3 - ARACHNE
That butch and her horrid fucking mullet!
The entire holo-call was mind-boggling. And rude. How dare she?!
A soft knock at my office door distracted from my rage-filled disbelief. “Were you disconnected?” Jessica asked with a frown, peering her head through the crack.
Rolling my eyes, I guessed, “She called back?”
“Would you like to be reconnected?”
“It wasn’t about working together, she asked me to be her date,” I gritted out. Unsure of how to swallow this development, I figured it couldn’t hurt to share it with the one being I relied on besides my best friend.
Jessica’s rosy eyes fell out of her head as she stumbled toward my desk. “What?” she shrieked, slamming her clammy palms onto the glass surface. “She’s so hot! Did you say yes? Tell me you did! Tell me she’s calling to ask where to pick you up!”
“Since when do you swing the other way?” I asked, shooing her clammy paws to wipe the greasy handprints.
Yanking her hands back, Jessica’s eyes saucered further. “What? You don’t? You should! Your designs scream queer, are you saying you’re not gay? I assumed you were.”
I shook my head because my attraction wasn’t attached to gender.
However, there were only four instances in my eternal life I’d entertained femmes.
To broadly generalize, they came on too strong post-hook up, and I caught an ick.
It had nothing to do with the sexual acts themselves; no, those were hot.
But males and theys were simpler in my personal experience; you stroked their egos, spread your legs, and most didn’t care if they heard from you ever again. I gave up on deep relationships over a millennia ago. Uncovering my amoroso, or fated bond, was also more improbable than not.
So, I kept to what was easiest: quick fucks to scratch an itch.
I wasn’t lonely; my best friend, Blossom lived with me. We even had a black cat named Sushi. I was fulfilled with my current life. It was leagues better than centuries past, there was no cause for alterations.
When I didn’t respond, Jessica held up her phone to show Athena had yet to give up. I didn’t know how to feel about it. “I say you try! Why not? How could you not find her dreamy? Seriously?!”
Is she blind? “Her clothes, Jessica! The seams rarely align!”
“You would change that, though! Think of how much hotter she could be,” my assistant shrilled.
I paused.
Not because I wished to makeover the Council’s general— no, that suggestion’s horrid —but because the theoretical picture was enticing. Mostly because it was private. Pure fantasy and confined to my skull.
Athena was naturally attractive. Also in great shape… Taller than most with those spectacular brindle-feathered wings. Muscular arms with well-coordinated tattoos. The scar across her nose was also enticing in a sort-of rugged way.
Her eyes were, too; a shimmery gold that matched her… mullet. Yeah, that would be the first to go. It’s worse than the frocks she sometimes wears.
Shaking my head, I instructed, “Keep screening her calls. I’m not interested.”