Green-Eyed Monster TOC Part 6Part 7Next time? Clark had gulped. Perry had certainly believed there would be a next time kiss with Lois. Clark would be fine with that. But he couldn’t let himself be caught off-guard, should there be a next time. Thinking about that next time kiss had almost distracted Clark from finding out the reason Perry had called him down to the store.
“Several… more than several customers got sprayed by the perfume as well. About one hundred fifty would be close to the exact number… including this guy…” Perry had pushed a surveillance video into the VCR and the magazine rack came into view. Lois was standing there holding a stack of magazines and staring off into space.
“What man?” Clark had asked.
“Wait for it,” Perry had told him.
Lois had snapped out of her daze and had started fanning herself with one of the magazines as a dreamy smile had graced her lips. Clark had never seen her look so vulnerable and sexy. He had wondered – and was even wondering now as he realized he was still standing in the middle of the mezzanine since Lois had touched him going up the escalator – what she had been thinking about to cause that dreamy smile.
Clark skipped up the steps of the escalator as he saw Lois start to come down. He wished he could go back down and watch the expression on her face as she saw the shelves he put up during the night. But he also didn’t want Lois to think he was following her around like a puppy. If he found the right spot in the floor, he could see her easily enough from the third floor. He hoped she would be delighted.
No more piles and piles of mini Leaning Towers of Pisa ready to fall at any moment with the slightest of bumps. He had left her piles on the floor for her to organize and put on the shelves. Perry had told him not to do too much for her. So Clark had just put up the shelves.
Clark glanced down through the floor, through the mezzanine floor, through the ceiling to… the music department. Shoot. He moved over about twenty feet further and was able to see the magazine receiving room. Lois entered her room and Clark heard and saw her gasp in delighted surprise. Then Lois nodded her head with a ‘that will do’ nod, before she grabbed her scissors from the tool caddy he had hung on her wall and headed out to the magazine rack to put out the morning papers. He sighed and whispered, “You’re welcome.”
Clark went into Perry’s office and pushed a fresh tape into each of the security video recorders. He never left them on while he worked at super speed. As he pushed in the last videotape, he remembered the man on the tape that Perry had shown him the other night. Now, he had a name to go with that face. “Tempus.”
He had no idea who that man had been, but Clark would certainly never be that man’s friend. It had been painful to watch him kneel at Lois’s feet and ask her to marry him. For most of the video Tempus had had his back to the camera, so Clark couldn’t even read his lips.
A second man, wearing a bowler hat, had then arrived at the newsstand. Strange fashion statement for the 1990s.
When this second man had turned toward the camera Perry had frozen the video. “Do you know who that man is?” his boss had asked.
“No,” Clark had replied. “Lois had really only mentioned the first man… the one who proposed.”
“That man is H. G. Wells,” explained Perry.
“What?!” Clark had gasped with incredulous laughter. “
The H. G. Wells, Perry? Impossible! The man has been dead for…” He hadn’t been able to finish his thought because Perry had held up his encyclopedia of 19th century authors at that moment showing Clark a photograph of the actual author. Clark had done a double take, a triple take, a microscope vision take. And each take had told him the same thing. That second man
was H. G. Wells, the author of
The Time Machine. “How is that possible?” His laughter had vanished.
“Apparently he had made a working model of his time machine,” Perry replied. “At least that’s what Lois had been told. Either by the author or his insane friend. She didn’t say which.”
“You showed her this?” Clark stammered in disbelief.
“Of course not,” Perry defended himself to Clark. “It seems that these men told Lois about
her future. She thought they were clearly insane, but if she ever knew there was truth to their story, who knows what adverse effect that might have on her psyche… to know too much about your own future. As you can plainly see there is truth to their story. It was Lois who told me of the pheromone perfume. These men had told her. If that were true what else of their predictions of her future would also be true? Could you go undercover and find out what they told her? Everything, if possible. What were they doing here at this time? And why they are clearly interested in Lois.”
“Maybe they were just sightseeing?” Clark had suggested with hope. “And then after being sprayed with the perfume, they were naturally attracted to Lois.”
“That’s what I thought at first as well, until I saw this…” Perry had rewound the tape to approximately forty-five minutes earlier. The body language between the two men had been completely different in this earlier clip. The two of them were definitely looking for someone or something in the magazine department and Tempus had clearly been in charge, almost dragging the reluctant Wells into the store. When they hadn’t found who or what they were looking for, only then did they go to Miranda’s book signing at Wells’s suggestion. Had Wells known what Miranda would do?
Clark’s eyes had flashed to Perry’s. “Why Lois?” His heart raced in panic for his friend.
“That’s what I want you to find out. What did they tell her? It must have been important enough for them to come back in time.”
“And cross-dimensionally,” muttered Clark.
“What? Lois didn’t tell me that. Only that the men had claimed to be from the future. Maybe they also told her what her life was like in another dimension.” Perry shook his head. “I’d think I was going insane myself, except since meeting you I’ve learned to be more open-minded.”
“Come on, Chief. I’m not that odd.” Clark chuckled. He was as much a homebody as they come.
“Kent, you fly.” And that had said it all.
“You want me to spy on Lois?” Clark asked incredulously, his eyebrow raised.
“No.” Then Perry had given him a strange look, but did not say anything more about spying.
“Perry, he could have just been an impersonator. I’ve seen some pretty good doubles at some of the parties my parents have catered.”
“How would an impersonator know about Miranda’s perfume, Clark? How would he know…” Perry shook his head. “I want you to be a friend to Lois. Maybe she’ll tell you what they said.”
“I
am her friend,” Clark had stated as he wondered if Perry knew another prediction he wasn’t sharing.
And will you remain even that if you keep acting like a jealous boyfriend? inquired his conscience.
“I mean be her best friend. Listen to everything,
everything she tells you…”
Clark had pressed his lips together. “I already listen to her.”
Perry had smiled then. “I’m not accusing you of anything, Kent.” He had nudged Clark with his elbow. “You could practice your interviewing skills, but I have a feeling that she’d clam up tighter than a murderer in a room full of cops. Think of her like a source, who won’t talk. Make her comfortable, woo her if you have to…”
Clark had begun to wonder if his boss still wished he was in the news business. His father had said that Perry had never quite recovered after the
Daily Planet was bombed back in the 1970s. “Perry, I’m a deliveryman, a security guard, a book shelver, a handyman, a kitchen prep cook, and even sometimes an anonymous rescue worker, but I’m not a reporter. And Lois is most certainly not a source. I am not going to ‘woo her’ for information. Anyway, ‘wooing her’ wouldn’t do any good, she doesn’t like me that way.”
“No?” Perry had then laughed. “OK. If you don’t want to know what these two dimensionally-hopping men from the future wanted from Lois…”
Clark sighed. He shut and locked the security video cabinet before he left Perry’s office. He walked to the third floor railing and looked down at Lois straightening up the Sunday papers.
That old newshound had gotten Clark’s curiosity piqued. What was so special about Lois that two men would travel through time and across dimensions just to meet her? Clark smiled.
He knew what was so wonderfully special about Lois. Why did it bother him so much that someone else thought she was special, too? Had Lois been right? Was it so simple as Clark didn’t like that someone else had proposed to her?
Clark heard her gasp in pain as Lois got yet another paper cut. The smell of fresh blood wafted up to him and he stepped away from the balcony and tried not to breathe. He would fall for an accident-prone, thin-skinned, hemophiliac-like woman. The Fates had a sick sense of humor and must surely be laughing at him.
***
The intercom to her apartment building buzzed.
“No! No! No!” Lois gasped. She glanced at the microwave: 6:00 pm, exactly. Argh! He would be on time. She was nowhere near ready. She went to the intercom by her door and pressed the ‘communicate’ button. “Hello?”
“Hi, Lois!” said Clark’s calm and cheery voice.
Lois resisted the urge to growl. How dare he be so calm for their non-date date? She pressed the intercom button again. “I’ll be right out. Can you give me two minutes?”
“Sure,” Clark replied, his voice sexy.
Shut up! she told her horny side for the fifth time since she had started to get ready. Lois had finally, finally figured out why she kept thinking of Clark in that manner. She must be rebounding off of Claude’s horrible treatment of her. If she kept ignoring these thoughts, they would eventually go away.
Yeah, right, laughed her inner voice.
I’m not going anywhere, Missy.Lois checked herself in the mirror again. She was wearing black pants, a silver blouse and sensible shoes. No little black dress for this non-date date. How nice was this restaurant? She ran to her front door and buzzed the front building intercom again. “Clark?”
“Yes, Lois?”
“Is this a casual restaurant or a nice restaurant?” she asked.
She heard him chuckle. “Both. Casual attire is fine, Lois.”
“Thank God!” she replied.
“Shall I come in?”
“No, really, I’m ready. Give me just two minutes.”
“Two more minutes?” he asked and she cringed.
“Longer, if you want to continue this discussion,” she replied.
“I’ll wait.”
Lois double checked her purse, making sure the gift certificate was there, and added a few more items, including the twenty-dollar bill from her emergency money. She wasn’t going to be hung out to dry a second time. As she ran to her front door, she stopped and stared at her TV set and VCR and the videos she had rented the day before. She still wanted to see Clark without his glasses. A plan jumped into her mind and caused an evil grin to spread across her face. Then Lois turned back to her desk, opened her top desk drawer and dropped the parking garage clicker into her purse.
Locking her deadbolt, Lois walked quickly across to the main building. She stopped dead in her tracks five steps from the main front door of her building. She could see Clark leaning against the railing, staring up into the sky.
Lois realized this was the first time she actually saw Clark – not the deliveryman, not the security guard – but Clark Kent in his own clothes. He wore jeans and a short-sleeve button-down blue shirt. Her heart quickened. She hadn’t thought the man could look any better; she had been wrong.
Yum!This was a bad idea.
Don’t you mean ‘good’?Clark glanced over at her as if he knew she was standing there staring at him. A smile grew on those lips…
Those gorgeous full lips…… until it reached his brown eyes hidden behind those hideous out-of-date horn-rim glasses.
Yes, you must do something about those.Clark stopped leaning against the railing in anticipation of her coming outside.
“Hi,” he said as she opened the door.
“Hi,” Lois replied, surprised she had found her voice. “You look good with your clothes on.”
Clark pressed his lips together to stop himself from laughing, but it didn’t work. Lois still saw the edges of his mouth twitching and wondered what he found so funny. Did she have toothpaste on her cheek?
“You look good with clothes on, too, Lois,” he finally answered.
Her eyes opened wide as Lois realized what she had said.
Smooth.“I mean out of your uniforms. This is the first time I’ve see you with
your clothes on… not that I’ve seen you naked.”
Clark raised his eyebrow.
Really smooth, Lois.Lois jogged down the front steps of her building. “Is that what you meant?” she asked, defending her choice of words.
“Lois.” Clark followed her down the steps and pointed off the right as she had instinctually turned left. “Do you mind if we start this conversation over, instead?”
“Ohyespleasethankyou,” she gushed. She hadn’t meant to gush, but she did so all the same. “Good evening, Clark.”
“Good evening, Lois. You look good,” he said and then socked her gently on the bicep as if she were one of the guys.
Lois looked at him with a raised brow. “Why is this so weird?”
Clark shook his head and exhaled. “You mean it isn’t just me? You feel it too?”
She felt a load off her shoulders. This felt awkward for him as well. “We’ll work though it until it is no longer weird.”
Or you could just sleep with him?Lois was so glad she wasn’t looking at Clark when this thought traveled through her mind. She wasn’t the type of woman to jump into bed with anyone. Not that she was an Ice-Queen either. She had had sex. Once or twice. With a couple different men. It just wasn’t anything to think about afterwards. She had no idea why her inner passionate side was so attracted to Clark. Logically…
Logically? You’re kidding me, right?Clark stopped at an old white truck. “This is us.”
Lois looked at the truck. Something was off. This truck screamed ‘Smallville.’ It did not scream ‘Clark Kent.’ “This is
your truck?” she asked, trying but not quite succeeding at keeping the criticism from her voice.
Clark blushed a little as he opened her door. “I borrowed it.”
Lois nodded. That made sense.
This truck just did not fit him at all. As he shut the door and walked over to the driver’s side door, she tried to picture what kind of car would fit the puzzle that was Clark Kent. The only one she could picture him in was her old Cherokee. She sighed. She missed her car.
Pulling on her seatbelt, Lois noticed him staring at her. “I miss my car,” she mumbled.
“What happened to it?”
“I made the mistake of lending it to my sister,” Lois replied.
“You have a sister? Younger or older?”
Lois glanced over at him. Clark seemed genuinely interested. “Younger. Lucy. She’s the ‘wild’ child. I should have known better. When I used to lend her my clothes – ‘lend’ being a highly loose interpretation of the word, she used to take them without asking -- she would then end up leaving my clothes wadded up on the floor of her room, smelling of smoke. My clothes always had a better life than I did.”
Clark turned the key and the truck roared. “I always wanted a brother or sister.”
“You can have mine,” Lois volunteered.
“Not quite the same, taking yours. But thanks for the offer.” He appeared amused by her suggestion.
“Let me know if you change your mind,” she replied.
They were quiet a minute as he pulled into traffic.
“I have a confession,” Clark admitted.
Lois turned her full attention on him. This couldn’t be good.
Clark cleared his throat and glanced over to her. “I’m afraid you won’t be able to use your gift certificate tonight.”
Her tongue ran over her teeth as she tried not to snarl and she said, “I’m listening.”
“When you asked when I could eat dinner with you and I told you Sunday dinner, it totally slipped my mind that MJ’s Café is closed on Sundays and Mondays.”
“Well, you might as well turn around because I can’t afford to pay to take you out to dinner. And I’m not washing dishes again… for anyone. Ever.” Lois crossed her arms and slouched in her seat. Strange. Her inner passionate voice was silent. Oh, wait, except for the sobbing. “You just thought to mention this now? Don’t you think the perfect time to have brought this up was this morning at the store?”
“But then I’d miss the joy of your company,” Clark replied with a hint of sarcasm.
Lois pressed her lips together and glared at him.
“When I mentioned our dilemma to the owners of the café they generously offered to make us dinner, but only if we came as their guests.”
“Oh.” She turned and faced him. “Clark, why would they do that? Invite us to dinner?”
Clark looked a bit uncomfortable under her gaze.
Good!Lois waited as she felt sure there was more to this ‘confession.’
“To tell you the truth…”
“That would be a nice change,” interrupted Lois.
“I have always,
always been honest with you, Lois.”
She raised a brow. “Have you now?”
It was his turn to look annoyed.
Good!“Yes, I have, Lois. What do you think I’ve lied to you about?”
Lois knocked the question out of the air with the back of her hand. “You were saying something about the complete truth?”
“I work at the café,” Clark murmured. “And…”
“How many jobs do you have, Clark?” she asked, interrupting him once again.
He sighed. “Too many.”
“Let’s see. There’s MDS deliveryman, Daily Book’s security guard, “ Lois said ticking off the jobs on her fingers. “And MJ’s Café. Anything else I should know about?”
Clark glanced at her and smiled cautiously. “I keep busy.”
“Do you sleep?” She laughed.
“Sometimes.” Then as the truck stopped at a red light, he turned to her. “Not recently.”
Lois raised a brow. “And how do you have time to take me to dinner?”
“Even I have to eat sometimes.” Clark was quiet a moment and then asked, “Do you still want me turn the truck around?”
“No.” She sighed. “I guess not.” Dinner out was still dinner out. And even better when it was on the house. “When was the last time you had a day off?” Lois asked, realizing just how much she didn’t know about this man.
Clark sighed. The light turned green and the truck lurched forward. “It’s been a while. I have tomorrow off, though.”
“Labor Day. How appropriate. I’m glad.”
“Are you?” he asked, brow raised.
Lois patted his arm. “You deserve it. Three jobs,” she said with admiration. “I’m exhausted just working the one.”
“You job is more physically demanding than someone like Cat’s. Now that Claude is gone, I bet you could take Travel.”
Lois shook her head. “No, thanks. I’ll stick to News.”
Clark was silent a moment and then apologized. “I shouldn’t have brought him up.”
“No. It’s not only that.” She pressed her lips together. “I’ve never been anywhere.”
“Well, we’re here,” Clark said, pulling the truck over.
“OK. So, I’ve been to Metropolis, but that doesn’t really count.”
“No, Lois. I mean we are
here.” He turned off the engine.
Lois hadn’t been paying attention to their surroundings, only Clark.
Much better view anyway.She glanced out the window at the small unassuming restaurant. It wasn’t a dive. It wasn’t a diner, either. Nor was it the Carlton House. The façade was painted in red and gold. ‘MJ’s Café’ was painted in nice script on the window and on the hanging sign – almost like a British pub sign – by the front door. Clark had been correct. It was both nice and casual at the same time.
While she had been checking out the restaurant, Lois hadn’t noticed Clark exit and come around to her door. “You didn’t have to do that,” she told him.
“It sticks sometimes,” he explained with a shrug. Lois doubted the validity of that statement. Clark had good manners. He had such a gentlemanly disposition, he even refused to draw attention to his behavior. She had never met a man quite like him.
“Thank you,” Lois said a bit belatedly and received a warm smile nonetheless.
Warm? His smiles could melt steel.“Are you sure this is okay?” she asked him as he went to unlock the café’s front door. “I hope this isn’t an imposition.”
“I hope so too. An imposition for you that is,” Clark replied with a sheepish smile.
There. That’s the smile that could melt even the Ice-Queen’s heart.Lois winced as her inner voice hit that sensitive nerve. She had developed that nickname at college along the way – thanks to Paul, editor of Metropolis U.’s student newspaper – and she had never been able to shake it. It was one of the reasons she had transferred out of the huge university to the small liberal arts college. That was also why her co-workers’ use of the phrase had caused that immediate – and disastrous – reaction in her. She didn’t need that term to gain any ground here when she was once again starting anew. And, she corrected herself, Lois Lane was not an ‘Ice-Queen’. She was selective, that was all.
Of course you’re not an Ice-Queen, her passionate side apologized.
How could you be with Mr. Hot-Springs over there smiling at you all the time?Lois brought herself to the present and returned Clark’s smile.
“There’s something you ought to know about the couple who owns the café…” Clark began.
“What? Are they some crazy city people? Is she covered with tattoos and he into cross-dressing? Whatever it is, Clark, I can handle it,” Lois retorted. What did he think? That she was some hick from the country who couldn’t deal with strange people? And he said he didn’t like to be pigeonholed.
Clark shrugged. “OK. But don’t say I didn’t warn you…”
He opened the door to the cutest little restaurant. There weren’t more than fifteen tables, each covered with an actual tablecloth and a small oil lamp. The walls were a burgundy red and decorated simply with modern art. There were also hanging flower baskets to add a touch of nature. MJ’s Café reminded her of photos she had seen of European cafés. It didn’t feel like Metropolis, but in this one instance – that was a good thing.
“Wow! Clark, this place is great,” Lois told him. She felt much more comfortable here than she ever had at the Carlton House Restaurant.
Maybe that has to do with the man more than the restaurant?“Thank you,” answered a petite and very normal looking woman in an apron who entered the dining room from a swinging door to the kitchen. The woman took off her apron and dropped it on a chair. She was followed by a large man who, despite his serious expression, smiled at her with his eyes. Lois liked them both on sight.
What was Clark talking about? These people are straight out of Smallville!“Lois, this is Martha and Jonathan, my…” Clark started.
“The ‘M’ and ‘J’ from MJ’s of course!” Lois interrupted with a grin.
Jonathan’s smile grew to encompass his lips. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Lois’s eyes went wide as they darted over to Clark’s. He was conveniently looking up at the ceiling. “You’ve been talking about me, Clark?” What had he told them?
Something juicy, I hope.Martha enveloped Lois in a hug. “Only good things, dear.”
Lois hadn’t been hugged like this since she had been a child – since her Grandma passed. Her mother wasn’t a hugger and, well, her father had never been there for her emotionally. This hug was all encompassing. Lois felt welcomed, accepted and loved all within the span of that momentary embrace. Her feelings overpowered her logical side and tears danced in her eyes. Lois didn’t know how, but she instantly knew that she and Martha would be lifelong friends.
“Clark, can I get your help in the kitchen, son?” Jonathan asked and the men disappeared, for which Lois was eternally grateful. She didn’t need to have Clark witness her waterworks at meeting Martha.
Lois stepped out of the hug and wiped her eyes. “Oh, Martha! Can I adopt you?”
The woman grinned. “I would like that.”
“Clark has been trying to get me to come here since I met him. If I knew I’d be welcomed like that, I would have been here long before now.” Lois stopped herself from rambling.
Martha took her arm and led her over to a table set more comfortably than the others. It was set for ‘home’ with what looked like a hand-picked bouquet of wildflowers adorning the center. “Clark is special.”
“Oh, he certainly is,” Lois replied before she could stop herself. “But we’re only friends, co-workers at the store.”
Martha raised a brow. “Are you now?”
Lois leaned forward with a wink. “Of course. I already know my fate. My future is sealed, I’m afraid.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Did Clark tell you I was visited by some men from the future?” Lois grinned, hoping that Martha caught the skepticism in her voice as she told this too delicious, too hilarious story, she could no longer keep to herself.
“Yes,” Martha laughed. “He mentioned a marriage proposal I wasn’t supposed to bring up.”
Lois knocked that element of the story away with her hand. “Oh, yes, well, that man was trying to stop me from marrying my ‘true love’. Apparently my future husband will be ‘big, brawny and looks good in blue’.”
Clark’s boss smiled. “That sounds like Clark.”
Lois flushed. “Well, yes. I guess in a way. Blue is definitely his color. But this man also has a tendency to continually rescue me.”
Martha’s smile grew into a grin.
“Okay, I know what you’re thinking,” Lois continued. “Yes, that does sound like Clark, too. But it could also describe one of Metropolis’s finest.”
Martha nodded. “Granted.”
With a glance towards the door the men had disappeared through, Lois leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Apparently…” She laughed. How was she ever going to tell this story with a straight face. She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath, plunging in. “Apparently, my future husband is from another planet – a ‘Superman’ – mind you, with enhanced strength, super speed and the ability to fly without a plane. He’s such a good-natured man – a literal superhero – and our love so true that the two of us… and our children… will transform the world into a virtual utopia – a boring place, but a utopia nonetheless.” Lois could not hold the laughter in any longer.
She gazed at Martha whose eyes went wider and her jaw hung lower as Lois’s story had progressed. “So, you see, Martha, there is no hope for a romance between Clark and me.”
Liar, Liar, pants on fire!Martha swallowed and patted Lois on the arm, her words dripping with sarcasm. “Of course, dear. No hope. No hope whatsoever.” Then for some strange reason, the woman wrapped her arms around Lois and squeezed her tight. “I’m so glad he found you,” she murmured.
Lois’s brow furrowed. What was this woman talking about?
Martha let go of her and wiped her smiling eyes. “You are a riot, Lois. Clark needs to laugh more.”
Lois gasped. “No! No! No! We can’t tell Clark that story. He’d probably believe it was true.” Clark got so jealous of that crazy Tempus guy, who knew what her friend would think of her foretold ‘husband-to-be’.
Yes! We don’t want to scare Clark off.Martha laughed and laughed. “You’re right about that, Lois.”
The men chose that moment to return with a pitcher of iced tea. Clark looked at them with a puzzled expression which, for some reason, made Martha laughed harder.
“I was just telling Martha of my visitors from the future,” Lois explained.
Clark’s gaze shot to his lady boss’s with a curious expression.
Martha found her voice. “Oh, Clark, honey, I finished your new suit and laid it on your bed.”
“Mom!” Clark stammered, his face redder than Lois had ever seen it.
MOM??!!*** End of Part 7 *** Part 8 Comments
