Felix had made it back to the truck with the wheel barrel, ignoring David's cackles. "Just fill this thing half way. I wanna get away from you two." It was late in the afternoon, they were almost done, it was Friday, and it had started spitting raindrops randomly. "I hope she did forget me, saves me the trouble." Felix was a terrible liar, he had stared at the card night after night, seemingly in endless debate over simple words. Alex went right to work before the instructions; he knew what he was doing. Mostly he was grumbling in a foreign language as he worked, almost jealous or angry and spacing it with "poo-see" before snapping back: "See a woman like that... She came onto you, to you. You make sure you find out a what she want." Finished with the shoveling he hopped out of the bed of the truck, closing the gate when he landed. "You find out like I find out what she want, and her too," and then he raised his voice, aiming it away from Felix: "'ello ladies! How are you!" He received quite the response. Alex was aiming his voice to a group of neighborhood women absently talking in view of the workers, for some reason. For three days, and for some reason, the women had been staring. Alex took off his gloves and shoved them into his back pocket, then took off his shirt and used it to wipe the sweat from his body before tossing it into the open door of the pick-up cab, followed by the grabbing of a handful of business cards from the door pocket. "You got a pen?" "Yeah, should be on the clipboard." Potential jealousy aside, Alex had made a valid point in the conversation even though he still did think it was cool to give people two pointing thumbs up. "Be right back homey." Alex pulled a lifeguard-show style jog to introduce himself to the neighborhood watch. *** The sun had gone down and the rain had stopped, but the clouds' lament remained, hanging low and causing the world to remain moist and, quite literally, steamy. It was the same outside as it was inside Felix's bathroom after his shower, which he had just left. He walked to his fridge, towel around his waist, and snatched the card and the phone, instantly dialing the number of infamy. It did not ring, but went straight to messaging. "Hello, Miss Universe, what's the deal with your husband?" He left his number and hung up the phone. He put the card back onto the fridge, swapping it for the magnetic bottle opener, and grabbed himself a beer. The windows were open but the shades were down, and his ceiling fans were spinning slow. He never turned on the lights, nor the air conditioning, preferring to rough it with the natural atmosphere. Still in the towel, Felix took the condensing beer, and the phone wet from his hair, and made his way through the clean, orderly, and quiet apartment to the living room. Simple used furniture dotted the old carpet and old rugs, and bad album covers in picture frames were used as decoration. As he settled, wet and dripping, onto the couch, beer in one hand, the phone rang as he was about to set it down and grab the Television remote. The ID said it was the same number as he previously last dialed, but there was no name information. Felix answered the phone, but said nothing, because he never had a chance, somehow she knew. "Think of it like an arranged marriage. We also have an arrangement." She still seemed to be whispering, even over the phone. "So how do I fit into your arrangement?" Felix was thinking of punching Alex for his intuition. "You still don't know who I am, do you?" Felix could almost feel her smile over the phone, had he been holding a shopping basket, he might have almost dropped it again. Good thing the beer rested on his knee. "Nope, but then you don't know who I am, either." "Yes I do know who you are, Felix Romaro, I also know where you live, and I know that you shop without a list, so you're single." "Well hey now..." "You should have used a burn phone, Felix." "I don't believe in the concept of cell phones." "At least you eat your vegetables." "Not cucumbers. So what are you wearing?" He didn't know what else to say, almost as if saying nothing was the better answer. "Ten or twenty thousand dollars in clothes and twice that in jewelry. I have to go out tonight. What are you wearing?" "A towel and some water." She whistled over the phone to his words. "Look, this is fun, but I have to go. I'll call you late, don't fall asleep." Her tone went dismissive, as if Felix was worth very little all of the sudden. "Wait! wait..." Felix wasn't done. "Hmm?" Some women can make sounds sexy, this woman could. "Why does it feel like you are in my head?" He could see her in her clothes, picture her actions as she spoke, see the giant well decorated room she stood in with the car waiting out the window, and quite frankly, it was driving him mad. "Maybe I am?" The phone clicked immediately after, the image in his head fading. Felix dropped the phone at his side and took a sip of his beer. Still in the dark and on the couch, he let out a long slow whistle before picking up the remote and scanning all of the channels for an awards show announcement, he even tried those celebrity news shows. He thought of looking at the paper, just to double check, but it was all the way on the kitchen counter, and that most definitely seemed like a lot of work. Finding nothing to link her to, he settled on a documentary of the Earth's magnetic field, finding it appealing and ever so slightly coincidental. Every now and then, though, an image of a seated crowd at tables or legs clad in a sparkling pearl dress filled his mind, mostly during commercials. Felix didn't feel much like eating, but his dream began with crystal tableware. He never finished his beer, either. *** Out of character to himself and against her request, Felix had fallen asleep. He was not a big-time heavy sleeper. For some reason, and for some reason, he was extremely comfortable sitting in a damp towel on his couch with a clear mind after a days work - but that wasn't it. What made him drift into dreamland was more that his brain felt silent enough to put bubbles in a bathtub. He was dreaming of under-sheet kisses when the phone rang. Once again, he was given no opportunity for greetings: "You fell asleep, didn't you?" "You have no basis of proof for that. By the way, what time is it? I fell asleep." "It's raining," still, she spoke in a whisper; Felix was beginning to think maybe she had an accent she was hiding. "Is that what that is?" Truthfully, he was not being sarcastic, his brain was slightly sleep-fogged. "You sound sexy when you wake up." "You've sounded sexy all along. So are you like a secret agent or just a pageant queen?" "You should've seen my dress tonight, I bet that towel you have on covered more." "Was it sparkling pearl?" It's not like he had anything to lose. "Now how did you know that?" "Coincidentally. Did you have a matching purse, giant shiny bracelets? Was there a lady in red with a great rack across the table?" The image had stuck in his mind to go with some kind of fancy silverware. "You saw me on TV didn't you?" "Nope, still have no idea who you are, plus don't they pre-tape that stuff? I'd prefer to lean towards espionage, you know, because it would be neat to play with those gadgets you have." "Maybe I don't know who you are?" The phone clicked, she had hung up. "Hmm..." Felix uttered before sipping his warm beer and coming to the conclusion it was time to put some pants on. He threw on, instead, a pair of cargo shorts, using a shoelace as a drawstring in the front two belt-loops. Shortly after, he found a plain and blank and slightly tight and slightly worn tee in classic white, luckily it was clean. He never brushed his almost shaggy hair, only his teeth, before stretching his way back to the couch to finish his beer with a mouth full of toothpaste flavor. The phone rang after the first 'yuk' face; it was her, again. "So why do you have that crappy job." "It's not crappy, it's real. Why are you always whispering? Are the bad guys chasing you?" "It is crappy, you have no money." "Neither you nor your allies in the federal government have any basis of proof for that." "Then what's with the car?" "It's a classic." "Then fix it?" "It's not broken all the way." "Then what's with the deserted neighborhood and crappy apartment? Your test scores in school are off the charts. Perfect everything and then you just quit college your sophomore year and disappear? I don't get it." "Waste not, want not? Did you notice, as you were stealing my identity, that I have no debt?" "Don't rush me, I just got your credit report. You don't even have points on your license. No police record of any kind. Have you ever been fingerprinted?" "This is weird. How or why are you doing this?" "Consequence of celebrity." "I'll work with that, and nope, I haven't. Do you have one of those things that cuts circles in glass? The kind with the suction cup?" Felix felt naked again even though he was making bad jokes. "Then what is it?" Her words felt sad. "It's very easy to get good grades. Maybe I don't want to ruin it for everyone else? Do you have one of those tight leather outfits with the utility belt?" "Did you have a trauma or something?" "Doesn't everyone?" "You must be lonely. What color are my eyes?" For some reason his eyes had started watering; Felix wasn't crying but the idea of it was in his thoughts. "Bright?" He honestly could not remember. "What about my hair? My shirt? The shopping basket you held?" Those things he could remember with clarity; his reply was simple: "Shit." "I bet it's all my noise." She hung up on him, again, leaving Felix almost uncontrollably turned on and confused in the streetlight-lit room. He dialed back, straight to voicemail; he left a message. "For the record, I would like to state that there is a difference between lonely and alone and waiting." Felix crawled off to his unmade bed, still in his cargo shorts and t-shirt. A few minutes later, when, for some reason, he thought of the message he had left and all of the other things he could have said, it brought that silence to his head, again, and as easily as before, he fell right to sleep. *** Waking with a fright would be the best way to describe it. It was another overcast day, lighting Felix's bedroom in a gray way, but still lit morning-wise. He sat on his bed, between sleep and awake, trying to discern reality from the dream he had been pulled from. The dream had been important, something about second meetings with lost loves, but the more he tried to think of who they were, the more the mystery woman pushed them aside. One thought rose above all of the others: Warm beverage. "Coffee." Crawling out of the comfort, slightly sore and stiff as working men are, he stumbled his way to the coffee pot. As he prepared the brew, he thought of the mystery woman some more: Beans in the grinder, mystery woman; grounds in the filter, mystery woman; water in the pot, mystery woman. When he clicked the 'On' switch, the phone rang. The timing was impeccable, like someone planned it. "Are you going to use the sexy voice?" "You know on one of these phone calls you're going to have to let me say hello." "I might let you do a lot of things since you're letting me look through your computer." The sound he had not yet contemplated made much more sense when he turned his agape'd gaze to the tiny blinking green and yellow lights on his self built spare part technology. He almost dropped the phone; the computer was off last night; he had thought remote boot capability was pure unicorn, and thusfully had never taken the time to look into it in the least. "Why is it that coffee never brews fast enough?" He was cursing himself for not ever turning the surge protector off. "I drink tea." "Weirdo." "The concept is the same. You don't mind this?" "I guess I can get over it, I mean, it's only tea." She let out a 'tsk' sound to that one to spite the cheese. "Mostly porn on this thing..." She seemed almost sad at the words, still whispering. "...don't forget the stolen music and movies. I'm also six-one, two-hundred pounds, and I like sunsets and long walks on the beach." "You don't have any of mine." "Music... or movies...?" The concept that she might have been in a porn film creeper'd in after the fact. "You wish. Where's the good stuff?" "The porn? ...or? Isn't the copyright infringement good leverage for political homicide?" She let out another 'tsk' sound while Felix was rubbing his eyes, trying hard to wake up. "Find the lost folder." Felix leaned on the counter next brew machine; his hair was wild, his shirt wrinkled, his shorts hanging off of his hips with a huge tent in the front. He 'chose' not to move a muscle for anything but the phone until the coffee was finished, formulating the steps to track the Internet Protocol number she was using for access. Mostly he just rubbed his eyes. "Oh I get it, lost. That's cute. Why haven't you filed income on your tax forms in... 10 years?" "Are you calling me a liar?" This was shaping up to be an interesting day, and Felix no longer cared if she was famous. "...and what's this, oh my, you've written about some girls." "Don't we all." "Journal?" "Maybe, you have no basis of proof for that." "They're titled by date in a folder called journal and separated by years." "That could be anything. It's partly an old computer." "Do you have any photos of people that aren't naked?" "Sure." "Where?" "In my head." Felix almost added a 'duh' but held back with years of conditioning. "What if you forget?" Felix started laughing, loud and hard. He then hung up the phone, more because the coffee was done than to show her just how annoying it was to have such a thing happen. He took his mug and staggered to his desk to turn on the monitor and track someone down. One Star Random Mystery At least he didn't have to wait for the computer to go through the starting motions. Speedy fingers, a hour, and three access-logs later, he found the name of the place she had been working from, but had since left: Brewer's Internet Cafe. She had been at it for hours before he awoke, and she had copied every text file on his machine. He would have found all of it out sooner, but he was reading the info-sphere news for the day at the same time, and wasn't all that concerned with her name anymore. Felix's second story balcony was actually the nicest part of the apartment, even if it did overlook an unused street and one of many abandoned warehouses. On the massive corrugated steel wall that dominated his view - blocking out everything but the sky - and in some sort of deco fashion, was a huge painted advertisement for some kind of polish, faded and distorted by forces that seemed to know what they were doing. At least Felix thought it was polish, it could have been sixty or more years old, a cartoon woman with an overly dated hairstyle holding a small tin of the product close to her head; the slogan at the bottom was flawless, though, and read: "Add Gleam To Your Lifestyle!" It was the patio chair, the sheer size of it, and the plants that upped the ante. It was moreso a garden than anything else, vines and hanging planters included; he had often thought of sod but decided it would have been over the top. Felix's patio was the length of the building, he was on the top floor, and with eight apartments, it only had three occupied; the other five were gutted and empty. Twenty years from now, this end of town would be anything from middle class to luxury loft apartments, he knew it, everyone did, even the skeptics, that's why he bought the building. Felix took 'silent partner' to the next level; the mystery woman was making it worse with her idea of a variation on the theme. Felix had no desire to be the other man. He sat down slowly into the whicker chair - both he and it letting a groan escape - and then placed his coffee and the phone on the small glass table next to the ashtray. He grabbed the half smoked cigarette from the day before, not lighting it, but hanging it from his lips, breathing through it and thinking he needed to brush his teeth. The phone rang when he put his feet up on the railing. He answered it, waiting, then spoke after about five seconds of silence: "Hello." "Hello. Why did you hang up on me?" She seemed agitated. "Just because you're a wizard too, you say that I'm doin' you wrong!" Felix was singing. "What's wrong with you?" The stern nature of her comment highlighted the fact that her voice was at it's natural tone for the first time. "Other than that I'm tired, I have no answer for you." he felt the words more than he spoke them. "Tired of what?" her question was serious. Felix thought of how to list thousands of things in a few seconds while at the same time combining physical and metaphysical things - at the same time; her question set off the whirlwind that was reflexive and compulsive, most often referred to as thought by the vulgar. He said nothing, deciding rather to not complain. "Good point. ...me too." Quiet reigned over the line between them with contemplation hidden behind it, no one seemed to mind. "It looks like it's going to rain again today. You should brush your teeth." The phone clicked on the other end and Felix set it down. He grabbed the cheap plastic lighter that he had stolen from David, lit the stub from yesterday, and debated the infinite possibilities of what seemed to be happening. "You all are loving this, huh?" Felix was talking to the multitude of plants; he might have been referring to the weather. *** "Get her to meet you. You can use my car." Alex was across from Felix at the high table in the bar. He had a woman on either side and one standing behind him - all feeling him up. Off in the distance was a small group waiting, hoping, Alex or his cute friend would come and start a conversation. "What's wrong with my car?" Felix still had not brushed his hair. "Why she call so late?" "Maybe she's bored?" Felix knew what he was supposed to do with his mystery woman, but getting there felt like willingly standing before a firing squad. "She wants me to take it..." "Ezactly homey." Alex, three ladies deep already, was in the process of eyefucking one at the bar, and one by the door - silently daring them to come over and join the fun. "Is he gay?" It was one of the hounds stuck on Alex's arm that spoke. Her words attracted the attention of the other two nearby. "Ugh, they all are these days," the sound came from Alex's back. "Too bad," came from Alex's other arm, the words were dripping. While Felix stood quietly, sipping the beer he had been drinking for an hour, Alex stepped back into the conversation. "No, he no gay, he worse. He romantic." Alex and the three in the rotation that he was probably going to take home all rolled their eyes and falsely fawned over one another, the table, and the invisible vapors in the room that were apparently stifling. "I hope you die of herpes." Felix might have been serious; he was looking right at Alex, the ladies were laughing. "bah... Americans think everything kill you." The ladies were still laughing. "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition." Only Alex smiled at that, the ladies had stopped laughing, apparently it was a complicated topic. "What you have to lose, hmm? Dignity, respect? Only get that from me." The three surrounding Alex had begun to whisper amongst themselves, giggling and staring at Felix. Alex turned his attention away from his friend to speak to them, "...he no gonna like that. He gonna be mean to you, you... stick with me." Their plot foiled, the three returned to their swooning of Alex. "Thanks," Felix kicked his beer Alex's way to accent the action. "No problem. Look she want you. She chasing you down makin' it easy to take. Why? For what? Hobby? C'mon Feli. Maybe she want romance? She get you, hmm?" Alex was speaking more in statements than questions. "When the last time that happen?" Felix sighed hard, full, and loud. "Lena..." Alex raised his glass and toasted Felix's beer bottle. "I'd get him..." One of the ladies had cheesed an interruption. She only received a quick and contemptible stare from Felix and Alex. Before she had a chance to be offended, or to apologize, a different woman, from off in the distance of the bar, had butted her out of the way and began copping feels of Alex. No one but the dismissed seemed to mind. The woman that had been seated by the door was on her way over as well, swaggering, and she too did not seem to mind the dismissal, either, and pushed her way between Alex and the table. "Saturday night special?" Felix was pointing at the now four molesters with his beer bottle, he had seen this before. "Maybe?" Alex shrugged his shoulders, the one between the table and himself was swirling her hips, staring at Felix. "No name... You no even know what she do? You no ask?" Alex seemed confused. "What's wrong with a little mystery?" Felix was serious. "A-men." All four ladies had spoken in choir, and one whistled to follow; they had been listening, but it happened so fast that it appeared compulsive. The sound was strangely calming to Felix, and he slammed the remainder of his warm beer, quickly dropping a twenty on the table for the waitress Alex was hitting on; it was only eleven o'clock. "You do it? How you do it?" Alex seemed to be playing various steps through his head, always on his game. Felix stopped at that and turned towards the door, contemplating before he spoke. "I guess I'll have to see what happens. I don't think it's up to me." Felix walked out without saying goodbye, no one seemed to mind. "Your friend is hot." One arm had spoken up. "Mmhmm." said the other arm and his back. "He my best friend. He date my sister when he in college." "Oh I love colleges!" It was the one against the table, humping his crotch; she had her hand on her mostly exposed tits, as if aghast. "Me too!" rang the remaining choir, as if equally as aghast. *** Least of all, it was a college brochure moment, stereotypical as it was; a fact Felix was counting on. He sat by his alonesome under a tree on the vast grass of the entryway lawn, wanting nothing more than to absorb the information within his textbook. It was a class he found no basis for in reality, and wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. The sooner he read the book and took notes, the sooner he could test out of the class altogether. The semester had just started, and the feel of the warm fall air in the sun combined with the sounds of nature help drown society out to background noise. His intention was to be alone - easily a great distance from the nearest paved surface - which is why he was so surprised that she came up to him. "'ello, lonely." "That's a matter of opinion." The accent seemed familiar, and he was starting to have a hard time concentrating. "What? You no like people?" The moisture of her mouth was audible as her tongue moved in speech. "Do you often have conversations while reading?" Felix intended to give this person an earful as soon as he was done reading the particular sentence he was on. "Mmhmm, all the time. No have to be rude..." "Me or ...you?" His words had faded off, slightly incomplete. "What?" "What?" Felix had lost his place in the reading and had forgotten the subject matter in it's entirety. It would have happened sooner, but he hadn't looked up her way; his nose had been buried in the book. "You want... me leave?" She was pointing at herself, then off towards the college buildings in the distance, then back to herself, repeating the gesture over again. She might have been smiling, but her attitude was too sly for his understanding. "I... uh..." was the best he could do. Felix was trying to think too many things at once in a most endearing fashion, and she couldn't resist. She dropped her backpack, using it as a backrest while sitting on crossed legs across from him. Making matters worse, she said nothing, only stared and studied him while she lit a joint. He knew her, her thick accent, and her thick body. A stick figure by no means, he fought hard not to stare at the fabric fighting to hold her into her clothes. She was in most of his summer classes, and a few this semester as well, though a senior and ahead of him in time served. "You no remember me?" She offered him the joint, blowing out smoke. "I don't know if I can handle this?" he continued to stare at her lips; the color and the wafting smoke were hypnotizing; he forgot to answer her question. "Your name, is Felix, no?" She had started smiling at him, well realizing her effect on this particular young man previously; Felix couldn't help but notice her body was built for his own, as if someone had asked him what he liked and where exactly he would like it even though he didn't know the answer until he saw her. Her jeans and tee were also one size too small; her bra pushed through the fabric while her panties snuck past her jeans at her hips. "It is?" She paused at his answer, putting her hands on her knees and holding smoke. At the same time, she gave him an open eyed look of sympathy; his name was written on his backpack leaning against the tree. "Felix?" "Hmm?" "You ...ok?" That did it; Felix snapped to and looked around, turning radish red and glancing back down at his book. "I, uh, should be fine? I'm sorry, Lina..." "You remember me?" Her teeth were showing again. "Humanities, Latin, and advanced accounting," Felix bobbed his head with each elective mentioned. He was smiling, less red, but nonetheless feeling his shame for ogling; mad at something he could not control. Lina puckered her lips and nodded at his recall, relighting the joint he never reached for, which had gone out for some reason. "So what are you reading?" She puffed her chest slightly as she sucked in he breath and held it, licking her painted lips and adjusting her glasses. "I have no idea." He couldn't look her in the eye, almost ready to tear, and hopelessly lost in attraction. He had been avoiding this confrontation for four months, not an easy task as it involved much running and diving behind cover - the trick was to roll on landing. "You no like me?" She turned devilish, then angelic before continuing; Felix had tried to say something. "I sorry about my friends, they mean to you." He had already been thinking of that exact summer day to which she was referencing, trying hard to forget the tent in his shorts and the group of giggling young women. His face was strangely similar in expression that day as it was at this moment on this day; he was also trying hard to fight his memory of her nipples stabbing an orange bikini top. "Uh.. yeah... that was... So where are you from?" Felix already knew; he never had this problem with other women. "America, silly boy, I just no live here forever. You sure? No want?" She was offering him the joint again. Felix had not noticed that that was what she was referring to. "Of course I want you. I've wanted you since the first day I saw you. I think about you all the time..." Felix could not close his mouth and shut up, and he was trying to despite his rapid speech, even when she interrupted. He had just poured his heart out to his spank bank fantasy queen whilst trying not to. "Work both ways, Feli." Lina, relishing the moment, used her unoccupied hand to point at the joint she held in the air with the other, not wondering how he missed her intention. Her eyes were all seriousness, at first, behind the lenses, studying him. "...and then I see you and I get all stupid." His hand absently moved to press a fist to his temple, explaining the words through sign. "...can't think, like I'm not allowed." "Maybe you should have some?" She was still pointing at the joint, but her head was nodding now, her face changing to gaze upon him like some kind of lost puppy while playing doctor at the same time. "Just... Don't touch me unless you love me, ok?" The opposite of earlier, Felix had to fight to get the words out, his eyes squished as he said it. "Promise." smoke was coming out of her mouth as she whispered, moving to her hands and knees to kiss him in the shade of the giant old tree that no one cared about. "I help you fix that head," her words brought his eyes back to visibility; he stared her down, her body poised for the inevitable embrace. She kept her glasses on, no one seemed to mind. *** "You're a romantic, aren't you?" Felix hadn't been inside the door of his apartment for a minute before the phone rang. He had time to close the door, note the blinking light on his machine, and stare at the phone. The ring was timed to the gaze. "That's awful coincidental." "What is?" "Choice words from multiple events highlighting my current path of thinking." "Hmm. You didn't get my message did you?" She seemed sad. "Why are you always whispering, seriously?" "How do I unlock the hidden journal files? You didn't mention they were locked." She seemed frustrated, as if she had spent too much time on just that subject. "Did I give you those files? I wonder why I would forget to give you the unlock key to translate files like that. Woops, mybad." "Well what's in them?" "Things I've forgotten." "You're a terrible liar, even if you are smarter than me." "That's a bold claim..." "What time do you want to pick me up?" "Who says I want to pick you up?" "Fine, what time do you want to meet me? I'm in the bath, so, how about three hours? Did you know there is a lake and a really nice park hidden in the middle of the industrial storage complex by where we met?" "There is?" "Yup, thank the environmental protests. Go there and I'll find you. It's dark but no one will see us." "You want me to meet you at a poorly lit park at about two in the morning when no one else is around?" Felix was stifling his laugh. "Yes." The mystery woman was not laughing. "Yeah alright then. I've done stranger things. Just don't murder me." "Fine," he could almost feel her roll her eyes, and he had the faint sensation of rose oil in his nostrils even though he was brewing coffee. "Park by the other cars, there's only one lot near it." and then the phone clicked. Felix hung up the phone and strolled to the machine, hitting playback: "I tried to fuck my husband tonight. I felt like I was cheating on you, and we've only met once in passing. Now I can't stop thinking about you being single and on the loose. I don't want to fuck..." she put a vehement spin on the word before switching back to her whisper, "...someone anymore." Felix stood for a moment pondering while basking in the incandescent lighting from the electronics. He spoke aloud to himself: "I think I'm in love, or she thinks I'm god..." He then popped the tape out of the machine and replaced it with a fresh one. "...either way, this feels like a set-up." Felix, so relaxed and so comfortable with the situation, even if it went bad, felt as if he himself were/was also in a warm bath - literally. The sensation of being surrounded by warm water and tiny bursting bubbles were/was causing his skin to tingle, yet no water was in sight. *** The sun was rising as he walked back to his car. He had been thinking all along that she wasn't going to show up, but the peaceful time spent on the bench staring at the night reflected in the small lake had made being knowingly ditched well worth it. Cars were leaving and arriving for the next shift of the nearby warehouses. Felix thought about waiting for a while longer, but he wanted to sleep, and he wanted a cigarette, and he wanted some coffee, so he went home. There was a note under his windshield wiper. "I left you a note" was all it said. When he got home, there was a note on his apartment door: "I bet you thought I ditched you." Unsurprisingly, the phone rang when he walked in the door, Felix answered it: "Hello." "Hello, did you get my note?" Felix could hear the glee in her voice, like she was proud of herself. "You left a note?" "You're kidding, right? Technically there were two of them." "...and you're going for what?" "Duh. If you want this you're going to have to take it." "Get good, I knew that already. If I called you a shady bitch who's not at all clever would it offend you?" "Well mayb-" Felix had waited until she started talking before he hung up. He walked over to his cigarette pack and pulled a fresh one as the phone began to ring. He pretended it wasn't ringing so that he could ignore it. The machine clicked just as he sat into his whicker chair by the railing. The caller didn't leave a message. The phone began to ring again as he lit the cigarette, and it didn't stop until he turned off the ringer on the way to his bed. Felix felt like crying, but he wasn't sad or really that upset at all. He fell asleep trying to figure out why he would cry if he was calm and wasn't emotional in the least. There was at least a single message when he finally crawled out of bed Monday morning to go to work. Knowing who it could be from, knowing no one else would really call him here as business calls went elsewhere, and knowing he would see Alex this morning - all of this made him juxtaposed. He started coffee, got ready for work, and then leaned on the counter next to the finishing brew with his empty thermos in his hand, staring at the blinking light all the while, even as he brushed his teeth. One Star Random Mystery When the time was right, Felix stuck a cigarette into the crease of his ear like a pencil, grabbed a pen from the drawer and did the same with it and the other ear, then filled up his thermos and travel cup, still staring at the blinking light all the while until he walked out the door. He never even turned the ringer back on. Tuesday morning went the same way, as did Wednesday morning and Thursday morning. He spent the evenings staring at the light and pondering. Friday morning Felix almost pressed the 'Play' button, but he didn't, and instead pressed the 'Play' that evening when he arrived back at his home. His whole body, hand with out-stretched pointer finger - and hovering over the "Play" button - twitched just before he did.