Storm Chaser: Chapter 31

Chapter 31

The last of the interviews ended and Elena trudged up the stairs to the conference room. With each meeting she had handed an empty journal to a grateful pilot and received a folder full of more references than she would ever want to check. All of the transfer forms had been signed and now awaited delivery. She stared at the stacks as if transfixed.

“Obviously I have gone insane,” she said to the room. A low chuckle caused her to turn her head. Andre was standing in the doorway. He walked over to the small dorm scale fridge that lived below the table holding the coffee pot. He pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to her.

“To counter balance the coffee,” he said.

“Thanks,” she said twisting the cap off. She took a healthy swig of the water and felt it wash away some of the acidic taste too much coffee left behind.

“So how did it go?” Andre indicated the papers on the table before bending to get his own bottle of water.

“Eighteen pilots.” She said. Her voice still held a note of disbelief. “At this moment eighteen pilots are looking for apartments in the neighborhood. A couple of them still have channel riding ships and will be docking up at Grant’s Inlet. The military has moved on to bugging my neighbor’s apartment, I have a partnership with one of the two most lethal council members, who is opening a consulting firm down the street. I have the other deadliest council member seeking to form an alliance with me and I agreed to have eighteen pilots transferred here. Obviously I have gone insane.” Elena sank into the chair she had spent most of the day in and let out a deep breath. It was shaky on the end. Andre took another seat.

“They say Lady Luck favors the bold,” he told her. “Although personally, I would be stopping by a local religious shop for a metal of St. Jude.” Elena laughed, recognizing there was a little hysteria in it but feeling better nonetheless. She took another deep breath and let it out slowly.

“I couldn’t turn them away,” she said. “They just looked so …” hundreds of words flew through her mind, “Broken,” she concluded. “I couldn’t turn them away.”

“I know,” Andre said with a smile. “So we have eighteen pilots moving in. At least it won’t be boring.”

“I think boring is the least of our worries.” Footsteps sounded on the stairwell and they both turned to see Roger toting a couple of boxes up the stairs. The both jumped up to help him.

“I’ve got it,” he told them setting the boxes on the floor by Elena’s chair. “There a couple more downstairs but they seem to be individual bottles of wine along with notes of congrats for last night.” Roger beamed with pride.

“Really?” Elena said. She reached for the top box. It was white with a silver elastic bow. “This looks more like a dress box than anything.” She looked at the box below it. “But I bet the case of wine is from Doug.” She tugged off the silver elastic and opened the box. She folded back the tissue and at first only saw lots of red silk. Frowning, she reached in. The silk separated into two pieces. They were pajamas. Elena held the top part up. It had a rounded neck held together by a bone toggle and long sleeves. If she had put the shirt on, it would reach nearly to her knees. She set it aside and pulled out the pants. They were baggy, but had an elastic waist band. “Someone sent me old lady pajamas?” she asked, confused. Andre shrugged.

“Looks like,” he said.

“That seems odd,” Roger added slowly.

“Was there a card?” Elena asked.

“Not that I saw,” Roger said. “It might have fallen out and gotten mixed in with the wine.” Elena looked down.

“Oh there’s something in the bottom of the box.” She set the pajama pants on top of the shirt and removed a card from the box. It was the sixe of a card that would come with a floral arrangement. Elena slid the card out of the unsealed envelope. The five words on it made her eyes widen.

‘Elena, Happy Valentine’s day, Peter.’ Elena slid the card back into the envelope. She put it back in the box and put the pajamas on top. Both men watched as she put the lid back on the box. Elena pushed the box away from her as if it contained a live snake. She looked up to find them staring.

“It was a valentine’s gift,” she stammered. She could feel the heat creeping up her cheeks and down her throat.”

“Ah,” Roger said. “I see.” His tone was carefully neutral.

“It was from Peter,” Andre said, no question at all. He had an odd look on his face and a curiously flat tone to his voice.

“Yeah,” Elena confirmed the not quite question.

“Well then,” Roger said. “Perhaps he felt as business partners…” His voice trailed off as he was unable to find a logical conclusion to his sentence.

“I wonder if he sent old lady pajamas to your grandfather too,” Andre said. “As business partners.” The odd look had vanished. A tilted grin met her eyes when she looked at him. Andre winked back at her. She was sure it was just for show but she had no idea what she could actually say to him.

“Now that would be an amusing sight,” she said with a bit of a laugh. Elena pulled up the card that went with the box of wine. She was fairly certain Doug had sent it and opened the card with no qualms. “Doug sends his thanks. Apparently the Wineshop had one of their best nights ever last night.” Elena looked at the wine. “Is everyone in today?” she asked Roger.

“Yes I believe so.”

“Good,” she said. “I think there are enough bottles that everyone can take one home with them. After all they did help make it a success and should share in the congratulations, don’t you think?”

“I think that is a great idea,” Roger said.

“Good,” Elena stood and picked up her stack of transfer papers. “Would you mind seeing to that? I have to go get some papers signed at the hotel.”

“Not a problem,” Roger said.

Elena smiled picked up her coat and purse and left the conference room. She hoped she didn’t look like she was running away.