Authors: Faleena Hopkins
Instinctively, he looked behind him, but saw
nothing.
Heard silence. He read the
note again and said aloud, “Crazy… huh? Hmm… My kind of girl.”
He chuckled, bent down for the bottle
and went in.
2012
The next night, Elizabeth listened as she stood outside
Dani’s door. All she could hear was the hum of two fridges, one much louder and
larger than the other, and the tick
tick
tick
of a clock. No Daniella.
Just as she was about to let herself in
without a key, she heard from up above, footsteps beginning their descent in
the building’s staircase to her left. She waited for them to pass, but the
footsteps slowed, then stopped as fingers enveloped the doorknob. She could
hear that it wasn’t Dani. It was a man, - a nervous man - whose breathing was
irregular. His heartbeat quickened as the door cracked open and he waited a
moment before pushing it open all the way. Dani has an admirer, she mused.
Julian entered the hallway and stopped dead, his
trajectory thrown off by the sight of the blond woman he didn’t know. He recovered
and continued toward her. She didn’t move, her gaze resting on him as she
waited.
He was harmless, a good
soul, she accurately assessed. His casual clothing and style indicated an
artist of some sort.
He was put
together, clean, smelling of coffee grounds and
Suave
shampoo. He carried a hard drive in his hand.
His footsteps slowed. If Daniella’s energy had an impact
on humans, Elizabeth’s doubled, even tripled that, depending on the human’s
strength of soul. Her energy was palpable, strong, wise, and she looked like a
statue in her stillness. He perceived that her eyes absorbed what wasn’t meant
for her to know.
They hadn’t said
hello yet, but he felt as though somehow she already knew him, understood him
like no one had.
It was
frightening.
He cleared his throat,
“Hi.”
Only her lips moved. “Hello, Julian.”
He had to force his feet to walk. “Have we met?” he
asked, trying to look casual and unafraid.
“I saw you in
a photograph,” she said, amused by his skipping heart.
“I see. It’s
nice to meet you,” he said, standing now in front of her.
“So, you’re
in love with my Daniella.” He dropped the hard drive.
With vampire speed she caught it, her
eyes still on his.
She smiled and
handed it back. “That’s what I thought.
You know what we are.”
At the same time across town in West Hollywood, Anjelica
and Stewart were at Canter’s Deli in a booth chowing down on burgers and fries
when Dani arrived.
They smiled,
said hello as she scooted in opposite them.
A waitress in her late sixties
approached and took out an order pad from her pocket that shared space with a
ketchup bottle and paper covered straws.
“What can I
get you?” she said, looking at Dani.
“I don’t want
anything, thank you,” Dani said.
The waitress’ eyes changed expression so oddly that Anjelica put down
her burger and Stew froze, fry mid air. “Are you okay?” Dani asked.
“You look
exactly like a woman I saw here when I was a little girl.
Your face… it’s just like hers. Those
eyes, her eyes. I’ll never forget them. I even drew them in a painting at art
school. They were your eyes. Just like yours. So deep, so wise…and the color…”
“You saw her
here?” Dani asked, casually.
Stewart put down the fry and looked for what Dani would say, while Anj
sat speechless.
“I did. My
mom worked here before me and I used to sit at that counter,” she pointed to a
particular seat as she remembered, “eating ice cream, waiting for her shift to
end. We’ve been open since 1931, you know, but this was in the 40’s, I guess.”
Dani smiled soothingly and scanned the nametag, “Well…
Dolores, my grandmother lived in LA in the 40’s.
She wanted
to be an actress but you know, like so many
,
she never
made it big
.
She must have
come here, too. Wow, that’s really strange. I never met her – she died
before I was born – but I look just like her, from the pictures my mom
showed me. I envy you,” she smiled.
“Oh Lord, I’m
sorry.
I hope I didn’t make you
sad.
Me and my big mouth,” Dolores
exclaimed, wringing her hands in discomfort.
“It’s just you look so much like her.”
“I
understand.”
Someone called out “Waitress!” and Dolores nodded in
their direction, letting them know she would be there in a minute.
“You should
know that she was a very nice lady.
She barely ate anything but she left my mom a really huge tip.
Generously huge.
We were struggling at the time and it
really helped. My mom cried when she told Dad about it that night.
I’ll never forget it. You don’t forget
it when your parents cry, you know.” Dani bit her lip at this, remembering that
night clearly. She’d thought the waitress, Dolores’ mother, had looked so
skinny and so sad.
She had waved to
the tiny child at the counter and had left them $100.00 on a $.89 tab.
Her friends mistook her reaction as one of being emotionally
moved by a grandma story, so Stewart protectively came to her defense. “Okay,
thank you. Great story. Thank you,” he said. Dolores nodded, smiled at Dani
sheepishly, and left.
“Wow, you
okay?” he asked.
Dani shrugged it off and lied, “I just wish I could have
met her, you know?” She looked down and played absently with her napkin for
human-like emphasis to keep up the charade.
Anjelica nodded and offered, “Well, it’s really nice to
know she left a good impression, that she was a good person.”
“Yeah.” She
bit her lip again, this time on purpose.
“So, you said
you wanted to talk to us about something?” Anj said. Both expected some sort of
explanation for Dani’s behavior of late.
“Ah, yes. I’m
having a party,” Dani said.
Anjelica and Stewart looked surprised.
“Really?
Okay, cool. Why?” he asked.
The truth was she was having a party as a means to see
Adrian again in a comfortable and maybe fun circumstance, to erase her bat shit
crazy episode from his mind. She didn’t want to go back to the bar after she’d
run out on him mid coitus. Apology note or no, the stench of the ridiculous
weighed heavy in her mind. When the party solution presented itself earlier
that evening, she’d motivated a bath, clean hair and clothes again.
Not to mention open curtains.
“Just to have
on. It’ll be at my place.” More surprised looks from her friends so she asked,
“What?”
“Nothing, you
just never have us over there,” Stewart said.
A steadily building resentment kept Anjelica’s mouth shut
as she
smooshed
a
french
fry in a blob of ketchup.
“What? I work
on the computer all day.
I just
want to get out of the house at night.”
“That makes
total sense,”
Stewart
said
.
“Anj, I
thought maybe we could show your paintings and make it an exhibit/party.”
“Oh?
That would be really great, Dani.”
Anjelica was grateful and surprised but her eyes still held a secret.
“Anj,
something wrong?
What’s up?”
Both Stewart and Anj stared blankly and looked at each
other like they had trouble hearing the question.
Stewart,
the more vocal of the two, spoke up first.
Anjelica shook her head twice
in disbelief.
“What’s
up?
Really? We’ve been trying to
get a hold of you for over a week. When we got the texts tonight I think we
both expected you to talk about what happened with you and Anj and why you’ve
been ignoring us.”
“We know
you’re kind of a lone wolf and don’t explain yourself often, and that’s usually
fine, but,” Anjelica offered in a kinder, gentler tone.
“But over a
week and
noooooo
response to all of our messages,
like we’re a couple of dicks.
No
calls, no texts, no anything.”
Anj interjected, “Until tonight.”
“Until
tonight, yeah.
When you shoot us a
text saying nothing about it and just to meet you here – we both expected
you to open up a bit and I don’t know…” He implied the rest with his eyebrows.
“You really
attacked me, Dani.
I need you to
know I am not at all interested in Adrian and would never, ever, go after
someone you liked. I’m not made that way.”
Dani nodded as she listened, but the thought resounded that
one day soon she’d have to say goodbye to them and never see them again.
Never see them grow old.
Never be able to be there for them when
they needed her.
“I hear you.
Both of you,” she said. They both waited for more so she added, “And - I’m sorry?”
They burst out laughing. She stared at them in surprise,
which only made them laugh harder.
Stewart picked up a French fry and threw it at her head. She laughed,
picked it up and flicked it back, hitting him in the forehead.
He laughed harder. Anj sucked up some
soda and threatened to spit them with it. They protected their faces in protest
saying through exhausted laughter, “No! No! No!”
“Okay, so if
you’re going to show Anjie’s paintings then we should invite a bunch of rich
people. You’re cool with having that many people in your space?”
‘Safe and
Fed,’ the vampire’s code to survival jumped as a warning flash to her mind but
was easily overpowered by her desire. Besides, safety in numbers, she convinced
herself.
More
people, more distractions and more ability to maintain a distance from the
guests, as hostess.
“Invite
your closest circle and business colleagues and even a few people you don’t
like, but who you know will love the paintings and who have money. I will
invite my team and some fashion editors and models to make the place look
good.”
“Models?
Do we have to invite models?”
Anjelica asked with a look of annoyance
on her face.
“Honey, you
are just as gorgeous as any model could ever wish to be,” Stewart said.
Anjelica grinned from ear to ear but
modestly objected with a shake of her pretty head.
Dani agreed, “You really are beautiful.
You’re beautiful because you have this
light that shines from within you. You know yourself. It shows in your work.”
Anjelica blushed, reminding Dani of why her friend was so pretty. It was
because she was unaware of it…modesty made her sparkle.
“So invite
whomever you wish.
More the better, for the exhibit.
It’ll be next Thursday.”
“Thursday?
Why not Friday?”
“Because that’s when it is.
Please invite Adrian for me?”
They nodded and watched her get up and
walk out of the restaurant, graceful as a cat.
The waitress, Dolores,
smiled at her and waved, as she left.
“If I weren’t gay, both of you would be in trouble,”
Stewart said, pulling out his phone.
“Hell, I’m
just glad she’s not mad at me anymore.
I hate it when people are mad at me,” Anj admitted, looking at the door.
The phone rang at Nectar.
It was 3am.
“Hello?”
Adrian said. “Thursday?
I’m off
Thursdays. Yeah sure – count me in. Let me get a pen.”
Brian handed him one and Adrian tore off
a piece of receipt paper from the printer, writing down the address Stewart
gave him.
“Got it.
Thanks, Stewart. See you there, man.” He
hung up the phone and stood unmoving for a minute in thought.
“Hey Brian, you want to go to a party
with me next Thursday?”
Brian
shrugged and nodded.
“Good.”
He went back to counting the money and
said it again to himself. “Good.”