The next day, the sun was shining through the thin curtains and the room was quiet. It was going to be a glorious day.
Silently she slid out of bed and lifted the cover before dropping it back down, smoothing the top from creases. She fluffed her pillow and then left for the bathroom, where she washed her face and brushed her teeth. She completed her morning bathroom routine and then she had found her older clothes she could work out it in, in the box. Obviously Lola didn't feel the need to borrow these clothes. A shower could wait until after what Irina had planned. After dressing she walked down the hallway to stand at Lola's door.
At this point it was 6:08am, fairly normal for Irina, however Lola she forgot what she hated most about Irina staying over. Fortunately for Lola she had locked her door, preventing Irina bursting in, not that she couldn't pick the lock if necessary. Unfortunately for Lola, she was still deep in the REM mode of sleeping when Irina made a fist with her right hand and began hammering on the centre of the door.
Irina heard a yelp just before she found the tip of a knife embedded through the door. She gave a sharp laugh as she heard Lola roll out of bed and stumble her way to unlocking the door.
Lola was slouching against the doorknob and the door frame, she groaned and said, "What?"
Still grinning Irina said, "Come on, get dressed, you're coming with me for my morning run."
Lola rubbed her eyes of sleep, as if it would help change what she had just saw come from Irina's lips. "What?" she repeated, "No way, I'm going back to sleep."
She turned to close the door but Irina stuck out her arm to stop her. Lola just flopped back to bed, having no energy, and no caffeine in her, to prevent Irina entering.
Irina headed straight for her closet and picked out a sports bra, a loose tee and a pair of running shorts. She looked down at her body. The only scars that were showing were smaller and more unnoticable ones littering her arms and legs, the larger marks were covered by her clothing. She headed back out and chucked them at Lola, the clothes landed hitting her face.
"Get changed, meet me at the front door, you have 10 minutes," Irina said and then promptly left the room. She went back into her own room to dig around in the box of her random things to take out a watch, which doubled as a heart rate monitor and clocked her miles she would run. She put it on her left wrist and did the clasp, and after setting an alarm for 8 minutes time she went to the kitchen.
Opening up a cupboard she took out two plastic bottles and went over to the tap to fill with water. While waiting she tied her hair into a ponytail and soon enough Lola trudged out of her room as slow as a fussy toddler heading for bath time.
Irina threw the red bottle at her and she lifted a hand to reluctantly catch.
"God, why are you so fucking energetic every morning?" Lola asked grumpily, she rolled her shoulders as she stood beside Irina.
"I'm normally a morning person, Lols, you know that," she replied, "Now start stretching."
The alarm on her wrist watch decided to start beeping at that point, making it clear to Lola she was for once early. "I can't believe you actually fucking timed me."
Irina shrugged and pulled one arm across her chest, loosening up. Lola copied her movements and took a swing of the water.
"I'll run with you, but only if we go get bacon after," Lola bargained.
"You do realise one of the main reasons for dragging you with me is because of all the junk from yesterday, right? I'm not sure bacon is the best way to go, but fine, we can if we get through 5 miles," Irina offered back.
"Fuck," Lola swore, "Okay, fine." She finished stretching and jumped back into her room to grab her ipod and earphones.
"Ready?" Irina asked, she opened the door.
"Yeah, let's do this shit," Lola replied and grabbed her keys, she locked the door and they walked down to the street.
Lola looked around and said, "You got a route?"
"Yeah, follow me," Irina started a light jog on a street path. "You better work, bitch," she said, smirking.
"God, you're terrible," Lola groused, but quickly jumped after her.
They paced themselves, slowly getting into a run. They had their earbuds in and were focused on the work out, and at their 4th mile they rounded into a public park. There were other joggers in the area, running on their own or in pairs like Lola and Irina, and at that point, halfway into the park, Lola spotted someone.
She squeaked, pulled out her earphones and let them dangle around her neck before punching Irina on her upper arm. Hard.
"Ah! God, what?" Irina asked, slowing down to a stop, rubbing her arm. Lola didn't reply but instead pulled her aside, next to a bench with the cover of trees. "What did you see?" she asked.
"Oh, my god," Lola stage whispered, "It's my ex before last and his actual crazy girlfriend!"
"What's the problem?" Irina asked, a little irritated, "It's not a big deal."
"Yes, it is," she said, "It is a very big deal. Might not be to you because you can probably break his neck with your thighs, but I'm more tech support with a side of field work. And he's going to fucking recognise me."
"No, he's not, you're just overreacting, he might not even remember you, how long ago was this a thing for?"
"Uh… I don't know, like three years ago?" Lola replied, as she kept an eye on the person she used to date, she looked antsy.
"Oh, come on," Irina said, "He's not going to recognise you. Fine, here's what's going to happen: we run, like sprint the next mile out of this park and then we go for bacon, Да?"
"Okay, let's do this," Lola said quickly just before gripping onto Irina and taking off in the direction they were going.
They ran quickly but when Lola turned her head to her left she caught her ex staring back. "Fuck! He saw me, my life is ruined," she wailed.
Still sprinting Irina pinched her back in retaliation. "Pull yourself together woman, you are a super secret boss lady," she said, quoting Lola describing herself a few months back.
"Argh! Okay, yes, I am. And I will totally not fuck this up," Lola half yelled with more confidence.
After a minute they came across a small hole in the wall diner, the door painted in a dull gold. Dripping with sweat, Lola wiped the back of her hand across her forehead and used the other to push the on the handle. The bell dinged and the waitress at the counter holding a pot coffee, she flashed a smile and approached them.
"Hi, guys! Take a seat, I'll be right with you," still smiling the waitress picked up two menus swanned over.
Irina and Lola took a round table in the corner of the room. Lola immediately grabbed a napkin out of the metal stand and started dabbing sweat from her forehead and on the back of her neck. She threw herself into a metal chair. It made a loud screeching noise across the floor. Irina rolled her eyes again and sat opposite her as the waitress came over.
"Well, here you are," she said handing them the menus, "What sort of thing are you thinking of having, dears?"
Lola answered straight away, "I'll have a glass of ice water, an iced vanilla latte and a breakfast wrap with a side of bacon."
Irina huffed out a laugh. She felt happy the moment though. "I'll have an iced peach lemon green tea and waffles with blueberries and a muffin please."
The waitress finished jotting down the order on her notepad and leaned back on the balls of her feet. "I'll have that to you in a couple of minutes, all right, girls?" she asked brightly.
"Yes, thank you," Irina said, smiling politely and the waitress walked away, bouncing.
Irina looked back to Lola who was still mopping up sweat, this time from her armpits. She sighed and said, "You gotta get out more, Lols."
Lola blinked at her. "I do not, thank you very much," she said, her words were as if she was offended but she was smiling playfully, " I go out all the time, dude."
"Last time you went to a club or something?"
"3 weeks ago."
"Okay, sure. It could be worse."
Lola glared, "Just because you have missions all the time doesn't mean you're not just as bad as me. The first time you have like 5 days off, and you spend them with me: running! Oh, and movie binging. But that doesn't really help either of our cases."
"Yeah, well, we should do something tomorrow then," Irina suggested. She felt like they needed to enjoy their lives a bit more, less of the killing and more of the living. "We could go to that bar opening up. I think it's called Beyond, or something hip like that," she finished with.
"Yes! Oh, my god, what is up with you? You are totally not yourself: bars? Clubs?" Lola couldn't be grinning harder, her cute dimples were showing and she was fiddling with a brown sugar packet.
Irina looked at her, waiting for an answer. "Yes, you dummy, of course we are going to go out. Jeez, who do you think you're talking to," Lola said. Irina stared up to the patterned ceiling, half shaking her head.
The food came in time, the other customers quietly minding their own business. Afterwards they sat for a minute, taking a breather from eating so intensely, Lola did at least. Irina, in Lola's eyes, had eaten like a regular human being, but she probably wanted to blend in, spy stuff. It wasn't like Lola couldn't chow down food normally, but exercise on an empty stomach needed to be fixed. And, honestly, who cares about normal?
Eventually their plates were cleared and Irina was standing, leaning against the wall, watching Lola clumsily get up and tuck her chair in. Irina undid a a zip to a pocket in her shorts and fished out a small wad of money. Lola reached into her left trainer. She took out a $20 bill and handed it over to Irina, who shrugged but took it. They paid quickly and left before anything could go wrong, namely Lola tripping and falling over.
They stood outside the diner for a moment as Irina said, "Right, so plan of action: we walk back to your apartment, avoiding the park, get changed, get groceries and do shopping and do dinner,"
"Sounds great, bro, but don't talk about my ex or food," Lola agreed, she groaned a little and said, "I'm too full. Oh, now we have to walk like 6 miles back. Urgh."
Irina looked to Lola's hands, "You got your bottle?"
"Ah, shit," Lola said before darting lightning fast back into the diner. She flew out the door and said, "Okay, now I'm ready."
Irina laughed but started on the street on their left. Lola pulled out her phone and opened up her maps.
"Really? You don't know your way home from here? It's not even far," Irina said mock exasperatedly, nudging Lola in her arm with her elbow. Lola was too busy trying to find the fastest route to the apartment to respond.
"Got it," Lola said, pointing to her screen.
"I could have told you that," Irina said, scanning the course.
"I know, but you know me: tech is me," Lola stated. The long walk back was slow but it loosened Lola's tense muscles, and by the time they reached her apartment front door she was exhausted.
"Okay, I'm going to hit the showers, you do you," Lola garbled out after opening the front door.
"Sure thing, Lols. Give me a shout when you're done because I seriously need a wash too," Irina said, watching Lola sludge off to the bathroom. Irina picked up Lola's water bottle, along with hers and went over to the sink, she washed and rinsed them out before letting them rest on the metal drying rack.
In time the door to the bathroom opened and Lola appeared, with a towel wrapped around her body. She turned to Irina's direction and said, "Hey, 'Rina, I'm done now. And I do actually feel more refreshed and bouncy, although I'm not going running 'til like next month. I've met my quota. Urgh, I'm gonna change."
"Yeah, just wear something comfortable," Irina advised Lola as she stood up from the sofa, and Lola slinked back to the master bedroom. Irina stopped by her room to grab the outfit she had planned from the day before and then headed to the bathroom, her hands full.
She took a shorter shower than Lola but still taking her time she washed off her sweat and dirts from the run.
After slipping into her outfit she chose from yesterday, she grabbed some jewellery and went back into the living room to find Lola. She was fixing on silver stud earrings when she saw Lola lounging on the sofa with a hardback book.
"Hey, I'm done, what are you reading?" Irina asked, she pushed Lola's feet off the sofa and sat down next to her as she answered.
"It's the third Hunger Games," Lola said, putting her feet on Irina's lap.
"Is it good?" she asked, not having read these novels.
"Yes, of course, you idiot," Lola replied, "why haven't you read them yet? These books are bloody awesome."
"I read. Probably more than you, but they're all older books. Classics," Irina said, she took a look at the stack of books under the coffee table. She picked up an Oscar Wilde and read the synopsis. After deciding it was worth a go she turned to the last page.
All before Lola looked up to see what Irina was doing, and gave a strangled shout. "No! What are you doing?!" she screeched. She held her hardback in her hands, a finger caught between the pages she was reading and lifted it up. And brought it down hard on Irina's hands, smacking her book away.
"Ah! What? What did I do?" Irina questioned, shaking her right hand in the air while her left picked up the book from the carpeted floor. She rubbed her hand while glaring at Lola, non-threateningly.
"You can't do that," Lola explained, "You can not simply read the last page of a book without reading the rest. There is a reason why it's called 'page 1' and 'page 435', okay?"
Irina just nodded along, not feeling like being hit with the Hunger Games again. It wouldn't really do much damage to her but books on knuckles isn't generally a good idea. Instead of complaining she opened the book to the first page and waved it in Lola's face to show her clearly what she was doing. Lola nodded approvingly.
They read for the next few hours, only getting up for snacks and toilet breaks, it was what Lola would call 'fun'. Irina, on the other hand, didn't hate it but didn't love it, reading was just something to pass time and so when she checked her watch and it was around 1pm, she closed her book and stood up. Lola looked up from her page as Irina stretched like a cat waking from a long sleep. Irina found a bookmark, stuck it in the Hunger Games and put it back under the coffee table.
Rolling her head around she groaned and said, "Come on, we've got to get changed."
She looked down at Lola who was dozing into her book. Irina grabbed a cushion off the couch and flung it lightly at her general direction.
"What? What, I'm awake," Lola said, startled up. "I can't be bothered. Cry." She extended an arm, which Irina took and helped lugg her up.
They trudged into Lola's walk-in closet and sorted through the mess until discovering hidden treasures under the buried piles of clothing.
Finishing up Lola stood in front of the mirror and asked, "Does my butt look big in this?"
"Stop twisting around. Your butt is awful, but no one is going to notice," Irina said, pulling on a worn leather jacket. She threw a stylish grey blazer at Lola when she saw that she was about to start protesting.
"Whatever, let's go," Lola replied, jacket on her arm and a bag slung across her body. Irina snatched up the keys from the front and tossed them to Lola, who slipped them smoothly into her bag. "I'm so slick," Lola said, bumping her shoulder into Irina's.
"I think you'll find that I'm the spy here," Irina said.
"Yeah, but where would you be without me?"
Irina looked up, pretending to think, "In a 5 star hotel. With constant room service. And a bucket of ice with an old bottle of wine."
"Okay, but this is Vancouver. You'll get maple syrup soda and toy moose," Lola said.
They were now walking down a street not far from the bar they were going to and on the other side of the road there was a group of girls dressed up in hot pink, they held empty shot glasses in their hands and had feather boas wrapped around their necks.
"I swear to god, if those flouncy girls are in this new bar I'm going home, " Lola said, throwing suspicious looks in their direction.
Irina raised an eyebrow. "When did you become such a bore?"
Irina and Lola arrived at the bar, it had a bright and warm atmosphere, they sat at a table and ordered drinks. They spent a few hours there, chatting and getting slightly tipsy with other customers. It was a comfortable and down-to-earth place, but soon enough Irina checked the time on her watch and decided it was getting late, she had errands to run in the morning and although she could just about hold her own against alcohol, anymore and she would wake up with a hangover.
She glanced at Lola who was sipping a vodka martini. Lola put the glass down and picked up the olive before popping it off the cocktail stick and started chewing it.
"God, I love olives," she said loudly, "We have to get a jar on the way back!"
Irina laughed and asked, "Okay, you wanna go now?"
Lola looked appalled at the suggestion, but then looked at her near-empty drink resignedly, "Yeah, all right." She downed the rest and looped her arm though Irina's. They said goodbye the barman and the other people they were friendly with.
They walked together down the pavement under orange streetlights. Lola was beginning to enter the sleepy stage of being drunk and her head was resting on Irina's shoulder, it helped that Irina was a few inches taller than her and that she was in heels, nice ones at that.
They walked for a few minutes and took turns down roads in the direction of Lola's apartment before Irina felt someone behind them, and heard a faint shuffling.
Irina looked back and quietly muttered to Lola, "Hey, turn in here," she gestured to a dark doorway, "and take off your jacket."
She shrugged off her own and switched quickly. Lola looked at her oddly but did as she was told.
There was a low urgent tone in Irina's voice. "Keep walking on," Irina commanded.
Lola frowned but strolled sluggishly forward in the direction they were going in. Irina stood still in the covered area for a few moments and peered down the street they had come from.
There was a man closing up on Lola's path, he was in a baseball cap, dark jacket and black jeans. Soon enough he was two feet away from Irina's grasp. She jumped.
Catching him by surprise, he yelped but didn't fight back. She took his wrist in one hand and then struck down with her elbow onto his. He cried out and she twisted the same arm around his back.
"Who. Are. You." She growled out. Each word was punctuated with a slam of his body against the brick wall as Irina gripped him tight at his collar.
At this point Lola stopped walking away and had rushed towards the scene. She was taken back from the commotion. "What the fuck?" she said in a high voice, now standing a couple of feet from the pair. She was very much sober now.
Irina turned to look at her for a short second before going back to dealing with the victim at her mercy.
Lola narrowed her eyes and said, "I maintain: what the fuck?"
Irina tightened her grip on his arm, making him whimper. "He was following us, I noticed a few streets back."
"What do you mean he was 'following us'?" Lola said incredulously, "he could literally just be some guy going home. Can't believe this is happening," she rubbed her forehead, "Can you find out if he's was gonna kill us or what?"
Irina just gave her a look and said, "What do think I was doing?" She waved her free hand at him. He groaned.
She shoved him against the wall harder. "Who are you?" she asked again, "Where are you from?"
He didn't answer. So Irina flipped out a knife out of her boot and looped her arm around his neck, pressing deeply on his jugular.
The man gave another whimper but still didn't say anything. Irina removed the knife from his neck and instead embedded it in the front of his right shoulder. He shouted out in pain and began crying. As he was sobbing he tried to prevent his body moving because it cause him to flinch violently. By trying to stop himself writhing in agony, he made snot come dribbling out of his nose.
Lola yelped when the knife went in, "Ah, gahd!" Not expecting Irina to move so suddenly. However she had started cringing as she said, "Oh, look at him, he's crying now. He's ugly crying."
Irina rolled her eyes but inwardly agreed with Lola. The guy wasn't much in terms of espionage but he definitely wasn't a regular civilian. Irina could tell. She knew these kind of things.
"Yeah, he just completely lost his shit, right?" Irina asked casually, just before twisting the blade slightly, side to side.
"Argh! All right, all right!" the man forced out. "The Scarvos, I'm a Scarvo," he finally choked.
"Wow, he really doesn't know how to withstand torture, not even severe stuff," Lola said, know she could probably hold her own for longer than he did. She asked, "Who are the Scarvos?"
Irina glowered and the back of the man's head, "Italian-Russian mob, there's a family made from the two counties, a marriage, an alliance if you will, back in the 80s. And they've been working together ever since."
Irina gave a quick glance to Lola to check on her, she was freaking out a little internally but she would be okay. She turned back to the member of the Scarvo mob and said, "The Bratva aren't afflicted with your group but they keep track, and they'll want to know why you're following me, I'm on good terms with them."
Rapidly, Irina sheathed her blade and flipped the man on his back, earning her a small screech from him. "You still haven't told us who you are and your purpose is with us."
He stuttered but didn't say anything else, Irina sighed and said, "Lola, pat him down."
"What? Why do I have to do it?" she asked, not particularly wanting to go near the mobster.
"Because I'm the one holding him down. This is why you don't go in the field, and also why you're never partnered with me."
Lola glared at Irina who was half smiling, and steeled herself and then knelt down, patting his trainers and his jeans, before searching through his jacket. The only weapon she found was the glock in back of his waistband.
"Honestly, what kind of member of a mob are you? Is this what you call armed?" Irina asked him, trying to get a rise out of him.
The guy grunted and kept his head down. Irina pinched him by the nose and forced him to look into her eyes. His breathing began to change and Lola lightly slapped his cheek and said, "Hey, answer the question, and yes we're both bad cops. There are no good cops here."
The dim light in the alleyway covered the fear in his face. He said quickly, "My brother got me in, I didn't want to die, so his friend in the Bratva got him into Scarvo and now I can't get out." He gave a hiccuped sob.
Irina's phone buzzed, she checked the message and put it away. Then she drew back and stopped for a moment, and swung hard, knocking him out. He crumpled to the ground in a wet lump.
Lola looked surprised for a hot minute but shrugged and nudged his ankles with her heel. "Eh, he'll be alright," she said offhandedly.
"Yeah," Irina said in agreement, "Come on, we need to leave."
She linked arms with Lola and they started in the direction of the apartment, with only the humming street lights shining on the pavement as company.