-It does?- she asked.
-Indeed. I've been to many places thanks to the bookstore. Every year I close for a whole month and go book hunting.
The second course arrived, some kind of fish and a steak with an unidentified sauce. As before, they split it. Frode continued with his story.
-Sometimes, my customers ask me for special books. Rare first editions. Others. I track the books and contact the owners, but I always need to see the books in first person. Most of them are in Europe, so my previous knowledge of the zone has been really useful. But I've also been to Asia and South America, once I went to Africa. And it has been enriching, and exciting, and I've seen places I never thought I'd see. Places that are out of reach for most of the people. In a way I wish I could do it more often, but I also love the bookstore, I couldn't live without it.
-You're full of surprises, aren't you?
-And there are plenty more. But enough talking about me. How have you been?
Of course, he was also a listener, and a good one, and he was probably feeling like he had been talking too much.
-Well, it has been interesting.- she said remembering both her encounters with Leo and her work at the lab.- I'm just starting my work, so there's so much to read and so much to do. Do you remeber that feeling of getting a wrapped gift and not knowing what's inside? Knowing that it could be anything?- Ismene thought to herself that it was also the same feeling that you had when you went to bed with a man for the first time, but she kept that to herself.
-Yes, I know the feeling. Like opening a book for the first time.
-Exactly like that.
-So, what are you working on?
-That's a secret, I can't tell.
He seemed disappointed at first, but he understood.
-Well, I hope to see you on TV, at some point.
-Oh, that's not that easy, most of the important scientific breakthroughs never make it on TV. The scientific community knows that what looks important to society is not always what is actually important.
-A bit like not all really good books are best-sellers. Only people in the inside know the relevant stuff. I've never known much about science, it's probably the only thing I haven't been able to master.
-I can help with that, if you want to.
-Sure, anytime.
-We should exchange knowledge, isn't that how it worked in the old times?- she suggested.
-That sounds perfect.
The second course was followed by the dessert, and more drinks. Hours flied by and they were told that the restaurant was about to close. Frode insisted on walking her home, and as before he would explain her everything that happened in the city as they walked by. They arrived at her house and the conversation kept on. Ismene considered telling him to go upstairs and continue the conversation more comfortably, but Frode was no Leo. It would go much slower with him. At one point the conversation died off, and Frode told her that it was time for him to leave. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek leaving a trace of his scent hanging there for her to remember him. She saw him leaving, and not until she lost his sight did she get inside her house. Remembering she had a date with Leo the following day, she sat on her bed cross-legged, thinking about what choice did she have, she liked both men, yet she wasn't supposed to have them both. When she went to sleep, her thoughts kept going from one man to the other, knowing that each of them gave her something that she needed.
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