3. Aurelia

Was this a sick joke?

Steve slapped his forehead. Imaginary one, not the real nor the virtual forehead.

The next morning, Steve woke up earlier than he needed to. Next door neighbor's baby wailed at dawn. He could not get back asleep.

There were still piles of work he needed to do, even though it was Sunday, but he did not have the mood yet. So he decided to explore RoVe.

He had never expected that he would meet Aurelia. But there she was, for real… or for virtual. Right after Steve spawned, he was standing face to face with Aurelia.

"Steve?"

He was considering running away, but it was impossible after Aurelia clearly recognized him.

"Hi, Aurelia," he forced a smile.

"What a nice coincidence!" Aurelia cheered. She stepped closer and patted his shoulder. Which Steve could not feel, but he still shuddered inside.

Sorry, Ron!

"Want to grab coffee?" she asked.

"Sure…."

Aurelia led him to a cafe, bigger than the one he visited yesterday. Despite being so early in the morning, there were already a couple inside.

They got seated at the corner. Aurelia ordered espresso, and Steve ordered hot tea.

"You still look the same," said Aurelia with an enticing smile.

Steve awkwardly responded. "You… too."

Yeah, Aurelia looked exactly the same as her college time. The same beautiful face, bob brunette hair, and huge confidence that she wore perfectly along with bubbly personality.

"You're very early. I always think you're the night owl type."

"The baby's cry was so loud…."

Aurelia's eyes rounded in surprise. "You have a baby?"

"No, no, it's my next door neighbor's," quickly Steve clarified.

"Ah!" she chuckled. "I was going to scold you for joining a dating app while you have a baby at home!"

Steve was aghast. Aurelia laughed at his expression, hit his bicep jokingly, and told him, "It was a joke."

Their order arrived, so Steve quickly took a sip to cover his clumsiness.

"You're also early," he said.

"I like being here this early." Aurelia also held her cup. "At the beginning I came nights, but some guys start to be annoying."

She told Steve updates on her life. Aurelia now owned an event planner. Not surprising, as she had always been active in the student organization, planning every event with passion.

Also, she had just broke up with her boyfriend of 3 years. Ron contacted her the same day she changed her relationship status on social media. The beta testing sounded fun, so she agreed to join. She was not looking for relationship yet, just wanted to casually knew new people.

Aurelia was eager to continue talking for hours, but she had yoga class and had to go. She asked Steve to exchange contacts, then quickly disappeared.

Left alone, with no mood to start working yet, Steve strolled the street. He stopped in front of Alaina's cafe.

Inside, Alaina was sweeping the floor. She happened to raise her head and their eyes met.

Her smile bloomed. She waved, inviting him to get in.

Steve reluctantly entered.

"Welcome, Steve!" Alaina greeted her brightly.

Steve was startled.

"You remember my name?"

"Of course," Alaina laughed. "Do you remember mine?"

"Alaina…."

She gave him a thumb up.

He sat, then ordered hot tea.

"You don't like coffee?" she asked when she served the cup. "Last time you also ordered this."

"Uh… yes. I don't like coffee," he mumbled.

Alaina clapped cheerily. "Wow! You're the first person I know who doesn't like coffee!"

Steve did not know how to react to it, so he just nodded.

"It's true! My family love coffee so much, that we don't drink alcohol on family gatherings. We just drink coffee," she revealed, then laughed. Her laugh was so pleasant to hear. Steve did not plan to, but he giggled along with her.

"Don't worry," she continued. "I know not everyone loves it that much. You're perfectly cool to hate it. I won't try to convert you into caffeine monster like us."

"Hahaha… thanks, I guess."

"Do you like tea the most, or you have another favorite?"

"I actually prefer green tea."

She clicked her fingers. "Next time you come, it will be in the menu."

"Oh, wow… you don't have to…."

At that moment another customer came in. She winked at Steve before trotting away.

Steve cupped his hand around the drink. So warm. And somehow his heart felt warm too.

He waited until Alaina finished serving the other patron, then he rose to pay.

"So quick?"

She looked disappointed. Ron felt uneasy. He wanted to erase frown from her face.

"Sorry… I'll come back later, to have the green tea."

The frown really went away. She grinned excitedly. "Promise?"

"Promise."

To Steve's surprise, Aurelia sent him a text message, probably on the way to her yoga class.

"Text from Aurelia: Didn't expect to see you there, but it was pleasant to catch up after so long!" Alicia read it aloud.

Steve pondered for a while.

"Reply to Aurelia: Nice to see you too."

"Text from Aurelia: Let's meet up next time? We can have a mini reunion with Ron and some others in that world too."

"Reply to Aurelia: Some others?"

"Text from Aurelia: I've met some of our classmates. Probably Ron asked everyone who's single to join this beta. LOL."

It sounded so Ron. Steve laughed. He pondered a little, thinking how to respond about the reunion.

Steve was not a fan of big gatherings actually. He was never good in socializing, and talking to more than two at the same time always overwhelmed him.

Besides, reunions were all about catching up. He was not really interested to know about people's life. So he dreaded the cumbersome talks about who worked where, who got married, who had babies, et cetera.

But he thought it would be a good chance for Ron to connect with Aurelia. Maybe he could burrow at the corner and bear some hours to hear people talking, if it could lead to his best friend's happiness.

"Reply to Aurelia: That sounds good."

After their string of texts ended, Steve messaged his best friend.

"Text to Ron: Aurelia wants to arrange a reunion in RoVe. Help her."

As expected, Ron called immediately.

"Tell me about it," Ron demanded.

Steve shrugged. "Ask her. And help her organizing it. Your chance."

"I will. But how did you meet her, even talked about a reunion? I have never seen her there!" complained Ron. He sounded genuinely frustrated, so Steve tipped him about Aurelia's preference to go online at dawn.

Ron groaned. Waking up in the morning was not in his trait.

"But you're already awake at this hour! And it's Sunday."

"Correction," solemnly Ron replied. "I haven't slept. Someone reported a major bug, so we pulled an all-nighter to fix it."

"Ouch."

"Launching in 2 months, no choice…."

Steve could relate. The excitement, nervousness and overall craziness before releasing a product. All of sudden, bugs would pop, glitches would be found, problems suddenly occurred… and they had to solve it all before the deadline.

But the sweet feeling of accomplishment awaited after a successful launch. RoVe was amazing, and he predicted it would gain attention from potential users.

"So, you don't have time to help her?" he asked. "Such a good chance probably won't recur, you know."

Ron gritted teeth.

"I will have the time. You, just sit and wait for the invitation!" determined, he declared.

The following week was hectic for Steve. He felt his mountain of tasks kept growing, despite him working more than 12 hours a day. He almost had no time even to eat. And he did not log into RoVe at all.

On Friday lunch time, Ron called him to inform about the reunion. It was set on Sunday 7 PM, in the bigger cafe Aurelia took him to. Ron had it reserved for their mini reunion.

Steve was not sure he could join. His team had lost yet another member, so they were severely understaffed. But he finally gave in to Ron's persistent begging.

Later at night someone really unexpected called.

"Claire?"

On the other end of the line, she laughed. "Yes, it's me. Surprised?"

They last met when Claire was still a high schooler. After he started working, Steve never visited Ron's house anymore, so he never met Claire since.

"Yeah, never expected you to call. Hasn't seen you since my graduation. How are you?"

"Busy, but happy. I'm adapting to working life."

Steve was astonished. "You're already working?"

"I am!" Claire sounded very enthusiastic. She told Steve about the child trauma counseling organization she was working with.

Like a proud brother, Steve felt happy for her. It had always been Claire's dream to help kids with trauma to have better life.

"Ron has been talking non stop about holding a virtual reality reunion," said Claire after a little chit chat.

"Oh, right. He's organizing one with Aurelia."

Claire sighed. "Do you know how many times he talked about her, every day during this week?"

"A thousand?" Steve guessed.

"I'm sure it's more than a million!"

They both laughed. One was the best friend, the other was the little sister. They had witnessed how much Ron loved Aurelia since years ago.

But Claire had a concern. "He's been chasing her for… how many years? Seven? Eight? If she also likes him, they would have been dating by now."

"Don't worry too much about Ron," Steve tried to assure her. "He won't act rashly. I don't think he will propose out of the blue and get rejected… or anything like that."

"Actually…." Claire paused a few seconds before continuing, "Actually, I'm more worried about you."