Dei Amor (formerly "Deus Relicta")

Chapter 6 : A Daring Invitation

"Lucille, where are you going? It's only a half hour until supper!"

Lucille tugged on her boots and tried to glance over to see where Matron's voice came from, but accidentally tripped on her own shoe laces and fell into the coat rack instead.

"I'm going to find Aida." She said, frantically pulling on her coat from the fallen pile of (mostly) children's trench coats. "And I'm going to invite him to supper."

"What?! I've only prepared stew, not exactly fit for a God-"

"Don't worry, it's the thought that counts, and I feel simply awful for avoiding him this long. I must make up for it somehow."

"-Not to mention that it's extremely brazen for the woman to invite the man to her home!"

"It's only a simple invitation.... if he takes offence then...I guess he takes offence. But he's sweet, I don't think he'll be upset."

"When dating a man you must wait at least a year before kissing, let alone inviting him to your home. And you, my dear, are not even dating him."

"But I'm not doing it with any romantic subtext." She lied, "If I had any other friends, I would invite them over just as quickly too."

"I can smell your lies stronger than garlic, Lucille Lorin-"

"But Asteria said he was pure, Matronnnn-"

"That doesn't mean you get to flood him with your presence every waking second. You have a right habit of sticking to people worse than a Velcro weed."

"But I haven't seen him in ages. I feel simply awful. And it's only for supper, and I won't do anything rude, and I'll even clean the upper floors for the week, I promise."

The last part caused Matron to pause in consideration. There was a long minute of silence, and then she spoke: "Lucille Lorin you better mind your manners around him, do you understand?"

"Thank you! Thank you, Matron. See you soon!" She was out the door before Matron could reply, sprinting excitedly to the Tea Shoppe where Aida most likely was (or so she hoped).

Down the rickety streets Lucille ran, across the town, through the square, until finally she burst into the Shoppe, gasping for breath because she had been foolish not to pace herself in the slightest.

No one took much notice of her, and was made her way to the back, to the booth where Aida had been the last time.

And there he was, lying half across the table, fast asleep on a pile of papers, with books scattered around him in an unceremonious manner. Beside him, on the booths, were small mountains of random items (including the missing gold bar from their first meeting sitting at the top of the nearest pile).

She approached him slowly, trying to think of something clever to say to wake him up, but her mind and ran blank and so she simply prodded his shoulder with the pointy end of one of his books.

"Aida, wake up."

He groaned but didn't move.

"Wake up, you're worse than a tired cat, my goodness."

Aida sat up slowly, brushing strands of loose hair from out of his face. "What rude manners..."

"I'm sorry for waking you, and I'm sorry I couldn't see you until today; Matron forbid it. But it's all good now, Asteria took care of it."