20. Twenty
20
TWENTY
ELIANA RICHARDS
CIA Headquarters, September 2022
One month together
“ D o you have any idea how long it took to finally be able to visit you?“ Mihaela complained loudly. We had just reached the communal kitchen to enjoy some lunch together. She wasn’t wrong, it had needed a shit ton of bureaucracy for her to be allowed to enter the part of headquarter we were stationed in.
After everything that happened with az-Zawahiri last year and Liam joining the crew, things had become more and more complicated. Safer, too, but as I hadn’t been around before, I didn’t know how much changed until Peter told me a couple of days ago.
“I know. It’s so annoying to fill out all the paperwork. But almost three weeks is really long. Even for CIA standards.” I laughed.
“You coming to visit me would have been easier, I guess.”
“Yeah, but I’m a little handicapped at the moment,” I answered, pointing with the end of my crutch to the cast around my leg.
Although Dr. Brown had promised to change me into a boot as soon as possible, in my last check-up yesterday, he had decided for another cast. At least fiberglass this time, so it wasn’t as heavy as the old one. Still more than only annoying.
“Boo you. Always let others do the hard work.” Mihaela laughed. We had ordered pizza because it was easy. And guess what? The pizza delivery guy didn’t need to wait three weeks until he was allowed to enter the building. But he left the pizza in the entrance hall. Entering the part where we were living had been the bigger problem as there were labs and offices located here as well. All highly confidential, of course.
Plus, and that annoyed me the most, as I was slightly in a disadvantaged position, the background check of Mihaela had been more detailed than usual. All the, “she could fight you too easily in your current situation and that would put us all at risk,” blah blah blah.
They don’t know Mihaela at all, plus, they severely underestimated me. Even while on crutches, my best friend wouldn’t stand a chance against me. I’d knock her unconscious with my crutch within seconds.
“At least you finally made it. I missed you.” I smiled towards her. I really did. FaceTiming and messaging weren’t the same, although we’ve been used to it for a couple of years now.
“I wish I would have been there right after your accident, but you know the drill,” she sighed.
“You’ve been there. Just not in person. You called me twice a day, that was more than enough.”
I saw her eyes water a little and I knew that it bothered her a lot that she couldn’t be physically here after I sent her a message about my accident.
“Did…” she started carefully and it didn’t need more words between us, because I knew exactly what she wanted to ask. It had been like that since the first year we became friends.
“Didn’t tell him. But of course, he wouldn’t have shown up, anyway.”
“Probably not.”
Silence lingered between us for a short moment while Mihaela just looked at me with her big sad eyes, as if her sympathy would be able to make all the things undone that my father did to me.
“I don’t care. I have all the important people around me now.” Bumping my shoulder into hers, we both started to laugh.
“Soooooooo,” Mihaela started with a grin before grabbing the first piece of the pepperoni pizza she ordered.
“So what?” I countered although, again, I knew what she was up to.
“Peter Davis was taking care of you, huh?”
“Uh-huh,” I responded, taking my sweet time to enjoy my own food. Mihaela was shaking her head slightly in response, apparently not happy with my short answer.
“How did that happen?” she asked after a couple of moments.
“That will forever be the biggest mystery of mankind. It just…happened.”
“Oh come on, Eli. I know you want to talk about it, so grow some balls and get it going.”
“I love you, you know that?”
“Apparently I’m not the only one you love…”
That little mind-reading witch.
She left me speechless for a little moment, so I just shook my head in disbelief.
“I love you, too, Eli. But for fuck’s sake, please tell me what happened on that mission so that you two are now…whatever,” she continued.
Greedy and hungry, I grabbed a few more bites from my pizza before I was ready to start explaining. Knowing my best friend, Mihaela would jump into my story multiple times, asking for details I didn’t even think were important, so I'd have no chance to further enjoy my lunch.
“We’ve been on that super easy mission together, no big deal, you know.”
The raise of Mihaela’s eyebrow showed me that it probably was a big deal, but I’m so used to all these missions that I sometimes forget how cool and badass they appear to people outside of the CIA.
“Mission went well. We were searching for some confidential stuff in this old facility, but didn’t find anything. It was one of the first missions I participated on and as Oliver, my team lead, sensed the tension between Peter and me, he paired us up.”
Mihaela and I had perfected the dance between telling a story and hiding the stuff she wasn’t allowed to know thanks to years of practice.
“Clever man,” Mihaela commented with a nod and another bite of her pizza.
“We were on our way back to the cars when that little dumbass tried to be funny and cracked a joke on my behalf. And as the calm and chill person that I normally am, I might have escalated a bit and screamed at him.”
“Calm and chill. Really?”
“Did you expect anything less from me?” I laughed. How I missed these days with her. Just hanging out, having food, and talking for hours. Like we did back in high school. Although back then, our problems had been way smaller than nowadays. And none of them included financials.
Being an adult sucked.
“Keep going,” Mihaela encouraged me.
“You were the one interrupting in the first place!”
She just looked at me in a way that said really?! more than she could ever express with her voice and it made me laugh. I loved that woman to death .
“Okay, I might have gone full fury mode on him. He’s been annoying me for over a decade, okay? It was the last straw of my sanity. But surprisingly, he was pretty understanding and even apologized for his behavior. He admitted being stupid and regretting the joke, and he hoped that I’d be able to forgive him.”
“And did you forgive him?”
“Yeah. I kinda did. You should have seen his eyes, Mihaela. He’d been full-on serious for a moment. All honest and that shit.”
I saw her very clearly rolling her eyes at me for the choice of words, but I couldn’t help myself. Around Mihaela, I could always be 100% myself and didn’t need to watch my words. She was my best friend for a reason.
“And when we were stepping down that staircase, a piece broke loose from the step and I fell down the entire staircase pretty inelegantly. Hit my head hard and twisted my ankle. I was even out for a moment.”
“Oh shit.”
“First thing I see is Peter’s eyes. Did you know that he has green eyes?”
“I didn’t know. Never been so close to him.”
“I wonder why we never noticed, because they’re sparkling like emeralds.”
“Emeralds? Oh gosh, Eli. You sure the concussion is fully healed?” Mihaela looked at me with worry all over her face that I could totally understand. I was blaming the concussion myself for a lot of what happened on the day of the accident and right after .
“Cleared for desk work again, so yep. No concussion.”
“And still you call his eyes emeralds…”
Yeah, no shit Sherlock. Because they are emeralds. Haven’t seen more beautiful eyes in my life before.
“At first I thought about the concussion as the reason for all of this, too, but the more days passed after the accident, the more I enjoyed Peter’s company. He’s been with me as much as he could. Before work, after work. He even sleeps in my bed with me to make sure I’m okay overnight.”
Well, that triggered the highest eyebrow raise in Mihaela’s history. She even let the pizza in her hand fall back into the cardboard while she turned her head in my direction in a dramatical movement.
“You. Him. Bed. Together?”
Only four words and a question mark but I knew I was in trouble.
“Well…yeah…” I responded and suddenly felt ashamed although I couldn’t understand why. We didn’t do anything wrong. Peter was just taking care of me and supporting me the best he could while my leg was healing.
And well…he had kissed me…
“You really have it hard for him, Eli. I didn’t expect it to be so serious already.”
“Nothing happened, Mihaela. We fall asleep next to each other and that’s it.”
“You sure about that?”
“We might cuddle every night. ”
“I KNEW IT!” Mihaela exclaimed loudly, pointing at me like we were in court and she just sentenced me for lying.
“And we might have kissed,” I whispered slowly, but it got the reaction from Mihaela that I expected. Her eyes were getting wider than the fabric of my dresses every Christmas when her family tried to feed me to death.
“You like him.”
“I really do.”
“That’s fantastic, Eli. I haven’t seen you so happy in well…forever?” She laughed and wrapped her arm around my shoulders to pull me close.
“Who would have thought?” I sighed, remembering all the messages I sent Mihaela over the past ten years, most of them containing hateful comments about the man who was now something like my boyfriend.
“Not me,” she answered with another laugh before continuing, “the likelihood of you marrying a prince from a foreign eastern European country who is heads over heels for you after one meeting was higher than you ending up with Peter fucking Davis.”
She was clearly referring to my absolute hatred against cliche Christmas movies, but today nothing could get me out of my good mood. Not even a teasing Mihaela.
“Right? Super low chance. I’m still confused about it myself.”
“Have you talked about it yet?”
“Me and Peter? ”
“Yeah.”
I was quiet for a moment, because even though I fucking called him boyfriend in my head, we actually never really talked about what we were. I mean we used the famous L-words, so that would make us a couple, right? Right?
“That silence sounds like a no,” Mihaela commented when I didn’t give her an answer quickly enough.
“We did not, no. But there was no need to talk about it. We just enjoy each other’s company, you know.”
My face was contorted into a slight grimace, my insecurity slipping through while I waited for an answer from my best friend. Did I do things wrong? Did Peter deserve a real adult-y conversation about relationships?
“So you don’t have a word for whatever that is between the two of you?” Mihaela eyes me suspiciously.
“Nope,” I emphasized the p with a loud pop.
“Oh Eli,” my best friend groaned loudly and I saw her falling back against the backrest of the couch. Always the dramatic one.
“You know that talking about emotions has never been my strength. For obvious reasons,” I answered, slightly embarrassed, although it wasn’t my fault that I grew up with a father who made it very clear that emotions were not allowed. Mihaela looked at me in shock before her features softened and she leaned in to give me a weird hug from the side, her cheek resting on top of my shoulders.
“I know, Eli. I’m sorry,” she mumbled to me .
Speaking of the devil: before we could continue our conversation, muffled voices could be heard from the hallway and only a moment later, Peter and Liam entered the communal kitchen, both in hockey jerseys. Liam’s was white and blue and I recognized it quickly as a Washington Cardinal’s home jersey. The Cardinals were kind of the local team of the area as we were still close enough to Washington D.C. to call it local.
As a hockey fan, my eyes swung over to Peter because his jersey was black and orange. Only two teams in the league used these colors, even though some boy during college tried to convince me that Nashville’s colors were orange and black, too.
Idiots. Nashville was very clearly orange and dark blue. Apparently, none of them had ever seen the team’s jerseys in good quality pictures.
Peter was turned away from me, chatting with Liam, so I couldn’t see if his chest was showing a penguin or the big B in a circle.
Boston or Pittsburgh. Which would it be?
I felt my heart racing in my chest in anticipation. Not that I was that sort of fan who would end relationships if their partner wasn’t rooting for the same team. But still it was a big thing for me, because in a moment, I would see if Peter and I had even more in common.
His upper body rotated and the most beautiful penguin logo in the world of sports could be seen. My inner ice hockey fan screamed and cheered, throwing her hands up in the air and screaming “That’s my man!”
I swear, I wasn’t as insane as that might sound .
“If the ref wouldn’t be on your side, we’d have a realistic chance,” Liam complained, beelining for the fridge. Peter laughed slightly and I felt heat appear in my belly just by listening to him.
“You didn’t stand a chance, Liam. We crushed you.”
Liam appeared behind the fridge door with two beers in one hand and a pre-made sandwich in the other. For agents who were supposed to be super fit while being out there saving the world, there was surprisingly a lot alcohol in that fridge. He handed one to Peter, cheered with him, and then clicked his tongue.
“We had a chance,” Liam simply said before turning fully around towards the couch area where Mihaela and I were sitting. The room was huge, so I didn’t blame them for not realizing us earlier. He haltered his movement as if he had seen a ghost, and if I would be closer, I was sure his eyes widened like he’d been trapped in a horror movie. Because even from that far away, I saw his mouth fall open.
Mihaela, and I love her to death for this, simply waved at Liam with a smile on her face and I had to suppress my laugh. The situation was right out of these sitcoms that my best friend and I used to watch on weekends during our high school time.
“Mihaela?” Peter asked before he did a few steps towards us, passing Liam to have a second look.
“Hi, Peter Davis. How’re you doing?”
“I’m good, how are you?”
“Good, good.”
Liam watched the scene with his mouth still wide open, but regained his composure after a few moments and followed Peter.
“Sorry if that sounds weird, but what are you doing here?” He looked between Mihaela and me and the pizza on the coffee table behind us.
“Am I not allowed to visit my best friend after she got hurt in combat?”
“I don’t know if falling down a staircase would be defined as hurt in combat ,” Liam mumbled with a mischievous grin on his face. I grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it in his direction, weeks of walking on crutches making my upper body stronger so the pillow actually hit him with some impact.
“Ouch,” he whined, but I only shot him the middle finger as a reaction.
“It does count as hurt in combat,” Mihaela and Peter said simultaneously, and I didn’t know which I loved more in that moment.
“I’m clearly outnumbered here. Heading to my room. Let me know if you want dinner later.” Liam left the room with rolling eyes, leaving me alone with Mihaela and Peter. It was the first time the two met each other again since our graduation day in high school, so it wasn’t big of a surprise that both chose silence instead of communicating. Things between us were difficult to say the least. All Mihaela was used to was my hatred for him and, as my best friend, of course, she had hated him with her entire heart. That the pages had turned now and that Peter and I were in some sort of relationship was new for all of us .
“Why are you already back? I thought you and Liam normally go to a restaurant after the match?” I broke the silence.
“Normally, yes. But I wanted to come home right away to make sure you’re okay. There are not many people around on a Sunday, so I didn’t know who’d be there if you needed help.” Peter shot me a tiny version of his signature smile that seemed to be enough to ease the tension in Mihaela.
“I’m sure if I need help, there would be someone in med-bay to offer said help.” I smiled back at him, although I knew that it would not ease him at all. It was cute, though. The way he worried for me. I wasn’t used to this, but I actually started enjoying it.
“Also I am here to make sure Eli’s fine,” Mihaela commented from the side.
“True. She even made me elevate the leg,” I added.
“That’s good. Then I will not disturb you girls even longer and head back to my room. I need a shower and some food. I’m starving.”
Mihaela’s eyes flew over to me, asking silently if I wanted Peter to stay or not. I slightly shook my head in response and the widening of her eyes showed me that she understood, but didn’t agree with me. We would talk about this when Peter was gone.
“I’m sure Eli shares her pizza with you,” she said instead, and I don’t know if I liked it or not.
Covering my insecurity, I simply said: “Sure. Grab a piece or two before you leave, Goldie.”
Shit .
I’d used the nickname in front of Mihaela.
I didn’t dare to look at her at that moment, my eyes locked with Peter’s. His features softened just so much that I was able to see it, but Mihaela pretty sure wouldn’t. By now, I could read this man’s face without a second thought.
“Thank you, Eli. Appreciate it.” His voice was as warm and soft as his facial expression and I felt like every word was like water that extinguishes the fire of anxiety after I accidently used the nickname.
We both watched him grab a large piece of my pizza and take a bite immediately before waving at us and leaving the room with long strokes. I couldn’t help myself and let my eyes trail down to his ass which was emphasized perfectly in the tight jeans he was wearing with the hockey jersey.
The moment Peter’s frame left our eyesight, Mihaela squeaked slightly and said,
“ Goldie ? You’re already at the nickname stage?”
I nodded slightly, my cheeks probably cherry red of embarrassment, but that couldn’t stop the joy and happiness in my best friend. That she, despite all the negative history I shared with Peter, was so supportive of this relationship meant the world to me. The past three weeks I’d been scared as hell how she would react if we saw each other again. I mean, we had texted and called, and she got all the information. But Mihaela had always been the I need to look you in the eyes to tell you my real feelings type of girl. Which I appreciated, because in today’s society, it was rare to find honest people at all .
“Eli, this is spectacular. You’re happy, he’s happy, I’m happy. That’s a win-win for all of us.” She laughed and gave me another tight hug.
“I guess so.” I chuckled weirdly.
“And now I want to hear once again how Peter Davis managed to let the anger and hatred vanish into thin air. It’s already been three weeks since you told me the good news and I was still too much in shock to process all the details.”
“For real? Again?” I groaned, but it didn’t sound as annoyed as usual with me. I know she only meant good.
“Yes, ma’am. I need to know all the details for when I’m your maid of honor.” Her laughter filled the entire room and I couldn’t help but dial in.
“I’ve known him for what? Three weeks?” I managed to get out in between laughter.
“Technically, you’ve known him almost your entire life,” Mihaela objected.
“That doesn’t count. He’s a completely different person now!” I had my index finger raised in the air to underline my statement, but it made Mihaela only laugh even more.
“In my humble opinion,” she raised her eyebrow theatrically, “he is the same person as back in high school. But you changed. Whatever was re-wired in your brain with that concussion, had been very successful. You’re a much nicer person now.”
“Hey!” I said, offended .
“Come on, I loved you, anyway. But everybody else had a hard time dealing with your sassy ass.”
She had a point there. Which I’d never speak out loud. Instead, I gave her my signature eyeroll and huff, showing that I was indeed still a sassy ass. Maybe a more likable ass, though. Peter would agree on that. I hoped.