Novel Full Chapter 39: [2.12] - Assistant-kun, Are You Alive?
Chapter 39: [2.12] – Assistant-kun, Are You Alive?
Day One of the Valentine employment experience.
Current status: Somehow still alive.
The exit for Kensington appeared on my right. I took it automatically, muscle memory kicking in despite the unfamiliar vehicle. The neighborhood looked different from inside a Lexus. The bodegas and corner stores and chain-link fences seemed further away somehow. Like I was watching them through a screen instead of passing through them.
I pulled into the apartment complex parking lot.
Mrs. Delgado sat on her balcony on the third floor, cigarette glowing orange in the darkness. She always sat there at night, watching the lot like a guardian angel with a nicotine addiction.
I parked the Lexus. Cut the engine. Stepped out.
Mrs. Delgado’s cigarette fell out of her mouth.
It tumbled three stories and landed on the concrete with a small shower of sparks. I watched it happen in real time. Her jaw hung open. Her eyes fixed on the car.
“Evening, Mrs. Delgado.”
“Mijo…” Her voice came out strangled. “Did you rob a bank?”
“Worse.” I grabbed my bag from the passenger seat. “I got a job.”
She made the sign of the cross.
I took the stairs two at a time.
The apartment door was unlocked. A bad habit I needed to break Iris of. Anyone could walk in. Anyone could…
Iris sat on the couch. Sketchbook open on her lap. Pencil frozen mid-stroke.
She was trying very hard to look casual. Like she hadn’t been watching the door for the past hour. Like she hadn’t jumped approximately three feet when I walked in.
She failed completely.
“You’re HOME?”
“I’m home.”
“Before TEN?”
“It’s 9:47.”
“On a MONDAY?”
“Still Monday, yeah.”
She threw her sketchbook aside. Launched herself off the couch. Crossed the room in approximately two seconds and grabbed both my arms like she was checking to make sure I was real.
“I told you the schedule would be different.”
“I didn’t believe you!” Her eyes were wide. Almost wild. “I thought you were lying! To make me feel better! Because that’s what you do! You say things are fine when they’re not fine and then you work yourself to death and I have to pretend I don’t notice!”
Damn, kid. Just call me out like that.
“I wasn’t lying.”
“You’re a chronic liar about your own wellbeing, Zay. It’s your worst quality.”
“I thought my worst quality was leaving the toilet seat up.”
“That’s your second worst quality. The lying comes first.”
She dragged me to the couch. I let her pull me down onto the worn cushions. She sat cross-legged facing me, eyes bright with an intensity that bordered on interrogation.
“Full report. Now.”
“There’s nothing to report.”
“Lies. Already lying. What did I just say about lying?”
I sighed. Leaned back against the couch. Closed my eyes.
“Big house. Like, really big. Obscenely big. They have a room just for fish.”
“A room for fish?”
“Floor to ceiling aquarium. Tropical fish. A manta ray.”
“Holy crap.”
Iris narrowed her eyes. Her interrogation face intensified. “The Valentine sisters…. what are they like? Are they nice? Are they mean?” A pause. “Are they hot?”
“All of the above.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Neither do they.”
She processed this for a moment. Her pencil had found its way back into her hand at some point, tapping against her knee in an irregular rhythm.
“You look different.”
“I’m wearing gym clothes because a girl turned on a shower while I was standing in it. Fully clothed.”
“…What?”
“Long story.”
“That’s not a long story, that’s a weird story! Why were you in a shower with a girl?”
“I wasn’t in the shower with her. I was hiding from the cheer team because she shoved me into the stall so they wouldn’t find us in the locker room together.”
Iris stared at me.
I stared back.
“Your job is insane.”
“Yeah.”
“Like, certifiably insane.”
“Yeah.”
She stood up. Walked to the kitchen. Started making instant ramen without asking if I wanted any. Because she knew I wanted some. Because she always knew.
“You look tired but different.”
“Different how?”
“Less…” She waved her hand vaguely. “Hollow.”
Hollow.
Yeah. That tracks.
The kettle boiled. She poured water into two styrofoam cups. Peeled back the lids. Set the timer on her phone.
“You’re home before ten on a Monday.”
“You mentioned that.”
“I’m going to keep mentioning it.” She sat back down on the couch, tucking her feet under her. “Because I’ve been eating dinner alone for basically my entire teenage life and now you’re here and it’s weird and I don’t know what to do with my face.”
Damn, kid. Just rip my heart out like that.
“We can eat dinner together.”
“We’re eating dinner together right now.”
“I noticed.”
“This is nice.”
“It is.”
Her phone buzzed. The timer. She retrieved the ramen cups and handed me one along with a pair of chopsticks. We ate in silence for a while. The sodium hit my bloodstream like a drug. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.
My phone buzzed.
Then again.
Then three more times in rapid succession.
Iris’s eyes locked onto my pocket like a heat-seeking missile.
“Who’s texting you at ten PM?”
“Work.”
I pulled out my phone. Checked the group chat.
Harlow:Assistant-kun!! Did you get home safe?? Text me when you’re home!! (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡
Harlow:Wait you’re probably driving! Don’t text and drive!! Safety first!!
Harlow:But also text me when you’re home!!
Harlow:Actually just like your messages so I know you’re alive and not dead in a ditch somewhere!! I would be SO SAD if you died in a ditch!! The worst!!
Sabrina:Don’t forget my ramen tomorrow.
Cassidy:[Read 9:52 PM]
An email notification popped up. Vivienne. Tomorrow’s schedule. I opened it out of morbid curiosity.
Color-coded. Time-blocked. Annotated with expected behaviors and dress code requirements.
The schedule continued for another two pages.
Two pages. For one day. This woman is a menace.
I typed a quick response to the group chat.
Isaiah:Home safe. Goodnight.
Three seconds later.
Harlow:YAY!!! \(＾▽＾)/ Sweet dreams assistant-kun!! Tomorrow is going to be SO FUN!! I have SO MANY THINGS planned!!
Sabrina:Extra pearls.
Cassidy:[Read 10:03 PM]
Iris leaned over my shoulder. Read the messages. Her eyebrows climbed toward her hairline.
“Work doesn’t use that many emojis.”
“This work does.”
“Who types like that? That’s insane. That’s at least thirty keystrokes just for the face things.”
“Her name is Harlow. She’s… enthusiastic.”
“Is she the hot one?”
“They’re all…” I stopped. Reconsidered. “I’m not having this conversation with my fourteen-year-old sister.”
“I’m not fourteen for much longer.”
“You’re fourteen for another five months.”
“That’s basically fifteen.”
“That’s literally fourteen.”
She grinned. Stole a noodle from my cup. I let her because I was too tired to fight and because she’d made the ramen in the first place.
We finished eating. I washed the cups and chopsticks because Iris had cooked, which meant I cleaned. Those were the rules. Had been the rules since I was twelve and she was four and I needed some kind of structure to make sense of the chaos.
I showered. Changed into a clean t-shirt and sweatpants. Lay down on the couch.
The cushions felt different tonight. Softer somehow. Or maybe I was just so exhausted that anything horizontal would feel like paradise.
11:23 PM.
I was going to sleep before midnight.
When was the last time that happened during a work night? Last year? The year before? Has it ever happened?
I couldn’t remember.
Iris’s door creaked open. A sliver of light spilled into the living room. Her silhouette appeared in the doorway, small and hesitant.
“Zay?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad you’re home.”
My chest did something complicated. Something that hurt in a good way.
“Me too, kid.”