‘That’s fair enough.’
‘So what’s pigeon blood?’
‘It’s the name jewelers give to that shade of ruby,’ he explained, ‘it only occurs when the primary hue is red and the secondary purple, and if it’s incrusted in pure gold.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Well, rubies are never purely red, they always have a secondary hue,’ he went on. ‘It can be pink, purple or orange. Pink or orange would dilute the red, but purple is a mix of blue and red. So when a purplish red ruby is set in yellow, just like in your pendant’s case,’ he pointed at the stone with the tip of his finger, ‘the yellow of the gold cancels out the blue in the purple leaving behind an almost visually pure red.’
‘That’s fascinating,’ she was impressed. ‘How do you know so much about gems?’
‘It’s just a bit of trivia,’ he smiled.
Her idatron flashed. She glanced at it.
‘It’s Perenelle,’ she said, ‘she’s worried about me not being at work yet. I’ll just let her know everything is all right.’
‘Of course,’ he said, standing up and picking up their cups. ‘I’ll fetch us some more coffee for the road, ok?’
‘Great, thanks, Daniel.’
When he got to the kitchen, Gerry stood motionless, leaning against the counter, holding a spoon he’d just licked clean in one hand, and an open bottle of red wine in the other. His eyes were closed, and total bliss spread across his face. The kitchen smelled of a mixed aroma of onions, wine, and fresh herbs.
‘Wake up, bro,’ Daniel said, glancing at him suspiciously. ‘I thought you were here to cook, not to get pissed. We are heading off. Thanks for a great breakkie.’
Gerry opened his eyes and smiled.
‘I’ve just created the most heavenly Bordelaise ever known to mankind,’ he explained. ‘Wanna a wee lick?’
‘No, thanks,’ Daniel replied, ‘I’ll take your word for it. Just need a couple of disposable cups.’
‘Disposable cups? What do you think this is, a hover-through?’ Gerry’s indignation was so well acted, that anyone but his brother could believe it was for real. Daniel just rolled his eyes and started snooping about in the drawers and cupboards.
‘C’mon, bro, I know you keep them here somewhere. We need some coffee for the road.’
‘That cupboard over there,’ Gerry finally pointed.
‘Thanks,’ Daniel said, taking out the cups and pouring the coffee in. ‘You have some more cream?’
‘When since do you take cream in your coffee?’ Gerry teased.
‘I don’t. Amari does.’
‘Uh-huh. Are you sure your girlfriend is an Immortal?’ Gerry said, fetching the cream from the fridge, shaking it and carefully pouring a little into one of the cups. ‘I thought they were all on strict no-fat, no-carbs, no-real food diets and such.’
‘She’s not my girlfriend,’ Daniel said, ‘and trust me, she’s definitely an Immortal. A bit more cream, Gerry.’
Gerry poured in another drop. Daniel stirred it with a long spoon and looked at it critically, judging the color. ‘Maybe a bit more,’ he said.
Gerry poured in more cream. A small drop again.
‘Damn it, Gerry, is there a deficit of cream in this kitchen?’ Daniel took the jug off him and added the cream himself. Then stirred the coffee again, before putting on the cap.
‘Thanks again, little bro,’ he said. ‘See you soon.’
‘Nae bother,’ Gerry smiled. ‘Anytime. Say goodbye to your girlfriend from me.’
Daniel rolled his eyes, but said nothing.
When he got back to the restaurant, Amaranthine was ready to go.
‘We have a meeting every Monday morning,’ she explained, ‘I’d better not be late for it.’
‘Same here,’ he smiled, handing her the coffee.
‘I’d like to say goodbye to your brother if that’s ok,’ she said, ‘and maybe grab some cream for the coffee if he doesn’t mind.’
‘Oh, don’t worry about Gerry,’ he said, ‘I already said goodbye for both of us. And there’s cream in your coffee already, unless you’d like some more, of course.’
She looked up, clearly surprised that he paid attention to how she liked her coffee. She took a sip.
‘Wow, it’s perfect,’ she said, ‘thanks a lot.’
Back at his office hovercar park, he walked her over to her vehicle.
‘Thanks for everything, Daniel,’ she said.
‘My pleasure,’ he answered, ‘we’ll be in touch soon I’m sure.’
‘Yes, I’m sure we will.’
‘Have a good day, Amari.’
‘You, too.’
As her hatch opened, he turned around and started walking towards the elevator.
‘Daniel?’ she stopped him.
‘Yes?’
‘I wondered if... if Carpe Diem were playing another concert any time soon? I’d love to meet them and hear them play.’
‘I’m not sure if they’ll be playing anything before the tour, they need to prepare. But if they do, you’ll be the first to know.’
‘Ok.’ She smiled at him appreciatively and as beautifully as she could.
Perenelle was worried. She sat at her desk, waiting for Amari, glancing at the clock every few seconds, as if it would make time stop.
Her boss was late for work, which never happened. Perenelle had a strange feeling that something was wrong, though she wasn’t sure what gave her that notion. I should have said something back on Friday, she thought. I should have let her know how worried we all are about her, and that she can count on us. And now it may be too late. What if she quits? She sounded strange on the idatron this morning, and now she’s late. It’s not like her at all. The meeting was in ten minutes, just like every Monday morning, ever since she remembered.
She reached over for her idatron to call her boss one more time. But before it started connecting, she heard a voice in Amari’s office.
Perenelle shook her head in disbelief. I’m hearing things, she thought. This is impossible.
But there was no mistake. The voice coming from behind the closed door was Amari’s. But she wasn’t talking to one of her clients or co-workers. She wasn’t ordering anyone to double check details, she wasn’t telling anyone off for not doing their job properly. She wasn’t pitching to new potential clients.
She was… singing!
She was singing a cheerful, catchy tune that Penny thought she’d heard recently, maybe in a commercial.
Her boss singing? Unheard of.
Before she could get over it, the door to Amari’s office opened energetically and her boss emerged.
‘Hi, Penny!’ she chirped, ‘sorry I’m late. How are you this glorious morning?’
Perenelle sprang up to her feet, astounded. Amaranthine looked radiant. Despite the shadows around her eyes still visible, she glowed, as if the mask of grayness and exhaustion that laid up on her face since The Universe scandal, had been peeled off, revealing rosy cheeks and a warm shine in her eyes. Her hair was casually down, cascading down her back and her shoulders, and the big ruby in her pendant reflected the morning sun, sending out short, red gleams.
‘I’m fine, thank you,’ she replied, perplexed, and then, automatically, even though it felt like a silly question, considering Amari’s obvious transformation, ‘How are you?’
‘Never better, Penny!’
That’s exactly what she looks like, Penny thought. At least this is the best I’ve ever seen her. What the heck is going on?
‘I need you for one sec before the meeting,’ Amaranthine’s voice jerked her out of the shock.
‘Sure,’ she said, grabbing her idatron and heading into Amari’s office. Before the door closed behind her, she noticed everybody’s heads poking out of their boxes, exchanging puzzled looks. They all had jaws dropped to their chests.
At least I’m not the only one, Penny thought. And I’m not going crazy.
‘Can you bring up that report you worked
on Friday night?’ Amaranthine said, sitting down at her desk and activating her idatron, ‘I have some last-minute changes to make.’
‘It’s right here,’ she said, spreading the projection in front of them. ‘Which section do you need to update?’
‘Carpe Diem’s advertisers list and income estimate,’ she said. ‘Could you move Mr. McLaren back to ‘Verbally Confirmed,’ and add the value of his contract to the predictions. Then add one more line right below him and input the same amount. Here’s the name and details of the new client,’ she dragged the information over from her device to Penny’s.
Perenelle quickly inserted the name and the figures.
‘Phew!’ She said with admiration. ‘Look at the total, Amari.’
Amari glanced over and smiled widely.
‘Excellent.’
‘When the heck did you get this guy?’ Perenelle asked with her eyes wide open. ‘Were you working all weekend?’
‘No, it happened last thing on Friday, right after you left,’ Amari replied. ‘Shall we go over and make Mr. Foster happy?’
Her idatron flashed. Amari picked up, signaling Penny that she was free to go.
‘Hey, Daniel, what’s up?’
Daniel? As in Daniel Collins? It can’t be! Perenelle slowed down walking towards the door to hear as much of the conversation as possible. She couldn’t believe her own ears.
‘Oh, perfect! Yes, sure, count me in!’ she heard Amari exclaim, ‘let me just mark this in my diary… March 27th…, 9pm…, Steel Magnolias… Got it. Excellent, thanks so much for letting me know!’ There was a pause, then Amari said, ‘Actually, Daniel, I just remembered, Athos McLaren mentioned his friend would be very interested in seeing them play. I think Mr. McLaren might want to come along too, he took quite a liking to Carpe Diem. Can I invite them both?’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘Nice view,’ Daniel said, looking down at Manhattan through her office window. ‘If it was any clearer, you could almost see the coast of Ireland from here. Or even Scotland, who knows.’
‘Where in Scotland are you from?’ Amari asked.
‘Edinburgh.’
‘What is it like?’
‘As bonnie as the rest of Scotland.’
‘You clearly love your country,’ she smiled, passing him a cup of coffee.
‘Well, what can I say. You can take the man out of Scotland but you can’t take Scotland out of the man. You ever been?’
‘Not physically, no.’
‘What does that… ah, you mean you ran one of those virtual tours. That doesn’t count.’
‘Not even a little bit?’ she teased.
‘Nope. You’ll see what I mean when we go there with the band. I’ll show you around.’
‘I’ll hold you to that.’
‘Anytime.’
Amaranthine sat down and brought up the list of potential advertisers they were to work on. They’d had a meeting with Nectar that morning about figures and predictions and they needed to tie up some loose ends.
‘So,’ she began, ‘today is March 15th, the tour kicks off on April 1st. Which gives us less than three weeks to get as much publicity as possible, and convince the remaining clients. Now this is where it gets really hard.’
‘Why’s that?’ Daniel asked.
‘There’s a reason why I left these till the end,’ she explained, scrolling down to the bottom, ‘they are hard-core, staunch opponents of mortality. Some built their whole business concepts and brands on being anti-mortal. We’ve got a lot of big names already, but even that may not be enough to even get an appointment with some for these guys.’
Daniel sat beside her and looked through the list, knitting his brows. As he leaned forward, the smell of his cologne reached her nostrils. It was fresh and cool like a sea breeze, as if he’d just stepped off a sailboat.
‘I don’t know about the others,’ he said, ‘but that guy there employs a whole bunch of mortal designers. I’d imagine he’d be more approachable than others.’
‘Formichetti? Really? How do you know that?’
‘One of my pals designs for him.’
‘Seriously? I’d have never thought.’
‘It’s the case with many designers,’ he said.
‘Fresh blood, ha? Just like in science?’
‘Yup. There’s only so many ideas one human can have.’
‘Ok, let’s try him first, then. Hopefully I’ll manage to set up an appointment for this afternoon or tomorrow morning.’
‘Do you think… um, I mean, would you like me to come along? I could maybe use my friend’s name, that could work in our favor.’
Amaranthine considered it. She’d never done business in tandem, but it somehow felt right this time.
‘Um… well, yeah, I guess we could try that. We just need to tread very carefully, I don’t know how Formichetti will feel about people knowing about his mortal designers.’
‘Why don’t I pick my friend’s brain on that, so we know where we stand.’
‘That’s a good idea. A few tips from an insider won’t hurt.’
‘It’s 8.15,’ Eiko’s voice announced.
‘Ok, stop telling me,’ Amaranthine said, ‘I know I programmed you to help me keep track of time, but now it’s just distracting me. Just don’t let me be late.’
‘Sure,’ Eiko replied, ‘If you need some advice, I’m here.’
‘I know you are.’
She sat on her sofa viewing holograms of herself wearing different outfits. At the moment, it was an elegant, ankle-length gown in deep purple shade of amaranth, embellished with very subtle, golden thread that made it glisten just enough to draw attention, but not to overwhelm. She made her hologram walk back and forth a few times to see herself from every angle. Not entirely happy, she made it walk to the side and stand there whilst she scrutinized the other dress. This one was very different – a knee-length, simple, fitted cocktail dress, an equivalent of the classic ‘little black number.’ Except, of course, being part of Amaranthine’s wardrobe, it wasn’t black, but the shade of amaranth closest to red.
She was down to these two after hours of agonizing what to wear for her first meeting with Carpe Diem and their concert at Steel Magnolias. Before that, she spent hours trying to decide on the right hairstyle, finally setting for an updo with a parting on the side, and a loose bun of wavy strands just above her neck. She’d never had so much trouble selecting her attire and hairstyle before. But then again, she’d never been to a mortal event, listening to a mortal rock band, and socializing with mortal people.
What do they think is appropriate for this sort of occasion? What is everyone going to be wearing? She made the first hologram walk past again. Then the second one. Then the first one again.
What a nightmare, she thought. And why do I even care what they’ll think? I know I’m stepping into their world for the night, but it’s them who want to step into mine, it’s Carpe Diem who want to break into the immortal market, and win the immortal audience. So I shouldn’t really be bothering about adjusting to their idea of style, should I?
That thought gave her some confidence, but didn’t erase the feeling of pressure. Despite her reasoning, she still cared what they would think of her. And she knew the reason only too well.
It would be the first time she’d speak to Daniel’s team ever since the two of them became friends. She hadn’t seen Tom, Frankie, Angela and Maddie since that brief first meeting in Collins Communications boardroom, when she was so hostile towards them all. That was nearly three months ago and three weeks since the day Daniel took her for breakfast to his brother’s restaurant. That day and those three weeks turned their relationship by a hundred and eighty degrees. But his whole team would still have that first impression she gave them. She clearly remembered the outrage on their faces at how she treated Daniel that day, pure hatred in Angela’s eyes. She wanted to change that. She didn’t expect them to be as forgiving and friendly as Daniel, but she hoped they could at least bury t
he hatchet. She wanted to do it for him. The problem was, she didn’t quite know how. She wasn’t used to trying to make other people like her.
She physically put on the first gown to help her make the final decision and looked at herself in the mirror. If someone told me a month ago that I’d care so much about a mortal guy and his team, I’d laugh my face off, she thought. Maybe I’m just still feeling guilty about treating him like shit when we first met, and my infamous outburst. But deep down she knew it wasn’t just that. She grew to actually like him.
Admittedly, Daniel Collins was not a typical Mortal. He had been doing business with Immortals for several years and a few serious businessmen knew and respected him. He felt completely at ease in their company, he acted like their equal and so they automatically treated him like one. He also adapted a lifestyle very close to that of Immortals, so it was probably much easier to deal with him than a regular Mortal.
His private life was a mystery to her, apart from what she knew about his father and brother’s occupations and the fact he also had two sisters, a niece and grandparents. She wasn’t entirely sure what his reasons for remaining mortal were; he didn’t wear a wedding band, a custom still very popular amongst married Mortals, and the amount of time he spent at work, his clear priority, would suggest he didn’t have a partner or children. He wasn’t religious either, it seemed; she remembered what he said during their argument: ‘If that’s what you call professionalism, then help us God, if he exists.’
She unzipped the dress, which slipped off her shoulders and fell to the floor. She picked it up and put it away.
She put on the other dress, for the hundredth time trying to imagine what the night would be like, and what clothes would make her fit in the best. She knew she only had a few minutes left to make her decision, if she didn’t want to be late.
‘Damn it!’ she swore out loud, still in two minds and unable to make a choice. Suddenly the hairstyle didn’t seem to match either of the dresses. She eased her way out of the cocktail dress and went back to her closet to search one more time through the ones she had ruled out earlier, suddenly losing all confidence in her so-far elimination process. She was back to square one. To make things worse, Eiko proved completely useless when it came to giving advice on dealing with Mortals, which wasn’t surprising, since she was Amari’s personal mind-reading computer and Amari’s mind was completely blank when it came to the ins and outs of the mortal idea of life and fashion choices.