by J. Judkins
Angel’s pace was casual. Unhurried. Relentless as the specter of Death itself. But now Kim had control again. No longer was she a lamb being led to slaughter. She frantically twisted her hand with strength born of desperation and jerked it free. "Wait! Stop it!"
Angel turned and looked back at her. She looked confused, a clever mask that fooled no one. "I don’t understand you. You told me you wished for us to go to bed?"
"Alone!"
"Has something changed?"
"Just because we had a candlelight dinner together doesn’t mean I want you to go to bed with me."
Angel turned to look at the couch, then back to Kim. Her mask never wavered. "The couch is acceptable."
"Oh, don’t play the innocent with me!” Kim snapped. “This was your plan. This was always your plan."
"I don’t understand."
"I know the definition of seduction, Angel. How do you explain all this? The candlelight dinner? Pressing for us to start something tonight?”
“I don’t--”
“You were trying to seduce me!"
"I didn’t--"
"All you’ve been thinking about is sex and trying to get me into bed! Well, I’ll tell you right now, your six-step or five-step ultimate master plan isn’t going to work! I’m onto you! I know what you’re planning, and I refuse to go along with it!"
Angel looked surprised and shocked at the accusation. A genuine reaction, if Kim was any judge. Clearly, she never expected to be caught so easily.
"Is that what you think a relationship is about? People don’t just meet, feel instant attraction for each other, then fall into bed together!” Kim declared, then frowned and added, "Okay, maybe some people do, some of the time,” then after another pause, added, "Maybe even a lot of the people a lot of the time, but not me! I didn’t invite you into my house to stay with me just so we could have sex!"
"You wanted me for something more than sex?"
Kim’s face twisted. "That’s not what I meant."
"What else did you want?"
"I wanted...I don’t know, something else."
The power snapped on. Kim shrieked and fell back against the wall.
Angel took an exaggerated, long look over her own shoulder as if to see if a monster were in fact sneaking up on her.
It took Kim several long moments before she could calm herself down. "Listen. I’m okay with a relationship with you. We can go on dates, see movies, and even bake actual, real cookies together if you want. I’d like that. I’ll enjoy it, I just think it’s too soon for us to start other things."
"By other things, you mean sex,” Angel stated, her tone of voice making her words sound like a guess.
Kim squirmed under the scrutiny. "Yes,” she said.
"That wasn’t my intention. I engineered the candlelight dinner as an attempt at romance. Nothing more."
Kim blinked.
A moment went past.
Another moment went past.
"I’m sorry,” managed Kim, “what?”
"Until this moment, I considered a relationship to be a higher form of friendship between two people. I had no idea sex factored so heavily towards a relationship’s success. You suggested I had a plan to build upon what we had? I’m sorry, but the thought never occurred to me. I apologize for my lapse.”
"What do you mean, you never thought of it? What about all that talk about ‘couples related activities’?"
"I meant things people traditionally do together. Read books, watch movies, visit different places, cooking, talking, sharing meals--"
"--but not taking showers together?" interrupted Kim.
"You indicated you were not comfortable with the two of us taking showers together at this early stage of our relationship. You wished to delay them until after we’d completed a few more dates."
"Did you include kissing on that list?" asked Kim.
"I will.” Angel nodded. “Once again, I apologize for not knowing what to expect and for not taking our relationship more seriously."
"Why are you apologizing? I’m not upset about you not being serious about it."
"May I kiss you goodnight?" Angel asked, shifting gears with the unexpected suddenness of a student driver attempting to take a car from third gear into reverse.
"What? You said kissing wasn’t on your list!"
"It wasn’t. Not until you suggested I put it there."
"What? I didn’t!"
Angel took a step forward. Kim matched her by taking a step back.
“Why are you doing this now?” Kim demanded.
“Kissing is usually one of the first things to happen in a developing relationship. We’ve already been on one date, but we’ve never kissed. If we consider tonight’s dinner to be our second date, it would become even more unusual for us not to kiss at some point.”
Kim couldn’t argue with that logic, although she desperately wanted to. The ‘first step’ talk also alarmed her. That implied more steps. A lot more. Still, a first step may not be so bad, as long as she never took a second step, or a third. Whatever those meant.
It was just a kiss, after all. Right? No harm in that. It didn’t mean anything unless she wanted it to mean something. Compared to what she thought Angel wanted, a kiss was nothing. It was less than nothing. She could do this.
All those justifications went out the window when Angel took another step. And another.
Kim matched her step for step until she ran out of room and her back bumped against the wall. She looked to the side to gauge her chance of escape. The way was open. She could take it if she wanted. Angel wasn’t even trying to block her.
But she didn’t make the attempt.
Angel was right, she realized.
So this is what doom feels like.
Kim’s fate was sealed. She needed to follow through with this all-important first kiss. If she didn’t, Angel might figure things out and realize Kim never wanted the relationship in the first place. She needed to pretend she wanted this, just as Angel pretended for her own purposes.
"I’m just going to kiss you,” Angel told her. “I won’t try to seduce you tonight."
"What about tomorrow night?"
"No promises."
Guess we’re doing this... "If that’s all you want."
“Will this be your first?”
Kim hesitated. It was more than she wanted to admit, but she nodded. The boy she’d gone out with all those years ago had been far too unsure of himself to even attempt to kiss her goodnight. Kim didn’t care enough to encourage him. They’d never been a second opportunity.
“It will be mine, too. If there were others, I’ve forgotten them,” said Angel.
Kim tried to banish her nervousness. And she did feel nervous. She certainly didn’t feel anticipation, as there wasn't any reason to feel anticipation. Being nervous, at least, she could explain. This was her first kiss, after all.
Angel leaned forward and pressed her lips against hers. The kiss itself started off fairly ordinary. It felt soft, warm, and kind of nice. More or less what she expected. Then it changed. Within seconds, Angel seemed to become more insistent.
Even though it was simply a kiss, Kim was determined to not let it affect her. Taking two showers with Angel, twice in a row, taught her that being touched in certain ways could cause certain thoughts and feelings to arise without conscious control. Kim needed to guard against them, just like she’d done in the shower.
A mental image of herself in the shower with Angel rose up unbidden. It washed over her; the sound of the water in the background and the feel of it on her skin, the touch of Angel’s warm hands as they slowly caressed her body and the feelings of--
Kim broke the kiss at once.
While Kim’s mind raced as she attempted to recover, Angel seemed distant and introspective. She gingerly touched her fingers to her lips. "I want to do this again. I wish to compare," she whispered, then kissed Kim again without waiting for an answer.
If anything, the second
was sweeter than the first.
Angel pressed her body closer. Kim’s eyes closed and she found herself holding her breath, unable to decide where to place her hands. The moment ended before she made a decision.
The two looked at each other, staring deep into each other’s eyes. Kim always thought that phrase was somewhat sappy, but now wondered if there was something to it.
Finally, Angel backed away, giving Kim some space. "I didn’t anticipate my reaction. I’m sorry."
Kim laughed. She felt giddy, and she didn’t have a reason for it. "Nothing to apologize for."
"Goodnight, Kim." Angel turned and walked away.
Kim watched her go, smiling without understanding why. "Goodnight.”
Chapter Twelve
Saturday morning. The alarm went off because Kim had forgotten to turn it off.
Angel was still asleep on the couch when Kim passed her on her way to the kitchen. As was getting to be a custom with Kim, she resolved to ignore her. As was also becoming customary, she failed to succeed at it.
This time, Angel was lying mostly on her back. At first glance, the blanket did a decent job covering her, but when Kim checked it out from different angles it became apparent Angel had gone to bed naked. Again.
In addition, the blanket itself seemed artfully arranged in a way that seemed deliberate, as if to draw the eye and call attention to what lay beneath. Naturally, the effect was completely wasted on Kim as she flat out wasn’t interested. Anyone else in her position might fall under Angel’s spell and stop and stare, but not her.
Kim congratulated herself on only slowing down a little bit. She merely glanced a couple of times. Nothing more.
The prospect of cooking eggs didn’t interest her, so she made waffles, instead. The fact that she was getting tired of a particular style wasn’t lost on her. This being her third, she’d now had breakfast more times this week than she had in years.
Maybe this is getting to be a habit too.
There was always the oatmeal, she remembered. She’d purchased it around the time she moved in, eight or nine years ago. Did oatmeal go bad? Did it ever go bad? Or did it just start that way? Maybe she should throw it out before Angel discovered it and tried to make something creative out of it.
Angel wandered in a short time later and sat opposite her. No one spoke. The two girls simply began eating.
Kim raised her glass of orange juice, frowned at it, frowned at Angel, then set it back down.
“I noticed you were sleeping naked again,” Kim said with a hint of disapproval.
“I noticed you were watching me,” Angel grinned.
“I wasn’t watching!”
“Staring? Gazing? Longing after? Glancing at out of the corner of your eye, hoping not to be caught but secretly wishing you would be?”
“I just noticed, that’s all. There’s nothing wrong with me noticing you,” Kim told her, then frowned.
That didn’t come out right.
“Thank you,” said Angel.
“Thank you? For what?”
“For noticing.”
Kim’s brow furrowed. She felt she’d lost control of the conversation. “You’re welcome. I think.”
Thirty seconds later, Kim remembered her original thought. “The reason why I mentioned noticing in the first place was because I think you should wear at least something to bed."
“What do you think I should wear? Something sexy?”
“Or something practical.”
“I’m glad you think I’m attractive.”
Kim wondered where that came from, but decided not to ask. "So what did you want to do, today? It’s Saturday. Didn’t you want to see the city?"
"There is no need. I am no longer working as a tourist. I am now an unemployed worker who overstayed her visa, and am living in the country illegally."
"You don’t have a visa," Kim commented dryly. "It burned up in the fire, remember?"
"Irrelevant, as it likely would have expired by now."
"I liked your other story better."
"It is not a story," Angel told her with a hint of exasperation. “It’s additional background information! In addition, it also explains my reluctance to encounter government officials in any form and reiterates my pressing need to maintain a low profile. As I have already mastered English, it should be a simple matter for me to remain in the country undetected for an indefinite period of time."
Kim added more maple syrup to her waffles. "So you don’t want to go out into the city to see anything? The zoo, the parks, the...oh, I don’t know...the military base? Which isn’t too far away?"
"I have already researched the military base. I needed to know its location so I could avoid it in the future."
"That doesn’t make any sense!"
“Regardless, I have something else planned for today.”
“Like what?”
“Cookies. Just normal cookies. Chocolate chip. Please, explain, why are you blushing?”
Kim turned away to hide her face. “I’m not blushing.”
“The subject of cookies reminds you of our kiss last night?”
“Why would it? I’m not embarrassed. I didn’t have a problem kissing you. It didn’t bother me.”
“As you say.”
The rest of the meal continued in silence.
After breakfast, Angel went about the kitchen pulling out baking utensils along with sugar, eggs, flour, and other miscellaneous ingredients. Kim simply watched Angel as she set about her task. Given her skill in the art of cooking, or more accurately, her lack of it, the ingredients seemed random to her. If Angel hadn’t told her what she was up to, Kim would never have guessed it.
Okay, the bag of semisweet chocolate chips would have clued me in.
“You bought all this stuff?”
“Yes. Yesterday.”
She continued to watch as Angel set about her preparations without consulting a cookbook. The ingredients were arranged in a neat row of individual portions, giving Kim the impression she was watching a cooking show demonstration. After taking careful measurements, Angel added the ingredients one after the other into a brand new mixing bowl Kim knew for a fact she hadn’t owned the previous day.
Angel certainly had a busy day yesterday. Find a recipe for cookies, buy candles and cooking supplies, call to arrange dinner, commit vandalism...
Angel never asked for help, and Kim wasn’t about to volunteer. Instead, she kept well out of the way, wondering to herself about Angel’s reasons behind all this.
What did Angel do all day yesterday, besides shop for food? Her purpose on Earth couldn’t possibly be find and seduce the first random girl she found. There had to be something else. What about her spy mission, or whatever she was supposed to be doing?
Angel placed the first batch in the oven and took a moment to smile brightly at Kim. Kim couldn’t help but return the smile. It was infectious.
As Angel began preparing the next batch, Kim was struck by a realization that simply hadn’t occurred to her before. Angel wasn’t acting noticeably unusual anymore. Her speech patterns had changed. She seemed...normal. It was possible Kim had simply become used to her unique quirks, but if she met her today on the street she might never have guessed Angel was anything but human.
Angel’s acting and infiltration skills had been abysmal when they’d first met, but today nothing about her struck her as out of the ordinary.
Now that she thought about it, why would that be unusual? Angel’s skills were bound to improve over time. She went shopping, for one. Shopping implied social activities and interactions with other people. Kim only went out when her situation compelled her to do it.
As if alerted by an internal clock, Angel stopped rolling up cookie dough and went to the oven. She opened it, reached in, and pulled the pan out of the oven with her bare hands and set it on the stove burners.
Kim’s eyes widened.
She didn’t--
For a moment, all she could do was stare in h
orrified silence. The next, she was across the room and taking Angel’s hands into her own, dreading what she’d find.
Then Kim realized she was the only one panicking.
Angel’s hands were completely undamaged. There were no burns. Kim turned them over and over again, amazed. They felt hot, but not uncomfortably so.
She looked to Angel, hoping for an explanation, but Angel was no help. She seemed more surprised at Kim’s behavior.
Did Angel think she was fooling her?
Or did she think nothing unusual had happened?
Kim’s mind raced with the possibilities. Angel’s behavior could make sense if she were completely unaware of her true nature. Yet even as Kim considered it, her mind rebelled against the possibility. How could Angel not know what she was?
Unaware of Kim’s inner turmoil, Angel intertwined her fingers with Kim’s, grinned impishly and kissed her.
Kim jerked back with a start.
"You didn’t like that one?" Angel asked before Kim could say anything.
"I...what?"
Angel kissed her again, this time with a hint of tongue. Kim was too surprised to object.
"Better?"
Kim was spared from answering. Someone started knocking at the door.
She tried to focus. She ignored the door. She ignored Angel smiling at her.
What if it were true? Angel claimed she lost her memory on the night they first met. Since the rest of her story was so blatantly false, Kim assumed everything she’d said had been made up on the spot.
But what if that part about her memory loss wasn’t a lie?
“Someone’s at the door,” Angel pointed out.
“Not now. I don’t care about that.”
Memory loss was the perfect excuse. It explained Angel not knowing details if asked certain questions.
But if the memory loss story were genuine, could she actually not know she wasn’t a normal human? Angel hadn’t tried to lie to her about her hands or conceal the fact they weren't burned. She simply didn’t think she’d done anything unusual.
Is it possible?
Kim shook her head. No. It can’t be. It has to be a lie. All of it. Angel lied about her background, and just now made a mistake but didn’t realize she’d made it. No one told her that her hands should have been burned to a crisp. There’s nothing more to it than that.