Chapter 13, Wrong Numbers
It's short. And Arty is not mine flees to corner and weeps.
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He knew she hated fish unless it was (shudder) deep-fried and greasy. She always had ever since, she explained during one dinner, her sister ate one with the scales still on in the local "Fuji" restaurant back in New York then was sick for two weeks after. Actually, she had a bad case of the flu, but both the girls had been young, 4 and 8 respectively so the memory stuck. And fish were banned in the Gavin household.
However there was a reservation made by his father, for a Dublin restaurant that specialized in one thing and one thing only. Fish. And not the cheep fried kind either. No it was all expensive, unappetizing, cold fish. Normally he would simply cancel the reservation and take her to another dinning facility. Unfortuantly, his father had not only made the unwanted reservation for his son and his son's unofficial girlfriend but he had invited himself. And his wife.
So there Arty sat by the phone debating whether he would tell his parents that his unofficial girlfriend didn't like fish in the least, or to call said unofficial girlfriend to explain the situation and offer to take her back out to dinner later that night.
He choose the latter. Angeline would be suspensions of her son's unofficial girlfriend's aversion to seafood. He loved his mother, but she could be a little over-bearing at time. The less disagreeable Tara was portrayed, the easier his mother could accept her.
Artemis made the call, punching in the number of Tara's cell-684-555-and waited.
"Sophia Iver." A voice barked into the line. A familiar voice. "Andre is that you? My periódicaestaescrito? I've not seen it in the papers yet-"
"Ah, no, this is not Andre. Is Tara present?"
"Tara?" The person on the other line was surprised, which made sense to a point. It wasn't just surprised of a wrong number-caller, but the surprise one gets when they are suddenly faced by a gun barrel. "No, Uh, I'm sorry, wrong number."
"Sorry." Artemis didn't know why he was apologizing, but he did. The line was silent. Not dead, but quiet. Artemis wasn't sure why he, nor she didn't hang up.
"Happens all the time." A way to hint that he should be the one to hang up.
"I'm sure. Your number must be similar to my girlfriend's she gets a lot of calls."
"Oh. She's your girlfriend. Cool. Arranging a date?" The voice was slightly French-accented, though the woman spoke beautiful Spanish. Who was this person, he knew the voice, just not the face...
"I'm hoping to."
More silence.
"What's your name?"
"Artemis, Artemis Fowl." Why, why, why did he say that? Butler would have cried if he knew his charge had been so stupid. Genius my foot. The girl didn't seem dangerous, but then again neither did that little old lady back in the café in London.
"Hm. Never heard of you. Bye."
Now the line was dead. That was quick. And awkward.
"Bye." He murmured before hanging up himself to re-look up Tara's cellular phone number.
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Sophia sat on the couch in her office clutching her knees to her chest, shaking like mad.
She had nearly blown their cover. He knew her name. She had slipped. Forgotten what phone she had answered. Been Sophia, the part-time bohemian artist, the thief, the orphan, not Tara. Broken the 4th wall. The Artemis she knew was a kind person, not violent but…
If he knew…if he realized…. dear gods………….
In five minutes Artemis Fowl and Domovio Butler could come, break down the door, interrogate her, torture her, kill her and …Sasha…no no no no
"NO!'
"Sophie!"
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"Yes, Artemis, I'd love to." Tara stroked the cat on her lap, ironically named Jewel. "Yeah, maybe I can just fill up on rolls and water, no need to waste money." She grinned. "A salad. No, that's fine."
A laugh. "You met someone? Oh, a wrong number? What was her name?"
A pause. "No, I don't know her. See you Tuesday. Buh-bye."
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He had taken note of her repeat questions. The ones that were basically segments of what he had originally said. The kind of questions liars used to buy time. What did she need to cover up? Why would she lie? What did she lie about? The question was, was she lying the whole time, or was she gaining time for expected questions?
His musing was interrupted by a shimmer outside of the window. He saw it barely out of the corner of his eye while bending down to examine his journal. His head snapped up, causing a slight whiplash. No problem, that could be helped in a minute, if his theory was right.
The shimmer was still there. He ran to the window and threw it open. The shimmer seemed to hesitate.
"Come in, Holly." Artemis' Fowl's smile was genuine. Ever the gracious host. "Long time no see."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXThis is a very short chapter, I know, but it is full of important info, plus, it's a good lead in to the next chapter, where the questions "Where's Holly and the rest of our cute Fairy friends?" and "Why's Holly here?" will be answered. Expect it tomorrow. I'm tired, so I'll only get maybe 3 pages of Chapter 14 done before my brother steals the computer, or I pass out.
Cheers, Reviews rock.
Thank you to all my regular readers, regular reviewers, and the rest of you.
I finished chapter 35 (not that I've finished everything in between), and things get spicy. Don't worry; it's not all romance.
MDQ10