She must have followed him here, because it was not credible that by pure chance she should have happened to be walking on the same evening up the same obscure back street, kilometers distance from any quarter where Party members lived.
Quickly glancing behind her, she noticed that he was wearing his bottle-green evening jacket with the maroon cravat. She wrinkled her nose, disgusted with his fashion decisions, and quickened her awkward pace. He was speeding up rapidly, having noticed her following him, so it was mandatory to keep him in her sights. Groaning inwardly, she sucked in her tummy and wished that she'd spent more time on the treadmill instead of eating Ben and Jerry's. Alas, she had a job to do and began to plan a detour to trap the tan man.
The first and likely most mandatory part of her plan involved a nearby building, formerly known as The Ritz hotel. There, waiting impatiently in the lobby, was her assistant, Jared.
"What kept you?" He asked, tapping his foot and waving his pocket watch in her face.
She rolled her eyes and took off toward the broken escalator to set the plan into motion. While she ran, she kept an eye on the man with the bottle-green jacket. Once again she was in awe of his clothing, which had really made keeping an eye on him in the crowd much easier, but it also made it easier for her rival to find him.
Speaking of her rival, she could see him jumping from building to building across from her and it was very nerve-racking because if he got to the tan man first, it would surely end in tragedy. As she reached the top floor of the mall, Jared's voice came crackling through her earpiece: "He's in position. Go!" Leaping through the window she prayed that she would be able to stick the landing in front of the tan man, as her gymnastic days were years in the past. To her dismay, she landed on her butt, only succeeding in surprising the man, and the man took off running in the other direction. Jared took that moment to come bursting through an alley and crash right into the escapee. As he fell to the ground she was able to hoist herself up and rush to his side.
Jared started to put himself to chiding her, but she had already taken off after the tan man, in hopes of catching him before he escaped forever. Unfortunately, her rival, DR. McCallenhathy, got there first. She watched in despair as the despicable man tackled her target, and knew this was the point at which she would give up, return home, and feast upon more Ben & Jerry's.
Disheartened, she turned and plodded back down the street prepared to face the wrath of Jared. Jared seemed surprisingly calm, however.
"I knew this would happen, again," He passively stared at her for a moment before continuing slowly, "I refuse to associate with you any longer."
Rolling her eyes, she walked after Jared as he left, still talking to him, "You say that every single time, Jared." She slipped her hand into his as they strolled, and wished that he thought of more romantic dates than this. Surprisingly he tore his hand out of hers and continued on without so much as a backwards glance, leaving her...after 20 years.
THE END
