I shrugged. “One of the hazards of cavorting with shapeshifters, I suppose. You never know when we’re around or when you’re dealing with us.”
“Fair enough,” she admitted. “But I think you’ll agree that the last time we met – and I knew what you actually looked like – I didn’t do anything close to blowing you off.”
I frowned, thinking back. What Vestibule was referring to was the fact that she had kissed me – purportedly for luck – during the prior crisis when she had helped save the world. It was an incident I would have been happy to forget about, had it not happened in front of my girlfriend, Smokey, and a score of other people.
“Cat got your tongue?” Vestibule asked, bringing me out of my reverie. “Of course, if you don’t recall what happened last time, I’d be happy to refresh your memory.”
She raised an eyebrow suggestively. At the same time, Smokey began to cough like something was stuck in his throat – an act that reminded both Vestibule and me of his presence. (He had been completely silent up to that point, such that I’d almost forgotten he was there.) Fortunately, he stopped after a moment, making it clear that he wasn’t likely to choke to death.
“Sorry,” he rasped. “I think that last sip of soda went down the wrong way.”
“Anyway,” Vestibule said, crossing her arms as she turned back to me. “You owe me a date.”
“An outing,” I corrected, using my girlfriend Electra’s terminology.
Vestibule waved her hand dismissively. “Whatever. You still have an obligation here.”
“Which I plan to make good on tomorrow night,” I declared firmly. “Didn’t you get the invite?”
“I did,” she answered. “But that’s not a date. It’s an event with tons of people.”
“Well, if I were taking you to dinner, a movie, or a show, barring me renting out the entire venue, there would be lots of other people around. Tomorrow night will be no different, so it counts.”
“The hell it does!” Vestibule practically hissed, leaning forward angrily. “First of all, you’re not picking me up, which is what I’d expect – even for an outing, as you call it. I’m providing my own transportation. Second, I’d anticipate at least being by your side, if not on your arm, when we do this, but I doubt I’ll see you for more than five minutes tomorrow. Third, I don’t envision your little lightning rod being anywhere around when you finally decide to man up and keep your promise.”
There was silence for a moment as Vestibule and I sat there scowling at each other. She had just voiced the reason for her displeasure, plainly stating her case. In addition, I felt frustration rolling off her in waves. On my part, I didn’t care for the way that she was implying that I was trying to duck my obligations.
“Ah, just to be clear,” Smokey said, breaking the silence, “a lightning rod doesn’t actually create electricity, as was implied. What it actually does is…”
Smokey’s voiced trailed off as Vestibule gave him a withering look that would have felled an oak. Her expression made it clear that she wasn’t in the mood to entertain comments from the peanut gallery.
“Fine,” I finally said, drawing Vestibule’s attention back to me. “You don’t like the arrangements I made for resolving this, so tell me how you see it playing out.”
Her eyebrows shot up momentarily in surprise, and I could tell from her emotions that my comment had caught her a little unprepared. However, she recovered quickly.
“Well,” she said, smiling impishly, “word on the street is that you took your little girlfriend to Paris a few months back.”
Now it was my turn to raise my eyebrows. “You’re kidding, right? You can’t possibly want me to repeat the same date with you.”
Vestibule shook her head. “No, but it shows you’ve got imagination. What I want is for you to apply that same creative spark to our…” – she spent a moment searching for the right term – “…jaunt.”
I chuckled at her choice of words, which elicited a giggle from her in return. In addition to its traditional meaning, “jaunt” was a term that was generally accepted as a synonym for “teleport” in the realm of science fiction. Vestibule’s use of it implied that there might be more to her than there appeared at first blush. (Plainly speaking, I had always considered her to be a bit vapid, but perhaps I needed to reassess that opinion.)
“Alright, we’ll do it your way,” I acquiesced. “Tomorrow is out of the question, so how about Sunday afternoon?”
“Sunday night would be better,” she replied. “But I’ll take what I can get. And who knows where the day may take us?”
I didn’t respond to that directly, preferring instead to suggest we exchange contact info. (To be fair, Vestibule had actually written down her relevant information for me on a previous occasion, but Electra had taken possession of it almost immediately, and, well…enough said.) We were still in the process of entering our respective phone numbers on each other’s cell phones when I heard a familiar voice.
“Please forgive me if I am interrupting, but I was hoping I could join you.”
The speaker was Li, another friend and fellow member of the League’s teen affiliate. Unlike the rest of us, however, Li wasn’t human; he was an AI housed in an android body. That said, he looked like a typical teen and was ordinarily accepted as such (at least by me and my peers).
“It’s fine, Li,” I said as Vestibule and I returned each other’s phones. “Have a seat.”
“Yes, please do,” Vestibule added as she rose from her chair. “I was about to leave anyway.” She turned to me. “So, I’ll see you tomorrow, and we’re on for Sunday.”
I gave a terse
