Chapter 13

In which everything sorts itself out

"That was more fun that I thought it would be," Dorcas said as she and Gabriel packed up their instruments.

"Yeah," Gabriel grinned at her. The buzz of performing hadn't quite worn off yet, and Gabriel felt that he could easily get used to the feeling of basking in a job well done.

"So," Dorcas said, snapping her case closed, "I guess we'll be seeing more of each other if this gig becomes permanent." She looked up at him, tilting her head to the side as though he was a particularly difficult puzzle. "Should we…talk or something? I don't…I mean I wouldn't want things to be awkward between us or anything when we're around each other."

Gabriel studied her. She was cute and apologetic, and it was tempting to agree with her. Then, for no reason at all, he was reminded of the day that Asa had insisted they learn some Eagles songs. "You know," he said, "I remember hearing some lyrics about how we can live our whole lives in chains and never know we have the key. I think that's kinda how we are. For a while there, I thought I needed you. You were exciting and different from my life, and it felt like when I was with you, I could be different and exciting too. Then you just…disappeared and I realized that I could still have that feeling on my own. I mean, I'm in a band, I hang out at poetry readings, I have a tattoo, and my best friend is a blue haired, tattooed poet-ish dude. Maybe things weren't meant to work out between you and me, but I guess I have to admit that I wouldn't have done any of those things if I hadn't met you." He took a breath. That had probably been one of the longest speeches he had ever given, and to his surprise, he didn't feel at all bad afterward. He glanced down at Dorcas to find she was staring inscrutably at him.

Finally, she stood and shouldered her case. "Well," she said, "You're welcome…I guess. I'm glad you have this great new life. I'm just sorry I screwed everything up at the beginning."

She jumped off the stage and headed towards the exit, and for a moment Gabriel reflected that it would be easy just to let her leave. Then, he decided he was done playing safe.

-x-

"Sorry it took awhile; I've been drinking my coffee a little differently," Tancred explained, capping his coffee and simultaneously settling into one of the chairs in the shop.

"Yeah?" Lysander said, taking a sip of his own latte and studying the blond across from him.

Tancred grinned at him. "I'm trying to cut down on sugar…apparently it's bad for you."

Lysander half-smiled back. "The things we learn when we're growing up."

Tancred took a sip of his drink, his expression becoming serious. "Listen mate, I'm really sorry about the whole Liv thing. I kinda lost it for awhile there, and I wasn't there when I should've been."

Lysander shrugged. "You know, it was probably a good thing. It wasn't like there was anything you could do. I'm sure that one day we'll look back on this and laugh."

"You don't mean that," Tancred said.

Lysander grimaced. "No, I really don't."

"Well, I guess that, like coffee, a man's got to realize that there might be other drinks out there for him, even if he hasn't tried them all yet," Tancred said, grinning.

"I'm not sure if that was meant to be metaphorical or not, but it sounded good," Lysander said with a shrug.

"You know I can't even spell metaphorical," Tancred laughed. For a minute the two men were silent.

"So, what now?" Tancred asked.

"You know, I think I'm tired of being a lawyer. I'd like to try something new…maybe art school? I've always been kinda into painting, and Naren said she'd give me lessons," Lysander said. "What about you?"

Tancred rested his elbows on the table and studied his coffee cup. "Dunno really. I mean, the whole Emma thing was clearly a disaster, but I think that I would like to try it again with someone else. Dating, that is. Being single is fun I guess, but it gets tiring."

"What do you know? Tancred Torsson, adult," Lysander laughed. "I guess some things aren't meant to stay the same."

Tancred gestured between the two of them. "But some things are. For what it's worth, I'm glad we're friends."

"Well," Lysander grinned. "Someone's got to talk you out of being so stupid."

"Speaking of stupid," Tancred said, setting his coffee down on the table and raising his eyebrows at Lysander, "It looks like they've hired a new barista, and I need her number."

-x-

"Have you seen Olivia lately?" Emma asked, dipping her roller into the paint tray that was balanced precariously on the second step of the ladder. Naren had decided to repaint her room and had enlisted Emma's help. So far, they had painted swatches of "Buttercup," "New Spruce," "Celadon," and something called "Teaberry" but Naren still couldn't make up her mind.

"Now that you mention it, I haven't heard from her since we were all at Lysander's," Naren said, eyeing the swatches critically. For her part, Naren was finding near delirious happiness was exactly what she'd imagined it to be. She almost couldn't believe that she and Charlie were in a real, functional relationship. She found herself freaking out at near constant intervals, convinced she was somehow hallucinating the whole thing.

"I like the green one," Charlie called from the doorway, as though Naren had summoned him with her thoughts.

"It's called 'Celadon'," Naren said, feeling a ridiculous grin start to spread over her face as he moved into the room.

"Mmm, that's what I meant," Charlie said, wrapping his arms around her.

"Hey…I'm still here," Emma said, waving her roller at them.

-x-

Emma grabbed her drink and carried it carefully over to the coffee bar. After hanging out with Charlie and Naren all day, she couldn't help feeling a little bitter. Not that she didn't want them to be happy…she just wished they weren't so obvious about it. She ripped open a sugar packet and was about to pour it in when a hand reached out and grabbed her drink.

"Sorry," Zelda said, "But I think you were about to drink my mocha."

Emma sighed. Zelda was probably the last person she wanted to see. "Sure, whatever, take it."

Zelda gave her a strange look. "What's with you?"

Just like that, Emma snapped. "You win, okay," she said angrily, "He obviously likes you. I'm happy for you, really."

Zelda looked at her, comprehension slowly dawning. "I'm not in love with Torsson," she said.

Emma looked up. "What?"

Zelda shrugged, looking down at one manicured nail. "We only went out once. It was actually sort of fun…in that, let's never, EVER, do this again kind of way. But I have feelings for someone else. So, yeah, not in love with him. But, no offense, but I don't think you're in love with him either."

"What?" Emma said again, feeling a little lost and lot confused.

"You're not in love with Tancred, you idiot," Zelda said, "You're in love with the idea of Tancred, what the two of you used to have, which, if I may say so, wasn't much. You have this perfectly functional relationship with Asa, which, hello, everyone else knows is like the greatest thing to ever happen to either of you, and I don't really get why you'd want to run off after Torsson, who is kind of a loser. I mean, how many times has he taken you home when you were drunk?"

"How do you even know that?" Emma asked.

"No offense, but it's kind of common knowledge," Zelda said.

Emma considered this. Really, over the last seven years, she and Tancred had hardly spoken. They'd seen each other at Pub Nights, but that was about it. With Asa, they talked about nearly everything, he'd helped her with Aunt Julia and wrote her that song and took her home when she was drunk and made her soup when she was sick and kissed her like he meant it-

"Are you okay? You look awful," Zelda interrupted her thoughts. Emma looked up at the older girl, who was peering at her with something like concern, or at least, as close to concern as Zelda could get.

"I'm okay," Emma managed. "I think I'm just having an epiphany."

-x-

"You know, it's pretty presumptuous of you to just decide how I feel," Billy said, bursting into the greenhouse.

It had taken roughly ten minutes after Idith left for Billy to realize that he had to follow her, and most of the night to prepare a speech that he was sure would convince her of his feelings. Given the way her eyes widened and the way she clutched her pruning shears, Billy figured he might not have chosen the best opening.

"Billy? What are you doing here?" Idith said, narrowing her eyes. Ordinarily, this would have made Billy pause, but he pushed the rational side of his mind away and barrelled on.

"You know, I thought you'd changed after graduation, but turns out you're still just as judgemental as you were then. You can't just decide who I like and run away. Don't I get any say? Who made you the feelings police?" He took a breath and met her eyes. "You can't just keep pretending this doesn't affect you at all."

For a minute, Idith stood speechless, but suddenly she seemed to recover herself. "You liked my sister!" she said, her cheeks flushing, and her eyes sparking dangerously. "You send her flowers and you pine after her, and then when she doesn't like you, you just decide to go after me because I'm the next best thing, because I look like her? Well congratulations, go off and have a great life together!"

"You are so thick!" Billy shouted. He knew his face was probably beet red, and that he'd completely messed up everything he was planning to say, but he didn't really care. "If you'd only let me talk to you and let me explain, you'd know I'm crazy about you and I don't care about your sister!"

"Wha-," Idith faltered.

"For the record, I never actually sent the flowers to your sister. I think my delivery service knew they were always for you," he added. He was going to say something else, but she'd suddenly dropped the pruning shears and launched herself at him.

Billy suddenly didn't mind being allergic to flowers.

-x-

Fidelio glanced out the window of the hotel room, taking in the view of the London skyline.

He looked over at the clock. It was dress rehearsal, and he was late.

Grabbing his violin, he hurried out to the street, turning up the collar of his coat against the cold. Adjusting his grip on the violin, he didn't notice the girl in front of him until they collided.

"I'm starting to think that you have a vendetta against my purse," Olivia said cheerfully, bending to pick up her lipstick.

"Um," Fidelio said.

Olivia hitched her bag back up on her shoulder. "I know… I'm surprised I'm here too."

"Why-" Fidelio started.

"It's not like I'm choosing you over him or anything," Olivia interrupted. "I'm still mad that you got me abducted. I just happened to be here for my new job, that's all."

"New job?" Fidelio asked, wishing he could make his brain formulate more than half-sentences.

Olivia grinned. "Can't say anything about it…hush hush and all. I guess we'll be spending a little time together for awhile…living in the same city."

Fidelio tightened his grip on the violin. "So you forgive me?"

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "I didn't exactly say that. We never really got a chance to talk, you and me. I'm just saying, let's try to be friends; no lies and no kidnapping. We'll see after that."

Fidelio smiled, finally feeling like everything was going to be okay. "Yeah, I guess we can try."

-x-

Emma was pushing her cart though the produce section when she caught sight of a familiar figure near the vegetables. She hadn't really spoken to Asa since the whole Tancred fiasco, and she nearly turned around and left, but he gave her a smile and a half wave, so she reluctantly made her way over.

"Hi," she said, smiling tentatively.

"Hey Emma," he smiled back, and for a moment, they were silent, and Emma remembered how only a few months ago they'd never run out of things to say to each other. Of course, Emma reflected, that was before I realized he was my soul mate. To diffuse the awkwardness of the situation, she glanced into his cart.

"Eggplant?" She said, raising an eyebrow.

Asa smiled. "I've been trying to cut back on my meat intake. After…everything…I pretty much just ate meat for a solid month, and let me tell you, a month of meat is a lot of meat." Emma laughed, and then Asa laughed too, and then she was distracted by the way his eyes sparkled, and suddenly it didn't seem so funny anymore. Then they were silent again. Emma wondered when she'd begun using sparkly to describe Asa's eyes.

"So how are you doing with the Tancred situation?" Asa asked, meeting her eyes again.

Emma shrugged. "I guess I finally realized that he wasn't the guy I thought he was. Better late than never though, right?"

"Right," Asa said, smiling in a way that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"You never called me," Emma blurted, wishing she could take the words back as soon as they were out of her mouth. Asa froze and then suddenly seemed very absorbed in studying his eggplant.

"I thought you wouldn't want to hear from me, after what happened," he said carefully avoiding her eyes.

"Well, you just left, and I thought that I ruined our friendship, and then I didn't hear from you and what if you ran away and-"

"Killed myself?" he interrupted his lips quirking into a small smile.

"Never came back," she said. His smile abruptly disappeared.

"I was just scared, you know," Emma said, fidgeting with her skirt, wishing he'd just look at her already.

"I know," he said. "How do you feel now?"

"Still scared, but I think I can… deal with it now," Emma said, wishing she had more words for what could possibly be one of the most important conversations of her whole life.

Asa grinned, finally meeting her eyes, and she had to remind herself to breathe, because he hadn't looked at her like that since the night of her date with Tancred.

"I have my own apartment," he offered, when the silence between them threatened to become never-ending.

"Oh," she replied, flustered, "that's good, I, mean-"

"I also have a steady job," he continued, moving closer, as though she hadn't spoken, and she was suddenly reminded of a leopard stalking its prey, "and I've been playing with Gabriel's band for the last couple months."

"What?" she said, surprised, taking several involuntary steps backwards.

He shrugged, stepping forward again. "I did a lot of thinking after you kicked me out, you know. I realized that I've pretty much been relying on other people my whole life, and I never got a chance to figure stuff out for myself. It totally sucked at first cause I basically had no money, and no idea what to do, but then it got better… and I like it. The whole in charge-of-my-own-destiny thing. I like the options." He took another step forward. Emma's back hit the produce display, and a couple of peppers tumbled onto the floor. He leaned forward, bracing his hands on either side of her. She looked up at him, eyes wide.

"Asa, we're in a grocery store!"

He grinned, and then said, "What did I tell you? Options." He reached out one hand and wound a piece of her hair around his finger. "So, I figured out what I wanted. Did you?"

Emma considered this. "I think I've always known what I wanted, I was just too busy being needed to say anything." She looked up at Asa questioningly. "Maybe we can just start from the beginning or something."

He laughed. "From the very beginning?" He thought for a minute, "Ok. My name is Asa Pike, and I want you," he said, before leaning down to brush his lips lightly across hers. Then he pulled back slightly and murmured, "Did I mention that I've been taking cooking lessons?" Emma smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck, the fact that they were in a grocery store fading to the back of her mind. As he leaned in to kiss her, she thought that all things considered, being needed was highly overrated.

-x-

"Well this is weird," Gabriel whispered to Billy. Billy nodded and helped himself to Charlie's drink. It was the last Thursday of the month, but for the first time, nearly everyone had shown up at Pub Night. Granted, the dynamic is certainly different, Gabriel thought.

Charlie and Naren were sitting together on one end of the table, their heads bent together. Asa and Emma were sitting across the table from each other, and from the amount of significant looks that were passing between them, Gabriel was pretty sure it was only a matter of time before their relationship was back to whatever passed for normal for them.

"Hey guys," Tancred said nonchalantly, dropping into the chair next to Lysander's. "I brought someone." He gestured to Beth, who had taken the seat next to him. "Hi," she said, still managing to sound bored. Asa glanced at Emma, but she seemed unaffected by the sight. Instead, she asked Beth about local coffee prices and the two were soon chatting like old friends.

Gabriel noticed that Tancred didn't even bother glancing over at Manfred's usual table, although it was debateable if Manfred noticed Tancred's arrival, since he was busy making out with Zelda.

"So, where's your lady?" Dagbert asked, sliding in next to him.

Gabriel shrugged, "She said she had to hit up some poetry thing before she came over."

Dagbert raised his eyebrows. "You don't want to get in on that?"

"Nah," Gabriel said, "I think I've figured out that poetry isn't really my thing."

Dagbert laughed. "Took you long enough!"

Gabriel grinned. "Weren't you the one who told me to try new things?"

"Sure," Dagbert said, "but only so you can figure out what you really love to do."

"Well, for what it's worth, I guess I owe you," Gabriel said.

Dagbert grinned. "What are friends for?"

Gabriel glanced around the room, thinking that now was the time for something profound. "Sod it," he said, "Let's get another drink."