A Date With Angel and Other Things ...

by J. Judkins

  Through an effort of will, she forced down her rising panic until it settled into manageable deep seeded apprehension. Her old arguments came back to her. She didn’t truly fail. Not completely. The situation could be salvaged. This wasn’t a disaster. It was just a kiss. A long, extended kiss.

  Feels kind of nice, but don’t think about that. Later on you can deny liking it all you want, but for now, just roll with it.

  After all, she assumed she’d be kissing Angel from the moment she walked in the room. This was no different than what she fully expected to happen.

  It’s just a kiss. Nothing more. It’s just a kiss.

  She felt Angel’s hand slide beneath her shirt and gently caress her right breast over her bra.

  It’s just a hand, her internal voice amended in its litany as she once again fought down rising panic which threatened to consume her. Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t doing anything.

  Okay, spoke too soon. Now it was doing something. Something pleasant, more intense, and yes, she kind of liked it. But that could be ignored.

  So ignore it, already! Stop focusing on it! It doesn’t feel that good!

  Except that it kinda did. A lot. One hell of a lot.

  This was natural. To be expected, in fact. She remembered reading somewhere ages ago that once a man and woman kissed seriously for the first time, the man’s hand would naturally wander to the woman’s breasts. The woman writing the story was a bit annoyed because it happened all the damned time but apparently “all men were pigs” so in the end it was nothing to get worked up over.

  Angel took Kim’s right hand placed it on top of her shirt against her own breast. When the hand did nothing, Angel placed her own hand over it and gently squeezed it for her. Then she left it there. Kim didn’t pull away.

  While Kim was still reeling over all the happy messages the hand was sending her brain, Angel guided Kim’s other hand underneath her shirt to gain access directly.

  As Angel wasn’t wearing a bra, this made the first hand insanely jealous.

  Their kisses were growing more passionate. Kim suddenly realized both her hands were now beneath Angel’s shirt with no conscious memory of her or anyone else putting them there. This was feeling a lot like the attempted seduction all over again, only this time Angel had somehow tricked her into becoming a willing participant.

  Still, Kim didn’t panic. She knew her cell phone alarm would save her. It always went off every morning to signal she needed to leave for work within the next few minutes. That time had to be close. In fact, it was a bit of a safety net. She could safely kiss Angel until then and ignore any rise of passion. The alarm would go off and she’d be forced to quit.

  Unless she called in sick, of course.

  No! She was going to be forced to quit!

  The kissing continued, and Kim’s patience began to fade. The alarm refused to go off.

  Angel admitted to being devious. Could she have turned it off?

  Kim broke the kiss with a gasp. "I’m going to be late."

  "We have twenty minutes. I’ve changed the clocks and alarms," Angel said, then attempted to pick up where she left off.

  Kim held her back, having none of it. The spell was broken. "I’m not spending the next twenty minutes kissing you goodbye."

  “Are you willing to compromise? Fifteen minutes?”

  “Ten.”

  “Done.”

  With that, Kim kissed her again, effectively silencing Angel before she could bargain for more time. Finally! She won one over on her manipulative girlfriend. That showed her. Angel had to get up pretty early to fool her.

  Pretty early being “twenty minutes early,” her internal voice remarked dryly.

  Kim reluctantly had to admit her inner voice had a point.

  Pretty pathetic, now that she thought about it.

  Wait, did she just willingly volunteer herself to kiss Angel for a full ten minutes straight?

  And did she just bargain for the right to do it?

  Clever girl. Kim smiled through the kiss, her admiration for Angel going up a notch. Then she admonished herself for smiling, fearful of how Angel would interpret it.

  A bit late to think about it now. You think it’s going to matter to Angel if you’re smiling because you’ve been so effectively tricked, or because you’re enjoying kissing her?

  Or the fact that you’re still playing with her breasts!

  But she doesn’t seem to mind, another voice offered, and they feel really nice.

  Kim wondered at the source of the voice. Her hands, probably. They were definitely having fun. Traitorous things.

  As if to mock her, one of the hands reached around to caress Angel’s ass, instead. Her second hand had apparently become dubious as to whether Angel was completely naked beneath her shirt and was taking a slow tour around her body to check for itself.

  She wasn’t in control at all!

  Stop it, stop it, stop it!

  But she couldn’t stop it. It was official. Her hands had a mind of their own. So did the rest of her body, apparently.

  Dammit, dammit, dammit! Why wasn’t she stopping? What in the world was the matter with her? She did have willpower, right? She remembered having willpower this morning. What happened to it? Willpower wasn’t something you lost track of and misplaced. Where was it? How could she simply lose it? Should she check behind the toaster? All she knew was, she used to have willpower, and she didn’t have it now.

  Ah. That was the answer. Angel took it from her. She stole her willpower, the little thief.

  Okay, fine. Fine! She enjoyed kissing Angel. And her ass felt kind of nice. Might as well admit it. Pretty freaking obvious she wasn’t being dragged into it kicking and screaming against her will. She bargained for ten minutes, but probably was going to go past that mark because she forgot to check the time and it was too late to check now.

  Happy, subconscious?

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The sun was bright and shining, the birds were singing in the trees, and Kim ignored them and all but hissed at the rising sun as she strode past her own garage and kept right on going. She kept her face averted from the hateful, yellow glare and wished her sunglasses were just a little bit darker.

  Past the garages were shadows, blessed shadows, and that was her destination. Confident now that she knew she wasn’t being observed, she fished out her cell phone.

  Today would mark a turning point in her relationship with Angel. Angel had been living with her for over a week, and during that time Kim had made zero progress in uncovering her true purpose on Earth. No longer. That was going to change. Angel had made too much progress in the relationship lately, and Kim couldn’t help feeling she was running out of time. That meant working overtime to uncover Angel’s true purpose as soon as possible.

  Or rather, she needed to take time off to discover it.

  Or more precisely, call in sick.

  But that was the way of the world for wage-slaves like her. Professional investigators had it easy. Their job was investigation. Clearly the phrase working overtime only applied to them.

  It was a longstanding theory of hers that Angel intended to seduce her to distract her. Angel knew Kim didn’t have a lot of experience and became flustered trying to fend her off. It stood to reason that if Kim were too preoccupied trying to keep her virtue intact, she wouldn’t be able to devote the time and effort necessary to uncover Angel’s real plot, whatever it happened to be.

  It was an interesting theory, but one which didn’t seem too likely, now that she thought about it.

  Her second theory didn’t account for a buried agenda. Angel still intended to seduce her, but not because of Kim’s charming personality. Instead, Angel desired her for hours of hot, lesbian sex to provide evidence she was an ordinary girlfriend. She wanted a believable background, and nothing more than that.

  Kim had doubts about that one, too. It seemed plausible on the surface, but it contained a fundamental flaw. That theory suggested Ang
el intended to seduce Kim but only because Angel believed Kim expected her to do so. This further implied that it was somehow Kim’s fault, which was just plain ridiculous.

  That left the last theory. It was entirely possible Angel lusted after Kim’s hot, little body simply for the pleasure of the experience. Angel wanted the sex, but cared nothing for her. She pretended to care, and that was it.

  This one seemed the most likely. Which was kind of depressing.

  It didn’t help that Kim herself didn’t know what to think of Angel. She liked her well enough, but feared a growing, emotional attachment.

  Given what she knew of Angel’s nature, shouldn’t it be easy to maintain an emotional distance, knowing any feelings she had for Angel wouldn’t be reciprocated?

  Kim didn’t have a clue if physical desire preceded emotional desire or if the reverse were true, but she dare not risk either considering her belief that Angel felt nothing for her at all.

  Angel was only pretending. As long as she kept that fact foremost in her mind, she should be in no danger. She must never forget it. The fate of the entire world could be at stake. That meant today she was going to focus her attention on where it should have been days ago and finally get some answers.

  After calling in sick, Kim found a suitable vantage point between the buildings with plenty of shadows and proceeded to lurk and skulk in them. There she waited for her target.

  Forty minutes after Kim “left for work,” the security door for her building opened and Angel walked out, carrying what appeared to be a full duffel bag. She drew closer to Kim’s hiding spot, and Kim faded back into the shadows until nothing of her was visible, or so she hoped. She allowed Angel to gain a comfortable lead and then followed in her wake.

  Kim had a plan in mind. All she needed to do was follow Angel on foot as she went about her daily business and not get caught doing it. Kim wasn’t trained in the art of shadowing, but that didn’t matter. She’d played plenty of video games that required at least a passing familiarity with stealth. Those hard-won skills should gave her an edge beyond that of the common, untrained newbs that infested the real world.

  How hard could it be?

  Angel never once turned around, and Kim relaxed. Tailing Angel was easier than she’d thought it would be.

  After half an hour of walking, they left the residential streets behind them.

  Angel led the way into a section of town more suited to shopping areas and restaurants than office buildings. The sidewalk became increasingly more crowded by the minute. People came out of the woodwork for whatever personal business they had going. The crowds made Kim feel more secure, but it came with a corresponding, ever-increasing risk of losing Angel as the number of people increased.

  When Angel ducked into a pawn shop, Kim counted herself lucky to have spotted it at all. She stopped at once, heedless of the people around her.

  As the minutes crawled by, it became apparent Angel wasn’t leaving anytime soon. Kim crossed the street to find someplace to wait, one isolated enough to watch without drawing unwanted attention.

  A tree at the corner suited her purposes. She lounged against it and waited.

  And waited.

  Kim glanced at her phone to check the time. Thirty minutes went by. Then forty. Still no Angel.

  She was about to break cover and cross the street to interrogate the shop owner directly when the door opened and Angel emerged. Her duffel bag looked empty. Kim ducked back into the shadows, watching as her opponent looked about. Apparently not finding what she was looking for, she continued down the sidewalk on her original path.

  Kim looked to the pawn shop again, burning with curiosity. According to the sign in the window, their primary business was guns, gold, and jewelry.

  What did Angel sell? Did she buy anything?

  Kim itched to go inside and find those answers, but now was not the time. It could wait. Tomorrow, perhaps, or later this afternoon. For now, she needed to stay on target and ignore how that strategy didn’t turn out so well for Gold Leader and his men in Star Wars.

  Angel rounded the corner of a building and vanished from sight. Kim hurried after her, took the same corner, and braked to an ungraceful stop. Angel stood waiting on the other side, looking back at her with a faint smile on her face.

  In a normal situation after failing in such a manner, Kim would use tried and true methods at her disposal to undo the damage. She’d take note of her mistakes, pin down exactly what went wrong and where, then restore a previously saved game to go back in time before her mistake ever happened.

  That was the proper way to do things, and the birthright of all gamers everywhere. It wasn’t even their greatest power. It was but one of many that marked them out as special and made them superior to the common masses.

  But those reliable tried and true methods weren’t available here. Not in the real world. This wasn’t a game. This was real life in all its glory, and reality tended to suck, sometimes.

  Kim had failed, and there was nothing she could do about it. What she was facing was a prime example of why she did her best to avoid reality in the first place.

  Far from upset, Angel seemed pleased to see her. “Weren’t you supposed to be working today?” she asked.

  Kim hesitated. She didn’t have a backup plan prepared. Her plan was more along the lines of never getting caught.

  “Surprise?” she offered. “I was hoping to surprise you.”

  “You took the day off? For me?”

  Kim hesitated. The truth hadn’t occurred to her.

  Impulsively, she decided to go with it. “Yes,” she said, avoiding Angel’s eyes. “I’ve been wondering what you do during the day.”

  Angel’s smile brightened. “And you wanted to spend the day with me?”

  Kim nodded. Again, the words were technically true, but she still felt like a jerk for deceiving her.

  Angel stepped up and embraced her in a hug. Kim stiffened, suddenly hyperaware of the people around her. None of them were even looking in her direction, but the knowledge didn’t help her relax.

  Angel certainly didn’t care one way or the other. She didn’t release her until she felt satisfied. “I’m glad you took the time off. There’s only one more thing I need to take care of, then we can spend the rest of the day together."

  With that, Angel was off again.

  Kim fell in alongside her. As they walked, Kim glanced at Angel’s bag, trying to think of the best way to ask about the pawn shop and her business there.

  “Guns,” said Angel.

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Guns,” Angel repeated. “Guns, knives, and cell phones. And other miscellaneous vendor trash. That pawn shop is the best place I’ve found to sell things.”

  Kim’s eyes narrowed. “What have you been doing, Angel?”

  Angel gave Kim an exasperated look. “Oh, relax. I didn’t steal any of them. I picked them up while I was still working my tourist job, and I’m not doing that anymore.”

  “So, what have you been doing?”

  Angel extended her middle finger and flipped her off. “It’s a secret.”

  Kim stopped in her tracks.

  Angel continued walking down the sidewalk, not noticing Kim no longer by her side. When she finally did notice, she stopped and turned to face her. “Is something wrong?”

  “That’s not the gesture!” Kim sputtered, almost too incredulous to speak.

  “It isn’t? But on the internet--”

  Kim held a finger to her lips. “This means ‘it’s a secret,’ Angel.”

  “Oh.” Angel shifted uncomfortably. “What did my gesture mean?”

  “Something else,” Kim muttered, looking away.

  “You won’t tell me?”

  “No.” Kim passed Angel where she stood and soon left her behind.

  Angel watched her go. “I’ll find out, eventually,” she called after her.

  “You probably will. But not from me.”

  “You’re no fu
n.”

  Kim came to an abrupt stop. “Where are we going, anyway?”

  “I’ll show you.”

  Two and a half hours of walking later, Angel guided her to an old, decrepit, grey building with an overabundance of windows, most of which were broken. The front door was padlocked shut. Behind it and to either side nature had begun to reclaim its lost territory. An independent transmission repair shop was further along down the street with no one in attendance. The street itself was deserted and in disrepair.

  If Kim had to guess, she would have said the structure was an office building from thirty or forty years ago. Probably abandoned for at least half that long.

  Angel fished out a key and unlocked the doors but didn’t open them. She set the chains aside in the overgrown grass. “Now we wait,” she said. “We’re still about an hour early, but it could be three or four more hours before anyone actually gets here. Do you have your book?”

  Kim snorted at the absurdity of the question. If she ever started to go someplace and realized she’d left her book behind, she’d turn right around to go back and get it.

  “Are you having something delivered?” she asked.

  Angel held a finger to her lips, her blue eyes a shade brighter in the sun. “Yes, but I’m not telling you what. It’s a secret.”

  “Are you actually renting this place? How could you afford--”

  “Also a secret,” said Angel.

  Kim let it go. It didn’t matter. Based on what she'd learned so far, today’s spying expedition was already a success. Angel had already given away far more than her share of secrets. Once Kim was alone she could come back with a pair of bolt cutters or something and find out the rest.

  They settled down to wait.

  The day was comfortably warm, but still a little too sunny for Kim’s tastes. She chose a spot out of the light while Angel simply sat down where she happened to be before pulling out her own book from her duffel bag.

  Kim wondered at Angel’s decision. There was plenty of shade available. Why would any sane person sit in the sun when they could sit in the shade?

  Maybe she was the odd one out in this situation? Everyone else she knew tended to love the bright outdoors and the randomness of nature for reasons that escaped her.