Jase's Rooftop Smoking Break with an Old Friend

As I make it to the roof of the office, something seems odd. Tingly. A familiar feeling, but one I haven’t felt in a couple years. I let the door close behind me before I say, “So, who’re you here to kill, Therese?”

From the shadows beside the door’s housing, my college friend walks out, holding a brown paper bag. “Rude,” she jokes with a straight face, “I rarely need to kill anyone these days.”

I can’t help but laugh. For all her many, many faults, she can be quite funny if you recognize when she’s not being serious. And, best I can tell, she’s probably not being serious. I pull out the same tin as all those years ago, and remove one of my joints. I look over at her. “You really should be more careful, saying stuff like that. You never know who might be listening.” I smirk, as we both know that’s not true.

She shakes her head. “Go ahead and spark. No eyes or ears on. The threats I know of in the city are sated. Assuming it’s alright with your job.”

I grin. “Technically we have quarterly drug tests, but since the testing is technically mandatory but not enforced, they don’t care if we miss the random day. My day starts later than Kyle’s, so he has me work remote whenever the peeing is happening.” I hold my fingers up and, muttering the same incantation I’ve known since I was in high school smoking with an Apprentice, I flick my fingers. A spark leaps between my thumb and forefinger, back and forth, letting me light up and start to smoke.

Ter takes a drink herself from her paper bag. “So, everything is going well? No trouble after either of the requests?”

“Like you care,” I joke, smirking at her.

She shakes her head. “I do care. I wouldn’t have done anything different, but I do care.” Just the hint of a smile in the corners of her mouth.

I laugh. “Fair enough,” I shoot back, then, with a sigh, I do answer her, “But workside, everything is solid.”

“And non-workside?”

I weigh how honest I want to be. The fact is, Ter is a lot of things and one of them is almost wholly on Ali’s side. They’re always scheming about something related to my girlfriend’s future. But, lying to her is dangerous. She is good at telling when people are lying and poking and prodding until she finds what she’s looking for. It can be super fun to watch, as long as it isn’t happening to you. “I’m feeling kinda stuck, I don’t know.”

“How so?” she wonders aloud.

I brush the question off. “If I knew that, I could find a way to unstick myself, couldn’t I?” She looks at me, as though to say, ‘Could you?’. The look lasts a full swig from her bag. I shake my head. “Fine, I might be able to. Is that better?”

Therese shakes her head at me. “Jason, when you figure out why, you can vent to me and it might get solved. But without that, I think you might just have to stay stuck.”

“But that’s not helpful, that’s just stating the obvious,” I complain.

Therese looks me dead in the eyes and says, “I’ll tell you what, win, and I’ll solve your problems for you.”

I shake my head, breaking eye contact almost immediately. “No fun at all,” I mutter. Then, in a normal tone, I add, “What about you? You wouldn’t come by if you didn’t have something to talk about.”

I can see the minimal turn in her brow. She hates that I know her that well. Then she begins to speak. “Keeping it vague, I’m starting to find more of a view into the sides of the world beyond the Villae, and something is coming. But the view I have of the picture is so small and skewed, I can’t tell what it means for my own plans.”

I nod. I know better than to ask any specifics. Except for one. “Yours, Ali’s, or both?” I ask.

Ter lets out a single chortle. “Honest? Both, but I’m mostly focused on my own for the moment.”

I laugh. That seems about right. “Can you find a better view?” I posit.

Ter gives a slight shrug, taking a sip out of her bag once more. “Likely, but-” she cuts herself off, her eyes shooting up slightly, then leaning back. Something new is happening. One of her alarms or wards is going off. Thankfully, I’m already done lighting the joint, so I don’t need to worry about it. She can do the worrying. I’ll focus on the musing.

“Hesitance is interesting,” I say, “Almost like there’s an element of what’s going on that embarrasses you. I didn’t know you could be embarrassed.”

From behind me, I hear the hint of a squeaking hinge. Then, the bane of my existence speaks. “Jase, who’s this lovely woman that’s definitely not your girlfriend that you’re having an illicit rendezvous on the roof with? I might have to tell your lovely girlfriend, then console her through the night.”

Ter, without looking back, shakes her head. “Wouldn’t work, Virginia. Alina would mostly just be upset with me that I met with Jason before her.”

I sigh. “For once, could you pretend not to know everything,” I grumble at my old friend. Then, to Ginny, I add, “This is a different friend from college.”

Ter feigns offense. “Friend is a stretch. Friendly acquaintance.”

Ginny looks confused, clearly not getting that it’s faux-offense, not actual offense. Right, the Ter expressions are hard for new people to tell. So I play into the joke. “You’re right, more like bestie.”

“I know where you sleep at night,” she says flatly. That one isn’t a joke. Hopefully my joking demeanor will make Ginny think it is.

It seems like it worked, because Ginny grins. “Sorry,” she says, “I just didn’t realize everyone you knew in college was hot as shit.”

Ter finally turns to face my coworker. I really don’t like the look in the corner of her eyes as she does. “In all fairness, Jason likely still sees me as an alcoholic child.”

Jase counters, “Technically, devil child, but close enough.”

Ginny grins even wider. “So your hot friend has some devilish tendencies.”

“Stop calling her hot,” I press.

Ter shakes her head. “The devilish tendencies he’s referring to aren’t those sorts, unfortunately for us both.”

“And stop playing along,” I spit out at my old friend. Shaking my head, I say, “Sometimes I hate you both.”

“Sometimes?” Ginny asks.

“Don’t feel bad. Most of the time when he’s hating me, he doesn’t have much room to hate anyone else.”

“Sounds like you have some stories,” she says, sitting down beside Ter.

“Many,” she replies.

I take a drag. I’m curious how irritated Ginny will be by Ter’s secrecy.

“Anything juicy?” Ginny presses.

Ter shrugs. “Mostly.” I can see the smugness in the corners of her eyes. Just a hint to most people paying attention, but plain as day to me.

Ginny waits a moment for any elaboration, but none come. They simply stare at one another. “Watch out, Ginny,” I joke, “She used to beat the duck at this.”

Ginny breaks eye contact to give me a baffled look. “Is that shit like, really strong?”

Ter sighs. “Alright, Virginia. It has been fun, but could you head back inside. I have some more stuff to talk with Jason about and would prefer not to need to resort to vagueries about anything less than legitimate.”

Ginny’s look remains somewhat confused, looking back at Ter. “Jase doesn’t do much crime.” Then, realizing the obvious flaw in her statement, adds a bit too quickly, “Present addictions notwithstanding. He’ll definitely rat you out, whereas I…” she trails off.

I smirk. “That’s rude. And not a concern for her.” I lean across Ter to whisper to Ginny, "Because she is terrifying.”

Ter nods. “Also medical fraud.”

It sounds so out of the blue. I can’t help but laugh at it. “God, you’re finally going to call in that one. I was so sure.” Then to Ginny, I add, “Don’t worry, I’ll be down in a bit. If she’s interested I might even bring her along.”

Ginny shakes her head, but heads inside anyway, closing the door behind her. Ter pauses, not saying anything. Her eyes are in the middle distance, so she’s paying attention to something, just not me. So I ask, “What’s up on crime street?”

“Nothing, until Virginia stops eavesdropping from the closed door.”

I hear some shuffling behind me. Ginny, probably either leaving or making it seem like she’s leaving. Not my problem. “Alright, give me the heads up when she actually leaves,” I joke as I pull out another joint. I move my body so that, in case she’s watching and not just listening, she wouldn’t spot it when I mutter the incantation under my breath once more and light up with a flick of my finger and thumb. I take a deep breath, inhaling the smoke. There’s more movement. Evidently, she hadn’t left. Some people are silly, not assuming Ter’s omniscient. And I look out across the street at the veritable army of birds swarming the powerlines. But none of them are worthy of my ire. I can tell from their utter lack of patience.

After a bit longer, Ter finally speaks. “And we’re clear.”

I shake my head. “So, what crimes are you so worried about getting done you’d call in a favor?”

Ter smiles ever so slightly. “None, I just needed an excuse for Virginia to leave. I have a meeting tomorrow, one that shouldn’t go south. Perspective sort of meeting.”

I could wait patiently for the other shoe to drop, but even though I’ve been working on it, patience has never been a strong suit. “But…?” I ask.

“Isaac and Alina are both in Europe, and I need someone who can cover my back to make sure things don’t go south.”

“Saturday nights, I go drinking with the rest of IT and some of the phone people. Sorry,” I counter.

She looks at me, giving a smug look of her own genius. “And I do wonder, whose week is it to pick the bar?” She asks the question. The tone is flat, but I know that she knows the answer.

“So you’re meeting someone at a bar,” I sigh.

Ter nods. “Close enough. Just enjoy your time with your coworkers at this bar, and if things start exploding, use the chaos to help me out a bit.” She slides me a note.

“Is it at least a cheap bar?” I ask.

She nods. “Of your drinking companions, only Ev should dislike it, as she might find the lack of games and the like as boring. But that just means you will have to endure something heinous in a couple weeks when I’m not in the city anymore.” She gives a thin, tight lipped smile.

I go to make more of an objection, but I can’t. With a sigh, I admit, “we both know I was always going to agree. But if I do actually have to help, you don’t involve me in any more shenanigans this year.”

“Summer.”

“Deal,” I grin. I expected her to go to month, not all summer. I managed to pull one over on her. My grin fades as I realize that I didn’t. Her not going to month first means if things hit the fan, there might be real problems. “Now are you going to tell me what about this meeting is embarrassing you so much?” There is a chance the earlier hesitation was just her waiting for the right moment to

Her face goes flat. “No,” she states unequivocally. Which means that she is embarrassed about something.

“That’s fine, I’ll just have my spies figure it out,” I joke.

She cocks her head slightly. “I’m your spies,” she jokes right back.

I nod, agreeing with her. “So listen,” I add with a teeth-bearing grin, “I’ve got this friend, and she’s hiding something embarrassing from me. Do you think you could be a dear and find that out?”

“Oh, you mean how Virginia went back on her promise and had very disappointing relations with Evalynn?” Ter jokingly replies. No wait, reading her face, it’s only a mock, not a joke.

I look up, and, with an exhale of smoke, I say, “Goddamnit Ginny.”