The cold against her tongue woke her up a little, too. She had been so tired lately, and all the extra work this week at ReginaPro on top of classes was coming close to pushing her over the edge. The ice cream was exactly what she needed. Smiling evilly, Brook dropped a dollar in the tip jar. It made the servers start singing, loud and annoying. Brook ducked out the door so she wouldn’t have to listen.
Two storefronts and three bites later, Brook turned around the corner of the block and stopped. Super. She felt a tiny surge of panic trying to rise, but she didn’t let it. Softstone was standing barely ten feet away. He was leaning against a brick wall, surrounded by three high-pitched, giggling girls. All three of them wore skirts too short for this time of autumn, and they all looked like freshmen. Figured.
Brook rolled her eyes and kept walking. From behind her she heard Softstone saying quick goodbyes to the girls. Brook picked up her pace, but even so it was only a few seconds before he was walking beside her.
“Well-met in moonlight, proud Titania,” he said, trying to sound conversational. “How’s it going?”
There was clearly no graceful way to get out of talking to the guy. Brook sighed. “It’s ‘ill-met by moonlight,’ Softstone. Oberon is in the middle of a fight with Titania when he says it, and they’re still arguing.”
Softstone shrugged. “Shakespeare was never my strong point. But I’ll keep that in mind. So, how are you doing? That looks good. What flavor is it?”
“It’s delicious.” Brook demonstrated the deliciousness of her ice cream by taking a bite. “Fudge and banana.” Then she cocked her head at him. “Do you spend a lot of your time hanging out in front of the Coldstone Creamery? Softstone at Coldstone—you could advertize for them.”
Softstone laughed. “I wish. An ad contract for a place like that, and my student loans would be history. I was just supervising a money transfer into the armored vehicle for a store down the street. It’s something that the local businesses have asked us to help with when we have the time.”
Brook had stopped walking to talk with Softstone, but now she started moving again. The supe followed alongside her. Brook resisted the urge to glare.
“And you have time to work extra security? You don’t have anything better to do, like track down the rogue supers who attacked ReginaPro?”
“I would rather do that instead,” Softstone said. “All of us would. If it really was rogues and not freak lightning, it’s a huge issue. But we’ve gone as far as we’re allowed to legally, and ReginaPro’s given us almost no access—so we can’t do any more investigation. It’s frustrating, Titania. But we’re all doing our best to keep a lookout for other similar activity.”
The way he kept calling her Titania was really starting to grate on her nerves, and Brook knew it was just a ploy to get her to tell him her real name. There was absolutely no way she was going to do that. Brook turned a corner and continued walking down a side street. She had been heading toward her parked car originally, but now that Softstone was following her she didn’t want him to see her license number.
It was also annoying that he was telling her things she knew weren’t true. “I’m sure ReginaPro is giving you all the cooperation they think is necessary,” Brook said sternly. “They’re really upset by this whole thing—from what I hear.”
“It may be as much as they think is necessary, I don’t know, but it’s not enough,” Softstone said. He did sound frustrated. “All of us think they’re afraid that we’ll steal their proprietary ad secrets and make our own version of, ‘If cookies ruled the world.’ Who knows. We’ve done all we can by them. Hey, that ice cream looks really good. Can I have some?”
“I’m sure you can.” Brook took another big bite. “Just tell the store that you named yourself after them—they should give you a free bowl.”
Softstone laughed. “You’re a cruel woman, Titania.”
“I’m not taking any chances with super-germs. But the ice cream is great.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, then. Have a good night.”
“You too,” Brook said, doing her best to look perky, instead of relieved that he was leaving.
Softstone nodded his head to her and turned away, to walk briskly back along the path they had taken.
After Softstone left, Brook took a second to check out his butt. The gossip columnist was right; it looked good.
As soon as she had finished her look, Brook leaned against the nearest wall and continued eating her ice cream. She would go back to her car as soon as she was sure that Softstone wasn’t anywhere nearby.
She definitely wasn’t going to blog about this encounter. Kati and Ira would give her a hard time, and it just wasn’t worth it. Not with everything else she had to do.
(Continue to Ira's outbox.)
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