Open Your Heart

Chapter 11

Chardenay was pretty sure that answering the phone now, while he was debating on his personal feelings for Henroin, was significantly harder than picking up the phone any other time. For anything else. Ever. Taking a deep breath, he cringed as he accepted the call. "Hello?"

"Chardenay." The oh-so familiar accent that he'd begun to adore rushed to his ears from the other line. "How are you this morning?" Small talk. Why was the man making small talk?

"Fine, but then I just got off work, so I'm more tired than anything." He paused for a moment. "But, that's not why you called. You don't care about that at all." There was a hum on the other end.

"That's not true. You've been very diligent in keeping my father busy, so I care a lot about how you're doing. The better you are, the better you treat him. And the better he is, the more likely he is to ignore me entirely, and that's what I want." Char hummed as he reached his apartment building and started up to the fourth floor.

"Either way, I know this isn't a call to chat like old friends. So... what are you really calling for?" The man chuckled.

"How astute of you. Do you know when your next day off is?"

"No." But Satan knew he wished he did. If only he could have a consistent schedule, that would be nice. He'd wanted that for years, even before he'd died and he swore he'd been so close to getting it back then.

"I see. Well, Saturday is one of those days I told you about. The ones where I need you to distract him because it's an important day for me to be... unsupervised for a while. So, if you set up a meeting with him, I'll pay you whatever you need for that night." The memory of their deal invaded his mind and he nodded.

"Alright, I'll call him and make a date. Did you have any specific length of time that you wanted him preoccupied for?" There was a silence on the other line for at least a minute while the man thought. In the background, Char could barely make out the sounds of the arachnid moving about, possibly, a kitchen. It was morning, after all, so the idea that Arackniss had just woken up and was making himself breakfast wasn't unheard of.

"If you can give me, ideally, a few hours that would be great. If you manage to keep him busy for most, if not all, of the night, that would be phenomenal." Char hummed, but made a mental note of the length.

"I'm guessing you and your significant other have a big date planned." He just barely made out the pouring of liquid on the other line and confirmed the man was definitely getting coffee.

"Yes. An important one that my father absolutely cannot know about. Understand?" There was a threat in there that had Char nodding immediately, even though he knew the man couldn't see him. Or could he?

"I understand. I haven't mentioned you yet, beyond tiny small talk that he starts, and I change the subject quickly, I swear."

"I know. If you had mentioned me more than that, I'd have heard about it." Making sure the door was locked behind him, he started moving about his apartment. The first step was to recount what he'd made and make sure he pulled out enough to just barely cover the amount he was told to make. He would go about ten dollars over to make sure that Ruskov didn't get suspicious because of an exact amount. "Just let me know the time you two are meeting, alright?"

"Of course. Was there anything else specific that you wanted from me for that day? You've made requests before." Arackniss obviously stopped to think about the question and sip his coffee, so Char took the chance to get into the box to get the rest of the money.

"No. He seems to be quite happy with everything you've been doing so far. No need to change what makes him happy." Char hummed.

"Alright. Anything else?"