The Progress

Surprisingly, I was extremely calm when I got up and then watched some culinary competition, I was looking for inspiration for dinner, and also slowly reflecting on what I wanted to do with my upcoming birthday. Honestly, I didn't feel like doing anything with them. All I knew was that I wanted to bake a cake and share it with my loved ones. I also planned to bake a cake for my colleagues on this occasion and make their working hours more enjoyable. And of course, I would have plenty of cookies for the students if they decided to see me that day.

Besides, I didn't like to celebrate it, because it meant that the anniversaries of my parent's death were approaching. After all, this mom's was on the same day that I should be celebrating, daddy's not much later. For me, having a birthday meant looking back on the past and battling the pain of losing my biological parents every year. I looked at the calendar this year, this day is Thursday, which meant that on Friday after work, I would go to the graves and visit aunt Bernadette. David and Martha were probably expecting our visit, or at least on Saturday or Sunday dinner.

Víctor came back in the late afternoon, but he didn't inform me when he would be back, so I ate pasta with cream and herb sauce myself. He warmed up his food and sat down at the table, and I watched him suspiciously. His humor was a bit confusing and it was hard for me to read him properly. He kept his eyes away from me, focusing his full attention on the food. He didn't want me to find out something? His thoughts indicated an internal discussion about the cooking time of the pasta, the consistency of the sauce, and the right amount of herbs that should be in it.

"What?" He finally looked at me.

"Nothing?" I replied indignantly. "I'm waiting here for some information, and you haven't said a word since you got back."

"You made a good sauce," he replied, and blushed, then demanded that I look away.

I narrowed my eyes, making a suspicious face. Victor had a right to privacy, so I never blamed him for doing so, he knew too well how my power worked and how freely I had access to his mind. This time, however, I was consumed by a great curiosity, after all, I was the matchmaker here. To prolong the moment of talking with me, Victor even washed the dishes. He could feel my eyes on his back, coupled with the mute reproach that I hadn't learned anything yet. My brother sat down next to me on the couch and asked what was interesting I was watching on TV.

"Are you for real?" I asked.

"Why should I be kidding?" he replied, reaching for the remote. "If you're not watching anything, I'll switch it."

"Are we friends for real?"

"Lulu, of course, but ..." he said with a sigh, knowing where I was going.

"But you don't want to tell me yet, okay? Did you at least donate my cake?" I finished sadly.

"I did."

"You didn't screw up?"

"I didn't screw up."

"Good," I muttered and crossed my arms, still slightly offended.

He kept me informed about everything that had happened in his previous relationships, whether they were better or worse, and he talked to me about them. He talked about dating, sometimes with great excitement, sometimes with crying. I had comforted him after breakups so many times, treated him for a broken heart, and now it was different, and he didn't want me to know anything until he wanted to tell me himself.

"Victor, can it be a stroke of good luck this time?" I asked completely seriously.

"Yes," he said confidently. Strong enough, considering how briefly they knew Alex, I was a little surprised. "That's why I don't want to screw it up," he added.

I understood him after all, he was my best friend. And I had to respect his will, so I focused on some stupid action comedy that was going on.

"Okay!" Victor burst out after a while. "I wanted to buy flowers. It would be nice to give Alex flowers, wouldn't it? Who doesn't like getting flowers? Then I remembered the situation at the club and thought that maybe giving him flowers at the coffee shop might not be the best idea. I didn't even have anything from myself, just your cake. I was stupid not to have anything for him" he blurted out suddenly and started waving a lot of his hands in the process. "He has been coming to this cafe for two weeks to teach in the afternoons and on weekends when he has a little sleep after work. And it didn't open much earlier, and it's generally fun to sit there. Unfortunately, we couldn't eat the cake from you there so we took a coffee to go and went for a walk, of course eating it on the way."

"One thing, was it delicious?" I asked.

"Of course, Alex was very grateful to you and said that it was a long time since he ate homemade cake," my brother began to talk with more and more verve. "At first it was strange, even very much, but I apologized to him for my behavior every now and then. You know, with this handicap of mine, it was even worse, but Alex is very patient. I was stressed that it would be as usual, that it would end up with stares full of reproach or impatient sighs. First, I was in a hurry to write on the phone, but then Alex told me that I could write easily because he wanted to find out what I really thought ..."

As his phone rang, he immediately rushed to check who the message came from. He smirked and crouched down to let me know that he didn't want me to even try to peek at who it was. He typed a quick reply, but then he thought for a long time about choosing the right emoticons so as not to overdo their message. I smiled and waited patiently for him to finally decide to send a reply. It reminded me of enjoying a new potential relationship each time, but this time, it felt different. His mind was giving out a different kind of vibration. I couldn't name them exactly, but it felt like something good.

"What?" Victor looked at me, embarrassed.

"Nothing," I replied. "I am waiting patiently for the rest of the story. Now that you've started, it would be nice to finish."

"You already know too much," he replied seriously. "I won't say anymore."

"Brother," I tried to beg him. "I want to know what happened next! Have you been holding hands? Don't say there was more. Kisses, kisses?" I was screwing with him a bit.

"Don't use your games on me," he shook his finger at me, blushing.

I smiled because that was what I wanted for him. He seemed happy and so pleased with the little things that Alex had sent him a message saying he was going to work and he could wish him a nice shift and ask him to take care of himself. Victor had a hard time hiding it from his mind, or he just forgot, so absorbed in choosing these emoticons. But I didn't want to tell him the truth, let him have the feeling that I still don't know anything about it.

That's why the situation hurt me all the more, and the way Victor's work colleagues made fun of him and Alex, that's why I felt an uncontrolled urge to take revenge. I was already planning how to organize it, but I had to ask my brother a bit, and the working time of this idiot. He didn't suspect what I was going to do. After receiving the relevant information, I was glad that I had enough time to take care of the currently empty art club to reach their company and wait for my victim there.

I couldn't sit still, so I was all the more pleased when the youthful head looked inside the class, where I nervously paced around. As much as I wanted to do it, I still felt uncomfortable using my powers, at least for such nefarious purposes. I didn't think anyone would come that day. Rather, I expected it not to happen in the following days as well, and then I would be sure to declare my venture a failure.

"Excuse me miss, I have nothing to do with myself. I don't want to go home yet, but I don't have any artistic interests. Can I just sit here? Possibly I will draw something if you want," the young girl said sadly, I noticed that her eyes were a bit teary.

"I don't expect anything like that," I said, surprised. "Go ahead, and maybe you want to play a game, what do you say? I'm a bit nervous today too, I think it will be useful to both of us."

"Why not." The girl shrugged.

"Can you play ships?" I asked.

She nodded her head no. So I explained the rules quickly and we sat down opposite each other to play the first naval battle. Each of us had to draw two boards with a size of ten by ten squares and label one with letters and the other with numbers. On one of them, you would place your ships, and on the other one, you could shoot and search for enemy ships by entering a combination of a letter and a number. It was only necessary to make sure that the elements of the fleet did not touch each other. I gave the novice a head start, who was still amazed that we only needed pens and sheets of paper. The teenager, however, was a tough player. At the time I had for the club we played only three games, but how fierce they were.

The girl promised that she would come back again, which made me very happy. And the time we spent together helped both of us to relax and to keep our minds occupied in general other than our problems. However, I had one more thing to do in my plans. On the way to leave school, I went into the bathroom and removed my lenses. I put on sunglasses that worked a bit worse but had to be enough for this plan. Victor told me that my victim stays a few more hours on Mondays to leave early on Fridays or to save himself an extra day off for unexpected accidents. Perfect situation for me.

I was almost late because he was already leaving the office and I had to run a bit to catch up with him.

"John, John, wait," I called. Surprised, he turned and asked who I was. I adjusted my glasses a bit. "I'm Lucretia. You probably didn't notice me, but I'm Victor's little sister. We passed each other at the club last Friday when you celebrated the end of this important project. I liked you very much." I saw that happy smirk on his face. I sensed he liked the shy girl type. So I hung my head a little, feigning embarrassment, folded my arms behind me, and began rocking on my heels. "I tried to ask my brother something about you, but he wouldn't tell me anything. I don't think he thinks you are good company for me. And he can't know I'm here. you won't tell him, right?"

"If only I knew our newbie had such a lovely sister ..." He laughed charmingly. "Of course, I won't tell him. This will be our little secret." He winked.

I struggled to have the most delighted smile I could. All I had to achieve was that we were alone for a while. I agreed then to go with him because he lived nearby and there order something to eat, get to know each other better, etc. I didn't care what he thought, he just had to pay for it as he insulted Alex and made him feel upset. He asked why I was wearing glasses all the time.

"I'm here incognito, don't you remember?" I laughed nervously. "And I get nervous a little around such a handsome man as you, my brother protects me from all men."

As soon as we got inside, he said to make myself comfortable and tossed something about wanting to see my beautiful eyes since we were all alone. He just didn't know how much he would regret it. I took off my glasses and first allowed myself to adjust my eyesight to the surroundings for a moment. I took a few deep breaths.

"Come on, don't be shy," laughed John, trying to make it a flirtatious tone.

I looked up and we met eyes. He took a step backward, then a second, until he felt a wall behind him. When I wanted to use the power myself, I had the feeling that I was stronger then. I burst into his mind with a bang and then immediately headed to where the sleep center was and put him to sleep. Now I could just go crazy, but I didn't want to waste my time unnecessarily. I knew where to look for his greatest fears and dreads, and how to program his mind to see them awake for the next month, and then tire him with nightmares. I also found his most hidden secrets and decided to then send him some unpleasant messages with them to make him even more nervous. I also erased our meeting from his memory, and then I went out and I would ask, like in the movies, for an explosion that would make me look cool when I put my glasses back on.