Present Day

"He wouldn't leave my bed. I had to be at work in thirty minutes and this ridiculous man would not get out of my bed!"

Amelie chuckled and crossed her legs on the park bench. She nodded and then realized her friend could not see her response through the phone. Regardless of whether Amelie responded, Maggie continued her rant.

"So then I coughed. Nothing. I coughed again and this time Jake rolled a bit onto his back. So it clearly was not working. I walked over to my dresser, opened the top drawer and banged it shut as hard as I could. The boy still did not move."

"Did you make it to work on time?" Amelie asked.

Maggie snorted, "Oh I did. Just wait, I'm getting there."

"So obviously I couldn't leave the house with him here. Even though we've been seeing each other for two months I didn't particularly want him snooping around my apartment. And I didn't want to give him any ideas that he had more privileges with me than he thought.

"If he wouldn't respond to aggression, fine. So I decided to try something else." Maggie paused.

Finally realizing that her friend was waiting for a response Amelie said, "Ooooo cryptic."

"Oh shut up," Maggie said. "So I sat down on the bed just near his face and started stroking his cheek. His face leaned into my palm. Finally. I stroked his face a bit and then leaned down right next to him and whispered 'Baaaaabe,'"

"Oh this poor boy didn't stand a chance!" Amelie said.

"I know. He got all mushy and said, "mmmmh," and fluttered his lashes like a pretty boy. Then, I knew he was awake so I said 'Great. I have to get to work. There's coffee in the pot if you want some on your way out,' as fast as I could and bolted out of bed!" Maggie shouted proudly.

"Wow," breathed Amelie, "Maybe your bedside manners needed work, but at least you're effective."

"Damn straight. And I bet by the end of lunch I''ll have another text from Jake asking if I'm free tonight."

"Sounds about right. Speaking of lunch, I'm at the restaurant and Charlotte will be here soon so I'm going to drop you. I'll talk to you soon!" Amelie said.

"Sounds good. See ya!"

Amelie smiled to herself and leaned against the brick wall outside the restaurant. Across the street she could just make out the glittering surface of the Boston harbor as the midday sun bounced across it. Her mind wandered, thinking of crystalline marbles of water droplets dancing through the air like nutcracker ballerinas.

Water always reminded her of Adrien. No matter if it was the beautiful sparkling harbor on a clear autumn day, or the crashing grey waves during a storm. Adrien was there.

She was still lost daydreaming when Charlotte walked up and scattered her thoughts. "Sorry! I ran into my coworker at the door and couldn't escape the conversation!"

"Say no more I completely understand!" She did. Charlotte had been through so much in the past few years, Amelie wanted to cut her slack whenever she could. Even when she cut into Amelie's already too-short lunch break.

"Thanks girl," Charlotte replied and linked arms with her friend as they walked into the restaurant.

"Ok, let me have it," Charlotte said, taking a sip of her soda.

"Are you sure? I feel like I do this every day, you must get tired of it at some point!" Amelie replied.

"Nope. Never. Let me hear it."

"Ugh okay. So this morning I walk in four minutes late. Mark isn't there yet either, and still Cathy makes that tut tut noise she always makes. Mark walked in ten minutes later and nothing! Then, I had to endure Jesse making flirty comments all morning and incessantly talking about his med school applications. He managed to bring up his secondary essays six times in three hours. You have to work hard to do that. It's like he needs to keep reminding me that he's a future doctor."

Charlotte histrionically brought her hand up to her mouth and exclaimed, "What a big head he has!" Amelie snorted in response. "What do you say to him?" Charlotte continued, "Does he just not pick up on your discomfort or does he choose to ignore it?"

"I genuinely think he doesn't see it. I'm going to have to smack him on the head some time to get him to understand." Amelie growled, frustrated. She took a massive bite of her sandwich to comfort herself.

"Or just tell him about how you turned down med school. That will shut him up talking about his stupid applications." Charlotte suggested.

Amelie had contemplated slipping that in when she first started at her job in Dr. Misselson's MIT Chem lab, but in the academic community, turning down a position in med school for a lowly research assistant position would not gain her any respect. "Maybe," she grumbled, her mouth still full of food. Charlotte worked in consulting, so her office environment shared little with Amelie's lab.

"Mmm! I almost forgot! I finally got off the bench and was assigned a project!" Charlotte had just started working at said consulting company, so she had yet to do any real consulting. Mostly her job had entailed going on endless office retreats, team bonding exercises, and sitting on the couch working remotely on easy projects.

"Congratulations, Char! That's huge!. Where are you going?"

"I'm going to be based in Indianapolis. Bleh, right? I'll be gone from Monday until Thursday and I start next week. I mean Indy isn't that great of a city, but I'm pumped to have finally been given the opportunity to do something! I've hated all this sitting still!" She squealed excitedly.

"No seriously that's awesome! It's just your first project, you're not married to it. Hopefully they'll see how kick-ass you are after this one and asking you something in a high demand city like New York, or San Fransisco!" Amelie said, supportively. She looked at her watch then. 12:50.

"Shoot, Char, I gotta go. God forbid I'm four minutes late twice in one day." Amelie said, hurriedly taking her tray over to the trash can.

"God speed my friend," Charlotte said, and put her hand over her heart in mock sympathy.

Amelie rushed out of the restaurant and speed walked down the street. Thank God she had to wear sensible, covered shoes in the lab. She loved her heels, but there was no way she'd be able to rush out for lunch every day if she was sporting stilettos.

She was in such a rush she only noticed that the man in front of her had bent down for something when she was inches away from him. She shoved right into him.

"Ah shoot I'm so sorry sir! I can't believe I did that!" Amelie sputtered. The man stood up and turned to her. He was dressed in a well-fitted, pressed, black suit and grey tie that matched his dark-grey hair almost perfectly.

His face was completely neutral as he nodded at her, accepting her apology. He started to turn back around when his face changed, his eyes squinting and head tilting a bit. Suddenly his face changed to one of anger. "Ashenta son. Where are you from, girl? Why aren't you wearing contacts?" he spat at her.

"Contacts?" He must think she bumped into him due to some sort of farsightedness, "I have 20/20 vision. I'm sorry, I just wasn't paying attention."

"Didn't you hear me? Which realm are you from? Do none of you wear contacts?" the man said.

"Um....I'm gonna go now. I'm late for work. It was nice to meet you, sorry again for bumping into you," Amelie said, turning away from him. She was done apologizing to this crazy man. Maybe he was just looking for someone to yell at today? She could sympathize with that feeling at least.

"No come back here, girl! You're in violation of the regulations, not blending in. Which realm do you work for?" She could hear him walking after her so she sped up. She was moving away from work now, but that no longer was her most pressing issue. She needed to escape this guy.

She turned the corner and slowed down, thinking that he would stop following her once he realized she was uninterested in hearing his nonsense. But, then she felt someone grab her arm and turn her around. She yanked her arm out of his grip and glared up at the man.

He opened his mouth to lecture her with more crazy so she quickly interjected: "Listen, sir, I'm incredibly sorry for bumping into you. I really did not mean to. Maybe I should go to the eye doctor, but honestly I just was not paying attention. I don't know what you're talking about with realms, nor do I have time to listen today. Maybe another day but I'm not having the best day and I just can't today. I don't know what I did to offend you but if you do not leave me alone I am going to start screaming in this very public place."

He looked around at that and seemed to count the other pedestrians around them, calculating in some way. He took a step back. Amelie nodded to him and turned away.

"You'll be hearing from the bar, ma'am. I'll find out where you represent and you will be brought in for questioning," he called to her back.

She wove quickly through the streets back to work until she was sure the man was not following her. She was ten minutes late to work.