Conflict Of Interest - Part 2 (When Your Crazy Ex-Sister-In-Law...

A table for three

The next morning was hectic. 

Sergio was full of nerves, as he did his best to make sure to get his people safely out of the bank. Alicia watched him pensively from a corner, while rocking her daughter in her arms. Unfamiliar names reached her ear again and again, she could not follow what exactly was happening nor the reasons why Sergio and this Marseille were worried or happy in certain moments. She didn't even really want to understand. She just felt like an outsider. 

After the various events of the previous day, she was in no mood to talk to the guy either, so she was glad that he was busy and she did not have to actively avoid him. As the reminiscences about her dream from the night before faded, Alicia tried to not even give it another thought. It was just a random dream after a weird day, nothing else... And  beside all that, was still difficult for her to process how people doing illegal things on such a crazy scale as them, could be also this good at heart. Then again, it occurred to her how people like her or her colleagues, doing allegedly good things, could be awful at times as well. She took a deep breath and smiled at her daughter. I'll try my best to not be an awful mother, I promise. This insanity ends today. 

She was shaken out of her thoughts when Sergio appeared in front of her. 

"I got an answer regarding your new documents. My friend said that he'll try to acquire them as soon as he can, but it still will take around two weeks to get here. There's nothing we can do to fasten the process. Well... unless you have some trusted friends in the local institution, so that we don't have to it get from abroad..." he added bitterly.

Alicia made an unimpressed grimace hearing his remark. "It's okay." she smiled. "You did enough already. Thank you!"

He nodded. "In a couple of hours we can leave this place. And... " he scrached his head. "What I said earlier about that safe house still stands. I hope that... that awkward moment we had yesterday won't stop you from accepting it if you need a place to stay at. Nothing like that will happen again, I promise. It was just... well, I guess I start acting weird when I am tired and stressed too. You flirt, I... well, looks like I do the same, just a lot more clumsyly..."

Alicia laughed. "It wasn't clumsy..." she raised her glance on him. "Just-"

"Inappropriate." he finished her sentence instead of her.

Alicia didn't say anything, but she seemed to agree. "It's okay, I've told you. From my part we can get past that. Especially because...." she added more hesitantly. "I think I'll have to once again lean on your kindness..." she pressed her lips into a thin line. "I've been thinking, but I couldn't come up with a better solution for these weeks..." 

A nervous smile flew over Sergio's face. But when he reassuringly nodded, he seemed to be almost relieved as well. 

.

"So, this would be it." Sergio stopped the car in front of a small house on a hidden hillside.

Alicia looked at it with an unreadable expression. She started to be dominated by a heavy feeling the moment Sergio drove past the river and towards the hill.

"It used to be my grandfather's." he continued. "It was abandoned for years, but then we renovated it and started using it for-"

"-storing your early plans for your heists, before it would end up on the big table." Alicia said without moving her gaze from the building. Sergio looked at her being baffled. She turned towards him and gave him a sad smile. "Like the dusty garage for the yet nameless cool group of kids who are trying to set up a rock band. Or something like that."