Rachel
She was starting to lose hope.
The entire day had passed without contact from Hector. The next morning had come and gone, then the following afternoon. It had now been almost forty-eight hours since she’d last seen or heard from him. After getting stonewalled in her attempt to see him at the embassy, she’d come home and waited miserably for him to perhaps call her.
Now she was on her way over to Laura’s house for a group meeting. This was for women who all had run-ins with shifters that seemed positive, but had then evaporated into nothingness. While her possible relationship with Hector wasn’t dead in the water after just two days of no contact, she was starting to wonder. For all she knew, he would never be able to contact her again.
This wasn’t exactly the case with the others of the group as far as she was aware. But Rachel wanted to see how her situation compared to the others, and also perhaps help them be aware of just how fragile even the potential “good” relationships could be. Plus she just wanted to be with friends, and none of her other groups were actually scheduled to meet that day.
The weather seemed to be a reflection of her mood, she decided, while walking over to Laura’s unit. The sky had clouded over and the temperature had dropped noticeably, to the point where she was wearing pants and not shorts. It hadn’t quite gotten to jacket weather, but it wasn’t far off from it either. There wasn’t much in the way of warm weather left now, and autumn would be arriving shortly.
At least it hadn’t rained. Yet.
Rachel checked her cell phone once more as she reached Laura’s place, but it still showed no missed notifications.
Give it up, he’s not going to call you. It’s over, move on.
So far she’d been ignoring those words, in favor of making no decision at all on Hector. But each hour that passed made it harder and harder for her to shove them aside, as it became clearer to her that maybe he just wasn’t interested.
With a sigh she shoved the phone back into her pocket and headed up the walk to Laura’s place. She could see people moving about inside, and a smile finally graced her mouth as she realized just how much she’d been looking forward to seeing people today. Company was what she needed if she couldn’t spend time with Hector.
Her hand was lifting to knock on the door when a bird began to sing from her pocket.
Rachel’s hand dove into her pocket and pulled the phone free, fumbling with the button to answer it. She almost missed the call because she couldn’t get her shaking fingers to operate.
“Hello?” she said in a rush, holding the phone to her ear and unconsciously sucking in a breath.
The door opened in front of her. Someone must have seen her arriving and come to open it out of politeness.
“Hi,” came a familiar melodious tenor voice. One she’d been aching to hear.
“Hector?!” she exclaimed in both excitement and surprise. “Is that you?”
She thought about stepping inside, but a figure blocked the doorway. Rachel looked up to see Laura standing in the doorway. By now everyone knew about Rachel and Hector, so her friend was well aware of what was going on. She waggled a finger at Rachel and then stepped back inside, closing the door with a wink.
“Yes, it’s me.”
“Oh my God, I’ve been so worried about you!” she said, the words just sort of tumbling out. “Are you okay? They said you were in trouble, but they wouldn’t let me see you and I’ve tried to call you so many times but it just goes right to your answering machine. By the way, you may have a couple of messages from me, and it’s now full, so I couldn’t leave more, and I texted you a bunch too, but you didn’t respond.” She paused to inhale. “Where have you been?” she said, the last word coming out in a half-gasp.
“Um, in trouble,” he said.
Rachel pulled the phone away from her ear and gave it a wry look that she knew Hector couldn’t see. “You don’t say.”
“Yeah. Um, I’m not even supposed to be talking to you now, to be honest. So keep your voice down please, just so it doesn’t carry. Everyone on this end has super-duper hearing.”
Right.
“Okay,” she said, her voice more subdued now. “But you need to tell me what happened!”
“You know I was on duty after our date the other night, right?”
“Yes, that’s why you had to leave.”
“Exactly. Well, I was on duty. The front doors were open to allow a breeze in. I heard voices arguing outside—loudly, a male and a female. It didn’t sound good. I went to check it out. As I stepped outside, the guy hits the girl. I go after him, but he gets away. I come back to the embassy perhaps two minutes later, and the entire thing is ablaze. Two minutes.” He paused, and she let him take his time. “Someone died, Rach, while I was supposed to be there to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Someone lost their life because I left my post.”
“For two minutes!” she said, forgetting to keep her voice down at first, then dropping it in volume. “That’s bullshit. I can’t believe they’re holding you to blame for that. Even if you’d been there, there wasn’t likely much you could have done.”
“I could have saved Corvin,” he replied gently, using the name of the shifter she assumed had perished in the flames. “Andrew didn’t want to punish me, but he had no choice, Rach. So now I’m confined to quarters for who knows how long.”
There was a long silence where neither of them said anything.
“Well, considering the circumstances, I guess I forgive you for ditching me on our date and not calling me.”
There was a half-snort half-cough noise over the phone as Hector covered up his laughter.
“I’m glad,” he replied at last, his voice bubbling with humor. “I really do apologize, but this is the soonest I could call. Gray actually snuck me a cell phone. It’s the only way I’ve been able to.”
“Gray snuck it to you?” she asked in surprise. “He stonewalled me when I came by, though he wasn’t as rude about it as Marlene.”
“Marlene?” Hector asked. Then he chuckled. “Oh, you mean Martin.”
“Yeah, Marla,” she said deadpan. “Real dick.”
“He’s new, he’s just trying to fit in. He’s a good guy though, Rachel. I think we just need to introduce him to one of your friends.”
“I dunno about that. He’s going to have to apologize to me first at a minimum.”
Hector hmm’d and then agreed. “You’ll see though.”
“I guess. But for now, I’m more concerned about you. Am I ever going to see you again?”
“Ever? Yes, absolutely. I just don’t know when yet.”
“Oh. Well, okay. That’s better than never. Is it going to be soon?” she asked hopefully.
Hector hesitated. She thought he was about to say no, but then he spoke again, and his voice had grown hard. “Yes. Yes I will see you soon. Tonight. But it’s going to be late.”
“You’re not going to get in trouble, are you?” she asked, hesitant to agree to a secret meetup that might result in more issues for him.
“No.”
She didn’t believe him for a second, but the desire to see him was overwhelming her instincts, and so Rachel heard herself agree to see him, despite what she knew was the smart thing to do.
“I’ll see you then,” he said before hanging up, leaving her to stand outside the door to her friend’s place.
The door opened just as she slipped the cell phone away, still pulling herself back together after processing all the news about what had been keeping Hector away. It was a lot to take in, and the sudden rush of energy to her limbs when he’d said he was coming to see her had only amplified the situation. Rachel felt like she was sitting on a bed of pins and needles, completely unsure of what to do.
“How did that go?” Laura asked as she walked inside.
“Um, it was okay,” she replied, trying to hide the smile on her face.
She must have failed, because Laura turned to the other women inside and shouted over their varied conversations. “Rachel’s talking to Hector again!”
All of the women broke out into cheers and rushed her, asking her what was going on, what had happened, why she’d forgiven him, had they decided when they were going to see each other next, and so on. The deluge of questions quickly overwhelmed her senses, but she appreciated the happiness that they all seemed to be exuding in regard to her situation. Every one of them wanted her to be happy, and it showed.
“Thank you,” she said, waving them off. “It’s complicated. I’ll tell you more once I can, out of respect for Hector.” She hesitated, then plunged ahead. “But I can tell you he’s coming over. Tonight.”
The reaction to the last word was priceless.