Magic Touch

Chapter 25 - Ultimatum

Two days shouldn't be allowed to pass that fast, Kate thought to herself.

It was already evening and she sat on her couch, phone on the coffee table in front of her. She had already been making excuses not to make the call for about an hour. Making that one hour and a half was tempting, but she also knew the pressure wasn't going to go away before she completed the task. She had promised, after all.

Exhaling sharply, she reached for the phone. She pulled her knees up to her chest and stared at the display, as it willing it would make anything happen. Granted, in her case it might, being a witch and all. She shuddered at the thought and reluctantly tapped Rose's number. In the end it was better to do it manually than risk her magic backfiring on her.

She put the phone to her ear and waited. Three rings, and Rose picked up.

"Hey, I've been waiting for you to call. Was work busy?"

Kate's first thought was that Rose didn't sound upset. If anything, her tone sounded similar to back when she had explained her research project. It reminded her to keep her defenses up.

"Nothing too much out of the ordinary." Kate decided to cut straight to the chase. "But that's not what you're actually wanting to know, is it?"

"Fair enough. I was hoping to hear your thoughts on giving me a second chance. I'm sorry for the way things ended, I sincerely mean that. I didn't want to trouble you. So," Rose trailed off, while Kate remained silent. Just as Kate was wondering whether she wa meant to say something after all, Rose continued. "You don't suppose we can forget what happened and have a redo of our first date?"

No. That was Kate's immediate answer, but she didn't say it out loud. She needed to create delays, the more of them the better.

"That's a big thing you're asking. I'm going to need some thinking time before-" That was all she managed before Rose cut her off.

"You've already had two days to think!" Every trace of the calm tone was gone and the pitch of Rose's voice varied enough to suggest she was having trouble controlling it. "I'm not going to let you keep delaying. Don't you think I know you're fond of stalling tactics? You've been using them the whole time before this!"

Kate's voice caught in her throat. She hadn't factored that in, but it sounded obvious now that Rose had said it. Her plan had a critical weakness - it was the same plan she had been employing all along.

"I want a straight answer this time," Rose continued. "Either you're giving me another chance, or you're not. There's no third option."

Nausea welled up in Kate's stomach. This was the kind of scenario she had been hoping to avoid. She could have kept trying to delay things but realized that it likely only would cause Rose to pressure her more. So she decided to give her an answer like she wanted.

"I had a lot of fun on our date, I really did." The words tumbled out of Kate's mouth before she could deliberate them and she silently cursed herself. She'd been controlling her impulses so well up until this point, and she didn't mean to give Rose false hope. "But I can't. I'm sorry."

At first, there was only silence from Rose's end. Kate was about to move her phone away from her ear and check the screen for a possible disconnection message when Rose sighed wistfully.

"So that's it. Well, thank you for answering. I guess that officially means we're breaking up."

Kate swallowed. She wasn't feeling proud of herself, but knew it was what she needed to do.

"Yeah." Her response was short, but she couldn't think of anything else. She added on another "sorry" for good measure, before they exchanged brief goodbyes and Kate disconnected the call.

She dropped the phone right where she was sitting, not caring where it would land, and let her body fall down onto the couch as if she was a marionette with its strings cut. It was the right thing, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt.

It was another night she spent sleeping on the couch.

***

The fact that Kate and Rose had broken up didn't mean that Rose was leaving her alone. Far from it.

Kate ducked behind a life-size cardboard cutout of the head nurse just in time to avoid being seen. The standee was part of some public relations campaign, not that Kate cared for the details. Still, she silently praised the hospital administration for finally doing something useful. The cardboard nurses were all over the hospital and had proven surprisingly convenient for hiding on a moment's notice. It was the sixth time she had to resort to the strategy that day, or perhaps even the seventh. It got hard to keep track of the precise count after that many times. One thing was for sure, Rose was on the prowl.

Which meant Kate was in need of a new plan. The problem was that she was drawing a blank on how to proceed. Again. She decided that it was time to seek out Mari again. While her colleague's plans hadn't exactly been amazing they had at least produced some effect. She reasoned that was better than not having a plan at all.

Kate took a lengthy detour that involved two transport elevators and the inconspicuous back doors of a handful of hospital departments. Her reasoning for this was that she had already been able to avoid Rose's gaze so many times that her luck was bound to run out soon. By the time she finally made it to the anesthesia department's offices she realized that Mari might as well be out. She inwardly cursed herself for not checking, but regardless proceeded to knock on the door to Mari's office.

An audible sigh of relief escaped her when the door opened and the master of metabolism greeted her, freshly opened energy bar in hand.

"Oh, hi Kate." Mari gulped down one fourth of her energy bar in one swift bite before she tilted her head. "You look terrible. Need a hand again?"

Kate responded with an exhausted smile. "You bet."

Also, she was pretty sure that just one wasn't going to be enough at this rate.