LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT (English)

Chapter 4

Max woke up. She rubbed her eyes and looked around. She was lying on her flat mattress in her apartment that was still lacking furniture. Until now she still hadn't even bothered to take care of that – but for what? She hardly spent any time here. Most of the time that she was not working at that café, she spent with Sitara or somewhere painting in the park and from now on regular meetings with DedSec would probably be added to that, what she still couldn't quite realize. She checked the time and noticed it was still early, even before her alarm had the chance to get on her nerves. The construction site next door seemed to have taken care of it today. So at least she still had some time left before going to work today. She sighed and sank back into her pillow, closing her eyes and in thoughts about the last evening. Most of the night they spent there, sitting on the beach, chatted and made sure Max was up to date with the group and their plans. Did all that really happen? Did they really want her to join, even though most of the group hardly knew her? Except for Sitara of course. She wondered if they were being a little naïve, or if they really trusted each other so much, that they all trusted Sitara's judgment. Or did she actually make such a good impression in just one evening? She wouldn't even claim to have outstanding hacking skills. Of course, she had taught herself a lot over the past few years and a few actions might have been quite remarkable, but she wasn't sure whether she could keep up with the others. At least in her opinion, there was nothing she was capable of, that would justify bringing her into the team. Not that she wasn't happy about it or didn't want to join. On the contrary, the evening had been one of the best she had experienced in a very long time. She even felt really comfortable in that group to be honest. Although she just got to know the others and actually had some problems of getting involved with new people most of the time, she immediately felt comfortable around the others and a connection of some kind, she didn't know like that. Actually, she couldn't wait to meet everyone again, even if she was feeling a bit nervous about it. As much as she didn't want to concentrate on anything else right now, she first had to go to work today. At least her shift wasn't that long today after all, as she was only supposed to work for a colleague, who called in sick today. At 2pm she would finally be free again.

Max stretched and slowly got up. She was still tired, but no way she could sleep in today. After she was dressed and ready for work, she checked her phone and found one new message from Sitara:

"Hey Newbie, get in touch as soon as you're awake. We need to show you something! ;)"

She typed an answer, that she was stuck at work until 2pm, but free the whole afternoon, before she left her apartment, hoping the next few hours would pass quickly. Of course she wanted to see everything the others had prepared. Fortunately, there wasn't much to do at work today and everything seemed to be very chill for once. Most of the time there were not even customers today, so Max had the chance to rethink the evening and her whole situation again. She wondered if she would really be helpful to the team or what her job would be. Did she have any special abilities she could contribute?

"Well, are we lazing around at work?" a familiar and cheerful robotic voice echoed through the room, interrupting her thoughts. She looked up to two LED eyes, which instantly put a grin on her face.

"Never. This is hard work," Max explained. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to pick you up. I had some...business to do around the corner and Sitara told me I should bring you on my way back," Wrench shrugged.

Max looked at the clock. "So she probably didn't tell you how long I have to stay here, didn't she? I still have like half an hour left. I have to stay at least until one of my coworkers takes over," Max explained apologetically.

"Don't worry, I'm in no hurry," he replied. "And since this is a café...we can probably spend that time with some caffeine somehow." The LEDs on his mask were winking and Max had to grin again.