Side Effects

Chapter 26

T/W - Terrorist attack

****

A well placed bathroom can be a real lifesaver.

For instance, if you're on a road trip, and you're desperate for relief, then a rest stop with a toilet could really come in handy. Or if you were drinking too much, perhaps you'd like to puke in a bathroom, instead of on your date. Speaking of dates, you may be desperate enough to escape into a bathroom for an unsanitary quickie! Not my thing, but hey, you do you.

Or perhaps you were having a late breakfast with Alaya and I the day after talking to Anna.

It had been a long flight full of shock, and then an emotional night after talking to Anna. As such, I was hardly surprised that we slept in, though my stomach was growling in protest at the treatment. I rolled over, finding the lovely woman next to me laying on her belly with the sheets down below her butt, and couldn't help but give each of those lovely cheeks a kiss before leaving a hot trail of more kisses and licks up her spine until I heard her moan while waking up.

"Who needs alarms when I can be woken up like this?" she said sleepily. She rolled over, then leaned up to give me a soft kiss, morning breath be damned. "Shower and food?"

I chuckled while nodding. "Yeah. I need both please."

We got our morning started, digging through our bags to find some warmer clothes than we'd needed in Mali. We hadn't even unpacked the previous night, and maybe we'd find time for that after a day of exploring. We had two days that we could use to try to enjoy ourselves before everything went to hell, so we set to doing that right off the bat.

After getting cleaned up, our first stop was a short walk to Nyhavn harbor. It was something that I think anyone visiting Copenhagen has probably seen, with colorful brick buildings filled with cafes, bars, tattoo shops and a variety of other businesses strung along a canal with lots of outdoor seating. We walked hand in hand down the waterfront for a bit, the scent of pastries and other food filling our noses, before we headed into a charming looking café.

Even as late as it was, it was pretty packed, and we had to take a seat all the way in the back, near the restrooms, with our danishes and coffee once we got them. Even from there, we had a pleasant view of the waterfront and the canal, and we'd see even more once we had our breakfast! We also learned a little bit while we'd stood in line, mostly that while danishes sound like they should be a treat made by the Danes, they're not. Not exactly anyway. The little placard stated that they had been invented there but were actually made by Austrian bakers who just happened to live there.

Go figure!

In any case, we ordered a big plate of Vienna Bread, as the locals called them. There were some called a Seed Snapper, and another called Cinnamon Snails, plus assorted others, and we happily stuffed some into our mouths before taking some more sips of coffee. I could hear Alaya sighing as the calories started to seep into each of our bloodstreams and knew that her stomach must have been protesting as much as mine.

I was licking my fingers after the second pastry disappeared into my mouth when my phone rang. I looked at the screen and wasn't shocked to see it was Anna. No doubt she wanted to give me an update, which I was hoping would be good news about having worked something out with authorities. She was always up early, so even though the sun might not be up in her time zone, she evidently was.

"Hey Anna. Good morning," I said when I answered.

"Not really. I talked to Ken last night about everything, and we decided to go in a different direction," My sister said in a very businesslike tone that immediately made me realize that she wasn't going to be turning herself in. "I always loved you, Kian, but if you could see me go to jail for the rest of my life, then I guess maybe we weren't as close as I thought. Goodbye." The call disconnected, and I looked up in confusion.