The Known/Unknown Quantity

Chapter 25: Catching Up

Chapter 25: Catching Up

Madame Tracy was setting tea to boil when she caught a movement in her mirror. There, waving at her was the angel. She stepped around for a better look and saw her own reflection standing nearby.

"Oh heavens, you're early. Let me get the tray sorted out, Mr. Aziraphale." She reached backed, and her hand found nothing there. Looking back up into the mirror, she could see the tray sitting on the table, and him standing there politely grinning and gesturing in a "Ta-Da!" sort of way.

"Ever the gentleman, aren't you, dear?" she asked, after he pulled out her chair.

"Well, I look forward to your offers for a cuppa." He smiled, grasping his hands together, then with a flourish swept out his jacket so he could sit down. Tracy regarded the movements with her large doe eyes, and sweetly smiled to herself, as if confirming something.

Once seated, he added," How long as it been since you graced my bookshop with your presence?"

"Well, you're never open nowadays, are you?" she offered, pouring the tea.

The angel's cheeks colored, but he remained politely smiling. "I've been doing some remodeling."

"What a quaint way of putting it," she said knowingly. The angel's smile froze on his face.

She reassured him," It's alright, dear. Why can't you be allowed to change your curtains once in a while?"

Aziraphale relaxed and flitted a grateful look to her.

She added a little cream, stirred the cup. "Things are...different now. I'm glad you take the invitations. I enjoy these little visits, and it's only natural for us to meet proper-like. That week being a bit of a whirlwind, don't ya know?"

Aziraphale's eyes flickered. "Um, quite so, and we were all caught up in it." She handed the cup and saucer to him and he received it with another polite smile.

"So much to digest." He nodded, raising the rim to his lips.

As he sipped, she added," By the way, are you ever going to tell him? Mr. Crowley? About our prior acquaintance?"

"It did come up the day after that ridiculousness," She offered him a biscuit, the kind with a hint of lemon in it sprinkled with sugar, and he accepted it graciously. "As he did his encounters with you. My, but it's a very small world."

"A small world, indeed," she replied over folded hands, still watching him immersed in his nibbling, sipping the tea, smiling at her with genuine enjoyment. For a moment, she let herself drift back a few years.

Acquaintances, that's all they had ever been. They knew not each other's names or very much else. Enough perhaps, eventually. A strong enough connection that when the angel was in such desperate need, he at last "put upon her," as he had described it. He hadn't yet come to terms with the possession...

...any who, the angel and Tracy were in fact familiar with each other simply as residents of SoHo. They'd run into each other enough times. One of his first encounters with her was in passing on one rather cold and miserable day and involved miracling her up a very nice coat with matching umbrella.

That was during a brief but trying time for her in the late 80's, and she had a very flakey client who insisted on meeting her at that corner but invariably left her waiting for naught in the rain. After the second day of this nonsense, the angel popped outside with an impertinent look on his face and inquired politely, but firmly, if she would prefer to step inside and away from the weather. Flabbergasted, but bemused, she took his proffered hand and went into the shop.