Friend Of A Cannibal

Chapter Three

Friday, 4:00 PM. 

Eleanor has just closed the tailor shop. It's been a very successful week. Twenty orders were made to the shop and seventeen of those orders were fulfilled. Two of which were wedding dresses tailored by Chanel, three suits tailored by Lydia, and twelve other outfits tailored by Eleanor and the two other seamstresses, Edna and Beatrice. They made enough money that week to cover next month's rent and almost all of their clients left wonderful reviews.

She drove to her next destination so happy, so full of joy that her long awaited success was finally happening. When Hannibal opened the door and saw her there in his waiting room, smiling, it made him happy too.

"Good evening, Nora. How are you?" He asked, stepping out of the way to let her in.

She walked inside. "I'm very good, Dr. Lecter. How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you. Why are you so good this evening?" He picks up his notebook and sits with her on the chairs.

"My tailor shop has had a fantastic first week." She beamed.

"That's wonderful, Nora." He smiled at her. "It's so good to see you smile so brightly. You have a lovely smile."

"Thank you, Dr. Lecter." She almost blushed.

"What else did you do this week?" He asks.

She thought back to that evening at the beach, which was really the only thing she did this week other than go to work. "I went to the beach. But I heard a voice... It frightened me."

"Tell me about the voice you heard."

"It was someone I knew... He's not with us anymore."

"What did he say?"

"He kept shouting my name." She stirred in her seat, rubbing her arm absentmindedly.

"Why did it frighten you?" He scribed some things down in his notebook.

"I can't tell you." She wouldn't. Not yet.

"Why are you hiding? What are you hiding from, Eleanor?" His eyes are locked on her. He wants to understand her.

"I'm not ready. I'm not ready to talk about this with you." She shakes her head, the light from her face gone.

"Have you talked about this with anyone? You'll feel much better when you do."

"I told some friends around the time it happened."

"Would you perhaps be more open to talking about it if we were in a different setting? Sometimes therapy can feel uncomfortable, I understand that." This is his chance to get closer to her. He can't stop himself.

"What are you suggesting, Dr. Lecter?" She bites her lip.

"Consider coming over tomorrow for dinner. I'm an excellent chef. Then we could talk in a more intimate setting."

Is he asking me out? She doesn't want to say no. Maybe it would be nice to get closer to someone. "Okay. Sure. What time?" She has nothing better to do anyway.

"6:00 PM. You're not a vegetarian, are you?" He wrote something down.

"I'm not."

"Good. I look forward to it."

_______________________________________________________

Eleanor returns home. As she sits in her living room on the couch, watching a horror movie, her phone rings. It's a call from Lydia.

"Hello?"

"Hey. The girls and I are going out tomorrow night for drinks and dancing. Do you wanna come with?"

"What time? I have something going on at six." She shoves more popcorn into her mouth.

"Ooh, what is it? We'll be there at eight." Lydia pries.

"My psychiatrist invited me over for dinner. I think I could meet you at the club, is that okay?"

"Like as a date? Yeah that's okay. Is he hot?"

Nora shakes her head at Lydia's question. "I guess so. I don't think it's really a date."

"Okay. Well we'll see you at the club tomorrow night. Bye!" And Lydia hangs up.

Eleanor puts her phone down and finishes her movie and popcorn, but she can't take her mind off of her weekend plans and the fact that Dr. Lecter will try to get her to talk to him about killing James. Something inside her wants to, he's her psychiatrist, right? She should be able to talk to him about things like this. But can she tell him about the part where she enjoyed it? She decides to just see how the night pans out.