Eclipse - Book One: Darkness Falling
by M. Bumbarger
Chapter Six : Repeat
Adam had the strangest feeling of déjà vu. Here he was, three days later, back at The Centre. Not simply at The Centre, but at the same restaurant where he'd had yet another spectacularly bad lunch with his father. The same restaurant, with the same server, and the exact same table that looked out onto the London skyline. The only thing different was the company he kept, but even in that aspect the tension was the same.
"I'm glad that you called me, Adam." Lucy spoke from her seat across the table, a slight smile playing across her lips. "And I'm glad that you agreed to meet me."
"Curiosity," Adam said simply, taking a sip of his coffee. At least they got the coffee right in this place.
"I beg your pardon?" Lucy blinked at him and Adam's stomach clenched in disgust. Psi Control had changed her. Oh, he had expected it, but seeing it up close was another matter entirely. She didn't carry herself with the same carefree attitude that she once had. She was calmer now, more serene . . .more like all those stuck up rich women that she had once made fun of.
"I was curious," Adam repeated. "I wanted to know why, all of sudden, out of the clear blue sky, you wanted to talk to me?"
"It wasn't sudden, Adam." Lucy traced the rim of her glass with a beautifully manicured nail, the sunlight glittering off her gold and diamond bracelet. Yet another change. The Lucy he knew never would have adorned herself like that. "I've often thought about you. You don't just stop loving someone when –"
Adam held up a hand to block her words. "Don't. Just don't." Adam leaned forward, holding her surprised and disappointed gaze. "Let's not play games, Lucy. Why now?"
"I'm telling you the truth. It's been a year, Adam. Over a year. Isn't it time that we let go of any old grudges and simply said bygones?" Lucy paused, her eyes pleading. "We started off as friends. Is it too much to hope that we can have that friendship again?"
"You want to be friends?" Adam spoke slowly, running her words around in his head. "The last time I saw you, you came to claim your two crystal lamps, your grandmother's heirloom cedar chest and handed me an engagement ring. We didn't even say goodbye, and now you want to be friends?"
"Is that so hard to believe?"
"Yes, because we were never friends, Lucy. We were lovers, we were bedmates, but never really friends. The type of attraction we had doesn't lend itself well to friendship and I think that you know that.
"So, why don't we take off the gloves and you tell me why I'm really here? Because I'll tell you one thing, I hope for it's not for the food."
"Fine," Lucy straightened up, all pretense of sweetness fading from her. In the blinking of an eye, she was crisp and business-like, every inch the Psi Control Public Relations Coordinator. "As you're probably well aware, Psi Corporation has a controlling interest in several scholarly publications. One of these, I've taken on full control of as an advising editor."
"Well, that's sounds like it's a step closer to journalism than what you've been doing."
Lucy's eyes narrowed as she continued to speak to him. "We'd like to do a feature on the Quantum Teleportation study that Professor Cage, and Dr. Emmerling and you are working on at the University, and I would like to interview you."
"Why me? It's not my project. It's Cage and Emmerling."
"It's no secret that you're working with them, Adam."
"I answer questions and help them out when they need it," Adam sipped the coffee again. "But like I said, it's not my project."
"And it would be foolishness for me to allow this article to go to press without speaking to you. You're involved. Your opinion counts."
"And I ask you again: why?"
"Because everyone knows that you can think circles around those two old codgers," Lucy spat venomously, her tight control slipping. "What they come up with in two weeks time, you probably have already extrapolated in the space of five minutes. You're the brains behind them, Adam and everyone knows it."
"Fine, Lucy, I'll tell you what," Adam tossed his napkin on the table and motioned for the server. "You want to interview me, you'll get your interview. Call me, at the lab and we'll set something up. But don't try to con me by making me think you want to sweet talk your way back into my bed. That's a bit low, even for you."
"Yes, Mr. Neiman?" The server appeared, attentive and ready to serve.
"I'll be paying for my meal now," Adam informed the man.
"No," Lucy spoke up, her polite mask firmly back in place. The smile she gave the server was dazzling. "I'll be covering all of this."
The server looked from one to the other in confusion, his eye finally resting on Adam. For half a heartbeat, he debated overriding Lucy's offer, knowing full well that the server would be more afraid of offending him than of upsetting Lucy Adams. But he didn't. Instead he nodded to the man in a dismissal and watched him walk away.
"For someone who claims to hate their name, you certainly use it when you can," Lucy pointed out coldly.
"Whatever works," Adam smirked, pushing his chair back from the table and standing. Then reaching into his blazer pocket, he tossed one of his business cards on the table. "The lab number is on there. So is my electronic mail receiver. Call me next week, and I'll see when I'm available."
He left her simmering and glaring while he tried to contain his frustration until he was beyond the range of seeing eyes. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. He had to share the elevator with various people for the entire descent and by the time he reached the ground floor, he was convinced that he was about to explode.
Adam lashed out at the first available target that he could find, which just happened to be a large tree. He was dimly aware of people giving him a wide berth as he proceeded to silently test the laws of mass and motion with his fist. Several punches and cracked knuckles later, he simply grasped the sides of the tree and banged his forehead against it.
He would learn. One of these days he would learn. What had he really expected from a meeting with Lucy? More importantly, what had he wanted from a meeting with Lucy? A one hundred and eighty degree change? He knew that was impossible. They had both set down two very different paths and nothing could ever change that. And she wasn't the woman he knew a year ago anymore than he was the man she knew. Two different people with very different lives.
The nerve of her. The utter audacity of her to think that she could simply sweet-talk her way into his heart again. Did she really think that he was that pliable, that easily swayed? Or was that just another reflection of the person she had become?
With a growl, he kicked the tree. He didn't know, he didn't really want to know. If Lucy Adams wanted her interview, she would get her interview. And then he would go on with his life again. His very lonely life. But, that was how he liked it, wasn't it? Isn't that what he told Sue and Red? No time for romance, no time for love. He lived and breathed physics. What more did he need?
"Keep telling yourself that," he muttered, banging his forehead against the rough bark again. That was the worse part of his encounter with Lucy. Not the feelings and emotions that resurfaced, not the memories of the bitter words they exchanged, but the realization that he was alone. He had friends, but that was all. He was alone . . . and sometimes, he was lonely.
"I didn't know these trees were hostile."
The sound of a voice made Adam blanch. Who was this idiot that didn't have the common sense to keep their distance from him the way everyone else did? Probably a doctor, or worse, a medical student trying to do their good deed of the day and see if he needed any help. Physical and mental.
Adam turned his head, intending to glare them into submission and give them a piece of his mind, but the words froze in his throat as he saw . . . her.
"Amelie," he whispered her name.
"Are you all right?" She remained at a 'safe' distance, but he thought that he heard a genuine note of concern in her voice. But then again, he had thought that Lucy Adams might have changed. "Your hand is bleeding."
Adam glanced at his knuckles, and covered them in embarrassment. "Yeah, that tends to happen when you punch a tree."
"I can get someone for you. To see about your hand."
Cradling the sore knuckles, Adam shook his head. "No, there's no need. I've done worse. I tend to have a lot of these disagreements with hostile trees. And walls."
She smiled slightly at his words, her mouth turning up attractively. "I've never had any problems with these trees. They're always polite to me."
"I doubt that anything would have any reason at all to be hostile towards you."
Amelie gave him a shy smile and backed off a few paces. "If you're going to be all right, I really should be going."
"You're going to run off again aren't you?"
"I shouldn't be . . . I just wanted . . ."
Adam raised an eyebrow, leaning against the tree, still cradling his knuckles. He hated to admit it, but she was right. He did need medical attention. "We're just talking, Amelie. There's no law against that."
"Yes . . . but . . ." Those dark eyes pleaded with him.
Adam extended his injured hand slowly so as not to frighten her. "You were just offering me medical attention."
"I'm not a medic."
"Too bad," Adam allowed his hand to drop in disappointment. "I guess I'm going to have to let you run off again then, aren't I?"
To his surprise and pleasure, she didn't turn and simply hurry away from him. Instead, she squared her shoulders in resignation and nodded in his direction, "Come with me, please," before turning on her heel and heading towards the inner sanctum.
Curious, Adam followed her, wondering what she was thinking of doing. Did she intend to call a medic for him? Leave him at the gates while she found a first aid kit? Certainly, she didn't intend to take him into the heart of The Centre . . . did she?
Adam watched as she ran the wristband across the scanner and waited for the door to open. Again, she motioned for him to follow her.
This was getting interesting.
The guard inside the door stopped him with a firm grip on his arm. "I'm sorry, I can't allow you in here without authorization."
Adam gave the man an understanding and sympathetic nod. "I understand. But you see, I hurt my hand and Am—Beta 2017 was going to take me to medical."
"There's a medical facility elsewhere."
Adam handed the man his pass card and leaned conspiratorially forward. "This is embarrassing. I had a bit of a disagreement with a co-worker and I took it out on a tree. I'd really rather not have to deal with medical or my co-worker seeing me like this."
The guard glanced at him uncertainly before taking the pass card and running it across the scanner. Immediately, the man's entire demeanor changed. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't recognize you. Although I thought you looked familiar. The resemblance and all."
He ignored Lucy's words echoing in his head. "For someone who claims to hate their name, you certainly use it when you can."
Whatever works indeed.
*** End of Chapter Six