"I bought you some clothing." Iris replied. "Look, I got these on-sale. Can you believe it? They’ll be much better than that old sportswear."
She held out two gigantic black V-neck t-shirts and a pair of enormous khaki cargo pants with extra pockets. Zayzann looked confused at first, as the clothing appeared much too large around for him.
"Oh, don't worry about how big they are. I'll tailor them for you." Iris smirked, watching Zayzann's upturned brows. "Here, I'll set up my machine and do a few alterations."
As she had promised, Iris assembled her sewing machine and prepared to modify the new clothes. She had Zayzann try on each circus tent passing for a shirt and pinned it in place. He flinched any time Iris brushed up against him, and especially if she touched his tail. She didn’t seem to notice his regular shuddering. Surely, his heart couldn't take much more of this.
Next came the cargo pants. Zayzann bristled and puffed when he thought she might see him changing into them, so Iris turned away so he could try them on unobserved. At present, they were a strange hybrid of pants and shorts on the bird legged Paxoram. Pants that would have grazed the floor on a human only reached just past his knees.
Unfortunately, she needed more fabric if she wanted to lengthen the pants. Iris wished those weird old nineties denim pants that dragged on the floor would come back in style. Iris chuckled to herself about strange clothing trends and continued pinning the legs and waistband, while Zayzann tried to keep his tail away from touching her.
With the measurements complete, Iris threw herself headlong into tailoring Zayzann's new clothing. She added darts, pleats, clasps, and openings where needed. She hemmed lengths and cut slits. She pinked edges, pressed seams and sewed long into the night.
Zayzann stared on in amazement as minutes turned to hours. The noisy machine was initially bothersome, but he had grown to tolerate it after a short while. Iris finally turned off the sewing machine around three in the morning, leaned back in her chair and let out a long exhalation. Her eyelids were heavy, and she creaked from exhaustion. Hopefully, this would be enough.
"Here you go." She yawned, half-smiling. "All done."
Iris stood wearily and handed him his new clothing. She was too tired to check his fit just then and teetered to the bedroom instead. Zayzann carefully laid his new clothes down on the sewing table and followed Iris to the bedroom. He was glad that the incident earlier seemed all but forgotten for now.
Iris had doffed her shirt and pants, climbed into bed and was likely unconscious before her head hit the pillow. Zayzann saw the heap of day wear clothing on the floor and blushed.
He climbed onto the mattress and shuffled under the top sheet and light blanket. It was colder in here now, what with the blood-stained duvet taken off the bed. Iris had curled up and started shivering intensely under the meager covers.
He knew that the wall of pillows was meant to divide them, but he couldn't stop himself from removing them anyway. Onto the floor they went, leaving the human and the Paxoram alone on the queen-sized bed. Zayzann scooched closer to Iris, pressing her neatly toward his feathered frame.
Zayzann folded his wing over Iris as a blanket. He could feel a trace amount of warmth coming from her tiny body. The rhythm of her heartbeat clashed with his own, and he suddenly felt very warm indeed. It was going to be an exceedingly long night.
The gleeful chirping of neighborhood songbirds woke him that morning with their ceaseless caroling. Zayzann resented their peeping, as it kept him from a few more precious minutes of sleep beside his watch-mate.
He had been struggling with troubling dreams for a while now, and was grateful for any extra sleep he could get, birds or no birds. When he got up to stretch his limbs and wings, the morning sun peeked in through the dusty plastic blinds. Zayzann turned back to check on Iris, but she was still dead to the world.
Her phone chimed its rousing alarm, jolting Iris awake with its incredible volume. Zayzann also startled at the abrupt sound, raising wings and feathers to brace for whatever made the noise. Iris forced her eyes open and acknowledged another bright and sunny morning she’d rather sleep through. At least it was Saturday, and she would be able to rest more tomorrow. In the meantime, she needed to get ready for work.
“Hey, would you mind stepping out, please?” Iris asked. “Why don’t you try on your new clothes, huh? I’ll be out in just minute.”
Zayzann nodded and retrieved his new clothes from the spare room. He started with the new shirt and noticed the unique modifications immediately. The black V-neck went over his head and arms easily, and his wings sprouted forth from the pair of vents on the back side. The shirt fit his frame perfectly, and showcased Zayzann’s more handsome features.
The pants were equally impressive and had required significant alterations to fit properly. They cinched at the waist and allowed for his tail to poke out in the back. She had also reinforced the high-friction areas with patches on the inside, to help them last longer. It was obvious that Iris had tailored clothing before and was no stranger to taking creative liberties with garments. Zayzann admired his new outfit in the spare room mirror, then he waited for Iris to finish getting ready for work.
Iris emerged from the bedroom as a haggard mess. Her lightweight work clothing was a bit slap-dash but acceptable with some light smoothing. Her hair was a tangled mop of locks going in all directions, and her eyes were puffy from last night’s crying.
She ran a brush through her hair and stared into the mirror at the purplish bags under her eyes. Nothing doing for it, unfortunately. Iris hadn’t had money for concealer for ages. Whatever. It was a Saturday, and there wouldn't be too many people to see her. No one at the office cared much what she looked like anyways.
But oh, how wrong she was. Not even six minutes in the office and Ryan was needling her with newfound antagonism.
"Ooh, rough night, huh?" Ryan mocked. "Poor ol' thing. You look horrid, you know that?"
He trailed too closely behind her and nearly gave her a flat with his hovering. Iris sighed defeatedly, not wanting to even look up at him. She passed by the kitchenette without stopping for a cup of instant coffee. It would have helped with her exhaustion, but she would have rather shed Ryan’s dead weight sooner than later. Surely, he would stop following her in a minute.
"It's the eye bags, darling." Ryan teased as he imitated a famous fashionista. "They clash with your whole outfit."
Iris ignored him, squinted her eyes, and trudged forward to the cubicle maze. She had no energy to put up with his nonsense this morning. She passed by Finance and Human Resources with waning vigor. At least there weren’t too many people in the office yet.
"So, did you make it to dinner at least?" Ryan continued. "Or did he stand you up? Oh, that's it, isn't it? Ghosted at the restaurant? Forever alone, table for one?"
Ryan applauded his own fruitful imagination and brayed loudly with an echoing laugh. Iris thought that if "nails-on-a-chalkboard" had a laugh track equivalent, this grating chortle would be on it for certain. He continued to laugh as the conference room door creaked open.
She tensed at his voice, his stupidly handsome freckled face, his smug smile. Iris didn't truly hate anyone in her whole life, but Ryan was begging for such attention. She strained not to strangle him with her faux leather bag strap.
"Poor Ingrid, stood up on her date night." he prattled. "Boo-hoo. Who would want someone like you?"
That was it. She had tried to put up with it and be the better person. She remembered the lessons of kindness and forgiveness from younger days. But still, he would not leave her alone. Iris called upon the last shreds of her waning mental energy and shouted back at him for all the world to hear.
"ENOUGH!" Iris boomed.
She snapped at Ryan with a sharpness she hadn’t felt before. Never in a hundred years would he have guessed that such a sound could come from such a tiny woman. It was so heated, heartfelt and venomous. The office stood silent for a heartbeat and a half before the usual noises picked up again. Iris could feel the magnetic pull of her coworkers' surprised stares.
At least it shut him up. Ryan's befuddled expression finally matched his personality, and he was the portrait of a pathetic clown. Her eyes bore into his with enough concentrated heat to smite him where he stood. Sensing he'd gone too far, Ryan chuckled lightly and practically fell over as he backed off. His smirk was broad, but his eyes filled with fear.
She wasn’t backing down, not this time. He begged for this, and now he was going to get it. Ryan Dämmerung was about to become the first man in the office to endure a lashing from this avenging fury.
“Why can’t you just leave me alone?” Iris snarled. “I have never done anything to you. Nothing at all. Why do you delight in tormenting me so much?”
She closed the meager distance between herself and Ryan. He backed into a cubicle wall to avoid her and knocked over a few upright books that were leaning against it. Iris dashed beside Ryan and grabbed one of the books as it tumbled off the desk. She clasped it with a white knuckled grip and shoved the small spiral-bound book at arm’s length.
“Do you see this?” She asked. “Do you know what this is?”
Ryan nodded silently and tried not to provoke her further.
“Employee handbook. Article Seven. Section B.” Iris continued. “Anti-Harassment Policy.”
The Order Fulfillment and Purchasing department staff peeked over their cubicle walls like meerkats, watching for danger. Iris stared intensely at Ryan and handed the book to him gently. He searched her face for clarification, and Iris was all too happy to oblige.
“Gabriel, Cavendish & Sparks Incorporated expressly prohibits any form of employee harassment…” she quoted. “…including, without limitation, verbal, nonverbal, implied, physical or visual…”
Iris recited the entire section, word for word. Ryan fumbled with the book to find the relevant passage and traced the words with horror as she spoke them aloud. He couldn’t find a single mistake. When she had finished, Iris held out her hand for Ryan to return the book to her. She placed it neatly against the cubicle wall, lining it up with the other books.
“Look, I’m not asking for us to be friends. I don’t even think that’s possible.” Iris offered. “I just want you to stop picking on me and the other girls. They don’t deserve it. None of us do.”
A tall figure approached unnoticed from beside them. They lingered by the water cooler adjacent to the Purchasing department cubicles and watched as Iris lectured Ryan.
“This may be just a laugh for you, but the rest of us are all here to work.” Iris concluded.
“Well said.” Mr. Cavendish praised.
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