Chapter Sixteen
Candy
Candy stayed at the office for entirely too long once they finally got back to work; they had a lot of catching up to do after the distraction that was their lunch date and the multiple orgasms each of them had afterwards.
The gravity of the looming launch party had finally settled in on them, and they managed to crank out a few hours’ worth of work before Candy’s eyes stung so badly, she could hardly keep them open anymore.
But she wanted to stay at the office until Votra left, and she was going to do it. Even if she felt like her eyeballs were going to fall out of her skull.
“You doing okay over there?” she asked, silently hoping Votra would say no.
She didn’t know why she expected that. “Yes. Are you?”
“How are your eyes even open right now? I feel like this screen is burning through my retinas.” She squeezed her eyes shut and immediately, it was like someone was driving thousands of tiny needles into them.
“You do not have to stay,” Votra said, not unkindly. “My eyes are more suited for this than yours. You should take a break. Go home and get some rest.”
Candy really wanted to argue, but she couldn’t bring herself to. She hadn’t realized that it was nearly midnight until she looked down at her comm.
She pushed herself back from her chair and stood, hovering for a second. Even after letting Votra fuck her senseless eight hours ago, they’d fallen back into their quiet rhythm, and everything still felt weirdly normal.
Maybe she was wrong to expect something to change between them.
Not everyone was like Candy, after all. She’d tried the whole casual thing a few times before, and it had only ever landed her in relationships.
That was how she’d ended up with Ross. She couldn’t sleep with someone without getting too attached. And God, was she attached to Votra.
Now she understood why Votra didn’t want them doing this. The lines of professionalism were well and truly blurred by this point. Was Votra telling her to go home as her boss, or as someone who cared about her?
“Okay,” she said, hands on the back of her chair. “Are you gonna head out soon?”
“Probably. I am quite tired.” Votra pushed away from her desk, turning in her chair to look at Candy. “Let me know when you get home.”
That was new. Bosses didn’t say that to their employees. “You too.” She slipped her jacket from the back of her chair. Would it be weird to give Votra a goodnight kiss?
Votra turned back towards her computer, and Candy took that as her sign to go. A goodnight kiss would definitely be weird.
It was well after midnight when Candy got home, and unsurprisingly, Xyxy was still awake. She was draped across Yule’s lap, a rerun of Dr. Love’s Biology playing on the television. They looked cozy, both of them in their pajamas. “Damn, girl, is Votra paying you for all that overtime?” Xyxy asked.
Candy immediately felt her cheeks flush. “Shut up.” Xyxy’s eyebrows shot up, but luckily, she didn’t really question it. “We went out for lunch and got a little… distracted, so I stayed late.”
“Votra got distracted in the middle of her workday?” It was Yule’s turn to be surprised. “That’s the least Votra thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Yeah, well, I can be pretty distracting.” She couldn’t help the salacious grin that spread across her cheeks, and she plopped onto the sofa next to Yule with a hiss.
The throbbing in her thighs had dulled a lot since lunch, but the pressure of her tight shorts against the still sensitive skin didn’t feel great.
“Oh my gods. Did you two fuck?” Xyxy shot straight up in her seat.
Well, they did. But that wasn’t why Candy was sore. She pursed her lips. “Maaaaybe.”
Xyxy let out an ear-splitting squeal. “I knew it! I literally told Yule I would have put money on you two fucking again.”
Yule rolled all three of her eyes before they settled on Candy’s legs. “That doesn’t look like a sex injury, though. What happened to you?”
Candy grimaced. “We went out for lunch and the waiter spilled my food on me. It’s not as bad as it looks.”
“Gods, are you okay?” Yule said immediately, all but shoving Xyxy off her. “I’ve got some stuff to fix you up with. You can take your shorts off if you want. I promise I won’t be weird about it.”
She didn’t have to tell Candy twice. She peeled her shorts from her legs carefully and tossed them to the floor.
Yule scurried into her bedroom, leaving Xyxy to immediately wrap her arms around Candy from the side. “Y’know, I’ve been rooting for you and Votra ever since you met at my party. You’re welcome for that, by the way.”
The party simultaneously felt like ages ago and just yesterday.
In the grand scheme of things, she still hadn’t known Votra for all that long.
But she also kind of felt like she’d known Votra her entire life.
And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, it was all thanks to Xyxy.
“I would’ve met Votra through work anyway, y’know. ”
Candy’s dad had always been a believer in fate–his go to saying was ‘What is meant to be, will be,’ and Candy had always lived by it.
Sometimes, she didn’t entirely understand it.
There was no way that being with Ross for five years was meant to happen, but at the same time, the breakup was what brought her to the Kratos galaxy in the first place.
The breakup was what led her to Votra, and she couldn’t help but hope that their meeting was fate, too.
“Move,” Yule said as she returned to the living room, shooing Xyxy away as she knelt on the floor between Candy’s legs. “I still can’t believe you and Votra slept together.”
Admitting it to Yule made her a lot more bashful than admitting it to Xyxy. “Yeah, we did. We have, uh….” What did they have? Did they have a friends with benefits agreement? After all, Votra had called it quits on their contract. Their relationship was fully up for negotiation.
Yule rifled through the metal box sitting in her lap. “I’m just kind of surprised to hear that about Votra. She’s always been a bit of a lover girl.”
Votra? Her Votra? No–not her Votra. “Really?”
“Yeah. But I think her breakup with Zeele changed things a lot.” Yule ripped open a sachet of some sort of gel and squeezed it onto one of Candy’s legs. She hissed against the cold, but it felt incredible on her inflamed skin.
Zeele. Votra had never mentioned her name, and Candy hated that it was pretty. Something settled in the pit of her stomach that she didn’t like.
Jealousy? Candy wasn’t a jealous person, and she especially didn’t like holding herself up against other women.
“What happened between Votra and Zeele anyway?” Candy asked. She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know, but she couldn’t ignore the curiosity nagging at her.
Yule’s hands were cool on Candy’s thighs; the ointment didn’t soak into her slippery skin, letting it sit like a cold blanket atop Candy’s irritated legs.
“Votra never really talked about the specifics. But I do know that she stole a lot of Votra’s work when they broke up and made another dating app. ”
“Yeah, a shittier one. You can’t type more than three hundred characters in a message without paying ten credits a month,” Xyxy frowned. “LoveNet is ass and everyone knows it.”
Irritation simmered in the pit of Candy’s stomach. “Wait, she stole Votra’s work?”
“Pretty sure. LoveNet literally came out a week after they broke up. There’s no way she didn’t steal it,” Yule said, rising from her spot on the floor. She passed Candy a few packets of the ointment she’d put on her. “Put a thick layer of this on every day until it heals up.”
“Thanks,” Candy said numbly. She could feel her friends’ eyes boring into her, and she sighed, leaning her head back into the couch cushions.
Xyxy rested her head against Candy’s shoulder. “You should tell her how you feel, you know.”
“Yeah. Votra is really bad at picking up hints. Like, laughably so,” Yule piped in. “You’re going to have to spell it out word for word for her.”
The thought of that was terrifying. Emotional vulnerability hadn’t exactly served her well in relationships before. Votra may have said that she liked how genuine Candy was, but she wasn’t sure she’d appreciate that genuineness when it came in the form of a confession of love.
Love? Did she… love Votra?
“Yeah, and lose my job?” Candy snorted.
“She’s not gonna fire you. She needs you,” Xyxy pointed out. “I mean, the launch event is literally in two weeks. She’d be totally fucked without you.”
She knew Xyxy was just trying to make her feel better, but the inkling that Votra was only keeping her around for that reason wedged somewhere in the center of her chest and made it hard to breathe.
“I’m gonna go to bed and probably spiral about this until I fall asleep,” she said, standing and giving Yule a hug.
“Thanks for fixing up my legs. They feel a lot better already.”
She retreated to her room before either of her roommates could press her more about Votra. Because honestly, she didn’t even know what she would say.
She wanted to tell Votra how she felt. God, did she wanna just get it off her chest. But the thought of what could come afterwards terrified her.
Maybe this was something better kept to herself. What Votra didn’t know couldn’t hurt her.
A message from Votra buzzed from her comm.
Are you home?
yea!! sorry, im so sleepy i totally forgot to message you
are you home too?
Yes, just arrived.
There was a beat of silence before her next message.
Goodnight, Candy. I am sorry today was not an easy day for you.
Oh, today had been far from difficult. Whatever magical healing ointment Yule had put on her was working wonders—the throbbing in her thighs had dulled to an annoying ache.
If anything, Votra was the cause of the more prominent pain, throbbing between her legs.
But it was a pain she could easily get used to.
you made it a lot better. thank you again seriously. i dont know what i wouldve done without you
goodnight votra <3