Mesmer

Part 8

I couldn't help but notice the veins in his right arm as he held onto the steering wheel. The part of me that flirted with him in the beginning was confused and dazed. In a whirlwind, we quickly became bigger than just a casual moment. Since training began, I hadn't allowed myself to think about him more than just my partner. Which was everything. We could be put in life or death situations together, and it didn't feel right for me to think of him as someone beautiful. Someone I was drawn too.

The image I saw when I was honing in on my seventh sense haunted me. Him and I, me and him. Alone. In a void. I wondered if my mind would torment me with that forever. If the only way to achieve and unlock my greater self had to always be associated with him.
It made things hard to say the least.

Through my haze, I could hear him laughing and telling jokes with our virtual assistant Helen. She was on the verge of artificial intelligence; she kept up with their conversation better than any human would. I wonder if everything we said would end up back to Whitlock. She assured us everything that happened was between us, and James trusted that. I guess I had no reason not to.

He was tapping along to Helen beat boxing when he looked over at me and flashed one of his award winning smiles at me. The kind that made me melt, the kind I wondered if it was evident that I would fall and form between his fingers if he ever touched me.

We were playful. There was no doubt. He constantly hovered at the edge of a cliff of our figurative line we laid out before us. Part of me wondered if that was his just his perfected personality. But the other part of me wondered if that was just him being him. How he was and how he acted when he was happy. His charm often clouded his darkness, but it was there. I saw it when he wouldn't back down from that opponent Wombo had him train with. It had nearly been a month of knowing him, but I could always tell when it was there. His eyes just always got a little bit darker; the navy began to swirl with the icy blue.
I wonder if anyone but me noticed how his eyes churned like that.

***

"James, Ana, you're here!"
I snapped out of all my mindless thoughts and looked around. It had taken us half an hour to stop passing the suburbs and to enter the heart of town. The glass buildings hovered over us like we were mice and they were statues. I forgot what it was like to be out in the open, and for a second I closed my eyes and let myself take a deep breath in.

"Where exactly are we?" I asked as James rolled up to a parking garage and pulled our car into a spot.

"Helen said she had connections and got us a spot at this wine and steak house."

"Okay, that's fancy..." I looked at the arrowed sign leading us to the restaurant and noticed it said 5pm-12am on it. I checked the clock, it was barely noon."

"James, It's closed."

"Like I said, Helen has connections." He shrugged.

"I alerted the head chef that two important people would be coming in," Helen laughed, "There's nothing a master card can't solve!"

I gasped at Helen's statement and James joined in on the laughing.

"Mesmer has it's pull where it wants. It may be a secret, but most things are achievable with our data. Please, if you would like, there's ear pieces and bracelets with a smart tech that allows you to access me outside of this vehicle. Look in the console if this is something you're interested in. If not, enjoy your lunch. I'll be here ready to take you to your next destination!" Helen signed off, and James opened the console and grabbed a set of leather braided bracelets with a matte black, flat round screen. He tossed me an ear piece, leaned across me and opened my door.
"Let's go." He smiled and quickly got out on his side.