Signals

“I have a proposal for you.” 

Luce’s eyes filled with her signature sparkle and her lips curled into a smile. She reached for her iced matcha latte and took a dramatic sip.

“I want you to join a choir with me.”

The girl sitting across the table raised her eyebrows ever so slightly while still holding her own cup firmly with both hands.

“And what makes you think that’s a good idea?”

Luce took a deep inhale.

“Well, you remember Anya, right? My coworker, long brown hair, glasses; I introduced you at the conference in March. Her best friend’s boyfriend’s classmate from high school started this new choir quite recently. It’s mostly fresh graduates and doctoral students, basically people our age. And they are looking for new people to join; they are especially low on girls right now. So, I was thinking, we could give it a go. You said you sang, right? You read sheet music and stuff?”

She was talking very fast and wildly gesturing with her left hand while still holding her glass in her right.

“Let me see, what I’ve gathered: you just really want to go… but you don’t want to go alone. Is that it?”

Luce gave her a bright smile yet again and nodded sheepishly.

“I’ll come; you know I can’t say no to you. However, I can only promise you one session, and if I hate it, I won’t come again. You know I love spending time with you, but I’m way too busy to spend time doing something I hate.”

Luce accepted the terms without argument. She knew better than to negotiate once she had already said yes.

“I love you, Zheva. I promise it’s gonna be awesome. We’ll meet new people, and, you know, it’s been proven that singing together helps people get along better and form connections faster. You’re gonna love it. I’ll send you the info.”

She squealed, clapping her hands inaudibly. Then she reached for her phone that was set on the table next to her plate and started gathering the specifics to send over to her friend.

In the meantime, Zheva was people-watching. Her attention was outside the cafe window. The girl in bright trainers with mismatched socks, looking like she wanted to go for a run that ended up being just a walk. The guy with a briefcase in hand, obviously in a hurry, probably trying to catch the bus. She checked her watch instinctively. He’s taking a different line to hers. The bus line she always takes only leaves in 15 minutes.

“All done, you’ve got all the info in the chat. I’m so excited for this already.”

Luce finally looked up from her phone.

“Now back to the business. How have you been the past week? Any drama or interesting new work stuff you can actually talk about? I’m so sorry I had to cancel Friday, but I had to take Buttercup to the vet coz she was throwing up all over the kitchen floor.”

And with that, their usual interrogation began.

“Yeah, you called me about that. How is she? “

Not even Zheva was sure why she asked that. She and Buttercup had a hideous relationship. But Luce adored that furry devil, so the least Zheva could do was to fake interest.

“She’s fine, just as overly dramatic as always. The vet said she’s just a little attention seeker.”

“Unsurprising.”

Zheva muttered under her breath, and Luce pretended she didn’t hear her.

“Anyway, you asked about drama; we investigated a breach the other day. I’ll redact the specifics, but someone sneaked a hardware TAP onto an optic line. We’re still unsure when and how, but so far we suspect it was during the maintenance of the gas pipelines.”

Even though she shouldn’t, she always shared heavily redacted versions of the bigger incidents that were happening.

“I can see their face when you came in and just told them they should be using quantum networks for their classified data. And that that way this could never happen.”

Luce giggled.

“That I did, exactly.”

Zheva sighed.

“Now, how are things with Jim?”

Zheva changed course before Luce could get to the question she was actually waiting to ask.

“Oh, I do not have a clue how Jim is. He’s been ghosting me the past week. Like completely.”

Luce stated and started violently mixing the rest of her drink.

“Asshole.”

The other girl remarked automatically.

“You’re right; let’s not talk about dickheads? Now, how’s your head been lately?”

Zheva mentioned it once. Like two months ago, she once mentioned that her migraines have been getting worse lately, and ever since then, Luce didn’t miss a week.

“I’m doing alright. Everything is back to normal now.”

That was true. But what she failed to mention was that her normal was still highly uncomfortable most of the time. What she also didn’t mention was that she went to see a doctor. She was genuinely afraid she might be having an aneurysm or brain cancer or something like that. But she was fine. And with no legitimate worry, she could just say everything was okay.

“If you say so.”

Luce gave her a slightly suspicious look, that then turned right back into a smile.

“By the way, do you want to come to watch the new show Tuesday?”

She gave out yet another invitation.

“I’m sorry, girl, but I’m actually over at the lab, so I’ll be working late.”

Zheva sighed.