Alpha's Choice

Why not now?

Ari woke to a noisy atmosphere, totally unaware of the commotion that had been going on over the past two hours. In fact, it was the persistent knocking on her door which brought her to the surface. Pissed at whoever it was, she ignored the knock and tried to go about her morning rituals in preparation for work, since the knock had served as an alarm to wake her from her restless slumber which only started a few hours ago. Before she could walk into her bathroom to take a piss, the knocking continued. Unable to ignore any longer, but determined to give whoever was on the other side a piece of her mind as, she was certain it would be someone looking for one of her neighbors clearly knocking on the wrong door.

Forcefully opening the door, she was quite taken aback to see two uniformed officers standing just outside her door. A male officer of about six feet and a shorter female officer scowled so hard that she thought of shutting the door and jumping through the window. Just as that thought came into her mind, another followed, reminding her that she had nothing to be afraid of, as she had always been careful to avoid anything that would make the police take notice of her. Even when she entered rooms or passed corridors with cameras, she looked the other way, avoiding anything that might result in such a visit. Before she could get her thoughts in order, the female officer, who looked like she just wanted to cuff Ari and drag her to the station just for wasting their time, asked if they could come in. Not sure what was wrong, Ari stood aside and let them in but also made sure to stand by the open door. She watched them as they looked around her tiny apartment with its sparse furniture, before indicating to her to shut the door to avoid the onlookers whom she hadn't noticed, until the officer indicated them by turning her attention to the door. That was when she saw half her neighbors standing outside her door whispering among themselves and she quickly closed the door, worried that she may be drawing so much attention if they knew why the police were at her door. Stranger still, was why they were gathered outside her door.

For the past two years she's lived here. She avoided everyone and never had a confrontation with them, so she believed there should be no reason for any one reporting her to the police.

Turning to look at the police officers in her apartment, she waited for them to start talking to avoid giving out her fear. In less than five minutes, her interview was over as she had the least information for the officers regarding their purpose for visiting. Thanking her for her time, the officers exited her apartment to the anxious and nosy neighbors in the corridor, ignoring every question thrown at them as they exited the building after they had questioned the last of the tenants who slept like a log, and kept them for fifteen minutes more while they knocked at her door.

As soon as they left, Ari sat on her bed thinking over the little she could gather from their questions and wondered why any one would kill the beautiful soul whom, she had said to herself, if ever she wanted to make a friend, it would be she.

The victim was younger than Ari by two years and worked as a striper at a club, which explained why they crossed paths both morning and evening, when the one was going to work and the other was returning from work. She always gave Ari a beautiful smile and called 'hello', which Ari enjoyed, but acted indifferent towards her just to avoid looking like she cared obviously. Now that she heard the lady was dead, she felt sad towards the news but surprised that the deceased had been living with her boyfriend of five years, whom she dated from when she was sixteen. The officers had looked at her funny when she denied knowing the lady had lived with someone, but even more unbelievable when she also let them know that she did not know what apartment they lived in. In defense, she pointed out the fact that the building had four floors with twelve apartments on each floor and she couldn't possibly know where everyone lived.

At the same time, the officers who were in their patrol car returning to the office not to hand over their night shift but, giving a report of the incident, ruled Ari out as a suspect or even party to the crime because she looked genuinely surprised when they told her the couple lived opposite her apartment. All they could do was look for the boyfriend of the deceased, as none of the neighbors had seen him since the previous morning.

Thirty minutes till Ari had to resume her shift was when she was finally able to pull herself from her reverie. A quick look at the clock just opposite her bed sent her scrambling for the toilet and twenty minutes later, she locked her door and half walked and ran to the cafe. Arriving five minutes late, she mumbled an apology to the manager, wore her apron and focused on work.

***

Damian gleefully hung up the phone after he had ordered a bouquet of a dozen red roses to be delivered to Grey's office, since he learnt she worked from home. He told the person on the other side of the phone to sign the card with the words " 'beautiful as always', from 'a heart that cares'. " Yesterday, he had driven by her house after work and saw her where she sat on her balcony. Tempted to go over, and knock at the door, he had come close to knocking before advising himself that the wait was better since he had so much planned and seeing her now would spoil it all.

So sure that the package would spark her interest while igniting her, he set out to his meetings totally unaware of anything but the love he knew Grey would have for him when he made himself known. They had been such good friends before he had left for college while she was still in high school and, he knew she had a crush on him, so their meeting would set everything in order and they would live happily ever after.

***

Grey was having a good day and had just come out of the house heading to a meeting with another pack accompanied by her beta, when the package arrived. She signed the receipt and read the card. Seeing no name on it, she enquired from the delivery guy who sent the package and he said all the sender gave was her address and the kind of flowers to be delivered.

Her interest was sparked all right, but not the way Damian had envisioned. Instead, Grey asked her beta to increase security and find out from those whose jobs it was to secure the pack house if they had noticed anything unusual. Dumping the bouquet in the bin outside the gate, she continued on to her meeting, forgetting about the flowers and who sent them.

***

The police chief, much to the dismay of officers Fencer and Stickle, made them in charge of solving the murder case since they were the ones who happened to respond when the dispatch radio had requested any officer/s close by to check on the call they had received from the building which Ari lived in during the early hours of the morning. Tired and more interested in getting some rest, they left the chief's office and made a plan to get a few hours of sleep and meet at the club by ten later tonight to begin their investigation into the case.

***

During Ari's lunch break, she took a quick trip to the store close to the cafe she worked, to get a pack of cigarettes and as she stepped out the door after getting the cigarettes, her eyes met with that of a beautiful lady sitting at the passenger side of a blue Ferrari driving by. Their eyes held for those few seconds before the car drove past and she turned into the alley to return to the cafe.

All she had thought in those few seconds was that the lady was beautiful and had such a captivating gaze. Besides that, Ari knew that they couldn't have met by any chance, so it's very unlikely that the woman knew her though the beautiful lady in the Ferrari was also clearly staring at her.

***

Grey had been lost in those eyes before realizing that it had seemed like time had stopped but the car was still going on. Realizing that she couldn't see that lady any longer, she scared Gordon when she screamed at him to stop the car. In shock, he'd applied the brake just in the middle of the road and before he could access the situation, Grey was already out the door, running back to the store where she had seen those eyes. With his eyes both trying to follow Grey's direction and scanning for a place to park the car, Gordon swerved just as he saw a parking spot and ran after Grey using the electronic key to lock the car.

Grey searched the store but couldn't find her and came back out looking all over when Gordon got to her and held her, asking whom she was looking for so he could help. She started to tell him before realizing that she did not know who it was or how to find her. Shaking her head instead, she turned towards the direction they were headed and walked back to the car.

While they were seated and proceeding to their earlier destination, Gordon asked Grey once more whom she had seen, and all she told him was that she thought she had seen someone she knew.

When she was sure that his focus was no longer on her, she let herself think of those eyes and the owner. She knew they were connected but, for the life of her, could not make out any reason why they would just pass by each other rather than meet.

***

With a few minutes left till her break was over, Ari smoked a cigarette and thought of the warm feeling she was having after meeting that lady. (Well, their eyes only met but it felt like they had physically met as well.) She wondered if they were related in any way since she had never felt this way towards any one before. That thought had her laughing at herself as she knew they were literally worlds apart, but if only she knew that it wasn't just in their lifestyles or birth circumstances but much more than she could even imagine.