A Date With Angel and Other Things ...

by J. Judkins

  “No, I’m not setting us up for damned make-up sex again, this is about,” Kim paused, “Wait, what do you mean, again?”

  “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m the one behind it all. Oh! Oatmeal’s done.” Without bothering with hot pads, Angel opened the oven door and took out the pan. The aroma of something filled the air. It almost smelled like oatmeal, but not quite. A little too sickly sweet for oatmeal.

  Angel set down the pan and selected a steak knife out of the silverware drawer. With one hand on the food and one on the knife, she pressed down on the handle, gently but firmly.

  The knife went nowhere.

  Undeterred, she put her full weight behind it, gritting her teeth, pushing harder. Kim sought partial cover behind the wall dividing the kitchen from the living room.

  After several long seconds with no progress, Angel jerked the knife free. She began sawing at the mass of oatmeal lengthwise. Kim peeked out, and then, sensing the danger had passed, returned to stand at the kitchen’s open doorway. “You’re not actually planning on looking for proof, are you?”

  Angel kept sawing. “I don’t foresee a problem.”

  Kim stepped forward. An urge to hug Angel from behind swept over her, but she settled on placing a hand on Angel’s shoulder, instead. “Please, don’t. You don’t need to do this.”

  Angel paused in her efforts, looking back in surprise. “It would be inefficient to eat baked oatmeal without cutting it into manageable pieces.”

  Kim felt a flash of irritation. The hand on Angel’s shoulder tightened slightly. Kim made it relax through an effort of will. “I’m talking about your background.”

  “Oh.” Angel resumed her task. “I need you to believe me, Kim. Proof is needed. Without proof, you can’t believe me. Without trust, you won’t be able to love me.”

  “I told you, I don’t need proof.”

  “I don’t understand why you don’t see the logic.” Angel turned and gestured with the knife, ignoring the bits of oatmeal that fell to the floor. Kim quickly stepped out of range. “You yourself have insisted on the truth.”

  “Have you thought about what would happen if you found one of these aliens? Or if something jarred your memory, somehow?”

  “I don’t understand why you’re against me finding out more about myself.”

  “Because you can’t possibly know what you’ll remember.”

  “Irrelevant. I need proof,” Angel insisted.

  Kim looked away.

  Why can’t Angel see it? If she uncovered her true history, she risked everything. Her life here. Her entire future. Everything!

  Angel says she loves me. Why in the world would she want to risk that?

  “It might help if I discovered more about my purpose here. I admit, my memory remains unclear, and I’m still uncertain who my old bosses were, but they must have sent me to Earth for a specific reason. Naturally, I have no intention of going through with their plans--“

  “What about the rescue mission?” Kim interrupted.

  “My rescue mission fits seamlessly into my expanded history,” said Angel. “The original reason why we were sent to Earth in the first place remains unclear. I’d still like to know specifics.”

  Where in the world did Angel get these ideas? “Are you crazy? I don’t want you to find out anything.”

  “Then we’re in disagreement.” A piece of steaming not-quite-oatmeal came loose. Angel picked it up and transferred it to a plate.

  “You really want to go through with it?”

  “I don’t see another way.”

  Kim returned to the table and leaned against it, her head sunk in misery. “This is my fault.”

  “Which part?” Angel asked, but Kim wasn’t listening. She attempted to sink into her chair, realized it was lying backwards on the floor, and set it up right before sinking into it with a groan.

  I should have pretended to accept Angel’s story. Instead, I put the idea of aliens in her head. Now she wanted to prove her lies were true, whether the evidence existed or not. All to build trust.

  “As I said, I’m uncertain how to go about finding proof. I’m open to options,” said Angel.

  “Can’t you stay inside?” Kim’s voice was barely above a whisper.

  Angel paused in her attempts to carve off another section. “How is staying inside more efficient?”

  “Just...I don’t know, watch some movies, or something. If you’re tired of books, try something else. Television, maybe.”

  “Not television.” Angel waved the knife. “Television bores me.”

  “So watch some DVDs, instead,” Kim said. She raised her head and pushed herself away from the table, feeling the first glimmer of hope. “Stay home and watch movies. I’ve certainly got enough of them. More than enough. But, please, stay home? At least for today? Promise me that much, at least?”

  Angel looked dubious, but she nodded. “Very well. If you think I should.”

  “Do you promise?”

  “For the entire day,” Angel agreed. “I’ll take your suggestion.”

  Kim breathed out a sigh of relief.

  One crisis averted.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Kim gently pushed the door open, her senses on high alert. Twice before, Angel failed to meet her at the door. That meant she was overdue to try something today.

  Angel’s stress plan had been easy to figure out, but the details of how Angel intended to implement it didn’t make a lot of sense. The first day, Angel came up with a lame, make-up sex ploy, and perhaps she could be excused for that. But on Tuesday, Kim had to go looking for her. They’d ended up in bed for a completely unrelated reason.

  Angel had been deliberately avoiding seducing her, hoping to build up stress, then seducing her anyway each night without a care for her original plan. It remained a mystery to Kim why Angel continued to maintain a schedule she continued to ignore.

  Today was bound to be different. Kim saw the pattern. She wasn’t one to be lulled into a false sense of security.

  The living room scene which greeted her seemed deceptively calm. Angel sat on the couch, looking relaxed. A half empty glass of water sat at her side. An old episode of the Disney cartoon Kim Possible played on the television. To an ordinary person, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

  But Kim was no ordinary person. To her, the warning signs were there for anyone to see. Angel’s casual manner. Her vaguely puzzled look in response to Kim’s wary scrutiny. The fact that Angel had yet to say hello.

  Kim began sorting through her junk mail, feigning disinterest. Would Angel try something this time? Or put it off, like before?

  Angel pushed herself to her feet and paused the DVD. “How was work, today?” she asked.

  Kim shrugged. She finished sorting the mail and then started over from the beginning. Her actions were casual. Nonchalant.

  “I’ve taken your advice, and I’ve something to show you,” Angel said. She took a few steps toward the entrance to the hall and paused, half turned, her mannerisms indicating without being blatantly obvious that Kim should follow her.

  “Oh?” Kim kept her expression carefully neutral. “Where?”

  “The computer room.”

  Kim stopped sorting. Angel wasn’t going to try anything, she realized.

  Surprise gave way to irritation. Kim suppressed an urge to growl. “The computer room,” she repeated dryly. “The computer room. Really?”

  “Yes,” said Angel. “I have something to show you.”

  Kim’s hands clenched rhythmically and junk mail littered to the floor, mangled beyond recognition.

  Angel wasn’t going to try anything.

  Again.

  “Is something bothering you?”

  “Yes, something’s bothering me,” Kim hissed. She tossed the remnants of the mail aside and folded her arms. “Why aren’t you on schedule?”

  Angel blinked. “What schedule?”

  “What do you mean, what…“ Kim started, then her eyes widened.
“I see! That’s it, isn’t it? You don’t have a schedule, do you? But you knew I was expecting you to be on one.”

  “You expected me to be on schedule,” Angel repeated. “What schedule?”

  “Long-term gratification means ‘later that day’ for you, doesn’t it? True long-term stress doesn’t interest you,” Kim mused.

  “The computer room…” Angel made another half-hearted gesture.

  “I get it, now. Very clever, Angel. You didn’t sabotage your own plan at all. You knew that I knew that you…wait,” Kim looked up at the ceiling, thinking for a moment, then smiled. “You knew that I knew that you knew I was expecting it as soon as I got home each night.”

  “Expecting it?”

  Kim didn’t fall for the verbal trap. “Not wanted. Expected. I expected you to try,” she corrected.

  “Are you referring to sex?”

  Kim didn’t answer. She was reeling over the implications of what she’d discovered. Clearly, Angel hoped to seduce her each day when she got home…but only infrequently. She planned to build anticipation and desire, all to make it effortless to seduce her that night.

  Angel’s plan was nothing more than a variant of last Monday’s ‘engineered desire’ scheme. She knew Kim expected something each day and forced her to wait in order to generate stress. By holding off, Angel hoped to reap the benefits that night, without lifting a finger.

  Kim shook her head in awe and amazement. A short-term plan that required Angel to do absolutely nothing. An advanced seduction technique, fueled by the mere threat of its implementation.

  A masterstroke. Flawlessly executed. Almost perfect.

  Almost.

  Kim gleefully rubbed her hands together. Anticipation. That was the key. And its one, fatal weakness. Without anticipation, Angel’s plan had no strength. Without the tension which resulted from expecting something to happen while being denied, it had no power.

  And that’s where I need to strike!

  Kim rounded on Angel and pinned her against the wall, kissing her with everything she had. All the pent-up desire. All the stress of anticipation, waiting and waiting for Angel to do something and her inevitable disappointment and frustration at each delay. All the passion she could muster and more.

  The kiss unmade all of Angel’s carefully laid plans. With this kiss, Angel would learn, to her sorrow, Kim was not one to be manipulated so easily.

  Kim gave it ten seconds before breaking away, taking full advantage of her newfound ability to resist and avoid falling under Angel’s sway. Any longer, and she risked losing herself.

  “That was…unexpected,” Angel breathed, once it was over.

  Kim grinned and danced away, hands locked behind her back. The dawning realization and wonder in Angel’s blue eyes, that she’d been beaten at her own game, made her victory all the sweeter.

  “Does the kiss mean you wish to make love, now?” Angel asked.

  Kim blinked.

  And just like that, all of her achievements were stripped away from her.

  “What?” she managed.

  “If you’re embarrassed and would rather I took the lead…”

  “That’s not it,” Kim blurted. “I just wanted…”

  Would a simple denial work? Could I claim I just wanted to relieve stress?

  “…to say hello?”

  “A hello kiss? As in, the goodnight or goodbye kiss?”

  Kim hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah.”

  “I see.” Angel took a moment, as if figuring things out. “I hadn’t realized. I’d completely forgotten about it.”

  Kim jerked. What?

  “It never occurred to me to meet you at the door each time you returned home from work. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It’s a good idea. We should kiss hello each day, from this point on.”

  “Wait…”

  “And you kissed me. Usually, it’s the other way around.”

  “Look, call it a hello kiss, if you want. I didn’t want to be stressed. Waiting for… tonight.”

  “I believe I understand. You mentioned how you expected it each day, upon your return from work?”

  “Not every day. Listen, don’t get me wrong. I’m not expecting us to have sex all the time, but I was expecting it.”

  “Instead of right now, could it wait until tonight?”

  “Of course, it can wait!”

  “Good. For now, there’s something I wanted to show you. I’ve begun working on my background.”

  And there was the second shock of the day. “You did what?” Kim demanded.

  “I’ve begun working on my background,” Angel repeated.

  “Angel, you can't just create evidence to make your stories--”

  “I have begun to discover more about my history,” Angel interrupted, “not manufacture it.”

  Kim’s stomach clenched. “But…how? I thought you didn’t go anywhere today. You promised me you wouldn’t.”

  “You suggested I should look to your DVDs for inspiration,” Angel corrected her. “I never left the building. Naturally, there wasn’t enough time to review your entire collection through conventional means, so instead I found summaries and opinions of each and compiled a list. From what I’ve been able to determine, and without going into specific examples, I’ve concluded that aliens who wish to conquer Earth do so using only two means. Openly or discretely.”

  “Um.”

  “The first are painfully obvious about it. They might study Earth’s defenses, but honestly, given their technological advantages, I was unable to determine a reason why they would bother.

  “The second type are excessively sneaky about it. They have a plan in mind to assume control of the entire planet, but it takes time and effort to implement. They also possess superior technology, but prefer to work behind the scenes.”

  Kim felt like someone had kicked her in the stomach. Her hand sought the wall to steady herself.

  Angel took note of Kim’s distress. “Kim?”

  “This is all my fault, isn’t it,” she whispered to herself.

  “Fault implies blame. You’re not to blame for anything. But you are directly responsible for my success. As there is little I can do about the first group, I’ve decided to focus my full attention on the second.”

  Kim couldn’t answer.

  “Are you interested in what I discovered?”

  “Just tell me.”

  “Competition,” said Angel.

  “Excuse me?”

  Angel took her hand, and Kim found herself being led into the computer room. Angel sat in the comfy chair and booted up the computer, then called up a document on the word processor.

  Kim looked closer. The document was nothing more than a list of twenty or so names, matched by dates and places.

  “Working on the assumption that I am not alone,” said Angel, “I’ve decided to look for others working from the shadows who might be attempting to fulfill a hidden agenda. I achieved partial success. I found competition.”

  “Did you remember something about your mission?”

  “No.”

  “Then, why?”

  “You suggested I should have one. I went looking for it.”

  Kim groaned. “But I never wanted you to do that.”

  "Why wouldn't you? It's part of my background."

  “Because it’s a stupid idea! Listen, Angel. Did you ever stop and think what would happen to you if you did remember?”

  “What I recall of my history is far from complete. I need a complete background in order for you to believe me. If you’re unable to trust me, you won’t be able to love me.”

  “If you remembered your past, you’d remember old loyalties, too, wouldn’t you? You’d remember why you were sent here in the first place.”

  “How is that important?”

  “It’s important because your old feelings of loyalty could be far greater than what you feel for me. You said you loved me, but if you remembered your old life, you may not want to stay
with me, anymore. Why would you want to risk that?”

  “I don’t believe this to be the case. Love is supposed to be the strongest emotion there is. It makes a person emotionally reliant on the other person's happiness. It supersedes other priorities. It allows the afflicted to break the rules and motivates them to do things that may be considered emotionally irrational or simply flipped-out insane.”

  What in the world has Angel been reading? “You’re wrong, Angel. Love isn’t the strongest emotion. What about fear? Fear is stronger than love. A person could be in hopelessly in love, but fear of the unknown or fear of rejection keeps them from saying anything.”

  “Fear isn’t a concern of mine.”

  “That’s just an example. For some reason, you’ve got a hyped-up over-inflated idea of what love can do. Love doesn’t conquer all.”

  “I disagree. My love for you is stronger than any old loyalties I may or may not have.”

  Kim’s jaw clenched. She knew Angel was wrong, but didn’t know how to say it. She had seen it countless times in science fiction stories throughout the years. Romance was always a secondary subplot. Always. Without exception. Any deviation would be called romance and would instantly lose all scientific credibility.

  Captain Kirk would never give up the Enterprise to stay with the woman he loved. They shared their time together, but inevitably, they said their goodbyes and he left. The love he felt was never strong enough to sway his final decision. Kirk would have a brand new love interest by the very next episode.

  Granted, there wasn’t much of an ongoing storyline in the days of the original Star Trek, but the message was clear. Who was that girl Kirk fell in love with, you’d ask? Did anyone remember? Of course not. Only the fans would know, and they’d called it trivia. That unfortunate girl would never be mentioned in the series again.

  Kim had a fair idea what romance and true love was supposed to entail. If the main character abandoned the girl in favor of their career, it wasn’t romantic at all, no matter what the episode synopsis called it. It wasn’t even close to being romantic. In fact, it kind of sucked!

  Kim wanted to rage against the injustice of it all. If only Angel wasn’t an alien, and this wasn’t a science fiction story! If theirs were a romance story, Angel’s old loyalties wouldn’t stand a chance!