Planning and logistics is never Eve’s favorite.
After all these years working in MI5, she is not bad at it, but they were definitely not her favorite tasks. Her mind prefers not to work in a framework in a neat and lateral manner. It’s more like a busy intersection of Hanoi at lunch time where cars, bikes, pedestrians are moving in all directions at the same time. It’s hot, messy, colorful and noisy. She loves bouncing between ideas randomly, until she lands on a certain target: it could be the look of a notorious psychopathic assassin she’s chasing, or the meeting location of an international crime organization, or how to celebrate a very important birthday.
On March 12th, Villanelle, her beloved assassin, is turning thirty.
Thirty is a BIG DEAL.
In the glorious ninety-five days of them getting together, Villanelle never brought up her birthday. However, Eve has an idea. She remembered the exaggerating cake the assassin sent to the Bitter Pills’ office on her birthday. She remembered the waft of citrus and creamy icing lingering in the air as she sent that cake flying over the rooftop… and regretted instantly.
Maybe, subconsciously, Villanelle was giving Eve what she herself always desired: someone reciprocates her affections and openly acknowledges the feeling.
With that in mind, Eve came up with a LOT of ideas effortlessly. Then she got stuck as the planning and logistics is hard to carry out discreetly: her beloved assassin is trained to be observant and notice the slightest anomalies. On top of that, Villanelle loves tagging along with Eve whenever and wherever she can.
It’s all about effort! Eve told herself. She managed to shortlist all the ideas to two and sneak in short phone calls and conversations here and there. Up to now, Villanelle is none the wiser.
Finally, fate is working in her favor: Villanelle has to travel for a week and will only return late afternoon of March 12th. Eve gets to run around the town freely and make all the final arrangements.
From a local bakery, she learned how to bake Villanelle’s favorite: a pineapple pastry that goes extremely well with vanilla ice cream. She triggered the smoke alarm at home a few times but the last batch was… decent. Compared to the ones in the bakery, they did not look as fancy with golden brown crust and neat folds on the edge, but she swears the texture and flavor are 95% there.
In her mind, Villanelle will step in the home, welcomed by the sweet and fruity aroma of the pastry. Then they will have their afternoon tea, no scratch that, pineapple pastry and ice cream together. Then she would take her for a walk and present her the gifts she arranged for her.
AND, it’s not just the gifts, it’s also an experience! Villanelle has a great taste for fashion and it will take a lot for Eve to overwhelm her with anything in that field. Eve has to think outside the box.
Again, ideas are not difficult, it’s the effing planning and logistics. It has to be done by her and her alone.
By the last hour of March 11th, Eve is exhausted but happy as everything has been ironed out.
In less than 16 hours, Villanelle is coming home and she will rock her world!
**********
Eve wakes up 30 minutes before the alarm rings. She made coffee for herself and checked her phone.
Vill | 6:27
Are you awake?
Me | 6:29
Of course
Vill | 6:30
How’s your sleep?
Me | 6:32
You know the answer
Eve watches the three dots going on the screen for a bit, and then stopped, then started again, then stopped again. She smiles at the screen, what are you trying to say to me, baby?
Vill | 6:35
Coming home today
Me | 6:40
I know
Miss you
Can’t wait
The three dots appear and disappear again, then followed by radio silence. I don’t care, she’s coming home anyways today.
After one last round of shopping, Eve starts to prepare the pineapple stuffing for the pastry. By the time she puts the last chunk of pineapple into the blender, the kitchen island is covered with pineapple peels. Drops of juice leaving sticky spots on the counter top and the floor. Eve figured she would leave the cleaning for later and carried on with preparing the dough
Two hours later, the kitchen enters the next stage of messiness with flour, butter, and sugar added to the picture. Eve stretches her arms out, feeling a bit sore on the shoulders from all the kneading. They have machines in the bakery for this, but she does not have a mixer at home, so the baker taught her how to knead the dough by hand. It’s a lot of work, but hey, that’s the effort.
It’s all about effort!
Then she hears a key inserting in the lock.
She jumps and runs to the door and swings it open.
There she is! The birthday girl! Home early!
Are you fucking kidding me!
“Hey baby, I am h…” Villanelle only managed to get a quick glimpse of Eve before the door slams shut and gets bolted. She heard Eve muttering “NO NO NO NO NO NO”
Panicky footsteps
Something knocked over
Then Eve’s cussing rolled through the door, “Fucking hell!”
A flustered Eve wearing an apron is super sexy .
Amused, Villanelle knocked on the door, “Eve, let me in.”
“Um, give me 5 minutes…” More shuffling sounds. Now Villanelle could smell the scent of fresh pineapple, her interest piqued and starts to consider kicking the door open.
“Eve, you got flour on your face… are you cheating on me? Is there someone naked in there?”
“Yes! I got five of them here all naked! ……Of course not!” Eve tore the apron off, wiped her face clean and fluffed her hair. Then she grabbed her coat, stepped out of their flat and locked the door behind her immediately.
“Eve... my suitcase…ok…”
Villanelle sniffed her hair as Eve gave her a bone crushing bear hug. Gosh she misses the feeling of burying her face in those dark locks. She smells pineapple again.
Kissing Eve in the hallway, right outside their own home is very strange, but kind of hot.
When they finally pulled apart for a breath, Villanelle pointed at the door, “Am I allowed to go back in now? Whoever you are hiding probably climbed out of the window already.”
Eve almost said yes. Consequences be damned, she wants to go back in there with Villanelle so badly. But the entire logistics and planning up to this day would go to waste.
Villanelle raised an eyebrow and waited patiently.
Improvise! Improvise! Improvise! Eve’s inner-voice was playing on a loop now.
“You know what, let’s take your suitcase to the storage room and go for a walk!” Eve pulled the handle of the suitcase up and power walked towards the elevator. Villanelle shrugged and followed.
********
It is sunny and unusually warm for March. They ate lunch in a small Greek Bistro, correction, Villanelle ate lunch while watching Eve pacing up and down outside, making a very animated call with her hand and hair flying in the air.
She is definitely onto something and again, very sexy when she’s this flustered.
When Eve was finally done with her phone calls, she came back to their table, took a bite at her cold lunch and wrinkled her nose, “Gosh it tastes awful when it’s cold.”
“So…” Villanelle reached for her hand, “Can we go home now?”
“No!” The answer came way too quickly and firmly. Seeing the shock on Villanelle’s face, Eve softens her tone,”Let’s just hang out a little bit, say… for another 30 minutes? Then I want to show you something.”
“Eeeeveee, I took the red eye flight and a layover to be home earlier. I have a different idea about hanging out…”
“I promise you it will be worth your while. Can you just hold off a little bit, for me?” Eve is pleading now.
“Fine, just get me one more coffee…”
**********
They were sitting on the bench basking in the sunshine when the text came through. Villanelle’s head was resting on Eve’s shoulder, almost dozed off, when Eve pulled the phone out and her body jolted with excitement. “OK, let’s go, I promise it’s gonna be fun!”
Villanelle rubbed her cheeks and sighed. For once since they got together, she found herself struggling to keep up with Eve, while usually it’s the other way around.
They walked for another block down the street, and Eve led her into a small shop, where a young man in jeans and a plain black T-shirt greeted them. “Good afternoon, my name is Graeme and I am your flight tech support today. Please come with me.”
Villanelle mouthed a silent “Flight…wow” to Eve and got an ear to ear grin in return.
They followed Graeme upstairs and got on the rooftop. He gave Eve a controller with an iPad mounted on it. “Fully charged, satellite connected and ready to go.”
“Thanks Graeme!”
Taking over the controller, Eve’s demeanor suddenly changed: confident and determined, she smiles as she starts to click the buttons and move the joysticks.
Now this version of Eve is also sexy…damn, I’m so whipped…
A humming sound from behind made Villanelle jump as a drone took off from the small launch pad a few feet away.
“Come over and check this out!” Eve gestured with her chin up.
Villanelle moved closer to her side and saw the bird's view on the iPad screen, “Wow Eve! That’s cool… can I…”
“Not yet!” Eve flew the drone further down south, on the screen they saw roof tops, streets, trees, cars, pedestrians... The high resolution birds’ view is spectacular. “Graeme, they are ready right?”
“Yes.” Graeme answered nervously, stealing a look at Villanelle.
Eve fumbled with a couple of buttons, and Villanelle could see the drone flying over a school’s track field. Eve let the drone hover and zoom the camera in on a bunch of orange cones forming letters in the center of the field.
“Here, check this out.” with a wide grin Eve handed the screen over.
“F+U in a circle? Wow Eeev!” Villanelle is very amused now.
“Wait, what?” Eve snatched the screen back and stared, “Graeme, what the heck? It’s supposed to be E+V in a heart!”
Graeme shrugged, "Nope. I am pretty sure you asked for F+U in a circle. I still have your hand written note…", he pulled out a wrinkled piece of post-it from his pocket. Villanelle pressed her lips together and made an effort to hide her smile: she knew Eve's "penmanship" by heart now and her V does look a lot like U.
“You gave me a dying pen and if you look close enough there is a stroke at the bottom… And the heart…oh… you know what? Forget about it!” Cursing under her breath, Eve clicked on the controller and started to fly the drone away, “Anyways, it is supposed to say E+V in a heart.”
“F+U in a circle is kind of nice too.” Villanelle held back her laughter and wrapped her arms around Eve’s shoulder, “Now can I give it a go?”
Eve ran a crash course on the different buttons and joysticks before letting Villanelle take over. Graeme was fidgeting on the side, dying to provide a more proper training.
“Can this thing crash?” Villanelle turned to Graeme. She started to have some ideas in her mind.
How cool it would be to use drones for a job!
“It has sensors to avoid obstacles and I turned the automation settings on.”
“So if you turn the automation settings off it can crash?”
“Ugh, yeah…” Graeme’s face scrunched up: the thought of a drone crashing clearly upsets him.
“Don’t even think about it!” Eve reached over trying to snatch the controller away, “I am not gonna let you crash your birthday gift. It’s a lot of money.”
“How much weight can it carry…” holding the controller out of Eve’s reach, Villanelle’s train of thoughts continued on its track for another 10 seconds and then her face lit up, “Wait, birthday gift?”
So far nothing goes as Eve had planned, but seeing her beaming like this still makes Eve’s heart do back flips. “Yes… happy birthday.”
She looped her arm over Villanelle’s elbow and tippy toed to plant a kiss on her cheek. The blonde leaned over wanting a proper kiss, but Eve pulled away as she had a different agenda, “Now just click the home button and fly this baby back, there’s something else.”
Villanelle bit her lower lip in excitement, “Can something else wait? I want to fly it a little longer…”
“Yeah, I guess…” Eve was a bit reluctant, “Graeme, how long can the battery last?”
“Technically with a full charge you can go for 46 minutes flight time, but let’s play safe and give it another 20?” Graeme seized the opportunity to jump in and took over the controller. Soon he and Villanelle engaged into a much more technical discussion while Graeme showed Villanelle all kinds of tricks he could perform with the different flying modes and camera angles.
Eve watched the two of them while chewing on her thumb anxiously.
The drone itself cost more than twelve hundred pounds. And there is something else “professionally secured” to it which is almost half of the drone’s price. Now she is picturing a very fat roll of cash notes hovering, swooping and diving in the sky. Thinking of the risk of it crashing and burning at any given time makes her sick.
It’s the longest 20 minutes in Eve’s life.
When the drone finally landed, she rushed over and picked it up. Then she turned to Graeme, fuming, “Professionally secured? Really? Graeme? Really?”
A small royal blue jewelry box was DUCT taped to the drone.
Graeme looked very proud, “yes, it does not fall off! You know it is super tricky. Took me a while to figure out the right spot without affecting the flight stability and all the other moving parts.”
Villanelle took the drone and peeled the duct tape off. She held the jewelry box in her palms and gazed at it.
Eve suddenly felt light headed, the idea WAS fantastic when it was in her mind. It’s thinking outside the box and it’s epic and it’s perfect.
Now she is not so sure. Is it too much? Too lame? Too sappy?
Villanelle popped the box open. The afternoon sunlight bounced off the diamonds on the clasp of a delicate platinum chain bracelet. A small circular metal tag dangling on it and the engravement says:
If lost,
return to
Eve
Holding the metal tag in her thumb and index finger, her lips moved as she read those words silently.
The silence was killing Eve.
She was scared of what Villanelle would say next. Her mind went out of control and all kinds of thoughts jumped out. She thought of the mess she made in the kitchen that she will have to go back to. She thought of the mess she made in her life and she figured she might as well layer in an assassin to it.
So , here goes nothing.
“Vill, look, I don’t know if this is too much, or too sappy for you. I mean we are so different and you are so young…smart…beautiful… and strong... I don’t have a lot of money, I don’t have a job anymore, Jesus I don’t have a lot to give you at all, but I want to let you know…”
The corner of Villanelle‘s mouth pulled up, “I knew you always liked Billie. And you noticed…”
Yes Eve always liked that persona she pulled when they were on the Aaron Peel’s case. She noticed the bracelet that Villanelle chose to wear as Billie and when she got to read the engravement on the tag, her mind simply imploded:
It says “If lost, return to Eve”. What was that supposed to mean?
Is she trying to manipulate me again?
Maybe she has feelings for me… no she can’t… she’s a psychopath…
Wouldn’t it be nice if she could have feelings…
"Yes I noticed and now I understand… At least I think I do… This time, I just want the bracelet coming from me…"
Villanelle huffed with a smile. Eyes flashing with excitement, she extended her right hand, "Will you put it on me?” smiling back warmly, Eve held her gaze. The spring sunlight felt warm on the skin and they were there, together, on the same page, seeing each other. She just wanted this moment to last forever.
A clicking sound pulled them back to reality and the both of them turned to look at Graeme and saw him folding the drone’s propeller.
Eve chuckled, shook her head and took over the bracelet.
Her fingers were a little shaky but her touch was light and gentle, just like a feather. Her hair still carried the scent of pineapple and the metal of the bracelet felt cold against Villanelle’s skin on the wrist.
Villanelle lifted her hand and took a while to appreciate the look from different angles. Then her smile turned into a smirk. She sidestepped swiftly behind Eve and wrapped her arms around the very confused Asian woman from behind. Her right hand firmly grabbed her left wrist and trapped Eve in a classic Sambo (Russian martial art) grappling move. This is actually something she always wanted to do: picking Eve up and spinning her.
In the city centre…
In broad daylight…
And frigging Graeme is gawking…
Legs flying in the air, Eve let out a slur of words, squeals and laughter, “Whoa, no, no, no, no, put me down, put me down, put me down…”
At some point she stopped struggling and closed her eyes. The world disappeared around her.
Only the feelings left: feeling of strong arms holding her, feeling of warm body pressed against her, feeling of joy because she made her happy, feeling of fondness towards the person who reciprocated her own love…
She figured she should give in and let Villanelle have her way now.
That’s actually everything she wanted to give.