Severed [GB + SB]

Eighteen: Rocky's Girls Are Always Cheerleaders

SATURDAY, Afternoon

Packing up the Toma team took longer than we expected since they didn't just have clothes.

Corey had a ton of computer equipment that Victor helped him pack up, plus a couple gaming consoles that he was unwilling to leave behind. Everything had cords and power packs and chargers and backup batteries, and it ended up being multiple padded crates of equipment plus the containers of the accessory items and controllers. And extra controllers. And a driving wheel. All that plus clothes and personal items and Corey alone filled Raven's giant SUV.

Axel had five aquariums full of creatures and one that was just algae: two had small fish, two had frogs, and one had a scorpion. But then Axel shut the lights and showed me how to light up the Sea Sparkle in the tank that appeared empty, and I realized he was studying bioluminescence. I helped him carefully drain most of the water off of the fish and frog aquariums so they could be transported — the scorpion's tank wasn't heavy since it wasn't full of water — but the fifth, the Sea Sparkle, had all of the water transferred into multiple sealed buckets of manageable volumes and the tank was loaded empty into the back of his Jeep Cherokee. He packed his clothes and personal items in with the buckets, the lidded tanks, the empty tank, and the storage tubs full of supplies and equipment, and that was enough to fill his vehicle up.

Marc filled his truck up with his coffee roasting equipment: his stock of a couple hundred pounds of green (unroasted) beans of different varieties, his $500 grinder (!!), an array of personal-use brewers that are apparently specific to the beverage you are trying to achieve, and his free-standing infrared coffee roaster that was almost six feet tall on its stand and can handle 22 pounds an hour if he's pushing it. That's when I found out that Marc didn't just love coffee, he was running a business supplying small batch blends to area cafés and selling over the internet, and was, in fact, the person responsible for the crack blend from the café on Gadsden that I was addicted to. He was a few months away from being able to expand into a dedicated space — mainly due to the popularity of the crack blend — and not only ramp up production but quit his table-waiting gigs to work on coffee full-time outside of Academy jobs. He promised to show me how everything worked and let me name the new blend he'd been working on, which was a mix of several varietals from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and a bean imported from Yemen. I was, perhaps, a little too excited over discovering Marc's secret life — that they claim isn't secret at all and should have been obvious by how much he talks about coffee and how he smells like coffee 24/7 — and was accused of "fangirling" him about the crack blend. Marc, on the other hand, was lit up like a blue giant star and preened like a peacock from my admiration, and I was once again reminded of how extraordinary every one of these men are, and how very lucky I am.

Raven and Brandon only had clothes and personal items which they threw into Victor's trunk, because apparently the bulk of Raven's guns were brought over Friday morning when he and Axel showed up at the house, and Brandon only has the toolbox he keeps in Raven's vehicle since the rest of his equipment is at his business ...and this is when I found out that Raven not only owns a personal armory but teaches gun safety, maintenance, and usage, and Brandon owns his own motorcycle repair and custom build garage in a sketchy part of town where North works for him when he's not helping Uncle out with his diner empire. I cut myself some slack for not knowing any of this since tonight was the first time I'd be able to spend any significant amount of time with any of the Tomas, but I still felt like the worst girlfriend ever.

Then I watched Brandon climb onto his Harley Davidson Custom Softail motorcycle and forgot everything I'd ever known, including my own name. I believe I heard muttering in the background that Raven also has a motorcycle (currently at Brandon's shop for minor repairs), and North does as well, and realized that I had seen North once before -- ages before he and Silas saved my life -- when he was dismounting his motorcycle in the Bob's Diner parking lot the morning after I met Luke. My ovaries were 'sploding, and I nodded, starry-eyed and practically drooling, when Brandon asked if I'd like to spend an evening with him later in the week and see his shop, maybe go for a ride after. Although a couple of them were smirking at me, Brandon was grinning like he'd won a prize, and there was no way I was going to miss out on that date and getting to know him better. Then I realized that he just asked me out on a date — and I agreed to go! — and despite already considering ourselves in a committed relationship, I was overcome with nerves by the idea but I think they were good nerves. Besides, I was going out with him, his brother, and Marc tonight, had a playdate with North and Owen on Sunday afternoon, a date with Owen, Gabe, Victor, and Sean on Sunday night, and Kota informed me that I'd be staying with Luke and North on Monday night and going out with Silas on Tuesday — apparently Owen created a calendar online to keep track of my commitments? — so I'd have had plenty of dates prior to my evening with Brandon (now pencilled in for Wednesday).