She checked her phone. Yup, 3 a.m. She was feeling refreshed but she still should get that next block of sleep if she didn’t wanna feel groggy the entire workday afterwards.
Ava’s words bounced around in Evie’s mind for hours on end. Such a simple thing. Charge for it. She felt angry at the woman for pointing out the obvious, preparing a comeback in her mind, rant about unemployment and how the previous generation screwed the entirety of Greece’s youth, but then she calmed herself and let it sink in.
Charge for it.
No, Ava wasn’t stupid. Evie was.
She logged on get Agora secret profile and checked the stats. Thousands of uses listed for her artwork. Hundreds of comments, many of them praising her about representation. Many of them asking for more sculptures.
Evie slapped her forehead and winced, because it hurt more than she expected. “Ow! I’m so stupid,” she said to no one.
Was this an opportunity? A, what do they call it, a niche? An unused part of the market she could serve?
Frowning, she wrote the update on her artist profile. She knew what she wanted to write and finished up quickly, but didn’t press enter. Her finger hovered over the button.
‘I’m accepting commissions, 100 euro each. DM me for details.’
The update was so simple. Just a gear shift in the mindset. No, she didn’t consider herself a professional by any rate, she wasn’t delusional. If anything, she lacked the courage to say she was one even if at some point she ended up being one.
Just a simple gear shift. Charge for services. For something people wanted. For pixels, for bits and bytes, air intangible. Evie wasn’t unused to people paying for intangibles, every DLC for every game, every in-app-purchase in the various apps she used every day, that was it, paying for intangibles. She had been buying intangibles all her life.
But she never thought she could be the one doing the selling.
A simple mental gear shift.
It took her four hours of unrest and pacing up and down in her jammies to make the decision.
At some point at 4 a.m. she said, “Fuck it!” and pressed enter.
Chapter 39: Horace
Horace woke up. On his bedside table was a plate with a piece of cake and a cool glass of milk. He smiled, feeling nice and taken care of. Gula was really kind. He took a bite and had some milk to wash it down, it was great for breakfast. He decided to snooze a bit and checked his stats on the app.
Evil Thought
Tokens
Gula
4
Luxuria
4
Avaritia
2
Superbia
3
Invidia
0
Ira
2
Acedia
4
He thought about the girls. He hadn’t paid much attention to Ira and Ava, and decided to fix that today. Superbia was making herself scarce and always seemed busy, so he didn’t put much thought into her. He also felt he was neglecting Acedia but she didn’t seem to mind. Not to mention that her tokens went up too. Didn’t that mean she was pleased with him? Maybe she wanted to be left alone. She wasn’t too shy to ask for attention, just... distant? No, not distant. She was unmoving.
Blergh, never mind. Horace couldn’t think words this early in the morning. He rubbed his face and stood up to get ready for work.
He got a message from Costa. ‘Got your order right here, come on over to pick it up.’ Oh, right, he had a figurine pre-ordered and it had finally arrived. He had forgotten all about that, so much had changed these past few days. It was a figurine of Lady Chain, a popular character from the videogame he liked. He had ordered it on the spot when it became available even though he couldn’t really afford it. Now it was 3D-printed and polished and painted, and waiting for him.
He considered what the girls would think about him when they saw him picking up the figurine. Nah, they wouldn’t mind. His house was full of action figures and 3D-printed figurines of fantasy ladies anyway.
Horace washed up and then got to the kitchen. Gula was making breakfast for everybody, having an omelette underway, filtered coffee, Turkish coffee brewing, a couple of sandwiches, carrots.
“This is great, Gula!” Horace said, grabbing a small sandwich and wolfing it down. “You really are a dream in the kitchen,” he told her and kissed her.
She blushed and giggled, then scooted him away. “Thank you, Horace. Let me finish this up for the others.”
Acedia was sitting at the table, coffee in front of her, her hands wrapped around it as someone would on a cold winter day.
“Good morning, Acedia, feeling cold?” he asked her, sitting beside her.
She took a minute to turn to him but when she met his eyes she beamed a smile at him. “Wow. A bit. We let everything open and there was a draft at early morning. I froze.”
He kissed her softly. “Why didn’t you shut the window, dummy?”
“It was so far away,” she said, her expression showing the enormity of the task he was asking about.
Horace chuckled. “Okay. I’ll make sure to close the window to the living room every night for you,” he said, and wrapped his arms around her to warm her up.
She nodded and seemed pleased at that.
Gula kept on cooking breakfast, apparently no two people in this house wanted the same thing. Horace caught a glimpse of a naughty wink from Luxuria as she went past the corridor and into the bathroom. Ira came and sat down, looking grumpy as ever.
“Nobody talk to me before I’ve had my coffee,” she grumbled.
Horace smirked along with Acedia and stayed silent. After a while, he asked, “Where’s Ava and Superbia?”
Gula had her back turned, focused on cooking. She waved a spoon around. “Ava is still in bed. I’ll get her breakfast ready for you to deliver it to her. Superbia skipped off early to do some work, she’ll join us later at Zillions.”
“Okay,” Horace said and rubbed Acedia’s body. She seemed better now, practically melting in his embrace. He had a naughty thought. Seeing Luxuria a moment ago gave him an instant boner. But he decided to focus on Acedia. He slipped his hand between her legs and it took her a moment to react. She tensed a tiny bit but then relaxed.
Then he took a sip of his morning coffee with one hand and slid the other hand into her panties. The thin girl gasped, but then opened her legs wider. Horace rubbed his fingers on her pussy. He knew not to shove them inside, even more so at an awkward angle like this. He pinched her clit between index and middle finger and gently rubbed up and down. She got wet and gripped his arm, digging her nails into his skin.
Ira grumbled across the table at nothing in particular, and Gula kept cooking breakfast. Neither of them paid any attention and Horace had to admit it felt naughty and exciting. You could tell he was fondling Acedia if you cared, but none of them did.
Acedia’s breath caught and she shut her eyes, a thin smile of delight drawn on her face. Horace thought he had done something wrong and stopped, his hand still down there, but then he felt a trickle of something wet.
He rubbed her very gently for a few moments more and she shuddered at his touch. When it was over, he withdrew his hand and she kissed him deeply, her hungry tongue looking for his.
“Wow... Mmm, thank you,” she said softly. Apparently she got her appetite back and the anorexic girl pulled a plate close to her and started eating from everything, cake, eggs, sandwiches, bread and marmalade.
“Glad to see your appetite’s back!” Horace said and wiped her juices on his trousers.
Chapter 40: Horace
He knocked, tray in hand.
“Enter,” the woman said with authority.
He went in the room and found the Asian lady getting ready on the mirror.
He shut the door behind him and put the tray down next to her. It was bacon and some sort of coffee with a very distinct aroma, definitely something he’d never tasted before. “I brought your breakfast, Ava. Since y
ou’re all about greed and everything, I’m not ashamed to ask if this is how I get tokens from you?” he said, meekly. This was his house yet she made him feel unworthy of being in her presence.
Ava pulled up her hair and ran a golden pin through them. Her exposed neck looked leathery, the kind of aged skin women get in that area but it didn’t tarnish her appearance at all. In contrast, it gave her the proper amount of gravitas. “No,” she drolled. “Serving a tray is not enough for my tokens, Horace. You need to demand more.”
“Like what?” Horace asked and sat down on the bed. He was actually curious.
Ava turned to him, her glance causing a shadow of crow-lines next to her eyes. “Double your income by this time tomorrow.”
“What?” Horace spat out. “How am I supposed to do that? I’m making more as a manager but I can’t ask for a raise this soon. And yesterday, yesterday was a terrible day. If I have any more of these I won’t even be able to prove to Nico I can handle it.”
Ava waited in silence.
Horace was about to go on complaining and making excuses but he stopped himself.
“Are you done?” she asked simply.
Horace got her point. He nodded.
“Good. I’ll be off for today, but I expect two things from you tomorrow morning.” She turned back to her mirror and dismissed him.
Horace stood up, biting his lip. “Two things. Your breakfast, and news of my success,” he said, matter-of-factly and walked backwards to the door.
“Exactly!” she smiled at him, a glint in her eye.
Chapter 41: Horace
The workday at Zillions went by smoothly, pretty much. Horace asked Martha to show Evie her job tasks, which she did while avoiding him. The girls showed up and lounged around at their favourite table, it got plenty of shade from the trees and it was cool enough to ward off the day’s heat.
Hours passed while Horace tended to his duties. He gave a report to Nico over the phone, and the boss was begrudgingly satisfied. This day happened to be a day when pensions were being paid, so traffic was slow. It subtly influenced a large amount of the cosy pensioners that lived in this area, by having them tend to things like bills and bank issues.
George had switched things up, again. He had swapped the entire yogurt machine placement, without asking, Horace might add. He was furious at him, especially since the machines were huge pieces, basically a vending machine with a fridge, and required specialised technicians to tinker with. George swapped the two containers, putting the chocolate flavour first. The other flavour was colourless he said, simply white, which didn’t draw the customer’s attention. But I don’t like chocolate yogurt, Horace spat back at the intolerable employee. Yes, George said, but chocolate frozen yogurt draws your attention to it, and then you make a choice. He asked for a day to test it out and the yogurt machines had sold out by midday.
On a slow day.
Gods, he was so infuriating. No, Horace wouldn’t admit he was right. He’d simply leave it like that and ask for a technician to swap the flavours back, then simply forget to get through with it. There. Management.
His phone glinged and he read his stats.
Evil Thought
Tokens
Gula
5
Luxuria
5
Avaritia
2
Superbia
4
Invidia
0
Ira
2
Acedia
5
What was this? A token from Pride? He looked out at the table where the girls sat. Yup, there she was, Superbia, in all her violet glory. She was sipping a cold lemonade through a thick straw and met eyes with him. Then she continued to suckle on the straw.
Her cheeks sucked inside her mouth, her lips wrapped around...
Hmm. Right. How the fuck did she know what he was planning to do?
He slapped his forehead. Damn, he had promised he’d please Ava as well, by doubling his income. But how? Yes, this was a very weird promise to have to make to a woman he hardly knew, but something deep inside him told him it was the best thing for him.
He chewed on ways to make that happen. Nothing came to mind, and half the day was already gone.
Then a message came from Costa again. “What time are you coming over?” Right, he’d forgotten all about that. Well, he could go by after work, the girls wouldn’t mind. He knew Evie would like it.
“Hey, Evie?”
She was cleaning up a mess at the ice cream bar. “Yeah?” she said, absent-minded.
“Wanna come over to Costa’s place with me? He has an order ready for me, I know you like watching the figurines they have over there.”
“No,” she snapped back, a bit too quickly. Then she rubbed the surface a lot harder.
“I see. Wanna come over at my house after that? We can play board games or just hang out...”
“I said, no!”
“Okay!” Horace resigned with his palms up and decided to stay silent and leave her alone.
“Girls,” Horace said, sitting down for a moment to rest his back, “I have a question. Not that I don’t enjoy your company, but I was curious about Invidia.”
Luxuria turned to him, raising an eyebrow. “What about her?”
“Uh... I haven’t met her yet, that’s all.”
“You’ll meet her in time,” she replied.
“So, she isn’t coming over tonight? I’m worried about how crowded the house is getting, that’s all. I feel like a bad host for you all.”
Gula reached out and touched his hand. “Oh, you’re such a dear. No, we’re fine, we can take care of ourselves.”
He met every girl’s eyes. The only one missing was Avaritia. They all seemed to be okay with this arrangement of theirs. Gula definitely seemed pleased, having downed about ten scoops of ice cream already. Luxuria was her usual, taunting self. Acedia’s colour had returned to her bony cheeks. Superbia wouldn’t admit to anything, naturally. And Ira...
Horace didn’t know.
“Ira, wanna come with me to pick something up after work?”
She turned to him. She was shooing a stray cat away. The cat was determined to eat whatever had fallen under Ira’s chair, but the angry dwarf wasn’t having it. It was a stand-off of epic stubbornness for the past two hours. “Yeah, whatever, I’ll come with ya.”
“I haven’t spent any time with you and wanted to chat on the way. Is that okay with all of you,” he asked, turning left and right to all of the girls.
They agreed and nodded.
“Excellent.” He stood up and gave his paycard to Luxuria. “Here’s my card again for groceries. Don’t let Gula get out of hand again,” he said and the chubby girl immediately blushed and pouted.
“I’ll reign her in,” Lux said with confidence. “But I am getting some more condoms.” She then did that thing with her tongue that gave him an instant boner.
Gula began to apologise, “I’m sorry if I went overboard, I just wanted everyone to have a nice meal and...”
He pinched her chin and leaned towards her. “It’s all right. I’m not angry. My mother always says you shouldn’t go shopping in a supermarket when you’re hungry, ‘cause you buy too much subconsciously. And you’re always hungry, right? It’s okay, really. But, Luxuria is in charge of spending.” He gave her a kiss on the lips and went back to work.
Chapter 42: Horace
After he closed up shop and made sure he had locked everything up, he sent the girls off to go for groceries. All except Ira.
“We haven’t talked in a while, will you come with me?” he asked the short woman.
She twirled her black curls in a stubby finger and thought about it for a moment. “Sure, why not?”
He fished out his phone and called for a Supertaxi from the app. Then, casually looking up, he spotted Evie still waiting in the corner. “Oh, you’re still here? What’s up, Evie?”
She bounced at the balls of her feet for a whil
e, then blurted, “I’m coming with you.”
“Uh... Okay. Why not? I’m going to pick up an order from Costa. I had totally forgotten all about it, this week has been crazy,” he chuckled.
Evie walked closer. “I can see that.” She glanced at the woman beside Horace.
Ira balled her fists and wailed in the air. “Where is the taxi? Come on, already!”
Horace blinked at that. “Ira, it’s been like twenty seconds since I called for it. Be patient.”
“The damn driver is leaving us here to wait, exposed to the elements,” the dwarf lady complained.
Horace and Evie looked around at the soft breeze of the summer evening. The weather conditions couldn’t have been more optimal if it was a biodome.
Evie whispered at Horace’s ear. “Is she all right. You know...” She made the looney motion at the side of her head.
Horace noticed her body at that point. She was leaning in close to him, a thing she had done a million times already but had somehow slipped past him. It was as if he was seeing her for the first time. Evie smelled like something fruity and fresh, and the sun’s light in the golden hour made her brownish-gold skin seem as if it was glistening. He fumbled for words and realised his heart rate had gone up. “She’s, uh... Yeah, she’s intense, but that’s just her style. Nothing to worry about.”
Ira kept frowning at the street till it produced a taxi for them.
7 Deadly Roommates Page 11