Chapter Seventeen
Beryl walked into Jake’s house for their dinner date with her eyes wide open to get a comprehensive first impression of his home.
The word that came to mind was a surprising one.
Lonely. His home looked lonely. Solitary.
An older home, it was clean and neat and it smelled nice inside.
Definitely not like a raunchy bachelor pad reeking of stale beer and toilet bowl, with leftover food containers and pizza boxes scattered about like it was the maid’s year off.
No. It was simple and had a quiet quality that didn’t seem like a negative. Perhaps before he’d lost his memory, Jake didn’t spend much time here.
From the front door, Beryl noted that his bedroom door was wide open and that she could see a large section of the room from where she stood at the entry.
“Do you always leave your bedroom door open?” she asked. “You know, if you closed it, then you wouldn’t have to make your bed every day.”
“Excellent point,” he said. “However, it bothers me to walk in and see that door closed. No idea why, but it has since the day I came back from the hospital. That’s why I keep the door open with the genuine Maxwell the Martian doorstop I got from the Big Bang Truck Stop.
And I don’t mind making my bed every day.
I don’t even think about anymore, I just do it. ”
That made Beryl smile. “There’s something we have in common, then. I make my bed every day, too. Makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something meaningful first thing every morning.”
Jake took her on a tour of the place, which included two more bedrooms, two bathrooms and a dated but clean and functional kitchen.
He also showed her the backyard, which had a gate in the fence that opened onto a state-owned forest, so he’d never have to worry about neighbors behind him.
Looking out at his backyard, the word lonely popped up in her thoughts once more.
Beryl wished she’d met Jake before he lost his memories. She reminded herself that if she had, he wouldn’t have remembered her and they’d have had to start all over again.
Jake ordered Chinese food from Beryl’s favorite restaurant, Luna Wok. “How did you know this was my favorite Chinese food?”
He chuckled. “I didn’t know. I ordered it because it’s Frederick’s favorite Chinese food in town. I was still making my way through casseroles from neighbors until a few days ago.”
When the food arrived, they spread the containers out on the small, square dining room table that was situated between the L-shaped kitchen and the modest living room. They loaded up their plates and dug in.
“Are you ever going to try to discover what happened in your past?” Beryl asked as they ate the dinner he’d had delivered.
Jake tilted his head and stared blankly at the wall before lowering his gaze to hers.
“You know, when I got out of the hospital, that was the first thing I thought about doing. I looked around my house for any information that would help give me a place to start or at least point me in the right direction, but I didn’t find anything.
Then I figured that maybe I didn’t spend much time here, so the answers might be where I did spend a lot of time.
I searched my workshop at Dark Matter Metal & Leather and found absolutely nothing.
In fact, you’re the one who found a hidden space in my workshop and it was filled with stuff that’s not even mine. ”
“Are you sure it wasn’t your secret stash?” Beryl said with a laugh.
“Pretty sure. I know for certain my initials are not LR. I guess I feel like if those things really were mine, I would’ve recognized them.
Like a deep-down feeling or something. Like how I knew that all the half-finished projects in my workshop were mine.
It was intuition or maybe a gut feeling, you know? ”
She nodded and put her hand on top of his on the table. “I know. And if I ever think of anything that might help you retrieve any part of your past, I will do it.”
They finished their dinner, cleaned up the dishes and put the leftovers in the fridge before moving into the living room to sit on his sofa to chat.
As expected, Beryl really enjoyed talking to Jake.
It was easy. It wasn’t that they had so many common interests or anything, because he was low on memories and they had nothing to compare.
They did have a few, though, such as eating lunch outside in the park and their appreciation of all things metal and leather. She really did love his style of art.
Beryl thought the ease of conversation between them had more to do with their personalities.
Jake was the epitome of an easygoing artistic type who was not a fan of arguing.
Beryl appreciated not having to fight over every topic while out with someone.
She had been on enough dates like that on Alpha-Prime.
It wasn’t uncommon for an Alpha to date other people casually before settling down with the spouse their family had arranged for them.
Several of Beryl’s friends had invited her to dinner or out to an art gallery and blindsided her with what they considered the perfect temporary guy for her.
Even if Beryl was interested in that—she didn’t think she was a casual type of person—they were never the perfect guy for her. None of them even came close.
It was no surprise to Beryl when her conversation with Jake wound around to her being left at the altar. Perhaps Beryl subconsciously wanted to bring it up again to ensure that, as much as they clicked, Jake understood their relationship was likely not going to be permanent.
She couldn’t tell him the reason for that was he was human and she was Alpha. This was at least something her sorry relationship history was good for—it made it easy for her to put the brakes on any serious intent for their budding relationship.
“Being jilted that way in front of everyone I knew was mortifying. I may never want to get engaged again,” she said honestly. She needed for Jake to hear that, because she wanted to be upfront about it.
“Understandable,” he said with a nod. “Not to mention, I don’t know anything about my past. There might be skeletons.”
“I’m not worried about skeletons. Most folks have them to varying degrees.” She considered that and added, “A wife tucked away would be a problem for me.”
Jake’s eyes widened. “Frederick assured me that I told him when I hired him that not only wasn’t I married, I didn’t have any girlfriends and was too busy with work to date.”
“Until I asked you out.”
“Yes. I’m so glad you did. Even though I would have made a move if you hadn’t.”
Her spirits immediately lifted. “That’s good to know. But are you okay with me not being able to commit to more than simply dating right now?”
“Of course.”
“I want to be really clear.” Beryl didn’t want to lead him on in any possible way.
“Don’t worry, Beryl. I’m happy to share your company for as long as you want me to. No strings. No promises. No marriage proposals. But I do really like you and I’d like to spend more time with you.” He shrugged. “I hope we can hang out for a good long while, but I promise not to expect forever.”
“Thank you.” Without stopping to consider whether it was a good idea, she snuggled a little closer to him on the sofa. “I really like you, too.”
Beryl believed him when he said that he understood what she was and wasn’t looking for, at least for now.
They could not get married. After today’s meeting, she was aware that there were some Alphas in the elder population—one in particular—who didn’t think she should ever be allowed to date Jake. But Mr. Gris was easily dismissed.
Beryl was relaxed and now that she’d dispensed with the uncomfortable discussion of her failed walk down the aisle and that there was no long-term future for them, she wanted to kiss Jake again. Their first few kisses had been spectacular. A repeat was a necessity.
“Kiss me,” she said.
Jake’s easy smile slid into place. Wordlessly, he leaned closer, and did as she asked.
Bam! Spark! Every single time they touched.
And that was the wonderful way they spent the rest of their evening together. Chatting about whatever. And then kissing for a while.
Beryl had not been paying attention to how late it was until Jake’s phone rang. Naturally, they were in a lip-lock and the abrupt sound shocked her more than the spark she felt every time he touched her. They sprang apart and he fumbled with his pockets, trying to find his phone to answer it.
She pointed to the cell phone on the coffee table, where he’d left it.
He snatched it up and answered it with a harried, “Hello?”
Jake listened to whatever the caller was saying, his eyes widening further with each second that passed. “You’re kidding.” He shook his head.
Beryl surmised that the caller was not kidding.
“Okay,” Jake finally said. “I’ll be right there.”
He disconnected the call and ran his fingers through the hair she’d thoughtfully mussed for him.
“What’s wrong?” Beryl asked.
“That was Frederick. The silent alarm just went off at Dark Matter Metal & Leather. Apparently, someone broke in, if you can believe it.”
Beryl could believe it. Her immediate thought was that whoever had tried to kidnap Jake was lying in wait for him where he worked.
“Why did they call Frederick instead of you?”
Jake said, “When I was in the hospital, Frederick gave the security company his information as the primary contact because I was certainly in no condition to take care of business, literally. I forgot to switch it back to me.”
Beryl gathered her things, hating for the night to end because she’d had such a good time. She supposed she should be grateful. If they hadn’t been interrupted by a call, she might’ve just kept chatting until she fell asleep on Jake’s couch and then she might have been late for work tomorrow.
That would never do.
Right before Jake opened the front door, he took her in his arms and kissed her like he never wanted to let her go. And Beryl kissed him back exactly the same way.
“I had the best evening ever,” he said.
“I did, too,” she said, thinking he’d only had the best evening ever that he remembered.
They arrived at Dark Matter Metal & Leather just as Frederick and Alienn Sheriff Chance Hollister pulled in front of the store in separate vehicles.
Sheriff Hollister told Jake and Frederick, “Let me go in first to make sure no one’s inside and then you can come in, okay?”
It didn’t take long for the sheriff to clear the retail space and Jake’s workshop and call them all inside. Beryl tried her best to stay out of the way as Frederick and Jake looked around to see if anything was missing, especially any of the high-dollar items, but nothing looked out of place.
Jake inspected his workshop, carefully checking each project, then shrugged. “I don’t think anything’s missing. Do you, Frederick?”
His manager shook his head, his expression mystified. It was crazy.
With no other recourse, they reset the alarms and locked everything up. Sheriff Hollister said he’d write a report about a false alarm. “If you do find something gone in the next few days, just let me know and I’ll amend the report.”
Sheriff Hollister and Frederick said their goodbyes and Jake walked Beryl to her car.
Beryl made sure no one was looking when she kissed Jake goodnight before she let him leave.
By the third kiss, she didn’t care who saw them.
Darkfall figured he must be slipping. He almost got caught at Dark Matter Metal & Leather.
Darkfall heard a siren approaching as he worked. Confident in his own skills, he figured the responder was heading out on a call or chasing down a speeder.
Nope. Local law enforcement was headed for the shop. Space potatoes!
He must have tripped some silent alarm that alerted the police. He’d hurried to finish his chore and slipped out the back door, closing it quietly and relocking it just as the local sheriff came in through the front door.
That had been close.
Darkfall concealed himself and watched as the sheriff searched the building, then Jake, Beryl and Frederick went in.
Once they were all out of sight, he didn’t race away from the scene after nearly being caught red-handed.
He did his best to look like a guy walking along, minding his own business, not breaking, not entering and not taking valuable mission notes from a secret stash in the workshop.
He thought for sure he’d bypassed the alarm system—he hadn’t wanted anyone at the shop to realize there’d been a break-in—but Darkfall was the first to admit he was not as proficient with Earther security systems as others were.
Obviously, he needed more practice.
Luca had always been much better with electronic security systems, no matter what planet they were on. Luca had a gift. Well, he used to. Perhaps Luca had wired the shop’s system before he lost his memory. Yes. That made the most sense.
Darkfall hoped he could figure out how to help Luca get his memory back. He’d hate to lose his best friend to a clouded mind. It was possible that Command would decide to leave Luca to live out his life on Earth. It was more likely he’d have to go back to Alpha-Prime and retrain.
Darkfall didn’t want it to come down to the dire scenario where Darkfall the Corrector and Darkfall, secret agent for the Alpha-Prime Command Secret Service, might have to whisk Ironveil back to their home planet for a debrief and compulsory retraining, whether his friend wanted to go or not.
But Darkfall had many other obstacles to surmount before that might happen. He checked his timepiece, noting that he had three days before his mandatory check-in with Goddard.
Darkfall headed back to his motel, The Event Horizon Inn, and started translating the code from Luca’s mission notebook. He only had a few days to get it done and retrace the steps of Luca’s six-month mission in Alienn, Arkansas.
Then he’d have to make his report to Goddard and The Calderian. After that, a discussion would be had regarding Luca, the mission and what to do next.
Darkfall hoped he could solve the mystery of Luca’s memory loss using the other agent’s notes in the time he had.
He spent a couple of hours staring at the last entry his friend had made involving surveillance of a possible suspect.
It would have made Darkfall’s life easier if Luca had named the man.
Regardless, he continued working backwards through Luca’s notebook, looking for more clues.