Soulmate - Pickup or Delivery

Chapter 1

Lena kicked off her heels and put up her feet on the couch in her hotel's suite. It had been a long day of handshaking and building walkthroughs, but as the new CEO of Luthor Corp., this was just one of her many responsibilities. Moving the headquarters to National City was being touted as a positive move for the company, and the mayor had made some very promising economic compromises to bring the multi-billion dollar company here. Right now none of that mattered as much as something to eat, something to drink, and a warm bath and not necessarily in that order. Tomorrow would be another long day.

Lena dragged the takeout menu off the coffee table and flipped it open, scrunching her nose up at most of the choices. Finally, she settled on something minimally acceptable. Grabbing her cellphone, she dialed the number on the back of the menu.

"Chen Yang Li," came the man's voice across the line.

"Hello, I'd like to place an order for delivery."

"What address?"

"To the Winchester hotel, please."

"Just a minute."

The man started speaking Mandarin, but before Lena could respond the voice drifted away indicating the phone had been placed down and the speaker was talking to someone else.

There were several seconds of pause, and then a clearly feminine voice said, "Hi, four orders of the Emperor Supreme steamed tofu with vegetables, only two sets of chopsticks, please."

Lena gasped then yelped in pain, dropping her phone. She twisted and fell off the couch, writhing on the floor. Finally managing to pull her shirt partially up, she unzipped her pencil skirt and tugged it and her underwear down enough in the back to fully expose her tattoo which was now glowing. As the glow faded, the words, "Hi, four orders of the Emperor Supreme steamed tofu with vegetables, only two sets of chopsticks, please," remained as they had for as long as she could remember.

Lena struggled to her feet, more than slightly disheveled, pushing a bit of hair behind one ear. "Jesus Christ. When they said that would hurt when it activated, they weren't kidding." She wandered over to a nearby mirror to look at her soulmark. It was still red, looking more like an actual new tattoo than a soulmark. She stared at it for several seconds, a look of awe and wonder on her face, before her eyes widened, and she ran back to where her phone lay on the ground and snatched it up. "Hello? Hello?" There was no one on the line. After a moment of cursing, she redialed the last number.

"Chen Yang—"

"Who just came in there and picked up Chinese food!?"

"Um ... everyone."

Lena sighed, mainly at herself. "Of course. I mean, who just ordered four orders of the Emperor Supreme steamed tofu with vegetables with only two sets of chopsticks?"

"Oh, you mean the attractive blonde."

"She's attractive and blonde?" Lena let go of her skirt to silently pump her fist in the air three times, only stopping as her open skirt was falling off her hips. As she grabbed the skirt again, she asked, "Did you get her name?"

"I don't know," the man replied.

"Did she pay with a credit card? Her name would be on the receipt."

"She always pays cash."

"Always?" Lena stood up a bit straighter, hiking her skirt up into place and flinching when it hit the tattoo. "She comes in a lot?"

"Every Wednesday night. Did you want to order something?"

"I want to know where this damn woman lives!" Lena snapped. Then, taking several breaths, she said, "I apologize. That was uncalled for. I just meant, I'd truly appreciate any information you could provide me in finding this woman. It's of the utmost importance that I locate her as soon as humanly possible."