Rain poured hard over Nova Scotia, seemingly following Irys and Bae wherever they went. From the ferry terminal, to the midnight ferry, to the bus ride to Bae's home, the rain bombarded them, whittling them down - masking the silence of the two 'colleagues'. Not a word was spoken between them. Aside from moving from one public transit to another, neither of them stirred or moved a muscle - always sitting one seat apart.

But, as the bus drove up the incline of Dartmouth's Nantucket Avenue, Bae reached for the yellow cord dangling from the roof of the bus and tugged on it.

DING!

A digital chime rang broke the uneasy silence. Bae looked up to the electronic display on the ceiling. It glowed bright red and read 'STOP REQUESTED'. Bae wrinkled her nose, held onto the seat in front of hers and felt the bus slow down to a halt.

FTT-TISHH~

The bus doors opened with a hydraulic hiss. The cacophony of the pouring rain came back to Bae's ears in full blast.

"This is our stop." Bae spoke for the first time in thirty minutes.

Irys simply nodded quietly.

The two ladies brought out their work suitcases, held them over their heads and jogged to the safety of Bae's apartment building. They went through the foyer and took the stairs up to the Bae's studio apartment on the fourth floor, leaving a small trail of rainwater all the way.

Bae unlocked the door, showed Irys inside, put away their briefcases and helped the Nephilim out of her drenched coat. When she did, she saw Irys shiver for a moment and she spotted the goosebumps on the Nephilim's fair skin. The coat had taken the brunt of the rainfall, but the rest of Irys' clothes were wet to some degree too.

'She's been freezing all this time?' Bae frowned, holding Irys' damp coat in her arms, 'Good thing I didn't let her go… but now…' She turned towards the Nephilim who was looking at the now partially-damp Nova Scotia flag hanging over Bae's open window, 'No use running away from it now.'

…

Bae hung up Irys' coat together with hers, closed her bedroom window behind the flag, cranked up the old radiators of her room and turned to her quiet guest.

"I'll get us some changes of clothes." Bae declared, taking charge of the situation. She then looked Irys in the eyes and made her an offer, "While I do that - want coffee?"

"Sure." Irys answered - the first words she'd spoken since they crossed the harbor.

Bae nodded, set a kettle of water on her stove and rifled through her drawers for clothes they could use. All she could find that could fit the taller Nephilim, however, were loose band-branded T-shirts and short shorts from their university days.

'Better than catching a cold, I guess.'

She picked the least cringiest stuff she could find for Irys and chose similar garb for herself - a knock-off jersey shirt of the Australian National Football team from 2018. Irys glanced at Bae's selection of clothing for the two of them. For a moment, she seemed like she was about to chuckle, but she covered her mouth and closed her eyes - extinguishing the mirthful flame in her eyes quickly.

The Nephilim snatched the oversized Streetlight Manifesto T-shirt and shorts from Bae's hands and changed in the washroom. Bae, meanwhile, changed her clothes in the bedroom - which was the only other 'room' in the studio apartment. All the while, Bae checked on the water kettle and prepared the coffee.

By the time Irys finished changing into Bae's old clothes, Bae set down two cups of coffee on a coffee table between the Nova Scotia window flag and her bed. Irys sat down and started sipping her coffee. Bae followed suit, waiting for the storm in her apartment that was brewing before her.

"Do you remember how the two of us met?" Irys started, looking into the mirror-like coffee in her cup, "At that coffee house by University Avenue in Australia?"

"How could I forget?" Bae replied, swirling the coffee in her cup, "An indie band we liked was playing that night. We crossed paths in the mosh pit. You were drunk."

"And so were you." Irys snorted. She rubbed her temple and sighed, "You were trying to crowd-surf towards the stage. The bouncers yanked you out." She shrugged, "They thought I was with you, so they yanked me out too!"

"So we protested outside the backdoor of the coffee house till' the bouncers threatened to call the drunk tank." Bae chuckled a little and set down her coffee cup, "I still remember what we said back then. Even now." She cleared her throat and repeated, "'We're gonna make our own band and perform in this damn place - then you'll be sorry!'"

Irys nodded, remembering those very same words herself.

"We actually made it happen." Irys recalled, playing memories of their golden youth right there in the confines of Bae's apartment, "Right there and then, we promised to make a band. A month later, we performed at that very same coffee house and rocked the place."

"Caesura of Despair. That original song you cooked up back then." Bae hummed, imagining the events herself too, "We became regular acts of that place, then we did gigs around the university town - always searching for bigger and better stages. Onwards and upwards!" She held her coffee cup close to her heart and felt its warmth, "It got so stressful that it started to take its toll on us. But we stayed strong. We were there for each other."

"We were." Irys sighed. Her eyes narrowed, "So much so that after one of our shows, we got a little too close backstage." She closed her eyes and sipped her coffee, "We became a couple after that. You brute."

"Hey, you enjoyed it." Bae sneered.

Irys smiled for a moment, but her frown returned with a vengeance.

"We were just kids back then with a bit too much time on our hands. No plan, no nothing." Irys added, "Our summer years were gonna end one way or another, but we held on as long as we could." Locks of Irys' maroon hair drooped down her brow and her two-colored eyes glistened with tears, "When we caught the attention of that record label, things went downhill from there."

Bae turned away from Irys and turned her eyes to the window behind the Nova Scotia flag.

"It happened so quickly. Just like this damn storm." Bae lamented.

"We could have been a band touring around the country - and maybe the world. We could have been model students - gunning for the big bucks with the white-collared elites." Irys started to count with her fingers but clenched her fist, "We wanted to get the best of all worlds and got nothing for it." Her eyes turned to Bae, glaring sharply at her, "Or rather, we couldn't choose a single thing and all of that slipped us by."

"That was… my fault." Bae turned away from Irys' glaring gaze, "I said that I'd handle things… but I couldn't pull the trigger." She covered her face, "I let all of that slip away - and I'm sorry."

Irys folded her arms.

"Good. I've been waiting to hear that from you for thirteen months now." The Nephilim stared down the rat-girl, "I should have been more decisive back then too, but I relied on you too much. We relied on each other too much. I don't want to make that same mistake again." She swirled her coffee in her cup and watched the maelstrom brewing within it, "I didn't want to see you again in Nova Scotia. I was trying to get away from you - to distance myself from you, but here we are again. Somewhere in the between." Irys furrowed her brow, "It makes me think about what we could have been. I hate that. So, so much."

Bae's heart skipped a beat. She felt chills run up her spine. The coffee cup in her hand and the studio apartment around her suddenly felt awfully cold, even with the radiators at full blast. Bae opened her mouth, but no words escaped her lips.

Lightning flashed beyond the windows again, followed by the thunderclap - and Irys' ultimatum.

"You insisted that we be colleagues at Bread Dog, Bae. I can play that role and have fun from time to time - maybe even reminisce here and there. But I want to be absolutely clear about us. I want you to be absolutely clear with me too." Irys declared, wiping the tears at the sides of her eyes, "I don't want you playing with my heart anymore. I don't want to guess anymore. I don't want to wait for something that might never ever come at all!" She paused and looked at Bae once more, "I'm prepared to move on and start anew here. If you have nothing else to say about it - and if you care about me at all - please respect that."

Bae gulped. Again, she opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't have words to say. She couldn't look Irys in the eyes. That was all the answer that Irys needed. The Nephilim stood up and took her coffee cup with her.

"I appreciate the kindness and the concern you've shown me and for the wonderful night out in town. I'll be staying here till the storm passes." Irys emptied her cup into the sink, washed it down and claimed the sofa across the room from Bae's bed, "Don't mind me for tonight. Then, when we meet up at work on Monday, we'll put all of this behind us. Tonight was just a colleague helping a colleague. Nothing more."

"I… understand." was all that Bae could muster in that moment. She had many more things that she wanted to say, but she had none of the courage to say it.

Bae hung her head low, cleared out her coffee table and switched off the lights. The rat-girl climbed into her bed, stealing glances of the Nephilim on the sofa until her eyes grew heavy. Then, after a dreamless night, the storm had passed and morning came.

When Bae turned to the sofa, she saw that it had already been tidied up. The Streetlight Manifesto shirt and the university shorts were laid out on top of it, folded neatly too. Irys herself, however, was already long gone.

…

Nowhere With You

Nor'easter

…

To Be Continued