his back to her as he concentrated on food preparation.
«Never mind.» She spun around and headed back for the table. One miserable person is enough for the day.
«That was fast.» Kyle seemed to be slumped even lower when she returned.
«Michael wasn't exactly in the kind of mood I was looking for,' Isabel replied. «Then again, he never really is.» Was that a slight smile on Kyle's face? Maria returned to the table with their drinks and to take their lunch order. She seemed only mildly happier then Michael, although, as a waitress her job was to be perky as to ensure the better tip, so she just grinned her way through whatever the problem was this time. Isabel never bothered to ask about their situation, because she knew that it would work itself out eventually. It always did.
Once the order was placed, their food came much faster than usual, which Isabel attributed to the fact that the cook and waitress weren't engaging in idle chitchat to keep them from their jobs. As she sat in the booth with Kyle, she managed to coax him into a conversation about his new job as a mechanic. The goal of the talk and the entire afternoon was to avoid anything even remotely alien
in nature-a challenge, to say the least, in Roswell, the alien capital of the world.
After lunch, Isabel started their fun-time tour at the Museum of Contemporary Arts. Even though she knew this kind of entertainment was not Kyle's speed, it had the desired effect when he started making many jokes about the collection of modern art and, more specifically, the modern artists. One particular painting of a black line that had a plaque beneath it claiming its value was several thousand dollars nearly had him in hysterics. Isabel decided that she would come back to the museum Saturday with Jesse so they could seriously enjoy the works.
Following the museum, Isabel took him to the Spring River Park. It had been years since she had played on the playground, and figured that the same was true for Kyle. She couldn't exactly picture Kyle and his football buddies hanging out in a place where the average patron was about four years old, not counting, their mothers and the rogue father every now and then. Trie trip was entirely worth it just to see Kyle trying to fit onto one of the kiddie swings. She took it as a good sign when Kyle laughed out loud after a little girl stole a swing right out from under him, sticking out her tongue as if she owned the playground equipment. They capped off their time at the park with a ride on the carousel. Again, this was something neither she nor Kyle had done in years. They both commented on how huge the merry-go-round had seemed to them as children, but now the Roswell carousel appeared really rather limited compared with those huge wooden ones they had seen in movies. But that didn't matter as they continued to ride round and round for almost a half hour.
When they were finally kicked off the ride, Isabel took Kyle on a stroll through the zoo that was attached to the park. The last time either of them had been there was during a seventh-grade field trip, but the place hadn't changed all that much since then. In fact, they even remembered some of the animals from the field trip. All in all, they were both having a good day.
Leaving the park, they walked back into town to retrieve Kyle's car, which they had left at the Crashdown because the weather was nice enough for them to get everywhere on foot without suffering from heat exhaustion typical to most Roswell summers. Most of their stroll was spent in animated conversation as they went over all the fun details of their day.
«Thanks, Isabel.» Kyle openly beamed like a man without a care in the world. «I'm having a great time.»
Isabel silently patted herself on the back as she tried to discreetly look at her watch. «I knew you would.»
«So what's next?» he innocently asked as they walked down the streets of Roswell.
The unspoken response was coffee with Jesse, but Isabel couldn't say that because of her decision to keep the relationship on the sly. Even though she had been enjoying their conversation, she had also spent the past fifteen minutes trying to figure out a way to extricate herself from their activities for her secret rendezvous without spoiling Kyle's mood. The day's activities were supposed to have taken Kyle's mind off his problems and make him tired enough for a full night of sleep. But he seemed more awake than when she had picked him up earlier, and was ready to stay out and have fun.
And she was already five minutes late.
«I promised to have dinner with my parents,' she lied. «Since they're going to Santa Fe tomorrow.»
«Oh.» The look of disappointment on Kyle's face nearly made her cancel her plans on the spot. She noticed that he had absentmindedly started drumming the fingers of his right hand against his leg. He hadn't done that since the museum.
«But maybe we can get together afterward,' she immediately suggested since she knew Jesse had plans to go out with one of his friends later. «Maybe we could just hang out at your place?»
«Okay.» Kyle didn't really sound thrilled to be left alone even for a short time.
It seemed to Isabel that all the work she had done over the past few hours had served absolutely no purpose at all, since Kyle was suddenly back in the same mood that he had greeted her with earlier in the day. Then she noticed that his expression changed yet again. His face was totally blank as he stared at the traffic in the street.
«Kyle?» Her eyes followed his gaze, and she saw a dark-colored car turning onto the main drag. At first she thought it looked a little like Alex's car, but it was a totally different make and model. However, in the fading light of sunset, the color did appear close enough for her to make the false assumption.
Looking back to Kyle, she watched as his eyes tracked the car while it drove down the street. At first, an almost imperceptible shudder ran through his body. But, soon enough, he was shaking violently.
«Kyle?» she called to him, but it was like he was miles
away. His eyes seemed to be pleading with the driver to stop, and his body looked like it was about to spring into action and run after the phantom car. His fingers tapped wildly against his own body. «Kyle, you're scaring me!»
But he continued to ignore her as the voices ran through his mind.
Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap.
Slowly, the car made another turn off the street and out of their line of sight. Isabel actually watched Kyle's body make a physical change as he regained his composure. He was breathing heavily as a drop of perspiration rolled down his forehead. He finally blinked.
«Are you okay?» she asked.
«Yeah,' he said in a hollow voice.
«That was no daydream,' she said.
«I know,' he replied. «I get kind of thrown into them whenever something even remotely reminds me of Alex or Tess.»
«Are they always that bad?» she asked.
«That was mild,' he said without a trace of sarcasm.
Suddenly Isabel knew that her plans with Jesse were about to be cancelled. As luck would have it, they were already back at the Crashdown Cafe. «Kyle, would you mind waiting in here for a few minutes? I have to run a quick errand.»
«Sure,' he said. «I could use a milk shake anyway.»
Isabel remembered how much milk shakes had seemed to be a cure-all for every dark situation when she was a child. Going back to the original theme of good fun and comfort food, she felt the need for a shake herself. «Order me one too. I'll be right back.»
As soon as Kyle went inside the restaurant, Isabel was off down the street. Conveniently, the coffeehouse where she was to meet Jesse was only a few blocks away. Since Roswell wasn't a huge bustling metropolis, they only had a coffeehouse every fourth block instead of every other block as in most major cities.
Seeing the sign for Bean There, Done That, Isabel slowed herself and grabbed the compact from her small pocketbook to do a quick makeup check. She was still in the early stages of her relationship with Jesse and she didn't want him to see her without so much as a hair out of place. After a quick lipstick reapply, she opened the door into the overly air-conditioned coffeehouse. With a shiver, she stepped inside.
Isabel found Jesse immediately, which wasn't difficult because the place only had four small tables-two of which were empty. He had been kind enough to wait for her without ordering, which Isabel couldn't help but notice obviously annoyed the guy behind the counter since Jesse was taking up a seat without having purchased a beverage.
It's a coffeehouse, she thought. People are supposed to loiter.
A perfect gentleman, Jesse was up and pulling out the seat for Isabel before she even reached the table. He
