Chapter 5
The rest of the day was rather boring and Jack was looking forward to the evening assignment: to go back to the restaurant and possibly make contact with Shiva. That night, Chris showed them to their seats, undoubtedly making sure that he knew where they were so that they could do business easier. After they had ordered, Chris brought Shiva over to meet them.
"They ordered from Hopkins." He told Shiva as they sat down.
"Ah, an old friend." Alexander said, smiling. His accent was thick, but not so thick that they couldn't understand him.
"Здравствуйте. Меня зовут Майльс. Ех зовути Тара, Боби, и Джак." Myles said, using Alexander's native tongue and pointing to each person as he said their name. (Hello. My name is Myles. Their names are Tara, Bobby, and Jack.)
"Здравствуйте." Alexander responded, also using his native tongue. "Вы знаете меня зовут Алехандр. Вы хотели видеть мне?" (Hello. You know my name is Alexander. You wanted to see me?)
"Да. Мы хотем делать дело." Myles told him. (Yes. We want to do business.)
"Хорошо." He said, but before he could say anything else, one of his companions came over and whispered something in his ear. He turned back to them and rattled on at a quicker pace than he had previously been going. "Мы делаем дело, а не сегодня. Идите ешё раз вечером." (Good. We'll do business, but not today. Come again tomorrow night.) Then he left the table.
Soon afterwards their food came, and the pianist emerged. Tonight she was so beautiful it almost made him gasp out loud. The dress she was wearing was silver, long, and skin tight. The slit in the side went up to her knee and showed clearly her elegant legs. It looked almost as if she was wearing liquid silver although he knew that wasn't possible. She had put her hair up in something he had heard Lucy once call a French Twist, not that he really wanted to know that, but she had looked kind of upset that day that he had asked. He had wanted to do something to cheer her up and he figured that maybe he could do it that way. I guess a few fashion tips do pay off some. He thought ruefully. Although it doesn't help when you have them popping up in your dreams. He shuddered at the memory of a crazy dream where his hair had been up in a French Twist, although he didn't know how that worked. As he ate, he listened to the music that she was playing. The selections were more modern and one of them even had a futuristic sound to it. It goes well with her dress. He thought, marveling at how she seemed to coordinate things. Silver and futuristic, midnight blue, older, and his dreams, and then there was red and seductive. With a start he realized that he had completely fallen in love with this gorgeous lady. The only problem facing him now was to deal with those feelings and to balance them with his job. He didn't know how he'd handle this, especially if Bobby found out, since both he and Lucy had been desperately trying to get him and Sue together. He hoped that his newly discovered feelings wouldn't cause problems.
Halfway through the meal Alexander came back. He chatted lightly with Chris about the restaurant business. Jack didn't catch all of it because he suddenly wasn't feeling very well. He couldn't seem to focus on what was being said, and he felt more than a little light headed.
"Jack, are you ok mate?" Bobby's voice seemed to come from far away.
"I don't feel very good." He answered. "I'm going to head home."
"Sure you'll be ok?" Bobby asked, concerned.
"Yeah." Jack answered. When he stood up, the room seemed to fade a little, but then it returned to normal. As he headed out to his car, he felt woozy, almost as if he had been drinking quite a bit, but he knew he'd only had one glass of wine. On the way home he had to keep forcibly refocusing himself. He was having major problems concentrating when he got to his door because it took him almost a minute to get his key out, and another minute to get them in the lock. He entered his apartment, and locked the door behind him, feeling as if his head was stuffed with cotton and his feet were gigantic blocks of lead. Suddenly the blackness that had been dancing around the edges of his vision descended full force and he fell to the ground, unconscious.