Everything She Saw

The Beautiful and Damned

 I was lost. I really didn't know what to do. There was nothing left for me to look into. All of my sources were hardly viable. I was done. After I was done in the office, I would head straight to Gordon to tell him I was done with this story. I couldn't do this anymore. Paul already knew. He wasn't upset. In fact, he looked relieved.

And yes, for the first time I was in the building for work. There had been smaller stories I was working on as well. Ones that didn't drain me as much as the Arkham one was. The one I was finishing was about a giant bat flying through the sky. A bat that wasn't the Batman. It was odd to be writing about a bat again.

It kind of reminded me of that doctor scientist guy I had interviewed a while back. The one who was doing some genetic stuff with bats. His name, forgotten.

"Amber, are you okay?"

I turned to find Vicki perched on the corner of my desk. "I'm alright. Why?"

"This is the first time I've seen you here in days. You seem out of it. Stressed. Is it the Arkham story?" she asked. She sounded concerned. And though I found her annoying sometimes, I had to admit that she could be a genuinely friendly person. She was one of my few friends.

I ran a hand down my face. "Yeah, it's that stupid story. I'm dropping it, though. For real this time. It has taken so much out of me, and it's gotten me into things I never wanted to be a part of."

"If I were you, I'd want to drop that story, too. You look dead inside. And I know you're pale, but you're an unhealthy pale now. You have been taking care of yourself, right?"

Marginally. Probably not as much as I should have been. "Sort of?"

"You're telling Paul you're done, right? Today?" she asked.

"Yeah, I am."

"Good. You're an amazing investigative journalist, but even you can't solve everything," Vicki said. She hopped off the desk. "Tell you what, I'm going out with Martin tonight. Why don't you bring your boyfriend? We can have a double date!"

"A double date? Since when have you and Martin been a thing?" I asked. The idea sounded appealing. It had been ages since I had been out to just have fun.

"We're not. Well, I doubt we will be, but he asked me out. Why not try? I want to meet your new boyfriend, too. You guys have been dating for what, a year? And I haven't even met him."

"It hasn't been a year," I muttered.

It had been a while since Edward and I had been out. I hadn't seen him since I walked away the night I had ranted to him. It would be nice to have a night out.

"What time?" I asked.

"Is seven okay? We can meet at that Italian place on 19th Street. I'll have them change up our reservation a bit. For being a higher end place, they're pretty laid back, too," Vicki offered.

"That sounds perfect," I agreed.

"Awesome. See you then!" She waved and went off to do whatever she was meant to be doing. I sat back in the chair and smiled.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

____________________________________________________________

The Italian restaurant Vicki had told me and Edward to meet her at was nice. More than nice. Extravagant, really. Rossi's was the name of it. I had never been here before. I had never been one for huge dates. This might have been one of the nicest places I had ever been to. Edward had been here. He vouched for it.

Tonight was going to be good. I was determined to have a good night. I had spoken to Gordon, and he had understood why I wanted out. There were no problems there. Edward had agreed to a date, though we still had yet to talk about what had happened the night I walked out. That was a conversation that still needed to happen.