Time Stands Still

Chapter 11

 I stayed out of the case after I made the realisation that my mother had worked for Barkin Good. I was surprised that I hadn't thought of it earlier, but honestly every single thing that was related to my mother, I had tried to push down as far back into my mind as possible. Apparently I had done a pretty good job at it.

Until yesterday.

So now I was using all my abilities to put all that information back far into my brain and let MapleTechs go for awhile. I suspected that the only things I would find about would be about me and my mom.

There was some things that I could live without knowing.

Luckily or perhaps unluckily, Aria had started to consider me one of her great friends and invited me to come over to her house that weekend. Her fiance was out of town and she wanted company.

I decided to really just go as a friend this time and I would avoid talking about her work with her. My mind needed to stay away from anything to do with MapleTechs and my mom.

Aria had a townhome a little bit outside of Seattle. It was made of dark brown bricks and had a black roof. Although the description of the house sounded quite dark, the atmosphere of it was surprisingly cozy. There were warm red curtains hanging in front of the windows and the walls on the inside seemed to be a warm yellow. It honestly did not seem to fit Aria's personality at all.

"Hey," I smiled when she opened the door. I also gave her a hug more for my sake, because Aria completely froze.

Aria gave me an awkward attempt at a smile. "Hi."

We both stood still for a few seconds before Aria motioned me into her home. The tour of her home was skipped, because there were some renovations going on in the other rooms. The coffee was already set on the little glass table in her living room. The walls were indeed a warm yellow. Everything was warm in the inside of this house.

Perhaps it seemed like that because of the cold interior of my apartment.

The conversation started about Aria's wedding planning. I purposefully led it there because I really did not want to talk about her work nor did I want to talk about my work. After all, she still thought that I worked as a technician.

I didn't know a thing about anything technical.

"So would you like to come to my wedding?" She asked. Her eyes were staring at me imploringly.

"Me?" I asked slightly surprised. I really shouldn't have been surprised.

"Of course, we have become good friends."

I shrugged. I certainly had better friends, but she was also one of the few friends that I did have. "Yes, I guess that I would like to come."

"Cool, cool."

I nodded in response, not completely sure what to say. I drunk a sip of my coffee in the hope that I would think of something genius to say in the meantime.

"So do you want to bring a date?"

"No," was my immediate response.

Aria seemed taken aback. "You're not dating anyone?"

"No."

Aria frowned which made me apprehensive. "You just don't seem like the type to not have a boyfriend. You seem really lovely."

I just stared at her. Not all lovely people had to have a boyfriend. Besides for all she knew, I was a horrid person to live with.

"I have a friend," she started to say.