Hi guys! Chapters are fun. I like to name them after obscure things. Am I hipster yet?
This chapter is where the weird stuff starts. I'm not talking just crop circles and numbers stations here. Some really weird BS lies ahead.
Godspeed, my angels!
Bonus question! What's Colias got up his ass today? Sheesh.

The next few days at the embassy ran smoothly, to Manny's pleasant surprise. Lucy had made herself quite at home and worked as she was supposed to, transferring calls left and right. When business ran slow, however, she would grow bored, and this triggered an odd sense of humor that she had.

Once she had called Manny just for the sake of asking him, "Hey, I just thought of this- if you were a high school football coach or something, do you know what your name would be?"

"…Coach Coachen?"

"Ahaaa! Yes!" She squealed in delight, and immediately dropped the line.

Manny didn't mind her little interruptions, so long as she was doing whatever work she received. She wasn't barging in on him, which was nice, but he never really saw her unless he physically left his office. Like Colias, she was a rather pleasant distraction.

The memorable parts of his day were always centered at lunch time, in the ambassador's office. Manny wasn't sure how Colias could function efficiently in this room. It was probably twice as large as his own, which, of course, meant twice the décor. The Primidux statue stood at the very center of the room upon a marble pedestal; though being false, it hardly deserved to be standing upon a mound of dirt. The windows were adorned with frosted-glass butterflies, and the curtains bore an identical motif. A set of authentic knives hung above the mantle of his fireplace, which was also carved from marble.

Three chairs occupied the Mister Palaeno's desk today, instead of two, which now seemed like a rather lonesome number. Colias and Manny sat face-to-face, while Lucy was seated to the left. Her presence was entertaining, as was the ambassador's.

"Would either of you like some?" Colias had brought in a large dish of lamb and vegetables, enough to feed both Manny and Lucy generously. His appetite was surprisingly voracious, which led Manny to suspect that he ate meager breakfasts.

Before he could say "No thanks", Lucy leaned forward, stabbed a piece of lamb with her fork, and ate it whole. She thanked him graciously, and Colias beamed.

"Your last name sounds relatively Hispanic, Lucy," Manny said, trying to strike up a normal conversation. "Are you, too?"

Lucy had brought a thermos full of something green and sort of odd-looking, like split pea soup with ham, and she swallowed a spoonful. "My grandparents came from Spain," she explained. "I've picked up some of the language. Yo hablo un poco Español."

"That's wonderful," Ambassador Palaeno smiled, though it wasn't clear if he was responding to her origin or her Spanish. "Such a lovely culture, isn't it?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "And if there's anything I can't get enough of, it's paella. Do you like paella?"

It took Manny a moment to realize that she was addressing that question to him. "I can't say I do. I'm allergic to shellfish, actually."

Lucy leaned back in her chair and rolled her eyes. "Haters gonna hate."

"Oh," Colias said to Lucy, speaking with a large chunk of stew in his mouth. Manny glared at him, but the ambassador didn't pick up on the hint. "Out of curiosity, how old are you? I can't recall if you told me."

"No, I don't think I did... I'll be twenty-seven in a month."

Manny was somewhat surprised; she looked her age but didn't act it. He was the exact opposite in her case- people mistook him to be in his late thirties, but as far as he concerned, he acted exactly as anyone his age should. Lucy seemed to act ten years younger than she really was.

"I've just turned twenty-nine," Manny said, wondering if Lucy would be surprised as well. "I'm lucky to have been involved with the embassy for so many years. I started just after college."

Lucy seemed more impressed than surprised. "Wow, that's a pretty big leap," she said. "I worked my ass off just to pay off my loan. Really bad jobs, too; I was even a convenience store assistant at one point. Cleaning up cigarette butts and rat turds and the works."

"Oh. What did you earn your degree in?"

"Just a bachelor's degree in communications. A lot of people will hire you if you have one, I guess, but I wasn't very lucky. I used to be really worried because I didn't think I'd be able to support a family that way. But things are excellent right now, since I started working here."

Colias smiled one of his proudest smiles.

"Do you have any children?" Manny wasn't quite sure why he asked that, but it just came to him when she mentioned family. She seemed like a very motherly type.

Lucy lowered her head slightly. She was still smiling, but her tone was very odd, and Manny couldn't decipher it. "Well, I had one kid with an ex-boyfriend a few years ago," she said. "But it was a stillborn."

All Manny could do was stare at her like a deer in headlights. Was it necessary to mention a stillborn child in the middle of lunch?

When she caught on to his utter shock, her usual cheerfulness returned. "No, it's fine, really! That was years ago, and everything's fine. I mean, it was awful at the time, but…" She sort of trailed off, but she seemed optimistic enough.

"It is dreadful, isn't it? Losing one of your own, that is." Colias was propped up on his elbows, with his chin resting on folded hands. He looked unusually melancholy. Manny gave him a questioning look, but the ambassador was facing the window, staring at something Manny couldn't see.

Lucy broke the silence, thankfully. "Well! I'm gonna get back now, before I have to respond to, like, eighty voicemails." She stood up and gathered her thermos and plastic utensils. "Thanks for inviting me up here."

By some miracle, Colias also reverted to his normal, enthusiastic self. "Not a problem, Miss Lucy, always welcome!"

Manny smiled as sincerely as he could, backing towards the doorway with his empty container of what was previously a toasted sandwich. "I'll see you," he said vaguely. "Nice having lunch, Colias."

Manny's mind couldn't seem to piece together a solid thought as he returned to his floor, not looking at anything but what was directly in front of him. He paused when he walked past Lucy's desk, and looked back. He stared at her for a while, trying to think of something to say, until she caught his gaze, and stared at him, too. Neither of them made a sound.

Without a single word, he turned back around and locked himself in his office. He was rather ashamed of himself for being inarticulate- which was strange, because he rarely felt shame for his actions.