“So, money troubles, hmm?” Warren took a long, bracing drag from his cigarette and chucked the cellophane wrapper from his freshly opened pack onto the ground. “Poor thing…”
The stairway door opened once more, only for the incessant flip-flopping from Claire Donovan's slip-on sandals to fill the entire stairwell. She squinted down at Warren, who was leaning against the cold wall in the recessed darkness, preening his gelled hair back with one hand like a self-obsessed vampire in a tailored business suit. He dropped the cigarette butt to the ground and smashed it flat under his newly shined shoe.
“What took you so long?” Warren accused. “Were you seen?”
“No.” Claire assured him. “Oh, wait. I ran into the Order Entry girl and told her to p*ss off. Why?”
“No special reason.” Warren stuffed the remaining cigarettes into his jacket pocket. “Just being extra careful. Now, what do you have for me this afternoon?” Warren smirked at Claire as she approached his open arms and dove into his tobacco-scented embrace.
Khazmine crawled along the carpeting from under the heap of bedding that had been so unceremoniously dumped on her mere minutes ago. She was presently attached to the wall socket, and several of her systems had improved, but she was at a temporary loss as to what had just happened. Still addled in her weakened state, she pieced together the afternoon’s events as Zayzann walked through the front door.
“Thanks a lot, Gerry. I mean it.” Zayzann called back to the unseen stranger. “Let me get this charged and I’ll add your number, okay? Thanks again!”
The throaty roar of the departing truck forced Khazmine’s sensitive ears to draw back, and she curled into an undignified ball between the coffee table and the storage ottoman. She begged the Great Makers for the loud noises around her to cease, lest her head explode from overstimulation. Not knowing of her struggles, Zayzann spotted and rushed over to the prone Augment with piercing volume, shifting effortlessly as he approached.
“Khazmine! Are you okay?” Zayzann dashed to scoop Khazmine up from the floor and into his feathery arms. He felt the electrical crackle from Khazmine’s exposed torso plates that threatened to discharge against his body. “What happened?”
Khazmine clutched both ears in agony and grated her teeth back and forth with a clenched jaw. Zayzann recognized the pained expression and set the Augment gently on the only righted cushion on the couch and crouched low to evaluate her health. The remainder of the living room was in hasty disarray, with cushions and bedding strewn about on the floor. Khazmine’s lips parted slightly to allow for her pained, forceful whispers.
“Please, little bird. I beg you… Shut up.” Khazmine forced her gloved hands from her ears and brushed the feathers on his confused face. Once he proved he was capable of silence, Khazmine continued. “Ah, thank you… Recalibrating…”
Zayzann leaned closer to Khazmine to get a better look at her with his sensitive eyes. He hadn’t noticed before, but her damaged plates had deep grooves and electrical burns scarred into some of their surfaces around her midsection. One such plate was removed entirely, forcing her to reconfigure her remaining plates to fill the gap. A low-pitched whirring sound drew his attention back to meet Khazmine’s gaze, and she broke the silence first.
“Haaaaaaaa.” Khazmine let out a long, relaxed sigh. “Much better, thank you. My auditory system must have reconfigured when Byxx dropped me earlier.”
“What? Why’d he drop you?” Zayzann’s eyes traced around the apartment. “Where is he, anyway?”
“Gone.” Khazmine admitted. “It’s not his fault, though, really. He had no choice but to go. He did it to protect me.”
“Huh? I don’t understand.”
“You didn’t get all the messages?” Khazmine asked the bewildered Paxoram, who only just realized he still had the emergency phone in the tattered messenger bag. “It was him.”
Zayzann dug through the miscellaneous articles until he recovered the cellphone and saw a ghastly nine missed calls and fourteen unopened text messages. Every one of them was from Curtis, warning of his imminent arrival to talk about their upcoming campaign and treat Byxx to a meal.
“He came just before you did.” Khazmine rubbed her neck and snapped a misaligned plate back in place with a shaky hand. “And Byxx had to scramble to hide me and his… attributes.”
She gave Zayzann a head-to-toe appraisal with a raised brow to silently indicate what she’d meant. In his haste to answer the door appropriately, Byxx had grabbed Zayzann’s only other black V-Neck and forced his titanic body through the openings. She relayed some back-and-forth banter from the pair that she could recall, then sighed again at Zayzann’s pursed lips that bit back from commenting.
“The human offered to order delivery food of some description and pleaded to be allowed entry, but Byxx counter-offered to go out instead.” Khazmine retracted her cable from the wall and watched the tendril slither back into its storage alcove in her forearm. “That’s really all I can remember. I’m sure Byxx dropped something on the table before he left, but I was under these blankets on the floor.”
Zayzann trotted over to the kitchen table to see if anything was there. A business card-sized sun-faded magnet for the Busy Bee Café was leaning against an empty glass on the laminate surface. He brought the magnet over to Khazmine and recoiled when it zipped from his open palm to stick to her face.
“Very funny, little bird.” Khazmine peeled the offending magnet off and read the text aloud. “Yes, I think that’s what the human said. Apparently, he works there, and gets a discount of some kind.”
“Wh-what should we do?”
“There’s nothing we can do, unfortunately.” Khazmine sighed. “We have the device, but no means of contacting Curtis without raising suspicions. If he were to receive a message from ‘Byxx’s’ phone after he said it was dead, then—”
“Call Iris.” Zayzann handed Khazmine the phone with trembling hands, practically forcing it into hers. “She’ll know what to do.”
“Indeed.” Khazmine dialed the number and set the call on the speakerphone before waiting for Iris to pick up. “Hello? Mistress? This is Cassie.”
“Is everything okay?” Iris whispered into the phone from what sounded like a boisterous, busy room. “I’m almost done for the day, if it can wait until—”
“It can’t wait!” Zayzann called from his perch on the side chair. He’d kneaded one of the throw pillows from the floor to battered lumps with his dexterous toes and his voice dripped with anxiety. “Byxx is gone.”
“What? Gone? Hold on a minute.” Iris stifled her end of the conversation and Khazmine could hear her excuse herself from the office and resume speaking from a more isolated, echoing location. “What do you mean, gone?”
“He’s with Curtis.” Khazmine pushed Zayzann back gently, as he’d become nervous and was unintentionally smothering Khazmine to get at the phone. “They are having a meal at the Busy Bee Café. There was a miscommunication… Please, mistress, intercept them before the human figures everything out.”
“Understood.” Iris’s eyes darted as she stared at the carpeted floor to collect her thoughts. “Stay right there. I’ll bring him home soon.”
Despite his distance from the phone, Iris could hear the distressed breathing from the nervous Paxoram. She glanced over to the office wall clock and ran a tingly hand through her dark purple hair before offering her parting wisdom.
“It’s going to be all right.” Iris comforted him over the phone. “I have a plan. Remain calm for me, okay?”
“Be careful.” Zayzann croaked before the call disconnected, leaving the roommates alone to wait for news.
Iris seized hold of her faux leather bag, retrieved her name badge from her desk, and made a dash for the time clock scanner at the office entrance. She nearly collided with Violet and Claire in her haste to escape for the elevator, but she didn’t have time to linger for their snide remarks as she passed them. Mr. Salvatore would likely be waiting in the parking garage by now to give her a ride and Iris hadn’t a moment to lose.
Vanilla, espresso, caramel, and fragrant syrups battered Byxx’s sensitive nose with their enticing aromas. He was unprepared to manage the mix of sweet and exotic scents that danced through the air of the Busy Bee Café. Some were easier to detect and identify, while others were entirely alien to him. Byxx gently closed his eyes to better appreciate each deep inhalation, while he experienced the chilling sensation of eyes drawn to him.
Curtis sat opposite Byxx in one of the vinyl booths at their dimly lit live-edge oak table, staring intently at Byxx soaking in the luscious smells of the café. His eyes traced over Byxx’s outline, and his imagination generated details he couldn’t readily see from where he sat. His enthralled trance left no room for Curtis to realize that their order pager was buzzing insistently in his hands.
“Are you going to get that?” Byxx grinned and opened a single eyelid to see Curtis’s reaction. “Or shall I fetch our order?”
“N-no, that’s all right, I got it.” Curtis fumbled with the pager and slid out of the booth to amble to the pick-up counter. “I’ll be right with you.”
Byxx watched Curtis trail away and suppressed a smile at his expense. He couldn’t help but think that the awkward, excitable human was fun to watch, like a timid, pudgy forest creature that was both curious and wary. It was so painfully obvious to Byxx that Curtis was intensely interested in spending more time with him, regardless of the setting, and that both of them could benefit from each other’s company.
“Are you sure you don’t want something on ice?” Curtis asked as he returned with a tray full of drinks and appetizers. He handed Byxx a piping-hot cappuccino in a cream-colored mug before he sat down to fetch his sweet tea. “Aren’t you roasting?”
“Not at all.” Byxx licked a dribble of frothy milk foam that escaped from his mug with a long, languid tongue. “This is perfect, thank you.”
Curtis had no way of knowing that Byxx’s homeland was much hotter than Earth, even on a summer day, and that this sweltering late-June heat was refreshingly comfortable for his companion. The pair nibbled at artichoke dip and fried pickles while their entrées were being prepared, and Curtis finally worked up the courage to ask Byxx more about himself.
“So, Iris tells me you were in the military.” Curtis took a sip from his sweet tea to cool off between statements and watched Byxx’s expressions as he asked. “Can you tell me about it?”
“It’s not all that fun to talk about, if I’m honest.” Byxx stared into the muddled mess of foam in his mug that was formerly a fanciful decorative heart design. “I saw a lot of combat. Lost a lot of friends. Kinda glad I left…”
“I’m sorry. If it’s painful to talk about… I didn’t mean to pry.” Curtis whirled the straw around in his drink to buy himself time to form a coherent thought. “Cassie didn’t say much about you, other than that you were big on role-playing. I… just wanted to get to know you better. I didn’t have any ill intentions or special reasons…”
Byxx met Curtis’s eyes with his honeyed stare. This human was so earnest and vulnerable with him that Byxx felt that he had little choice but to open up to him.
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