It was my turn to shake my head, and I made my way over to the couch and sat down slowly. My back wasn't too bad, but I didn't want to turn my head in any way. Even nodding hurt like hell. "Not so much until this morning," I said, wincing again. "But I didn't sleep well. Too many questions and voices inside my head."
"This isn't a minor thing like finding out I had a drunk driving conviction in my past, so I can understand it being overwhelming. I really am sorry about all of this. I never expected to find someone like you in the world, someone who made me think that my duty to humanity isn't as important as one person. Since meeting you, Albertine has become, well, just not as important to me."
It's not every day that a woman is told she's more important than the fate of the entire world. It floors you, to say the least. I was stunned. "So I guess you kind of like me, huh?"
Cam growled, then caught the humor in my tone of voice and smiled back. "I love you."
"Then I guess you won't mind if I pepper you with questions all the time? I feel like I've walked into hour two of a three-hour movie, and there's a lot going on I don't understand."
Cam thought about it, then nodded. "Sure, I can deal with that. But to be honest, I don't even know all of the pieces in this game. I find out when I can, but there are gaps in even what I know."
"That's all right. We can start with two very easy questions."
"Shoot."
I sat back, resting my head on the back of the couch, and stretched out my legs. It was an immediate improvement in my neck pain. "First question is, just how smart are you? Are we talking super-genius?"
Cam laughed. “I’m not sure what qualifies you to be a super-genius, but I do have an Eidetic memory," I said. "Once I read or hear something, I don't forget it. What's your other question?"
I grinned and laid my head back all the way, relaxing. "What're you making for breakfast? Now that I know you're a super-genius who can do anything, I'm going to domesticate you fully."
* * *
I felt strange going into work. School started up for Cam in a week, and while I was feeling a bit better, my neck still ached. It was jarring, the normality of going into a part time job knowing what I knew.
"Melina, can I see you in my office?" Jay said when I came in, and a sliver of worry worked through my heart before evaporating.
"Sure Jay. What's wrong?"
Jay led me into the office, leaving the door open which I took as a good sign. "Hey, Cam called me from work yesterday, said you two had a traffic accident on Saturday. He said you had a stiff neck?"
"I've been called worse," I joked, sobering when Jay didn't laugh. "It was minor. Cam's already getting his truck fixed, and I'm taking some ibuprofen for it. It's feeling better from Sunday already."
"All right, but if you feel any pain or limitations, you tell me. I can get Jerry on the evening shift to take care of any restocking or heavy lifting."
I was touched by his concern. "I'm fine Jay, really. Although if you let me borrow your key to the real good stuff you keep locked away in the pharmacy, I won't tell anyone."
He laughed this time at my joke, waving me off. "All right, get up there and do your shift. Just take it easy today."
I headed back up front, taking over the register from the person who’d opened the pharmacy. With school starting, Jay said he would use me mostly in opening and mid-day shifts in order to try and let me and Cam have similar work times. Of course, that didn't mean I wouldn't sometimes be asked to do a weekend shift, but that was unavoidable.
Since it was the middle portion of a Tuesday, I really didn't have too much to do. There were about at most three or four customers an hour until four o'clock, when the after school moms and some of the older kids from the nearby junior high school would begin to trickle in. I didn't even have another co-worker to talk with, as the pharmacist, a nice guy named Tim who'd I'd exchanged a total of two dozen words within the entire time I'd been in Truth or Consequences (normally consisting of Hi, Tim and Good night, Tim) stayed behind his counter the whole time.
About fifteen minutes before I got off shift, I saw something that caught my attention. Glancing up, my blood ran cold as I recognized the same two guys I'd seen the week before, once again hanging out near the snack aisle, which gave them a clear view of me at the front of the store. This time, though, I had a whole laundry list of other things to associate with them besides just being weirdos.
The two guys approached, again with an intense, ugly look on their faces. My relief was counting out the register, so they had to wait a minute, both of them staring at me almost the whole time. With them so close, the malicious intent practically radiated off of them, and I decided to take a risk. Grabbing my phone, I turned around and took a ‘selfie’.