"Nora!"
A familiar voice broke Eleanora's attention away from her tedious work. She glanced up to see Alana Bloom bobbing happily toward her, arms outstretched for a welcome hug. She squeezed Nora tightly, careful not to knock over her flower arrangement she'd been so diligently working on.
"Where have you been?" Nora asked, shaking her playfully by the shoulders. "It's like you haven't been around in months!"
"I know, there's just...a lot of stuff going on with work that's had my attention," Alana told her. Nora felt a grim undertone to her voice; something must have been horribly wrong but Alana would never let onto that.
"What? Is that FBI guy dragging you around again?"
"Sort of. It's a long story. But hey, come eat lunch with me. I have a little side job you might like," she said quickly, dismissing Nora's prying.
Nora cleared her lunch break with her manager and the two set out walking, Alana babbling about how she'd been absolutely run into the ground by some guy Nora only knew as Jack. She suspected he was the main FBI agent that had asked for Alana's consulting in the first place, but Alana's description of her work with him and what they really did remained a mystery to Nora. Sometimes she'd drop hints that it was forensic in nature, almost like investigating crime scenes, but Nora couldn't imagine Alana doing such a thing.
They settled on a small cafe, ushering each other in out of a snow that had only picked up intensity as they walked.
"So what's this side job?" Nora asked, settling into a booth near the front window. "Cats? Dogs? Vegetable garden?"
"Dogs, actually. Dogs and a house. It's a good ways out from here in the county but it's close to a general store and some diners, and there's internet and TV. Kind of slow internet but you can watch movies all you want," Alana answered. She pulled her coat tightly around herself, her eyes scanning the street outside. She wouldn't look Nora in the eyes. "I know you don't have a car but Uber runs that way too."
"I take it this is a friend of yours?"
"Yes...a really good friend," she sighed. "He's in a bit of trouble and he won't be home for a while. I've been taking care of everything but with everything that's going on I won't have time to really go out there and check on his dogs. They need company. Not just somebody to feed them."
"I can do that. Is he okay with this?" Nora asked. "Your friend, that is. Is he out of town?"
"Oh I already talked to him about it," Alana quipped. A little too quickly. For a professor of psychology, she was really bad at lying. "He's just got some family issues going on, he's staying somewhere north of here until it blows over."
Nora looked at her over the rim of her over-sized vintage glasses, her thin eyebrows shooting up.
"Just trust me. He's a cool guy. There's nothing weird going on, I just don't want to divulge his privacy or anything," Alana fumbled. "He's the same age as us. He likes fishing, he's really good with animals..."
"If you say so. I mean I'll do it, I just don't want him coming home and me be there sprawled out on his couch like I live there and he's not expecting me."
"That won't happen. But look. I'll make it up to you. He'll pay you and I'll get you into the university's library."
"Why haven't you let me into the library before?"
Alana giggled. "I've never had to ask a serious favor before. Now I have leverage."