Vivian.

There she was, right across the street from me. I knew she was living out here now; Fort Steilan was only about five minutes away. And she was standing in front of a lendrian restaurant, which had always been her favorite comfort food. There was nothing about her being here that was at all strange or out-of-character for her.

So then why was her presence tripping every alarm ward in my brain all at once? Why was it setting off all of my deep-seated "you are being stalked by a predator" instincts? Rationally speaking, unless she was doing something ridiculously illegal like scrying on me, she had no way of knowing I was going to be in this particular place at this particular time; even I didn't know that until just a couple hours ago. Running into her here as a pure coincidence wouldn't even be the fifth-weirdest thing that's happened to me since moving to Sharliya.

So I told my instincts to shut up. If I could go fight in a dungeon, if I could bluff an angel, cuddle a succubus multiple times and keep the whole thing platonic, and debate philosophy and ethics with a... uhh... a whatever-Gareth-was, I should have nothing whatsoever to fear from a talk with my ex. It's just Vivian!

I gave her a little nod of acknowledgment, making my way over to the nearest crosswalk and then to the restaurant once the light changed. She walked up to me as I entered the parking lot, wearing a bright yellow tee with abstract greenish swirls all over, and a matching skirt. I don't think I've ever seen her wearing pants; it's always skirts or dresses with her. "Brad! Wow, what are you doing out here? I was just about to grab some lunch. Wanna come with? I know lendrian isn't your favorite but... my treat?"

It's not like I have anything against lendrian cuisine, it's just, like she said, not my favorite; I'd prefer Imperial heartland cooking any day, or better still an orcish steakhouse if I could afford to eat at one. Which I totally can now! I realized. But lendrian's not bad, and there wouldn't be any problem with the offer, except of course for the small matter of the person doing the offering.

"Seriously?" I asked her. "You're just gonna open with that? Like nothing significant changed in the last month?"

She just gave me a little eye-roll. "What? You gonna let a little thing like that ruin our friendship?" she scoffed. Then, glancing over at the House Kametan building, she narrowed her eyes slightly. "You said all that silly stuff about thinking I was 'the one.' You weren't in there looking for a ring for me, were you? Because it's not like you have anyone else you'd be buying one for; it's only been a few weeks and I know you don't work nearly that fast!"

Because obviously the only reason I'd be going into a place like that would be to buy something for her. But... I couldn't tell her the real reason I was going in there. I just shook my head. "Not buying anything for a girl," was all I said. I gestured towards the door of the restaurant and started walking towards it, hoping she'd change the subject.

"Meet anyone yet?" she asked as we walked inside.

Wow, how to answer that one? A few possible replies came to mind; in the end I decided to settle on over-the-top but technically honest. "Actually yeah; I've met three very interesting women since coming here, each one of them close to my age, smart, talented, and attractive." I gave her a little half-grin. "And each one has said, in her own way under her own individual circumstances, that she doesn't want to date me. And I wasn't even really asking!"

That made her raise a hand to her mouth, stifling a fit of giggles. "Poor Brad! Within two months all three of 'em will be all over you!"

Groan. "You're still reading those ridiculous harem stories online, I take it?"

She scowled at me. "They're not ridiculous; they're romantic!"

"Pursuing someone after they've already said no? There's a word for that, but 'romance' isn't it."

She looked like she was about to say something, but that was about when one of the wait staff came and showed us to our table. I opened the menu and started looking it over while Vivian raised the next subject to come to mind. "So how's Dyralight? I told Jake you're working there and he says you're probably bored out of your gourd sitting in some cubicle somewhere building car parts for some dragon."

"I'm actually enjoying it. Lots of cool people to work with and interesting problems to solve." To this day I have no idea who Jake is or how he would have any basis to form an opinion of my personality or my reaction to certain circumstances. Vivian's habit of doing that was always one of her less-endearing personality traits. "And I'm not doing it for the dragon; I'm doing it for the people who buy the cars."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

That got a laugh out of her. "I know, right? Like, can you even imagine a dragon driving a car? How would they even fit?"

Yes, I could imagine very easily how that would work. I could have imagined it even before meeting Dyralist a few days prior. "You do know it wouldn't be all that hard for them, right?"

She sighed. "Yeah, yeah, shapechange to take the form of a kith. Don't mess up my jokes with being reasonable. But, like... why would they when they can fly?"

I flew here all the way from Drimni last night, on short notice, Dyralist had said to me and Joanna. It was quite tiring. Seeing a man sitting at a desk wearing a suit, my mind had naturally gone to airship travel, even knowing who he really was. But now it occurred to me that maybe he had flown flown. "I dunno," I said. "Why would you want to drive when you can walk anywhere you can reach by car?"

"Takes too long," she said.

"Yeah, that and your legs would get tired. Why shouldn't the same be true for dragons? Airships use a lot of mana to make them fly through the air. Seems to me flying too much would wear dragons out, so why wouldn't they want to drive a car when they can?"

"Because they're dragons!" she said.

"So? They're living beings. Every other living being we know of that walks under its own power has limits to its physical stamina. What makes dragons any different?"

She sighed. "Phy~suh~cal sta~mi~nuh. You're such a nerd sometimes, Brad!"

Before I could say anything in response to that, our server came by to take our order. I had barely had time to look over the menu; I'd been too busy talking with Vivian and gradually questioning past me's tastes more and more. I let her order first while quickly glancing through the menu, then picking out something that looked good.

What had I ever seen in her? As distasteful as it was to realize this, the answer was starting to become clear: I had seen her. The "at least a 17" that Joanna's succubus aura made me think she was? Vivian was actually that hot, and when an out-of-your-league beautiful fireball of a girl like her starts showing interest in you, it can cloud your judgment a bit.

"So anyway," I asked once the server left, "what about you? How are things at... what was the place called again? Gyrax? Gyrix?"

Vivian rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, not everyone ends up at some big famous business like Dyralight. It's Gyrix, and I'm not really sure I'll stay there very long. There's this opening at a research company that I'm looking at; it feels like it would be pretty awesome."

I just gaped at her. "Viv, it hasn't even been two weeks! You said you loved the idea of working at Gyrix; it kind of felt like we both found dream jobs. What changed?"

She scoffed. "I actually started working there is what."

"You're not getting harassed or anything, are you?" I could easily see that happening to someone with her looks.

"No, nothing like that. It's just the job turned out to be stupid. They keep trying to tell me to do stuff I don't know how to do!"

"Well yeah. You're supposed to learn on the job."

"Learning." Vivian rolled her eyes. "Just spent the last four years doing nothing but learning. I've done the learning; I know stuff now! That's why they hired me, right? But now they aren't using what I actually know. Doesn't that make them the ones who need to learn stuff, Brad?"

"I came into Dyralight knowing enchanting, but that doesn't mean I know much about how cars work. They've been putting me through my paces getting up to speed on the car aspects of it, and it's been fun. I seriously don't get you sometimes, Viv."

"Whatever."

"So what's the research place like?"

Her face lit up. "Oh, it's this awesome startup that's looking into more efficient mana-aspecting techniques, to build better storage crystals. They're growing super quickly!"

"Building mana storage crystals. Yup. Won't need to learn anything new to do a job like that."

She just sighed at me. "I wouldn't be the one building them, of course," she said. "The opening's on their communications team. Wow, you're as bad as Rachael!" Again, no idea who that is.

It was about then that our salads arrived, and by the time we got done with that, the entrees were ready. So there wasn't too much more conversation for a bit. When she got done eating, though, she set down her fork and looked over at me. "If there isn't anyone special to buy stuff for," she asked, "what were you doing at Kametan's?"

There were two people I specifically really didn't want finding out about my newfound wealth. The general public, and Vivian. "Just looking around," I said as nonchalantly as I could. "Enchanters use gemstones a lot in their work."

She wasn't buying it. "At a luxury jeweler half an hour away from home? I'm no enchanter but I don't think you guys use that kind of stone."

I sighed and looked down, avoiding her eyes. "Yeah, that's what they told me in there," I said.

"You're crap at lying, Brad. Always have been."

"Well, it's not like we're in any sort of relationship that would give you a right to know what I'm doing with myself..."

Vivian rolled her eyes. "Wow, are you still mad about what I said a few weeks ago?" she asked, her tone carrying just enough scorn to make it clear that that was an unreasonable length of time to be hurt by her rejection.

"Not mad, just... starting to understand some things, I guess. I'm not done learning just because I graduated, and there are advantages to that."

She just glowered at me. "You're learning. You're understanding. Everything's always about you, isn't it?" And then without another word she got up and walked out of the restaurant, just moments before the server came by with the check.

Well. About the only good thing I can say about this encounter with Vivian is, at least I could afford it now.