Amanita: Poison Shot

Chapter 102: Exosuit

"Hello, Eros. I'm sorry I couldn't call you earlier," I told him over the phone that Thursday evening, when I was already in my room, down in Amanita's basement. "I had to work, and I assumed you'd be busy too at the lab."

"Indeed, I was." He sounded as tired as I was. "Apollo's been checking my progress up close. He doesn't let me breathe."

I kept talking to him while getting a change of clothes. Agape had commanded us all to wear black uniforms for that night's mission. I had him on the line with the hands-free option of my smartphone.

"How tiresome. I don't think I would be able to stand it," I commented with dread.

"Listen, Daphne," he said then, hesitating for a moment. "I'm so sorry for your loss. I wish I could be there for you in person."

"Don't worry about it," I replied with warmth. He was such a nice guy! "It would probably piss Apollo off. He doesn't let me breathe either."

"How come?"

"He keeps sending me gifts, and today he's even showed up at Oyster. It feels like I've got a stalker because he thinks he knows everything about me. It's been an awful day at work between him showing up with unwanted gifts and Mirela's mischievous doings."

"What?! Has she done anything to harm you?!" he asked as if he was losing it.

"No, it was just her messing with the company's IT system," I explained. "I've been told she does it regularly. She fakes invoicing data to earn more money, and she's also changed some passwords without authorisation... and held the passwords' spreadsheet file hostage or something."

"Does my mother know about this?" He sounded cold and threatening, to be honest.

"I've got no idea," I answered in a sad whisper. "Too busy with customers and trying to find a workaround to get things done. Layla's eventually lent us her tablet to print the price tags and to use it as a cash register. Can you imagine a team of over a dozen shop assistants using only one tablet to do a day's work?"

An ominous silence filled our phone call.

"Eros?"

"I swear I'm gonna get her fired." His stern voice sounded terrifying.

Changing the subject suddenly felt as necessary as oxygen for me. However, it was my turn to sound dubious:

"Listen, Eros. About my boyfriend. I didn't mean to hide him from you. I just... I just never found the right time to tell you. Besides, we've... sort of... been together for a short amount of time. It's pretty recent, you see."

"I would like to meet him. Would you introduce us?" he asked in a much jovial tone. Thank God for that!

"You might already know him. He's Siegfried Thor, one of Amanita's former bouncers."

"And Dawn's hockey star. Wow." He was thunderstruck, and next, he fell silent for a couple of seconds until he explained why he knew that: "I listen to the traditional humans' radio station sometimes."

Eros was one of the nicest guys I had ever met. He didn't deserve a broken heart. I was awkwardly silent for some seconds because I didn't know what to tell him.

"It's alright, Daphne. I'm not mad or jealous or anything," he added sweetly. "Let's do something. I think I can manage to do some extra work tomorrow morning and afternoon so that I might be free in the evening. Shall we go to the hockey match? Then, you could introduce us."

I didn't think that was a good idea. I tried to dodge the subject, but he insisted. I eventually agreed to the plan with some reservations.

All of a sudden, I heard yelling coming from Agape's office. It was so loud that I got startled despite it was taking place in a different room in that same basement.