by Tammy Walsh
“Catch you later,” Zyod said, saluting and hanging up.
I couldn’t believe this was happening.
Mom would never do something like this. At the very least, she would have called and told me what she was planning.
My stomach sank through the floorboards.
Maybe she had.
Only, I hadn’t been there to answer my communicator.
I scrolled through the missed calls and messages. There was no sign of any communication from her.
Then what could have happened? Why was she doing this to me?
Was it a way to convince me to try harder? As a way to encourage me and spur me into action?
She needn’t have bothered. I was already taking action.
I moved to the dresser and took out a T-shirt. I slipped it on and grabbed the shuttlecraft keys. I moved to the bathroom and slid the door open.
“Vicky?” I said.
She couldn’t hear me over her crooning voice.
“Vicky!” I said, louder this time.
The shower stall door slid open. I caught the curve of her breast as she wiped the water from her face.
Already, I leaped into action below the waist.
What was wrong with me?
How did she have this effect on me?
I had to think again about what it was I wanted to say. I lowered my eyes and focused on the grey tile floor.
“I, uh, need to head out for a minute or two,” I said. “Will you be okay here by yourself?”
“Sure,” Vicky said. “Hurry back.”
She waved a hand, making those gorgeous pert breasts bounce.
She was going to drive me insane.
I shut the door and shook my head. I needed to focus on the task in hand.
Focus, asshole!
I grabbed my jacket and swung it around my shoulders. I hustled toward the front door. I grabbed it and drew it open. I immediately came to a stop.
“Ettana?” I said. “What are you doing here?”
She beamed at me with those big pearly whites with her signature mischievous grin.
“I didn’t realize I needed an invitation to come over,” she said, leaning forward and planting a kiss on my cheek. She drifted past me and into the apartment.
I grabbed her by the arm and swung her around.
“You can’t come in,” I said. “Not right now.”
“Are you sure?” she said, opening her coat and revealing some very revealing lingerie.
She grinned at me. She saw the seriousness of my expression and shut her coat again.
“What’s up?” she said.
Our relationship had always been one of mutual understanding. Fun, without the stress attached to anything more serious. It must have been a shock to see me turn her down. I’d never done it before.
And then, of course, Vicky hit a high note in whatever song she was singing. It was a bum note but she carried on quite happily.
The expression on Ettana’s face was anything but happy.
Her eyes narrowed and she folded her arms.
“I see,” she said.
I ushered for her to join me outside. She hesitated a moment before stepping through the door. I followed immediately after and locked the door.
“Who is she?” Ettana said.
“A business associate,” I said.
Ettana bristled.
“Is that what we are to you? ‘Business associates’?”
“No. She really is. Look, come on.”
I nodded toward the elevator.
When she didn’t move, I set off by myself. She soon joined me.
“You’re supposed to let me know when you have other girls over,” she said.
She’s not just another girl, I wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t pass my lips. Ettana was already hurt enough.
“Like I said, she’s a business associate,” I said. “And I never mix business with pleasure. You know that.”
Ettana looked me over.
“You’ve never had business before,” she said.
“Unfortunately, things had to change,” I said.
She folded her arms under her large breasts. She’d always been good at being provocative.
“This has something to do with your mom turning up the other day, doesn’t it?” she said. “You changed after that. You never answered my messages or calls. You didn’t accept my invitation to any of the parties. Or any of my sexy late-night images and videos.”
I had noticed them but how could I say it politely? They no longer did anything for me. My mind and senses were completely taken up with Vicky.
I wasn’t interested in anyone else.
I smiled at the memory of her. Ettana, taking it as a sign I enjoyed the images and videos she sent me, issued her own gorgeous smile. She pressed against me and backed me into the corner, her lips less than an inch from mine.
“You look stressed,” she said. “Let me help you with that. Your shuttle is right here.”
She reached down a hand to my crotch.
Her smile faltered when she grasped at me. She didn’t find what she was looking for.
My cock had already found another master. It no longer answered to her.
She backed away, confused and hurt more now than she had been when she heard Vicky singing in the shower.
“I’m… sorry,” I said.
“So am I,” she said.
“The parking lot,” Computer said, and the doors hissed open.
I stepped out.
“Do you want a lift?” I said.
She shook her head.
“I’ll make my own way home,” she said with a distant expression on her face.
The doors hissed shut and I ran for my shuttlecraft. I’d speak with her later and explain the situation. It wouldn’t be easy but after the time we spent together, it was the least I could do.
I was no longer interested in our relationship.
But was that true? Had I already changed so much?
I shoved the thought into a box to consider later.
Right now, I had other things to worry about.
My mom’s apartment was small, simple, and located less than a block from head office. She hated having anything that went beyond practicality. It was my father who liked to buy nice things.
After he passed away, my mom didn’t have it in her heart to sell their home. It housed too many cherished memories for her to do that. She used just a handful of rooms and only used the others when there was a special occasion and she had no other choice.
I considered using the special chip in the shuttlecraft to leapfrog the lines of traffic. Every moment counted. Then I spotted a police patrol craft and decided against it.
I’d installed the chip more than two years ago and I still hadn’t used it. Maybe I’d get to use it one day.
Whatever day that was, it would be a day of desperation.
The moment the shuttlecraft sat down in my Mom’s parking lot, I was out the door and running toward the hyper elevator.
I pressed the call button a dozen times before it finally arrived. I took it up to the 142nd floor. I ran down the hallway to the far end. Even if it was a small apartment, it was still the one with the best views.
I drew to a stop outside her door and rapped on it with my knuckles.
It only occurred to me then that if she’d been taking interviews for the position to replace me, why would she be at home now?
I checked my watch. It was 8:34 in the morning. She could have already left. I would have to head over to headquarters.
My stomach sank at the idea. The last thing I needed was to make a scene, but due to the way I now felt, with my deep sense of betrayal in my gut, I knew I’d end up flying off the handle if I went over there.
That was something else I had in common with my father.
A quick temper.
I needn’t have worried. The door opened, revealing my mom.
“Dyrel,” she said, surprised to see me.
“What are you doing here so early?”
She knew me so well.
But not the new me.
“Can I come in?” I said.
“Of course,” she said, stepping aside so I could enter.
“I have an appointment at head office in about half an hour,” she said.
“That’s okay. I only need a few minutes.”
She was wearing a smart dress, black, that accentuated her thin frame. She carried a S’mauggai handbag that she would never dream of buying for herself. It was a present from my father. The good thing about brand goods was they lasted a long time.
She set it down on the small kitchen counter and moved to the coffee pot.
“Would you like a cup?” she said.
I nodded.
She turned the machine on and waited as it whirred.
“What did you want to talk about?” she said.
How was I supposed to tackle this topic? I didn’t want to get Ajer in trouble. She might have been mistaken.
But Mom hated the city so much she would only come if it was something urgent. If Ajer was wrong, what else could have made her come all this way at such short notice?
I decided to play it cool.
“What brings you to town?” I said.
“Just some business,” Mom said evasively.
She didn’t look at me and busied herself by getting two cups from the cupboard.
“Do you have a date when you might retire?” I said.
“We said a month, didn’t we? That was the agreement.”
“Right. And there’s no reason you would change your mind about that, is there?”
Mom peered at me closely. She could be as hard to read as a rock when she wanted to be.
“You obviously have something on your mind,” she said. “You wouldn’t have rushed here so early otherwise. What is it?”
She filled the cup and slid it across to me. I held it in my hands. It was half full. She always liked a strong cup in the morning.
All right. No more beating around the bush.
“Are you looking for my replacement already?” I said.
Mom frowned at me. Wondering how I might have learned about it? Or wondering how I could be so suspicious?
“Did you see the advert in the paper?” she said.
We both knew I never read the papers. But I could have noticed it as I was passing by the newsstand.
“I might have,” I said.
Mom nodded and sipped at her coffee.
“I suppose you were going to find out sooner or later anyway,” she said. “I’m not looking for your replacement. I’m looking for mine.”
“Yours?” I said.
“Ever since your father passed away, it’s fallen to me to run the business. I’m not a visionary the way your father was. I was always more interested in the accounting side. I’ve always been a numbers person at heart. But I’m competent enough to run the company with some help. I gave you a month to settle down and give yourself a chance of stepping into the role. I figured I might as well look for my replacement in case you didn’t succeed.”
“You’re looking for someone in case I fail?”
Ouch. That hurt.
“Not just that,” she said. “We both know this is not the first time you’ve made a promise to me and not kept it. When you do step into your father’s shoes, there’s a lot that you need to learn. That’s why thought I could hire someone to show you the ropes and work alongside you. If you decide not to take up the reins, we’ll have someone to step in.”
She was never looking to replace me. It was a backup plan.
I nodded and tapped my fingernails on my coffee cup.
Someone to work alongside me. To babysit me.
Because she couldn’t trust me.
Perhaps I deserved her mistrust but it still grated.
But something about this didn’t make sense.
“Why did you suddenly decide this now?” I said.
“Because when I stopped by your apartment yesterday, you weren’t there,” she said. “I assumed the worst and put out the advert.”
“I wasn’t partying yesterday,” I said.
Mom nodded and downed the last of her coffee.
“Sure,” she said.
There was a ring of noncommittal to it as if she didn’t really believe me.
And who could blame her? When you had a liar for a son, you tended not to believe what they said.
“No, really,” I said. “I wasn’t partying. I wasn’t drunk. I haven’t had a drop for the past week. Okay, so I did have some wine, but no more than a glass a night.”
Mom nodded. No doubt she assumed it wasn’t true.
I reached across the table and took her tiny hand in mine.
She looked up into my face.
“Really,” I said. “I’m telling the truth. I’ve been doing what I said I would. I know it hasn’t been easy having me as a son for the past few years. Okay, the past couple of decades. I haven’t been easy to live with but I finally feel like I’m turning a corner in my life.
“I know my word doesn’t mean much to you right now, and I don’t blame you. It wouldn’t mean much to me either in your situation. I will work hard. I will make you proud of me. And with time, maybe you will come to trust me the way I trust you. I don’t expect it to be easy and I know it will take time, but now I have a goal, a purpose. And I’m not just talking about the company.”
“What purpose?”
“I’ve met somebody, somebody who I think you’ll approve of, somebody you’d want in my life. The support you always told me about.”
My mom looked at me with tears in her eyes. She squeezed my hand.
“Who is she?” she said. “She must be very special to have effected such a change in you so quickly. Your fated mate, maybe?”
“Maybe,” I said. “She’s very special. I was hoping I could introduce her to you soon.”
“It’s a little premature, don’t you think?”
“Was it premature when Dad proposed to you after just a week of knowing you?”
Mom smiled at that and reached into her S’mauggai bag for a tissue.
“Using my own words against me,” she said. “Your dad used to play dirty tricks like that too. Fine. You can bring her over. When?”
“When are you returning home?”
“This afternoon.”
“Then how about we come over tonight?”
“Tonight? Are you sure?”
I thought about Vicky and the progress she’d made. Really, what else was there for her to learn? From now until the end of the remaining two weeks, it was going to be nothing but endless practice. I’m sure she’d be relieved to get this whole event over with as quickly as possible.
Plus, once it was over, I would get to enjoy her completely to myself for the next few days.
What would happen after that?
Would she leave?
Would she return home the way we agreed?
Or had something already happened between us?
Had we passed a threshold from which we could never return?
I didn’t know the answer to any of those questions.
But hopefully, Vicky had helped create a new version of me, a version I could take into the future and finally bring myself to look others in the eye and be proud of who I was, and where I came from.
I could become my own man and step out of my father’s shadow.
It’d been a long time coming.
“Is anybody home?” I said, shutting my apartment door behind me.
I stopped by a bakery on the way home and picked up some delicious cream pies. They were filled with all twelve flavors from the hexadodron and smothered with powdered sugar. They were the most delicious dessert, my favorite ever since I was a kid.
I dropped the shuttlecraft keys in the bowl I kept by the door and took off my jacket. I placed it on the cloakroom arm that extended from the wall and walked through the apartment.
&nb
sp; It seemed very quiet.
“Hello?” I said. “Is anybody home?”
I heard Vicky’s high-pitched giggle from the kitchen.
I followed the twinkling sound and wondered what she was up to. I crept through the apartment hoping to surprise her.
Instead, it turned out I was the one that was surprised.
Zyod sat with his legs splayed out to either side of her so he could lean in close and whisper something in Vicky’s ear. She giggled even louder.
She saw me and brightened up. She edged her stool back so she could wrap her arms around me.
“Did you get your thing done?” she said.
My voice was numb.
“Yeah,” I said. “All done. I got you something.”
I handed the paper bag to her but Zyod snatched it out of my hand first. He reached in and came out with the second cream cake.
“Oh!” he said. “My favorite!”
He bit into it. The sugar made the tip of his nose white.
“You should really try it,” he said to Vicky.
He extended it toward her mouth.
She backed away.
“You’ve got something on your nose,” she said.
“That’s new,” he said with a wink.
My stomach twisted, feeling like I’d been hit by a shuttlecraft in midair.
“I’ll get you a towel,” Vicky said, taking off for the bathroom.
“Thank you!” Zyod said. “You’re a real sweetie!”
When he turned back to me, his face was screwed up.
“She brushes up very nicely, doesn’t she?” he said. “You’re one lucky son of a bitch, you know that? I can practically smell the sex on her. She’s like a dog in heat.”
“What are you doing here?” I said, voice cold as ice.
“You said I should stop by later for a drink.”
His eyes drifted toward the doorway.
In the direction Vicky would show up.
“I meant I would call you when I was free,” I said.
“Now I see why you’ve been avoiding my calls,” Zyod said. “You’re going to have to let me have a go when you’re done with her. I’ve never had a human before.”
And you’re not can have one now. Definitely not my one.
I opened my mouth to bite a response but Vicky returned and handed the towel to Zyod.
“Thanks, doll,” he said.
It was the same voice he used with all the ladies.