Kill Me, Kiss Me

ELEVEN

    Magda cut another jagged slice of her steak, crimson blood leaking from the tender flesh onto the white plate - a garish pool that blotted his sight like her fingernails against the cloth.

"What university did you go to?"

He stared down at his plate of gravy and gratin dauphinois, cutting himself another square of lamb unhurriedly. Only when the somewhat stringy meat slid down his throat did he reply to the question expressionlessly, "And I thought this dinner was for me to ask questions."

She splayed out her hands, extending her grease kissed knife and fork towards him, "Feel free to ask anything."

"Why are you so interested in me?" Theo set down his utensils and wiped his mouth with his napkin, studying her face.

She smiled faintly as if she was expecting the question, but even so, she failed to conjure an answer, she just stared at him with an unreadable expression. Her facade of sweetness trembled and slipped, and she discarded it altogether, the edges of her brows growing colder with its maturity.

Finally, she set down her cutlery and interlocked her fingers, "You remind me of someone I know."

"Oh?" He raised his brow, an unexplainable sourness settling at the bottom of his chest.

"You're really nothing like them." She reassured, gaze flickering over his face.

"That's a rather conflicting thing to say."

"Oh no, you're really nothing like them. Just, well..." Magda shook her head and picked up her knife and fork again, letting her words trail off into meaningless nothingness.

He didn't push further, but he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the silver of his knife. Pale face, flint-like eyes, lips too narrow and strangely, dyed red, was there truly another that looked so like him for this woman to mistake him when they were nothing alike?

"That's rather hard to believe, with a face looking like that."

He could still remember Magda's shock when she first saw him. It had astonished him just as much as he had her. It made him uneasy.

She stabbed her slab of meat again, sharp knife sliding into the flesh with a slight sucking wetness.

Brrrrrrringggg!

A shrill ringtone screamed from within her bag. Her hand loosened from her utensils and reached besides her for the phone, knife left sticking straight up from the meat like a flag of surrender.

"Excuse me." She nodded and lifted the phone to her ear, shifting half-out of her chair.

Theo couldn't hear the voices on the other side, but as the silence carried on, red pooling from her steak like a moat, the air grew colder. Her lips became taunt and rigid, her fingers burnt white around the black of her phone.

"I'll be there." A frigid, relentless storm.

Magda dropped her phone into her bag and tried to smooth over the violence budding across her face.

"I'm sorry, I have to go right now. I really enjoyed the dinner, perhaps we can go out another time; I'll call you."

"The pleasure was all mine, but there's no need for another dinner." He replied distantly.

The corner of her eye twitched, but she smiled tensely, "Have a good evening Theo, be careful."

He watched after her as she clacked away on her heels, stabbing the tiles with every step as if she'd rather the floor break under her foot. Her knife was still sticking out of the steak.