Page 30 of Love at First Sighting
“Traveling is overrated, if you ask me.”
As nice as it is to see the world, there has never been anyone I’ve wanted to share it with. Every flight, every tour, every jaunt feels empty—like the ketchup bottle Carter’s battling.
“Well, I’ve left California a grand total of four times, so my bar’s on the ground.”
“I mean, to be fair, you dress like you’re from a time when airplanes were just invented.” I pick his hat up off the table and drop it on his head. He frowns, but it doesn’t hide the laugh bubbling at his lips. Instead, he tips it off and places it overmyhead.
“Head lice!” I cry.
“Oh, seriously? I don’t have lice. I’m an adult. That’s reserved for little kids at summer camp.” Carter wipes his hands off on his napkin and tilts the hat back so it sits on me like it should. He draws away with a smirk that makes me feel like I’m bound to melt into the pleather seating. “It looks good, Agent Ariel.”
Carter (4:31 pm):I’ve got it.
Carter (4:33 pm):You know my roommate Leonard?
El (4:35 pm):…no
Carter (4:36 pm):Okay well his name’s Leonard and we live together.
El (4:36 pm):Cute?
Carter (4:37 pm):He also works for the government.
El (4:39 pm):Can you give me more than one sentence of information at a time?
Carter (4:42 pm):So he works for the government and we mostly keep to ourselves. But I think he may be able to help us.
El (4:45 pm):Congrats on 2 sentences tell me there’s more.
Carter (4:47 pm):He has very high security clearance apparently and if we play our cards right, we might be able to get into the archive I think my dad’s files are in.
El (4:52 pm):Why are you winking?
Carter (4:54 pm):I’m being sneaky. Duh.
El (4:57 pm):Quite the saboteur you are.
Carter (4:58 pm):I think you like it.
El (4:57 pm):Do you now?
El (4:57 pm):But ok I’m in.
Carter (4:59 pm):Can you meet me at my apartment after 6pm? I’ll send you the address.
El (5:00 pm):Sure. What do u need?
Chapter 8
Carter
I don’t know how many more times I can scrub the toilet before I get carpal tunnel.
I only had an hour between El agreeing to meet at my place and Elactuallyarriving at my apartment. My meager two-bedroom, which I share with a man named Leonard, who I found on Facebook. Leonard, despite his name, is in his twenties like me and is apparently exceptional atSpirestorm, a popular multiplayer RPG.
We have the tenuous kind of relationship two federal employees might have—where we occasionally acknowledge each other’s presence and respect the fact that we have jobs we can’t talk about. It’s obvious where I work, with the uniform and all. He’s neverreallyspecified where he works, but I have my suspicions he’s some kind of data analyst for the FBI. What I do know is that Leonard has astonishingly high security clearance, and until now, I wasn’t desperate enough to ask for his help.
