The next day, Kylian stood outside the building of the research offices of the National Laboratory. He dressed a bit nicer than usual today. He loitered in front of the building, but he shifted his weight from side to side. It looked like he might have indigestion.

Viviane told me to wait outside the building for her and then we’d head out together. I hope this is the right time. What if she already left? What if I’m at the wrong entrance? Wait, there’s only one entrance to this building. I must be at the right place! I got here 40 minutes early…she couldn’t have left me, did she? Maybe I didn’t hear her correctly? Where could she be?

Yes, inquiring minds wanted to know. Where could Viviane be at this designated time?

But Viviane was not late. She remembered Kylian. In fact, she arrived right on time. Kylian saw her coming toward him and his mind relaxed at last, but that would not last. Since he only had eyes for Viviane, he had not noticed until a bit later that she walked with a uniformed companion. Right away, Kylian knew who it was. Luc! What’s he doing here???

Viviane and Luc reached where Kylian stood waiting. Viviane had the biggest smile and effused giddy happiness about her mini-adventure today.

“Hi Kylian!” she sang. “I’m so happy that the two of you will be coming with me today to the test shoot. I have no worries at all now, especially with Luc here, too.”

If Viviane looked happy, Kylian looked the opposite.

“Aren’t you supposed to be doing Hall Monitor duty?” he asked Luc.

“Hey, it’s Saturday,” Luc answered. “No school today, ya know?”

Kylian, still displeased, turned to Viviane. “I thought you were upset with him yesterday.”

“I was,” said Viviane, “but then you convinced me ‘better-safe-than-sorry,’ so I had to apologize to Luc and he said the same thing you did about wanting to come with me to the test shoot. Imagine that? All men must think alike, hum?” Viviane sounded so innocent it melted Kylian’s heart, but it also maddened him that he had no one to blame for this unfortunate turn of events.

Kylian came to the realization that he was not going to be getting that “quality time” with Viviane that he hoped for, at least not with Luc hanging around, and he just opened a pack of new socks to wear today, too!

Starting to feel sorry for himself and having his hopes dashed, Kylian caught himself from flushing down a toilet of misery and decided not to let this plot twist ruin his day with Viviane. He resolved to make the best of it.

“Come on guys, let’s go!” A joyful Viviane called out to the two men to hurry before she missed her appointment with Acel Yu.

Since the University and the adjoining National Laboratory were located in the city center where all the cultural excitement happened with its museums, theatres, retail shops as well as being the seat of government, it turned out that Acel Yu’s private studio was just on the opposite side of the city center. To get there meant a brisk twenty-minute walk across downtown. As the three friends, or perhaps it would better to say Viviane and her two bodyguards, made the quick walk, they passed through a street market where vendors hawked their various foods, souvenirs, artwork and other such gaudy products. Being a weekend, the crowd here was thicker than usual with shoppers and lookers trying to entertain themselves.

Luc noticed the crowds thickening gradually as the party of three walked along. His eyes darted everywhere until he could not keep up with everything there was to look at.

“Hold on a minute!” he ordered. “The crowd is getting bigger here and it’s making it harder for me to spot criminal activity. Let me scout the area first.”

Kylian and Viviane did not know what to think of Luc’s request, so they just stopped for the moment and let Luc do his thing.

Luc ran way out in front of the group and scanned the street ahead for any suspicious activity. He pulled from one of his uniform pockets a pair of spectacles which he attached to the bridge of his nose and looked all around through them. He shook a garbage can and looked inside of it. He peered around a cart and looked behind it. He found some parked cars and looked under them. All the while, he ordered people to step aside and eyeballed some of the guilty-until-proven-innocent bystanders, too! When he was satisfied that the area was secure, he returned to Viviane and Kylian.

“OK, looks like the coast is clear. You may proceed.” Luc said, his voice calm and assured.

Viviane and Kylian looked at each other with blank expressions, but since Luc’s detailed sweep of the area caused no harm, they said nothing to Luc and just proceeded to walk through the street market.

Kylian became curious about the spectacles Luc had clipped onto his nose. “So, what do the special glasses do for you?”

“They’re high-tech military spectacles designed to allow me to see hazards like radiation, toxic chemicals, gunpowder and biological weapons,” answered Luc.

“Really?” Kylian liked scientific gadgets.

“Yeah, really!” said Luc. “Lemme show you what I can see on you.”

Luc scanned Kylian up and down while looking through the hazard-detecting spectacles. He concentrated on Kylian’s feet where the glasses picked up a reading.

Luc reported his findings. “Speaking of biological weapons, your shoes could use a good disinfecting. Get too close there and the smell will knock a person unconscious! Pee-yew!”

Kylian was not so interested in scientific gadgets anymore. “Ha, ha. Very funny.”

Luc just grinned and removed his spectacles and put them away back into the secret pocket on his uniform from where they came from.

While Luc conducted the scan on Kylian, Viviane moved ahead leaving the men behind. She encountered a popsicle vendor offering tiny bite-sized samples to the passersby hoping to entice someone to buy one.

“Hey, pretty lady! How about a popsicle?” called out the vendor to Viviane.

“Um, OK. I’ll take a sample.” Viviane was caught off guard.

“Hey that’s OK! Just have one on me, alright? You’re such a cutie,” and the vendor extended his hand with a whole popsicle toward Viviane. “Go on, take it! On the house.”

Viviane realized she had been offered a free popsicle! “Thank you!” she said. Sometimes, the world could be nice to her.

From several yards away, Luc witnessed what transpired between Viviane and the popsicle vendor and a sudden sense of urgency overcame him.

“Viviane! Wait! Don’t move!” Luc yelled.

Luc and Kylain ran over to Viviane with great fury and haste.

“Wait! Before you eat that, I have to taste-test it for poison!” demanded Luc. Kylian, who ran several yards over with Luc was winded and puffed hard for life-sustaining oxygen.

Viviane could not believe her ears. Taste-test a freebie from a local vendor? Was not that a bit much?

“What in the world, Luc?” she started off saying. “Look, if you’re going to take a bite from it, you can have the whole thing!”

“Yeah…what’s the big idea?” Kylian huffed and puffed between words.

“No, not me! Here, just hold still,” Luc told the both of them.

From another secret pocket hidden on his uniform, Luc pulled out another small device with a long, thin probe attached to it. He aimed the probe at the frozen popsicle and waited a few seconds while the device read out some data. Luc studied the data for a bit and then reported the results.

“OK, it’s safe to eat,” he announced.

“Well, that was obvious! Hmph!” Viviane snatched back her frozen treat and turned her nose up at Luc. She bit off a chunk of the popsicle and walked off unharmed by it. Luc chased after her.

Kylian, who was left behind for the moment, daydreamed about Viviane sucking on a popsicle and looking very seductive, but also very cute and innocent somehow all at the same time. He got all soft in the face imagining it. The popsicle vendor must have noticed his longing expression.

“Would you like a popsicle, too?” ventured the popsicle vendor.

“Yes,” a drippy-voiced, dreamy-eyed Kylian responded.

“That’ll be seven dollars, please!”