Regenerate

Chapter 7

I'm fidgety the whole way over on the metro. I'm trying to imagine what I'll talk to this guy about, and suddenly it doesn't seem so smart that I invited him out to dinner.

I realize I'm messing with my pepperspray necklace, and I force myself to put my hands in my lap. I don't want to accidentally spray myself or anyone else (even if I would recover very quickly). After a minute, sitting still is too much, so I pull one of the trackers out of my purse and begin examining it. It's small. It almost seems too small, and I wonder where Mantis got it, if he invented himself or got it on the black market.

The resources this guy has kind of scare me, and I know I need to learn more about him. I just don't know how.

I'm plenty early getting to my meeting spot, twenty minutes before our decided time, but I only have to wait five minutes for him to show anyway.

We take a seat and the waitress gets our order. I shift awkwardly in my seat when she tells us that we look cute together. This isn't a date. Not really. I wonder if that's what Derek thinks it is.

I mentally check myself. Derek thinks that I think his name is Oliver, the one that he gave me. I need to remember that. No slip ups.

"You recovered from yesterday?" he asks as we sit there awkwardly.

"Yeah," I say. "Nothing to even recover from, thanks to you."

Derek shrugs. "Well situations like that can still be kind of traumatizing."

"I've seen worse," I say.

He looks me over, as if not sure how to take that comment. "You run around dangerous neighborhoods by yourself a lot then?"

"Don't you? Weren't you also alone in a dangerous neighborhood last night?"

"It's different."

"Why? I ask. "Because you're a man?"

"Because I'm also dangerous," he says. I wonder if he's talking about his ability, but he winks at me like it's a joke. I'm not convinced it is. I clear my throat, ready to start a new topic of conversation. "So what do you do? Tell  me about yourself."

He averts his eyes, obviously uncomfortable talking about himself. "I'm between jobs right now, but I'm looking."

"You have family in town?" I ask before remembering that his family might be a sensitive subject. It wasn't very long ago that they died. He just shakes his head. "What about you?" he asks.

"No family around here." Or anywhere. "I'm working..." My voice trails off as I try to think how I could describe my job.

"I'm an assistant to a detective."

"That sounds exciting," Derek says, though his eyes flash with a hint of suspicion.

I shrug. "Not really. Lots of paperwork and fetching coffee." I imagine myself fetching coffee for the faceless, nameless Mantis. The thought is actually sort of funny. But I don't laugh because Derek wouldn't get it.

"Is that what you want to do?" Derek asks. "Be a detective?"

"I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with my life," I say. "But I think I'd like to work in crime prevention, in some way. I thought this job would give me a chance to explore the possibilities."

"And is that why you were walking around a bad neighborhood? Because you have a love for crime prevention?"

"No, I just got lost. You're the one who was preventing crimes yesterday."

"Well, I'm glad I could help. You should be more careful, though."

"Maybe I'm dangerous too," I say.

Derek smiles a little. "Maybe, but you don't look it. You look like easy prey."

I frown. "Why do I look like an easy target?"

"You're not very tall. And yeah, being a girl makes you more of a target."

"I guess in the future I'll have to try to only get lost in very nice neighborhoods. I'll be sure to work on that."

Derek gives me another small smile. His eyes brush over me, and I think I would blush if I were able to (to my knowledge, it's never happened. Because I'm weird like that).

"Have you considered a job in security?" I ask, trying to turn the topic back to something useful. "I may know a guy who's looking."

"Yeah. Maybe." Derek says. He bites his lip back, considering.

"I'll have to ask him, but maybe I could call you later if he has an opening?" A phone number for Derek would be nice. And for all I know, Mantis does want to offer him a job working security of a sort.

Derek shakes his head. "I don't have a phone."

"Oh."

"Guess we'd have to meet up again."

Is he flirting with me? I rarely wish I had been a normal teenager and gone to high school and whatnot. But at the moment I feel like if I had I might know how to respond to Derek right now.

After hesitating too long, I give him a smile. "I'd like that. You make for nice company."

Gross. That sounded so stupid.

Thankfully, the waitress brings our food so I don't have too long to dwell on how stupid I sound. Derek dives into his soup in an almost literal way. His table manners aren't bad, per se, but the way he devours it makes me wonder if he's hungry. In which case, he's not like me. I just eat for fun.

We eat in silene for a few minutes before I can come up with another topic of conversation. Finally, I say, "How long have you been in LA?"

"Only about six months. I'm still figuring the city out. How long have you been here?" It's information I already know from Mantis's files, but it gets him talking about himself again.

"My whole life that I can remember. I know the city pretty well, I think."

"Except for the neighborhood you were in last night."

"Well that's not a neighborhood I've ever really wanted to know."

Derek swallows a bite of his sandwhich before asking, "What were you doing down there?"

"Delivering some papers for my boss. He takes on some interesting clients."

Derek nods and takes another bite. Guess the lie was convincing, which doesn't surprise me. I've had plenty of practice lying to people about different things. 

We finish up our dinner, and I pay the check. The meal has gone by a little too fast, and I haven't found a good place to plant the tracking device. At least he's expressed some interest in seeing me again.

"Let me take you back to your place," Derek says. "I'd hate for you to get lost again."

"Yeah, that would be great." Although, I'm not sure it is great. My apartment doesn't look like the sort of place I could afford with a coffee-fetching job. I nod toward the metro, and Derek follows me over.

We ride through to my stop, making small talk about the sports teams that Derek likes (most of which I know absolutely nothing about).I have a a lie ready about how I'm watching an apartment for somebody, in case Derek seems suspicious about my housing situation, but it doesn't get brought up. We stand in front of the complex, and I try to remember the proper way to end a date. And I still have that stupid bug to plant.

"Thanks again for dinner." Derek says.

I give him my most charming smile. "Maybe this weekend you can come over for a movie." Too forward?

Derek nods. "I'd like that. Friday night?"

"Sure." Just before Derek turns to go, I go up on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek. I slip my arm around his neck as I do so, and just manage to get the tracking device attached inside his hoodie.