It may have been smarter to hold off on this meeting, but Iris couldn’t do it. Teaching class, she saw the faces of her students, mediating, she saw the body language of her clients, and delivering messages, she could see the effect her words had on them. She couldn’t talk to Zephyrus any other way, couldn’t express herself and put his words into context correctly if she couldn’t see him. It would be harder, though. Actually seeing him…..would be harder.
He’d been gone so long. Zephyrus had always come back to her, but this time….she had begun to wonder if he wouldn’t. That someday he’d decide he liked wherever he was better than wherever she was. She had begun to ask herself if she was waiting for someone she’d never see again. The thought scared her. Iris thrived on being wanted, on being needed. Despite everything she’d told National Security about her job still being necessary, deep down, even Iris sometimes doubted that she was expendable. If that was true for her job, then why shouldn’t it be true for her place in anyone’s life?
It was the sort of thing that bothered her, along with what would happen if she wasn’t so efficient and happy all the time.
Along with what she would do if Zephyrus left her for good.
Iris waited for him. Amazing, the difference between waiting for years and waiting for minutes. The minutes seemed so much longer when you knew what you were waiting for would finally arrive. Who you were waiting for.
Then, all of a sudden, it was over. There was a knock at her door and Iris jumped. She took a deep breath and tried to ready herself. Apart from her eyes, which she couldn’t keep from turning violet as her emotions went from red with anger to blue with sadness, she thought she was doing much better than she had been just a short while ago.