It was 5 to 12

IV. It was ten past six

It must have been raining. The ground was covered with puddles that mirrored the orange streetlamps, a hint of haze just above them - it made the mood of the back street somewhat mystical.

I had eyes glued to the pavement not to wet my shoes by a wrong step, as I rushed towards the Stará fara restaurant. Familiar silhouette was waiting in front of the doors for me and I was getting even a tiny bit nervous from all the anticipation I had of the date, stumbling forward on my high heels as quickly as possible.

"Oh, hey. Lookin' good," I got greeted, with a sign of appreciative surprise. Which could absolutely not be compared with the unpleasant surprise I experienced, almost stepping into one of those puddles once set on autopilot, thoughts flying bye, eyes fixed on the captain in consternation.

And, first things first, I felt a real strong urge to slap myself from having mistaken this bastard with my boyfriend. Then I let my anger fully focus on that jerk with no damn boundries. And finally voiced my frank shock. "What are you doing here?"

"You can take a wild guess," he stretched his left arm and tapped the expensive Rolex that emerged from inside of the sleeve of his coat. "Six p.m., I thought I'd remind you your part of our deal."

"Our deal? If you mean your demands you imposed on me last night under threats, I did do my part and sent you everything already. You may give me peace now."

He obviously wouldn't. Otherwise he wouldn't have weighted the journey to stall me before my dinner with Jan. Who, by the way, I really hoped would appear soon enough or I would start easily freaking out. I had expected everything but to see the Mr. Rolex that night.

"Uh-um," he took out a paper and waved it in my face. "This, Laura, really?"

Considering it was very clearly my latest pretty-not-pretty article, I believed the answer was 'really'. Yet I was too taken aback by the fact he waited for me at the restaurant, that he already had my interview printed out, I didn't get a breath to give him the answer. After all, he didn't wait for one.

"One page, one side, Laura? No, I will most certainly not give you peace. If anything, I might easily take that for a declaration of war," the orange light of the streetlamps was challengingly glittering in his eyes as he locked them with mine. "Why do you keep the information from me, you little liar? I thought we made this clear last night."

„I sent you everything I knew," I looked down unwittingly, merely seeking escape from his uncomfortable gaze when I pretty clearly had no escape from his presence. Not in my high heels, not with the puddles all around... "Now, excuse me, I'm gonna get dinner with my boyfriend, if you don't mind." It hit me my excuse was actually true that time, which felt kinda reassuring. I had Jan coming to free me sooner or later. "Unless, of course," I tried a tired smirk, "you wanna tell me he's waiting for me somewhere else again."

„No, he's still at work," the captain reacted deadly seriously, paying little merit to my humour. That was gone now officially. The hell he knew?

"For the fact?"

"Honest word," he sneered maliciously and theatricaly examined his watch again. "Six fifteen. Jan's likely to be a few minutes late into your lovely date. But then again, that can be the least of your trouble, darling. Because unless you give me the rest of your ode to Charles, I'm afraid we're having dinner together."