Twenty-One

(Barba's Point of View)

They were gone and from what I had just witnessed, that was a good thing. So, my suspicions were right; there was something wrong with Tonya. Typically, she was so friendly and outspoken, but touch made her… nervous, I suppose, and weird. I had told Olivia about what happened and was graced with a quick reply of "Do you think she is competent enough to do this mission?" I was going to reply with a quick no and a supporting statement detailing how much I would like Olivia to be with me rather than Ms. Don't Touch Me, but that stopped when I saw John and Tracy come back into the room.

She was smiling as if there was nothing wrong in her little world. As if she hadn't just acted like a rape victim out in front of us both minutes ago. John played along with her jokes and puns as she placed the ice bucket on the table between the beds she and I shared, but I could tell he was also walking behind her protectively. It was as if he was her bodyguard and she didn't know it. I looked over at my phone; Olivia was probably waiting on the other side for me to respond. Resultantly, I pressed Y-E-S and hit send.

"Barba!" John snapped me out of my own thoughts. I looked up to see him holding a phone sitting on Torah's bed. "Chinese or pizza?"

"I voted for pizza because the Chinese food here differs greatly from the ones in Maryland." She has a big vocabulary.

"Different people make different stuff," I looked over to Munch. "Pizza."

"WHOO!" Trudy cheered, she threw her arms in the air and waved them like she just didn't care, which made Munch laugh.

I swore, that man was infatuated with her.

Munch walked out the room, dialing the local delivery place. I turned my attention to Toni, who was fiddling with her earlobe.

"Are you alright, Thomasina?" I asked.

She looked at me with wide, unsuspecting eyes. I knew where this was going. "Are you talking to me?" She motioned to herself, almost as if she was joking around. I saw the corners of her mouth fight to keep a straight face. "I can't remember the last time you said anything to me, Babe-Ruth."

Babe-Ruth, I remember thinking. I didn't know how she got that name from "Barba," but I ignored it and continued to talk to her. "Yeah, well, don't get too used to it," I repeated my question.

"Yeah," she smiled wide, answering my original question. "I just needed to… you know what, it doesn't matter." I shrugged and watched as Tory leaned forward. "Let's talk about the case, Babar." Babar, really? I didn't know why she was doing this, my name wasn't hard. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, Munch told me on the way here that in the morning we will be going down to the bar and interact with the customers there."

"And when do we sing?"

I don't know if it was because I was used to her talking or not, but she wasn't as hard to understand as she was when we first met. "We have our first gig in two days, we have to pick a song to practice—"

"I have one!" She cut me off.

I sighed with aggravation. "What?"

"The Eden Project's Times Like These." Her eyebrows lifted with the suggestion. I thought back to the video I watched with Olivia. I loved her voice; it worked so well with the song, but the song itself was so soft and calm that I didn't think it would work with the setting. However, if I chose a song it would have been a more intense song, something you had to project your voice for and she didn't sound like someone who could do that. I scythed through songs that might work, but I couldn't find one. "Or we could come up with something else," She took my silence as a "no" and thought of a better idea. This made me look up at her, chestnut brown eyes watching me intently; learning, and taking in everything I did—this humbled me a little.

"We'll think of one," I promised as soon as the door to the room opened.

"Thirty minutes," John said coming back into the room. He kicked the door closed and walked back to his spot-on Trisha's bed.

Tia looked over at me and smiled. "I think we should give them a tip for their troubles, don't you, Bailey?" I knew she was only directing that towards because after the three times she called me by the wrong name, it had visibly affected me. I could tell my face twisted each time she did that.

John looked back at me. "My name is Rafael Barba," I corrected Terry.

She stuck her hand out for me to shake. "And my name is Theodosia Welsh." She said. "Nice to meet you."