Intermagical Stella

Clair was smoking and listening to some classical music for her breakfast. She was drinking black coffee with her cigarette to make breakfast complete. In her mind there was an image of Smith, and she was in his arms. She was imagining them dancing. The music changed, and now she was thinking about some other guy and them slowly walking down the street. Clair was looking at her phone, scrolling through the inbox of messages. There were so many men in there... it was like a phonebook of dudes. Most of the messages she didn't even open. Some messages were in English, and she would always be careful when blocking or deleting such messages to not accidentally delete a message from Smith. She was looking and thinking about who could invite her out for a drink. She put her phone away and decided to just go to the bar alone. She put 2 boxes of cigars in her bag, changed her leather pants to a short mini skirt, and went out to the bar.

In the bar she saw a table with this lady sitting alone and drinking. She waltzed slowly and sat down.

The lady said, "Excuse you?"

Clair ordered something with hand signals.

"What are you doing?"

In French, Clair responded that she didn't speak English and said, "My name is Clair," in English.

"I am Stella. Nice to meet you."

They sat together, drank and spoke. Stella would sometimes ask or say something. Clair would just say yes and nod.

Keane asked Sophia if she wanted breakfast or lunch.

"No, thank you, Keane. Sorry for the trouble."

"No, no, it is okay. Sorry for not finding a better place to put you. My living room is a mess."

"I am not drinking for some time now. I am being put somewhere like a vase, ha ha, but it is what I deserved. Ok, I need to go. Bye, Keane."

"Bye."

Sophia, on the way home, decided to check when there was a gathering in church. She noticed on the door that tomorrow there was one, but a short one, only for the church staff. What? Do priests have ceremonies only for themselves? I wanna see that. I will definitely come tomorrow.

And as time went on, tomorrow came. Sophia was in the church at the back, kneeling not to arouse suspicion. There were only 4 men for now at the front rows, and they were talking between themselves.

One of them noticed her, and she put her hands down to not look suspicious.

He got up, and Sophia started to get nervous. It was a pretty big church and she was pretty far away, so why was he coming here?

"Hello."

Sophia ignored and kept her eyes closed, trying to pretend that she was praying.

The guy raised her by her hair.

"Ouch, ouch, aaa, aa, a, what are you doing, you moron? That hurts!" The guy went for a slap, but his hand was stopped.

Smith was holding his hand, and the secret agents were entering the church and gathering the men. They handcuffed them and took them away. "You can take it from here, Mark. I will handle this."

Smith sat at the bench and asked Sophia calmly, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see the ceremony for church staff, so I snuck in. What is happening here?"

"Those 4 guys you see there are human traffickers. You had more luck than brains, my dear."

"What? Priests are human trafficking? Is this a joke? Is this some kind of prank? Ha ha, very funny, Dad. You can come out now."

"No, it's not a joke. You almost ruined this whole operation by being at the wrong place."

"Thank you for stopping that guy. He is a real gorilla, ja."

"You look awfully familiar to me," Smith said. "And you know, I think I even suspected you for something. Are you sure you are here just by chance?"

"Ha, what do you mean I am familiar!? Suspect me of what? Are you insane? Why would that guy just bicep curl me if I were in on this, whatever this shebang is?"

"You make a good point. But I am noticing some suspicious German activities in our country. So beware, I am always watching."

"That is kinda creepy. Now while I shower I will think..."

"No, no, I will stop you right there. I will not be watching you from like behind the bookshelf and like punch the books to make some code and engrave it into a watch. I meant if you are ever in the wrong place at the wrong time doing something illegal, I will be there."

"But how would you be there if you were not closely looking, ja? What if I sneak while showering? Did you ever like watch something awful not to lose a target?"

"Hm, yes, many times. I once watched this old couple getting naked and doing the most weird stuff. It was not that long ago. I still regret it."

"You watched grandpa and grandma getting naked?" Sophia laughed wholeheartedly.

"Yes, I can admit I did." Smith made an adjustment to his tie.

! 2 Years Later !

Ding dong. Ding dong.

Wilson and Sabina were at the door.

Wilson put forward the gift of a fruit basket and greeted Sophia.

Sophia was excited to see Wilson and Sabina and invited them into the house. "Come, come. My boyfriend is in the kitchen finishing up the dinner."

Wilson pulled out a chair for Sabina to sit.

Sophia came closer to Sabina to touch her pregnant stomach.

"Wow, it is getting bigger, Sabina, ja? Is it the size of a hedgehog now?"

Sabina smiled. "No, now it is like a big cookie."

"Big cookie, ha ha, what in the world? What kind of description is that? How big is the cookie?"

"It was a small cookie, and it was like a duckling, and now it is the size of a big cookie according to this stupid app."

"Wow, that is amazing. But they could have thought of something other than big cookie. Let me call my boyfriend. Honey, they arrived!"

They were all eating and drinking, making small talk, enjoying the nice, comfortable free time.

Sophia made a joke to Sabina quietly. "You know, Wilson, when we did it the first time, ja?"

Sabina lightly tapped Sophia on the hand. "Stop it, you are just nasty, ha ha ha."

"I am kidding. You know I love you both a lot."

"I know, Soph. You are amazing. Tell me, how did you and your boyfriend meet?"

Sophia clung to the arm of her boyfriend and asked him to tell the story. "You tell it better, darling."

Her boyfriend took a coin out of his pocket. "Let's say if it is heads on the toss, you tell it, and if it's tails, I tell it."

"Wow, that is fun," Sabina interjected.

"Nein, you are talking. Don't think I will fall for that two-headed coin twice."

"But it is not. Look." Smith showed that the coin indeed had heads and tails.

"Well, still, you are telling it. Okay, darling." She clenched the hand that she was holding.

"Well, yes, of course. We actually met in church."

"What?"

"What?"

Both Wilson and Sabina were shocked.

Wilson asked, "What was she even doing in the church?"

"I was wondering that same question, ha ha ha ha." Smith laughed for far too long here while others stared at him, judging.

"She was there by chance, same as me, you could say."

Smith looked at Sophia with a spark in his eye. "You remember our first date? It is still my favorite thing ever."

"Yes, it was so nice. We walked in the park and interrogation—I mean, introducing ourselves to each other through this long walk and getting lost was so much fun."

Smith nodded.

"OOO, cool," Sabina exclaimed and cut into the steak that was cooked perfectly. "Did you ever do it in church, you two?"

"Do what?" Smith asked, serious as death.

"Ohh, don't play stupid with me," Sabina laughed. "Ha ha ha, you two are perverts, big perverts, doing stuff like that in church."

"No, we didn't—"

Wilson put his hand up and said to Smith, "Don't argue it. There is no point. Tell me—" Khm, kmh. Wilson changed the topic fast. "What is it that you do?"

Smith paused. "Well, you could say that I am sort of a magician."

"Magician?" Wilson asked.

"Yes, I have been doing this for many years, me and this other guy that looks like me. We have this act. I enter the door, then the door opens and I am not there, but I am somewhere else, and it's just my stunt double."

"Dude, you like spoiled the whole trick."

"Oh yes, sorry. My bad."

"You are not very good at it," Sabina said. "Even I know magicians never reveal their secrets."