NOVEL NEXT 58. Underwhelmed (Amy)
As soon as my last class was over I grabbed my backpack and set out. I waved or said bye to a couple of my friends on the way, and within a minute or so I was out of the building. From there it was only about a three or four minute walk off the campus to get to the cafe.
I spotted Raven waiting for me near the bus stop at the corner. She was in what I'd come to think of as her normal form, the one she used when I didn't need her to be the imposing angel of doom. She stood a couple inches taller than me, and was wearing a black dress, black leggings, black ankle boots, and today she had a black spring jacket on.
My outfit was similar but more casual. I was in sneakers, dark grey leggings, a purple tunic top, and I had a white spring jacket with pink accents.
"Don't you usually drive?" she asked as she started walking alongside me.
I shrugged, "I wasn't sure how long this meeting would last, so I gave Tess the car for today. That way she can drive herself home after she's finished at the clinic. I can take the bus."
My angel gave me a funny look and commented, "You could take the bus. Or you could just teleport home like a normal Goddess."
"I'm not riding the bus just to keep you company," she added.
I grinned and teased, "You would if I ordered you to."
Raven rolled her eyes, "Maybe. But I don't believe you're the kind of person who'd force someone do something they didn't want to do. Not without a good reason at least."
"You're right," I agreed as we reached the door to the cafe. I took a deep breath as I pulled it open for her, and under my breath I muttered to myself "Here we go."
My angel seemed surprised that I was holding the door for her, but she stepped through then I followed her inside. We both paused there as I took a quick glance around. It was always busy, and there'd be a surge right behind us as people flocked over here after classes.
I glanced around, and was surprised to note I didn't see my former roommate here yet. And I had no idea what Kai was supposed to look like, so I wouldn't recognize him even if he was here.
Raven and I were actually about ten minutes early, but I'd been convinced Mike and his god would already be here waiting. I assumed they'd want to scope the place out and pick the best spot, I figured they'd want to be prepared.
"There's a table," my angel pointed. "Grab it, I'll get our drinks."
"Thank you Raven," I responded with a smile.
Thinking back to how she acted when we first met, I'd never have imagined she'd casually tell me to 'grab a table' like that. And I was happy for it, it felt like the more time I spent with her the more she was like a friend rather than a servant.
She was already in the short line as I took a seat at the table. There were two seats against the wall and two that backed onto the rest of the cafe, I picked one of the ones by the wall so I had a view of the door and the counter. I also took my jacket off and hung it on the back of my chair, but I kept my backpack leaned against my right leg so I could keep track of it.
A couple minutes later Raven was back with the drinks. She took the seat next to mine, and set a large coffee down in front of me. She'd already taken care of the cream and sugar for me, just the way I liked it. And she had a small tea for herself.
I smiled, "Thanks Raven. Next round's on me."
She rolled her eyes, "I already told you I serve this stuff to humans but I don't drink it myself. If you're feeling generous though, I'll accept another bottle of Red Spot when we're done."
"It's a deal," I stated with a grin, then had a sip of my coffee.
While I was enjoying that my angel said quietly, "During this meeting I will not refer to you by any name. I will be more reverential, but I will refrain from addressing you as my Goddess as we are in a public place. Please remember not to let the other God know you are anything other than the Goddess he's expecting to meet."
I leaned closer to her and replied quietly, "Understood. I'll be Amethyst while he's here. You know Mike already knows I'm not exactly her though, right? We were roommates for a couple years, he knows me."
"I know," she nodded slightly. "But the other God will still be making his own assessment when he meets you. That's what will count."
There was no more time for us to talk or plan, as the next person to step into the cafe was Mike. He was in his fancy church suit again, all clean-shaved with his hair neatly combed. I was pretty sure that was just his 'on the job' look though. Where Raven did the 'angel of death' thing, Mike did the 'bible salesman' thing. He probably went back to the three-day stubble, jeans and t-shirt look when he was off duty.
He spotted me and Raven and dipped his head slightly in recognition on his way to the counter. I didn't see anyone else with him, so I assumed his boss was going to join us separately. It crossed my mind, his boss might be one of those self-absorbed types. He probably expected Mike to get them both drinks and find a table, then he'd turn up whenever it was convenient for him.
Based on my former-roommate's business outfit I was starting to form a mental image of his god. I pictured a middle-aged guy in a perfectly tailored suit. He probably wore one of those ostentatious gold watches to show off how important he was. And I could imagine he'd be the type to take calls on his earbuds during a meeting, to demonstrate that whatever else he had going on was more important that the people he had in front of him.
Generally I wasn't expecting this meeting to be a good experience, and mostly I was doing it just to get the guy to leave me alone. I didn't want to be rude about it, but I might not hold Raven back next time Mike came banging at my door first thing in the morning.
I glanced at the time on my phone and saw it was two minutes to four as my former-roommate finally took a seat at the table. He picked the chair across from Raven, which left the one across from me open for his boss. And he had two drinks in hand, one was a medium black tea, the other looked like a extra-large frappuccino with loads of whipped cream and a half dozen shots of chocolate syrup.
My eyebrows crept up slightly as he put the foamy sugary drink across from me while he kept the boring black tea for himself. Finally he reached into the pocket of his suit jacket, and produced a couple napkins and a plastic drinking straw. He carefully placed those down next to the frappuccino.
Then Mike looked over at me and in a quiet voice he said, "Thank you again for agreeing to this meeting. My master will be here momentarily. I apologize on his behalf if he's not punctual."
I rolled my eyes and asked, "He's the type who likes to show up late to meetings?"
"He doesn't do it intentionally," Mike explained, in a tone that said he needed to defend his boss. He looked uncomfortable with the way the conversation was going as he added, "And he doesn't make a habit out of it."
Just then I felt something in the air, something I'd never sensed before. Like a faint tingle of energy. It didn't seem threatening, or even dangerous. More like I was just aware of a sensation I'd never had before.
My eyes automatically flicked to the cafe door, in time to see a tall imposing middle-aged guy in a grey business suit enter. He was clean-shaved, his hair was dark and in a short neat cut. And like I figured, he was in the middle of a conversation on his earbuds.
To my surprise the guy walked past our table and headed to the pick-up counter as he dug his phone out of his jacket pocket. I was still watching as the guy picked up his mobile order, when someone pulled out the chair across from me and slouched down into it.
"Hey, sorry to keep you waiting!" he said as he grabbed the straw Mike set by his drink. "Love the eyes by the way, you must be Amethyst right?"
For the next few seconds I had no idea what to say, as I stared across the table at the kid who'd joined us. He stabbed the straw into his foamy frappuccino and slurped up a mouthful of the sugary drink.
I continued to stare at the new arrival as did the same back at me. He made no attempt to hide the fact that he was checking me out, and his eyes lingered as he looked over the curves hidden under my top.
There was no doubt this was the god I was supposed to meet, that faint sensation I felt was definitely coming from him.
He couldn't have been more than seventeen. He had messy dark brown hair that looked overdue for a wash and a trim, watery hazel eyes, and his complexion was fair with a faint hint of a tan. I'd say he was clean-shaved but I was pretty sure he couldn't grow a beard if he tried, there were a half dozen stray hairs on his chin and a handful scattered under his nose. And in stark contrast to Mike, he was dressed in old sneakers, baggy jeans, and a loose t-shirt.
It took me another few seconds before I finally remembered he'd said something. I had a sip of my coffee then responded, "Yes, I am Amethyst. And you're Kai?"
"Yep that's me," he nodded after another gulp of his drink. "Maikel here tells me you're originally from Ireland right? Your people were south of Dublin?"
I shrugged, "Originally. And I understand you're from the north end of the Netherlands?"
Kai slurped some more of his frappuccino as he nodded, "More to the north-east, bit east of Assen. Old news though. The last few folks who remembered me headed over this way after the war, I've been hanging out around here ever since."
I continued watching him as I had another sip of my coffee. I couldn't help thinking after all the stress and aggravation that went into this meeting, after all the worries about meeting another god, the actual encounter had turned out to be pretty underwhelming so far.
Kai was nothing like I expected. He looked and so far acted like a teenager, and Mike looked more like his big brother chaperone rather than his obedient servant.
After some more coffee I glanced to the side to check my angel. Ravenna's expression was giving nothing away, she was just quietly observing both the two young men seated across from us. And Mike was about the same, he was quiet and his expression was neutral.
I finally focused on Kai again and asked, "You're the one who's been pushing for this meeting. What was it you wanted from me?"
"Right," he nodded as he sat up. "The mortals don't need us anymore, there's nothing to do, no prayers to answer, no worshipers to take up our time. It's boring, right? So I was thinking, us forgotten gods ought to stick together, you know? Maikel says you're into gaming and stuff, I thought you and me could hang out, play some games, get to know each other. Maybe we'd be a good match? We've got lots in common too. We're both hot, a couple young sexy immortals with divine power and no responsibilities? You and me could have loads of fun together."
After a moment he flashed me a confident smile and asked, "So what do you say? I've got a sweet condo in the city, wanna come back to my place and get to know each other?"
For the next few seconds I found myself just staring at him, as I slowly got my head around the fact that apparently this whole meeting was just so a teenage god could try and chat me up.
I finally responded, "I'm sure Mike already told you this, but let me make a couple things clear. First off I'm already in a relationship. And more importantly, I'm gay. So no Kai, I'm not the least bit interested."
He almost scoffed, "Come on Amethyst! You and me are the same, we both used to watch over agrarian communities. The world's moved on, they don't need us to help make the wheat and potatoes grow anymore. Now it's all about chemical fertilizers and GMO crops. So what do you do, hang out with mortals all day long? How's that keep you busy?"
His words left me thinking about the conversation I had with Raven out by the waterfall on Saturday. Hearing Kai talk about being bored, having nothing to do, no worshipers and no responsibilities, all that reinforced some of the ideas I'd been thinking about that day. He'd lost his purpose, but he seemed to think spending time with humans was beneath him.
I was left with the feeling that he wasn't just a teen, he was a spoiled teen. The divine equivalent of a bored rich kid with no ambition. And he didn't have the imagination or insight to realize he could find a new calling or purpose for himself.
"And yeah Maikel said you're shacking up with some human bitch," Kai added with a shrug. "I get it, it's better than nothing. But when was the last time you did it with another god? Seriously girl, I'll rock your world."
A scowl settled on my face. I was angry, but I tried not to let it show too much. And at the same time I was still nervous. As much as he looked and acted like a spoiled kid, he was still a god. By that point I was about ninety percent sure I was stronger than him, but I didn't want to risk a confrontation. The cafe was packed with humans, and I knew they were all in danger if things got out of hand between the two gods meeting in secret among them.
So I forced myself to stay calm and I kept my voice level and quiet as I responded, "Kai? Just fuck off and leave me alone. I'm not interested, and the more you talk the less interested I get. This whole experience has been a waste of my time. If you send Mike to bang on my door again I can't promise you'll get him back in one piece."
"Sorry Mike," I added as I glanced at my former roommate. "Nothing personal, I just hope your boss heeds my warning."
My attention returned to Kai as I stated dismissively, "You can go now, we're done here."
The teen stared at me for a couple more seconds, then put on a brave face as he sneered at me, "Your loss. Don't come crawling to me when you finally get bored of playing with your human."
With that he got to his feet, and Mike stood up as well. I didn't bother to respond, I just watched quietly as the two of them headed out the door.
Once they were out of sight I looked to Raven and asked quietly, "I hope I didn't make a mistake?"
My angel's lips curled up into a grin and she shook her head as she whispered, "No my Goddess, that was perfect."
I rolled my eyes, "I'm glad you had fun, because I feel like the whole thing was a massive waste of time."
"Anyways let's get going," I added as I stood up as well. "I'll conjure you that bottle of whiskey when we get home."
