12. CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 12
L exi sat in a booth across from Matthew and Margot, eyeing a menu, her head full of worry but her mouth watering for lobster mac ‘n cheese. The trendy restaurant looked like a 1960’s diner but had a martini list and dinner menu that was thoroughly twenty-first century. It also happened to be located catty-corner from Taco Shots, which somehow made her feel that much closer to Gideon.
For the past several days since her visit to his world, she’d been preoccupied with the notion of a parallel universe—the idea that Gideon could be standing right next to her, separated by the thinnest of veils, and yet for all practical purposes he didn’t exist at all. Excited by these ideas, and agitated by them, she chomped at the bit to go back. She was also in a constant state of low-grade panic and high-level alert because of her most recent visions. A classic hot mess.
The waitress stepped up, her arms in full sleeve tattoos and her lips in a hot pink smile. “You guys know what you want?”
Lexi studied the menu. That fancy-ass lobster mac didn’t come cheap, and her mom was right, she needed to start counting pennies. Hell, she needed a new life plan if she wanted to avoid moving in with her parents, her rapidly thinning bank account almost as frightening as her latest visions. Almost. Why the hell was she sitting here as if her only concern in life was whether or not the artichoke appetizer was gluten free ?
Margot tapped a fire engine red fingernail on Lexi’s menu. “It’s on me, by the way. You know I’ve got your back until you line up your next gig.”
As usual, her best friend was there with the net, never letting her fall too far. Margot understood the true meaning of the word poor. It meant fear. It meant hunger. And for Margot, it meant your father walking out, leaving your mother with three kids, two jobs, and dinners consisting of a bouillon cube dropped in a cup of hot water.
She and Margot had met during Lexi’s senior year at the University of Pennsylvania. After a particularly insistent rash of visions, Lexi found herself involuntarily admitted for observation at the campus hospital. She’d had no idea what was going on, her parents were out of the country on vacation, and she had few friends, not one she could call in this situation. She was freaked out, scared to death, and becoming more agitated by the minute, which was only going to ramp up the situation. She’d curled into a fetal position and begun crying when she felt someone sit on the bed.
A blonde-haired, blue-eyed angel with a black eye and a nasty cut on her lip, Margot Gillette wore a hospital gown matching Lexi’s own. Margot had been walking the hallways while waiting for the x-rays of her face to come back when she spotted Lexi in a room and let herself in. She’d introduced herself and then held Lexi’s hand as she joked and laughed until a smile finally appeared on Lexi’s face. Even after Margot was discharged a few hours later, she had remained at the hospital by Lexi’s side for the better part of twenty-four hours, keeping her calm and on an emotionally even keel until Lexi, too, was released.
And the two women had been sailing along together ever since.
It turned out that Margot, who’d been attending Wharton Business School on the Penn campus at the time, had been assaulted by the CEO of the brokerage firm where she’d been interning. It was merely the last in a long history of similar incidents in Margot’s life, and the reason she’d ended up in the hospital that day.
Margot was brilliant and highly educated, having put herself through college on scholarships and part-time jobs. But whether in school or at work, the men surrounding her could never get past the blonde hair or the blue eyes or the big boobs or the bright smile. No matter how conservatively she dressed or how serious an expression she wore, they were unwilling to look beyond the cover and actually read the book. Each time she inevitably turned down their advances, their wounded egos led to something ugly. Though usually it just meant she was fired on some trumped-up charge.
This time, though, it had been different. The CEO had hurt her in almost every way possible. When he’d hit her, she’d actually had the gall to report it to the police and take herself to the hospital for a checkup. But this powerful man had a huge reputation to protect, and his response was to throw her under the bus and back that bus over her repeatedly.
She’d finished her business degree with the highest marks, but his smear campaign kept her from getting so much as a corporate mailroom job from Washington D.C. to New York City. Eventually, partly out of anger, resentment, and a need to pay the bills, and partly pure self-fulfilling prophecy, Margot made a career turning that male interest into an asset. If her curvy figure and a low-cut blouse got their initial attention and an agreement to meet for drinks, so be it. Five minutes into their first martini, they realized it was her brilliant business mind they really wanted to spend time with.
Ironically, she was finally in control, in demand, and in the money, finding investors to back her start-ups, marketing whatever was new and lucrative, then selling and moving on—from the businesses and the men.
Lexi’s mother called her a grifter. Lexi thought that was overstating it. Margot never crossed a moral line; she merely used all the resources God gave her—brains and bod. Lexi was the only person in Margot’s life who didn’t give her a rash of shit for her less than conservative business style. The only one who understood the reasons behind it. Likewise, Margot was always there with a funny remark or awesome cover story to smooth an awkward moment whenever Lexi blacked out and fell off a chair, or suddenly seemed to go catatonic at a social event.
And Margot was there with cash in hand to help out whenever Lexi inevitably lost the next job. She’d ride to the rescue with a wad of cash and her favorite battle cry, “With God as my witness, we’ll never go hungry again!” Though Lexi knew there was far more fear than humor behind the words.
“I’ll be back in a flash with your drinks, and your food will be up shortly.” The waitress gave them a wink and dashed off.
“So, Lexi, I’ve wanted to ask you about Vikkras and Alana the other night.” Matthew fidgeted with the salt shaker, glancing back and forth between Lexi’s face and the little pile he’d poured on the table and now drew lines in. “You were with them when it happened, right?”
“Sort of. I’d gone into a shop ahead of them, so I didn’t actually witness them disappear. I didn’t know they ended up in our world until much later.”
He swept his little salt painting onto the floor with an agitated brush of his hand. “So, you didn’t see anything unusual?”
She shrugged with a giggle. “Everything there was unusual, Matthew.”
“I know, but did—” He scowled as the waitress returned, interrupting him to set down their drinks before hustling back off.
“Will the portal even be open this weekend after what happened last week?” Lexi asked when they were alone again. She knew a little more than she let on because of her conversations with Gideon, but she wasn’t ready to tell anyone about the fact that she’d been “ talking” to him across worlds. Part of her still wondered if she was going to wake up soon in a padded cell.
“I haven’t heard otherwise yet,” he said, his hand reaching for the salt again before Margot swiped it and moved it out of his reach. “Gideon was over here the other day talking to me about it, trying to find any clue as to what might have happened, but it’s a total mystery.”
“Wait. Gideon was here?” Lexi asked.
He nodded. “For a short bit. He asked me a bunch of questions, looked around my club and checked outside briefly. I’m not sure what he thought he would find.”
Lexi plucked a piece of bread from the basket on the table, tearing it into small pieces on the tiny plate in front of her. Gideon could easily cross over, but hadn’t bothered to contact her while he was right here in her world.
“Hey,” Margot reached across the table and tapped her on the hand. “I see that brain starting to spin out of control. Don’t read anything into his quick visit.”
Matt looked back and forth between the two women, his brow furrowed in confusion, and then the light bulb went on. “Oh yeah, his visits here are always really short. It’s hard for him to spend any real time in our world. His people don’t automatically fade back to their world four hours after using the portal to cross over like we do. Our world has a much stronger pull or something. They have to use the music to go home. But they can’t stay here indefinitely either.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, putting the bread down and brushing her hands of crumbs.
“People of his world have heightened senses, and it’s uncomfortable for them to be here. We’re more polluted here in every way; lights, noise, smells, crowds. They have a tough time with the onslaught of sensation. It’s worse the older they get, too.” Matt snorted. “Let’s just say Gideon isn’t exactly young. ”
A reference to his age again. Exactly how old were they talking here?
“His senses get blasted to the point of pain.” A grin spread on Matt’s face. “Yesterday as he stepped back inside Shots from his little walk outside, a fire truck went by with its siren blaring and the sound nearly brought him to his knees. He grabbed a table to keep from going down, which brought a few odd looks and a couple cheers from the lunch patrons.”
Margot glared at him. “Why are you smiling at that story? It’s kind of sad.”
“Pff. Sad my ass. That dude is so fucking strong in his world. As a guy, it’s good for my ego to know the playing field is slightly more level when he’s on my turf. It’s not just the discomfort of their senses, by the way. They’re a lot more sluggish here. Just like we get a rush of energy in their world, over here they feel like they’re moving through molasses, and their powers are much weaker.” He turned to Margot and lifted his chest. “Let me at least pretend I could take him in a fight here. Most likely not, but don’t rob me of my fantasy.”
As Margot pronounced him a stud and leaned in to give him a kiss, Lexi averted her eyes and took another sip of her drink.
If Gideon couldn’t spend much time in her world, and she only four hours a pop in his, what would that mean for any kind of relationship? And why is the word “relationship” even in this debate?
After all, she reminded herself, Gideon was clearly a flirt, and he’d no doubt been around the block once or twice. Hell, who was she kidding? If he was as old as everyone kept hinting at, he’d probably been around the block a couple hundred times. Besides, he kept discouraging her from returning. He said it was for her own safety, but Lexi sure didn’t feel any safer in her world at the moment. It was probably just his way of letting her know his flirtations were nothing more than that, despite what she’d seen in her visions of romance. It was time to stop fantasizing about him. Time to start preparing herself for whatever shit storm was wending its way toward her.
She changed the subject. “So, what’s new with you, lady?”
“I have big news, actually. Matthew’s making me a partner in his business.” She beamed as she swirled the toothpick in her drink.
Lexi froze, her own drink midway to her lips. “Really? In security?”
“Well, not his security business, just the club itself,” Margot said. “Taco Shots sits unused most nights of the week when the portal isn’t open, and that’s a waste. I’m going to open it up as a regular, non-portal club the other nights and run it. Matt spends all his time vetting the portal guests, doing background checks, and keeping tabs on the visitors once they’ve been over there to make sure they don’t have loose lips. He doesn’t have time for things like managing a dinner menu and marketing a club.”
Matt nodded. “Especially with what happened last Friday, Gideon’s more stressed about secrecy than usual and I’m about to get even busier with that.”
“Matt’s been away from the club so much lately, supposedly working on all his behind-the-scenes portal enforcement stuff, I’m beginning to think he’s got a hot piece of ass on the side.” Margot waggled her eyebrows.
He rolled his eyes. “You’re the only hot piece of ass I have time for.”
The waitress showed up with their food, and Lexi dug into her creamy pasta, savoring the flavor and blessing Margot for the treat. She swallowed and wiped her mouth. “So, it’s mainly scientists and artists that go over there? Cultural and academic trade?”
Matthew nodded.
“Like, what, our punk rock music for their tricks on bending spoons with their minds?” she asked .
Margot snickered, quoting a line from The Matrix . “It is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.”
They laughed before Matt continued. “Of course, our folks don’t have a clue as to what they’ve really got going on over there, and for the most part the people of that world want to keep it that way. It would be dangerous for them if too many people from our world had a sense of the actual technology they use.”
Lexi poked at the food on her plate, thinking of the young man she’d seen floating down the street, and Vik’s manipulation of the rain, when memories of her dark visions resurfaced.
The food suddenly tasted bland on her tongue. She hated to admit it, but she’d feel safer with Gideon by her side, for whatever limited amount of time that was possible. No matter how strong he and Alana seemed to think she was, Lexi certainly didn’t feel any more powerful or in control of her life than she did a week ago.
She turned to stare out the window, imaging the streets of Gideon’s world, when she saw him. Long legs striding across Market, completely ignoring the cars as he traversed with leisure through the middle of traffic from Taco Shots toward a three-story brick colonial across the street. A man approached him as he stepped up to the home, and they began to talk.
“Gideon!” She flew up from the booth.
Matthew and Margot swiveled and leaned around each other to get a glimpse out the window. “What? Where?”
“He just crossed the street. He’s talking to someone in front of that rowhouse.” Lexi threw her purse over her shoulder and bolted for the door, Margot hot on her heels as Matthew scrambled for his wallet.
Lexi watched the two men as she waited to cross at the busy intersection, fast-moving cars holding her up. Gideon’s back was to her as he argued with a short-statured man .
The lights changed, and she darted across the road, dodging other pedestrians as she kept her eyes on them. She could see the face of the other man, his arms gesturing in frustration. Gideon turned to enter the home, leaving the shorter man standing there, when suddenly the stranger looked up at her. Lexi halted, time standing still as the man held her gaze, studying her. A chill gripped her spine. She realized now that something was off. From the moment she’d spotted Gideon crossing the street, the world had felt soupy and muffled.
Margot bumped into her. “What’s going on, babe? What did you see? And why’d you stop walking so suddenly?”
Lexi blinked, sound rushing back in, and turned to Margot. “Didn’t you see him? He was right over there.”
Her bestie shrugged, confusion on her face.
Lexi looked back toward the house, but Gideon must have gone inside, and the other man had vanished. “Come on. I’ll show you.”
She ran the remaining distance to the home he’d entered, and dashed up the two flagstone steps, her hand already outstretched to knock. “Gideon?”
Two more rounds of knocking brought only silence before Margot pulled her back.
“It was him,” Lexi said. “I saw him cross the street, argue with some dude, and then enter this house.”
Margot scanned the street, her eyes settling on the congestion of cars at the busy intersection. “He just walked through traffic?”
Somewhat out of breath, Matthew joined them. He studied the fa?ade of the building. “It does seem to be the twin to his home. It’s a very old house, so it probably exists in both worlds. But the shutters and door are painted a different color than his.”
“And it’s for sale,” Margot said, pointing to the realty sign before cupping a hand at the window to peek in. “There’s no furniture in there. It’s totally cleared out.” She came back to Lexi’s side. “There’s no one in there, babe.”
But they had been there. The two men as solid as the sidewalk under her feet. The sensation had been odd, though, and nothing like the visions she’d had before. Maybe she’d just experienced her first remote viewing, the clairvoyance Alana had spoken of. Perhaps she’d actually witnessed Gideon in his world as he crossed a quieter version of Market Street and stood before his home. Maybe her visit to the other world was now triggering more of her own psychic skills. Whatever the explanation, though, she knew what she’d seen.
And whoever that other man was, he’d seen her too.