Monday was such a slow day that Alice opted to close the shop for two hours and have everyone up to her suite for a late lunch. She was just about to flip the sign over so it would read “closed”, when she spotted Altair, Tricia and Lacy waving from across the street.  She opened the door and called across to them.

“Are you lurking over at the coffee shop watching me?”

            They waiting for a break in the traffic and walked across. Alice noticed that Altair had a thick book in his hand and he was actually wearing glasses.  Combined with the dark green sweater and black jeans he was wearing, he looked more like a casually dressed teacher than the unruly scoundrel he usually resembled. Although he still hadn’t shaved. The spine of the book read, “A study of Ancient Gods”, which reminded her of her internet search the night before.

“Hello professor,” she greeted him. He made a rude face at her but before he could say anything, Tricia began buzzing excitedly.

 “Hi Alice! We met Altair at the coffee shop, and he was reading and eating a sandwich so we said we should go visit Threads, and…”

            “She doesn’t need the intimate details.” Lacy smiled at Alice. “Hi.”

            “Come on in, we were just closing up the shop for a few hours, thought we would do a brunch up at my place. Want to join?”

            The girls agreed enthusiastically, and Altair nodded, tucking the book underneath his arm as he entered the shop.

            “Hey,” Lacy said, as they stepped into the doorway. “You know that crazy Witch that made that prophesy about you?”

            “Something about blood and death?” Alice turned and led them into the backroom and up the stairs.

            “Yeah. She’s in the coffee shop at the bar by the window. Looks like she’s keeping an eye on the shop.”

            Alice paused for a moment upon hearing this piece of news, then she continued, not sure what she should do about it.

“I suppose if she wants to sit there and watch the shop, I can’t stop her. I don’t know what she thinks is going to happen.”

            “Or you don’t want to know,” Altair said, as they climbed the stairs.

            “There’s no point thinking about it,” Alice said crossly. “I don’t know if I believe in prophecy anyway.”

            “Do you believe in magic?” Altair said ironically.

            “I didn’t,” she admitted.

Azura, Gabriel and Maya were waiting in the living room. The young woman was sitting next to Shakra, stroking the soft fur on the top of the Tiger’s head.

Alice reported as they entered, “So apparently Germaine is in the coffee shop and it looks like she might be watching Threads.”

            Azura scowled. “I wish that old bat would leave us alone.”

            “She’s just concerned I guess.” Alice shrugged. “Anyways, let’s change the subject and  talk about happy things for a change. I’m tired of doom and gloom and general unpleasantness.”

            “Shall we start lunch?” Azura gestured to the buffet style spread on the table that she and Maya had laid out. 

They sat on the couches to eat, informal and at ease, laughing at one another and poking fun at Altair when he talked with his mouth full.  In the middle of lunch Alice’s phone vibrated in the pocket of her sweater, making her jump. Altair leaned over in the chair next to her, trying to read the screen when she pulled it out.

            “Who’s this Jason guy?” he asked mockingly. Alice shoved the phone back in her pocket, annoyed.  It continued to vibrate in an irritating fashion against her left hip.

“It’s nobody I want to talk to.”

            “Her ex,” Gabriel said, waggling his brows. “He must be simply heart sick because he keeps calling.”

            “And I keep on not answering,” Alice said sourly, “So I don’t understand what’s encouraging it.”

            “Here, let me talk to him.” To her horror Altair leaned over and grabbed at her sweater pocket, trying to snatch the phone out of it.

            “No! Don’t you dare!” Alice batted at his arm. “What do you think you’re going to say? Quit that!”

            “I’m going to tell him to stop calling, or I’ll send a horrible Witch after him.”

            “What Witch…hey!” Alice punched his arm as he was still trying to get to her phone, and he drew back, rubbing his bicep, pretending to be terribly wounded.

            “Owch…how could you? I’ll never play the violin again!”

            “You mean you’ll never jack another car again,” Gabriel said snidely.

            “I resent that.”

            “You resemble that.”

            “Boys,” Azura said firmly, “Don’t make me clonk your heads together, because I will.”

            “She will,” Alice confirmed. “And I’d love to see it, so carry on.”   Both Altair and Gabriel fell silent, Altair pointedly scooting his chair away from where Azura sat.

            Later that evening Alice was puttering around her apartment, tiding dishes and packaging up leftover food.  Emmy was curled up on one of the blue couches, having ventured upstairs and made it clear she wanted in with a great deal of loud mewing.

             “I think this whole thing with Ambrose is just going to die down,” she told the cat.  “I was worried it might escalate…” She paused, watching Emmy clean herself, one leg stuck up in the air like a contortionist. “Anyways, I think we’re okay now, Ambrose and I. Now that Allira is out of the picture I do think it’s safer. And I think it’s time to move on to the next big city. I’ll send him a note thanking him for all his lovely parties, and I’ll see him next time I’m in town, blah, blah, blah and then I’ll move the shop and be on my way. Maybe I was wrong, maybe he doesn’t want anything from me and he’s just bored or something.”

Emmy paused her cleaning and gave her what might have been a critical look, if cats were capable of such things.  

“I think I’ll move the shop at the end of this week,” Alice continued to herself. “Saturday. Yes, that’s perfect.” She put the last plate in the sink and turned the lights out in the living room.

“Well goodnight, Emmy. You can stay here if you like and sleep wherever.”

            There was no reply, of course, only a pair of gleaming eyes in the dark that stared at the closed door of Alice’s bedroom long after she was asleep and dreaming.

            A week later, on a Friday night, Altair came knocking on her door. Alice was already wearing a pair of pyjamas with a zebra pattern, and when she answered she nearly shut it right in his face.

            “Nice PJ’s.”

            “Who let you in?” Alice frowned, wondering why he was at her doorstep at nine o’ clock at night, a bag slung over his shoulder.

            “Azura. Really, I like them. Very fancy.”

            “Did you come here to say that?”

            “Not exactly.” Altair hesitated, pushing his unruly blonde hair out of his eyes. “Er…look, I’ve been staying at this hostel and I got kicked out five minutes ago.”

            “Who did you offend?”

            Altair made a face at her. “Why do you automatically assume I offended someone?”

            “Oh come on…”

            “Yes, yes. I’ll tell you the whole sorry tale - can I please come in?” He clasped his hands together in a pleading gesture. “It’s cold out here in the drafty hall.”

            “No it isn’t,” Alice retorted, but she opened the door to let him in.

            “Thanks.” He strode in and flopped on the couch as casually as if he lived there, dumping his bag beside him. “And I really do like your pyjamas,” he added. “They’re cute.”

            “Watch it,” Alice said. “And keep your voice down, will you? Maya’s sleeping.”

            “Is she? It’s only nine.”

            “It’s been a busy couple of weeks for her.” Alice didn’t bother to keep her sarcasm at bay.

            “Yes, I suppose it has. Say, can I stash my bag someplace safe? It’s super important.”
            “Stolen goods?” Alice growled. “Sure, you can hide it in that cupboard there. I won’t even ask. But you didn’t answer my question. Why did you get kicked out?” Alice sat down on the other end of the couch and stared at him expectantly. Altair opened the cabinet by the couch and stowed his bag inside, shutting the door carefully.

“There may have been a slight altercation.”

            “And who may have instigated that?”

            “Perhaps it was me.” Altair gave her a sly grin.

            “Perhaps.” Alice rolled her eyes at him. “What did they do to offend you?”

            “The lady of the house hiked my rates quite suddenly,” Altair replied.  He steepled his fingers together and stared at her over them. “When I made it quite clear that I was rejecting her advances.”

            Alice laughed, and then she laughed harder at his indignant expression.

            “What?” he huffed. “You don’t believe me?”

            “I don’t believe you rejected her advances,” Alice retorted.

            “Believe me, there was no interest. Rotund woman, built rather like a porpoise, with apparently very little regard for personal hygiene.”

            “She sounds lovely.” Alice laughed. “Right up your alley in fact.”

            “That’s not being very kind to you,” Altair said pointedly.

She stopped and blinked at him, pulse quickening. “We kissed once.”

            “Twice, I think.”

            Alice froze, staring at him in horror.  Seeing her expression, a slow smile slid across his face. “You did have the same dream.”

            “Oh, my gosh.” Flustered, her cheeks grew hot. “I didn’t think….It wasn’t supposed to…” Altair had that maddeningly cocky smirk on his face, and Alice was sorely tempted to smack it off.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped.

            “I enjoy it when you get tongue tied,” he said, edging closer. “It happens so rarely.”

            She stared at him furiously, not trusting herself to speak.

            “Don’t worry,” he continued, “I was actually hoping it was something we shared. I don’t know how it happened, but it was too real to be a dream. I enjoyed it too much. Shame it cut off so quickly.”

            Alice held her breath as he edged even closer, his blue eyes studying her reaction to his proximity. “I wonder,” he said, “What would have happened had we kept dreaming.”

            “Nothing,” Alice said shortly. “Very likely you would have tried something and been slapped.”

            “You tried that,” he reminded her. “It didn’t work.”           

            He blinked in surprise as she tapped his cheek lightly. “I could have slapped you right there.”

            “And I could kiss you right now.”

            “You try it!” She attempted to propel herself backwards as he leaned forward and placed his arms on either side of her shoulders, his palms on the arm of the couch, effectively trapping her against it.

And Altair kissed her again, for the third time.

            Sometime during the night Alice rolled over and sighed, grabbing for her other pillow. When she realized it wasn’t there she smiled groggily. Altair had it on the couch. Maybe she was crazy for not dating him. A guy who didn’t protest when she told him he would be sleeping on the couch if he wanted to stay over. A guy who didn’t run the other way as soon as she’d made it clear she wasn’t like that. She remembered how much Jason had pushed her, how she had finally decided the night of her grad that she would give in. How she nearly made the worse mistake of her life. He told her later that he’d already known he wanted to break up with her that night, but still he’d tried. Something had held her back in the end. Whatever it was, her fear, or the fact that she wasn’t “spontaneous” enough, - she was grateful for it.

            Altair, cocky and rough looking though he was, hadn’t pushed her, hadn’t demanded anything from her, and now he was sleeping on the narrow leather couch in her living room. He had sworn he would follow her from city to city until she agreed to be with him, and she began to wonder if maybe he hadn’t been joking at all. On the other hand, he was also storing stolen goods in her cupboard. That bothered her. She’d gone to bed a trifle cross thinking about it.  She sighed and snuggled deeper into the covers, drifting off again. 

            Thumping vibrations on the hardwood, footsteps in the house.

Alice lifted her head from the pillow, wondering if Altair or Maya were getting up to use the bathroom. A light outside her bedroom turned on, the strip of yellow light shining underneath her door, bathing the room in eerie shadow. The light in the living room?  Alice threw her covers off and crawled out of bed quietly. Slipping out the door, she padded into the hallway in her bare feet, squinting against the sudden bright onslaught.

            “Altair wha…”

            She halted abruptly. Allira was crouched in front of the guestroom door, hand still on the doorknob. She was dressed in a black figure hugging jumpsuit and her smooth hair was pulled back at the nape of her neck. Altair had apparently caught her trying to sneak into Maya’s room - he had his hand on the light switch, his hair standing up every which way and he was dressed in nothing but a pair of black sweat pants. He looked sleepy and confused.  The Siren was squinting against the sudden bright light, but when she saw Alice she snarled and launched herself forward.

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