CHAPTER TWO
Delphine couldn't believe it. Of all the people who could have sat next to her, of course it had to be the one blondie that hit on her at the bar. Awesome! Not to say merde, merde, merde! Okay, breathe. If I ignore them I can totally live by this morning. She smiled at the girls after acquiring the knowledge that they were in fact staying there next to Delphine and Louise, and then she laid down again, turning to Louise with a please-tell-me-this-is-not-happening face.
"See you are making friends, Dee," Louise smirked. "What was that?"
"Nothing, Lou," Delphine rolled her eyes, imagining how much more could she stand of it.
"You seemed like you knew each other. You and the new girl."
Cof! Cof! The blondie from the bar interrupted the conversation.
"I met your friend at the bar," she made a gesture. "So yeah, we kinda knew each other."
"Oh, please," Delphine snapped, rolling her eyes, trying to ignore this whole conversation and concentrate on her drink instead of blondie #1 naked boobs or blondie #2 covered boobs. What is this thing about boobs?
The blondie from the bar simply laid down after Delphine's reaction and started chatting with her friend. Delphine felt a mix of disappointment (maybe deep down she expected the girl to insist a bit more in talking to her) and relief (maybe she was just too scared of human contact right now). Just as her heartbeats started slowing down, Louise took her off her thoughts.
"Maybe we should befriend them and go out to party?"
"Come on!" Are you serious?! You don't party with people that were naked when you first met them! Or do you? "They are speaking in Spanish, Lou! They don't want to befriend us."
"Excuse me?" Louise was feeling revolted! That was outrageous.
"When people speak in a different language from the one they were just speaking in next to people they were just talking to, it means they don't want those people to understand what they're saying," Delphine raised her voice. "What a pity that we are fluent in Spanish!"
Wait, what? Am I really being a complete attention-seeker?
Both of the blondies stopped talking and looked at Delphine with a what-the-fuck-are-you-doing face. They were really impressed with this girl's sense of humour or whatever it was. It was weird, right?
Embarrassed by the silence that she had brought upon the group, Delphine took a deep breath and apologised. She was totally coming out oddly. Maybe she should let it go.
"The heat is making me stressed," she suddenly stated, with exasperated hand movements.
"I totally get it," said blondie #2. "You don't know how to make friends, because you never go to crowded places on holidays. Well, it's your lucky day. I am Shay," she smiled.
Delphine mentally repeated her name approximately eleven times and absolutely hypothesised seven different study fields she could probably be into, and then looked left at Louise. All of this is fractions of seconds, obviously. Delphine was a quick one.
"Oh, I am Louise," she stood up to take a place closer to the blondies. "And she is Delphine. She is French, that is why she is rude sometimes."
"And I am Chloé," said blondie #1. "So you girls are French… We can work with that," she laughed.
From afar Delphine could see the boats heading right to the New Port hidden behind the hills. Paraga Beach was truly a great choice, except for the unsettling girls next to them.
She felt as if she didn't want to say nor hear anything. When was the last time she really interacted with people (other than Louise) in a social basis? Maybe she'd forgotten how to do that, or maybe she just didn't mind. What good are people anyways?
The more they went deep into the small talk, the more Delphine wanted to leave; but as she heard Louise's excited voice comment after comment, she made up her mind for bearing it a little bit longer.
As time passed and people started moving away, Delphine grew a bit more comfortable (the less people the better), but still felt no will to join their conversation about French universities and doughnuts.
But there was this specific line that took Delphine off her wanderings.
"Actually, we're not on holidays," said Shay. "We're in the field."
"Oh, I see…" Louise started with a smirk, her voice mysterious. "You're hunting."
Chloé's voice was soft, and serious this time, as if something was not matching on the conversation. Delphine had turned her face right to face her absolutely caught by her tone.
"No, dear, we're in the field meaning we came here because of work."
"We're investigating the causes of an unknown virus outbreak that happened a week ago," Shay started talking. "You don't have to feel alarmed. We have it under control. It is just that we presume it started on the hot springs next to the Oia volcano."
"An unknown virus outbreak?" Delphine asked.
"Yes," Shay replied.
"Is it airborne?"
"We are not sure yet," Chloé intervened. "But you don't have to worry. The virus is not lethal anyways."
Something was weird about that. They said people shouldn't be alarmed, but no one asked about safety, it felt to Delphine as if they were trying to keep it low, and people calm. And those are things we do when the situation is not entirely under control or when we do not really know what is happening.
The subject of the conversation was quickly changed as soon as Delphine stood up and walked away to the bar. What time was it? 5 p.m.? Okay, it was around noon back in Toronto.
Please, pick up.
"Now you come to me," was the first thing Cosima said on the phone.
"What actions did you take in DYAD about one week ago?" Delphine bursted.
"It is none of your concern, you don't work here anymore."
"Cosima, answer me," Delphine was starting to get pissed. Why is this woman so fucking difficult to deal with all the fucking time? "Did you sign something without carefully going through it? Or did you admit new personnel into the virology labs?"
"It is none of your concern!" Cosima snapped. "And I am having lunch, if you don't mind."
Delphine was about to say something, but the call was cut off. Cosima had hung up on her. Perfect! Something about this unknown virus was definitely not right. Maybe it was really the time to befriend those girls, was it not?
When Delphine was coming back, Chloé and Shay were packing their bags to leave. They waved, and vanished in a few moments. Only then Delphine came closer and sat.
Louise suggested they packed and headed to their hotel, too, so she could relax before going out again. She also told Delphine that she had agreed to meet the girls somewhere in the city centre for them to dance and drink something.
All the way to the hotel, Louise was talking about them, and how nice it was to have other girls to have fun with. Delphine herself was not paying much attention. She was definitely thinking a lot about other things including unknown viruses.
As soon as they got into their room, Louise filled the big squared-bathtub with hot water and camomile powder soap, letting herself get lazy inside it.
Delphine, on the other hand, took off the shirt she put on to go out of the beach, and laid face down on the huge king-size bed, topless. She was feeling too tired to function. She was not sure if it had been the heat of the whole conversations or the whole hitting or the whole holidays thing. She soon had her eyes closed, and fell sound asleep.
. . .
Louise planted soft kissed on Delphine's shoulder, and then neck, but she didn't move even a bit, and that was when Lou knew she was asleep. What the fuck!
"Wake up, honey," she said, kissing Delphine's right shoulder once again.
Delphine hummed and slowly opened her eyes, feeling like she had just been shaken off.
"Go get ready! We're catching up with the girls in an hour!"
Delphine wasn't in the mood for partying or drinking or catching up with anyone. Maybe the heat had really affected her. Too much sun can make anyone exhausted.
"You can go without me," she said.
Louise raised an eyebrow, looking at Delphine through the mirror in front which she was drying her hair.
"You sure?"
"Of course," Delphine rolled on the bed. "I'm too tired anyways."
. . .
The full blue moon was incredibly beautiful, and Delphine was in the balcony, enjoying the cold wind howling through the night, when she heard the bedroom door crack open, and too much footsteps for only a single human being. She didn't turn back to see what was going on, thou.
She could hear a lot of giggling and shush! sounds, and eventually she could feel the bedroom light was turned on.
"Delphiiiiine?" Louise shouted from somewhere.
"Don't think she is here," someone else said. Was it Chloé or Shay? The voice was familiar enough.
Delphine closed the glass door and the curtains behind her, so she could ignore whatever was happening inside the bedroom, and enjoy the view from the balcony.
It was so comfortable there, that eventually she moved from the chaise to the hammock, and fell asleep.
. . .
Delphine woke up somewhere around 7 a.m., and immediately opened the curtains, to get through the glass door and into the bedroom. She was still dizzy from the sleep, but as soon as she stepped into the bedroom, she was wide awake. There were clothes and high heels all around the room, on the floor. Panties on the side-table, mobile and money under the bed, and Louise and Shay were sound asleep completely naked and cuddled (and badly covered with the sheets) on the bed.
Seriously?
END OF CHAPTER TWO
