Chapter 17

May 27, 2000 - 17:00

Coralis had a home game in the afternoon against India. She was supposed to go to Victoria’s after the game, so they could get ready to go to her semester party, but she had been sent on an emergency mission in West Island right after it.

She found out through her mentor that since Lord Meozo’s horrendous years, the EBEE has been collaborating with the CMMA quite often, sometimes pairing up a CMMA agent with an EBEE one, just in case the suspects were also involved outside the continent. Considering that Coralis had to spend a lot of time in Montreal because she was part of the Canadian national flyball team, she shouldn’t be surprised if their superiors would take advantage of it to send her on missions there.

She warned Victoria that she might arrive late, but that she would be there. However, she didn’t tell Frank. She saw him once after that night they kissed, but didn’t really talk: she had to stop at Victoria to drop money for her to book a moving truck, but couldn’t stay. She saw him as she was walking out of the elevator, but she didn’t want to be late for her flyball practice, so she was in a rush. She hoped that he wouldn’t think she was ignoring him on purpose, even if she didn’t really know what to make of the situation.

When he noticed that she still wasn’t there an hour after they arrived, he asked Victoria about it. He didn’t have any of her phone number and was hoping to be able to at least give her his numbers that night. He knew she was busy with work, but he was still interested in getting to know her and asking her out on a date when she was available. Victoria asked him for his phone, so that she could send a ping to Coralis’ pager. She sent two.

Maribel was there and noticed that Frank was getting anxious and nervous over it.

“Is there something going on between the two of you?” she asked him.

“Actually, I kept wondering about that, as you’ve been talking hell of a lot about her for the past few weeks,” said Mark.

Frank wasn’t sure what to answer them because he didn’t know himself if there was something between him and Coralis. He hoped there was, but he wasn’t sure, considering they didn’t talk since they kissed a few weeks prior. He felt his phone vibrating in his back pocket and pulled it out to look at it. He looked at the phone number, but he didn’t recognize it and decided to ignore it. Victoria’s pager beeped just as he was about to admit that he liked her.

“Coralis is on her way,” said Victoria, “she will be here in 15 minutes.”

Maribel sipped her drink quietly, unfazed, while the others gave her an odd look.

“How could you tell all that from a pager ping?” said Carlos while she received a second one.

“Let’s just say that me and Coralis have been talking in codes for about 10 years,” said Victoria while looking at the second ping. She then looked up to Frank, who was still holding his phone in his hand, “that phone call you ignored, well that was Coralis, probably from a payphone. Well, now she has your number.”

When Coralis arrived, she spotted her friends. Maribel saw her and waved at her. Coralis waved back to let her know that she had seen her, and headed to the bar. She needed a drink. Victoria and Mark looked in the direction Mirabel had just waved, and saw Coralis, wearing a short dark blue dress with spaghetti straps and white flops.

“Coralis finally made it,” said Victoria, smiling. “She’s at the bar.”

Frank’s eyes went wide for a second. He chugged his drink and got up.

“Anyone needs a drink?” he said.

“Another pint for me,” said Mark while pulling his wallet out.

Frank grabbed his money and headed to the bar. He’d been debating about asking the group if they wanted another drink: he was tight on money and wanted to make sure he’d had enough to buy her a drink. He still hadn’t admitted to them that he liked her and he wasn’t sure if it was mutual. Seeing that none of his friends had empty drinks, he decided to play it safe and ask them if they needed another drink, so it wouldn’t raise suspicions.

“Yup,” said Maribel, “think there is something going on between these two.”

“I’m starting to think that you might be right on that,” said Victoria, looking at her, “but I never got anything out of her if that’s the case.”

“So you’ve had suspicions.”

“Yeah, when she got to my place 5 hours later after she told me that she was at his dorm… she did quickly change the topic.”

Frank got to the bar just as she was placing her order. The bartender nodded. Before the bartender could turn around to prepare her drink, he placed his. The bartended nodded.

“You finally made it,” he said.

“Yes, finally! Did I tell you about my work liking me more than I like them?”

The bartender came back with the drinks, two pints of beer for Frank and a double scotch for Coralis. She paid for them before he pulled his wallet out.

“Well Vic, if it can make you feel better,” said Mark, while watching the scene from afar, “he never said anything to me as well, and I am supposed to be his homie and roommate. Clearly, I am missing something here.”

“They do make a cute couple,” said Maribel.

“Honestly, I’m actually hoping that there is indeed something between them. I don’t know much about him, but I think he’s a nice guy. I know Coralis. I think she does need someone like him…and that says a lot.”

“I second that. Same Mari, same,“ said Victoria.