The Heart System

Chapter 670: Chapter 670

It really had been a busy day.

I was waiting for Ivy in the coffee shop across from her apartment, half-awake and running on whatever was left in my system after bouncing around the city all day. I had ordered a black coffee to wake myself up, but it was doing a terrible job. I was still exhausted.

Nala had looked genuinely stressed before I left, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. Anotta was exactly the kind of person who could not sit back and let someone else do the work. She was smart, controlling, and always wanted her fingers in everything. A woman like that was never going to stay quiet while other people handled a project she had money in.

"There you are."

I looked up and saw Ivy standing beside my table.

Damn. I hadn’t even noticed her approach.

"Oh, hey."

"Oh, hey, yeah," she replied, exhaling through her nose. "I’m pretty sure you still owe me a shopping trip, Mr. Marlowe."

"Ooh," I muttered, grimacing a little. "Yikes."

"And," she said, still standing there instead of sitting down, "you can pay your debt now. Come on. Get up."

"At least let me finish my—"

She grabbed my coffee cup and drank it in one go before I could finish the sentence.

The second she swallowed, her face twisted in disgust. The bitterness hit her hard, and she immediately made a face, then wiped her lips with the back of her hand while shaking her head.

"My... fucking... God..." she groaned. "Ugh. Come on. Let’s go."

"Sheesh," I said with a small smile, getting up. "Calm down. Let’s move."

We walked outside together, and the slight rain greeted us immediately. It was not heavy enough to be annoying, but it was enough to leave everything damp and gray. The streets looked washed out, the sidewalks slick with water, and the clouds overhead still hung low like they were not done making everybody miserable.

We headed for my car and got in. Ivy put her seatbelt on first, then I did the same before starting the engine.

"To the mall?" I asked as I flicked my signal to the left.

"Yep. To the mall," she replied. "There are some clothes I want to try. This one influencer made an ad for a pair of pants, and they look awesome."

"You are getting excited over a pair of pants?" I said, easing the car out of the parking spot. "Wow."

"Says you." She smirked. "You are wearing a suit. Where do you even come from, anyway?"

I slowed at a red light and glanced at her before looking back at the road. "I visited my old workplace."

"TechForge, right?"

"Yeah."

"Have you heard about the project thing they are doing?"

"The one Anotta exposed?" I asked.

"Exposed?"

"Yeah. It was not supposed to go public yet, but she couldn’t sit on her ass and wait."

Ivy blinked. "Oh. Why?"

"Mrs. Boss explained it to me earlier, but honestly, I can barely remember half of it now."

"Technical talk?"

"Exactly." I pulled the wheel slightly as the light changed. "The kind of boardroom speech that sounds important while also making regular people want to nod and pretend they understand."

Ivy laughed softly. "For sure. I bet you are missing your old gas station job."

I made a face. "Meh. Sometimes I do. But not right now."

"Why not?"

I turned left and slowed near a pedestrian crossing. "Because, honestly, working as a gas station clerk sucks."

Ivy tilted her head and gave me a grin. "Wow. Look at you. Moving up in the world."

"Yes, ma’am," I said with a smile before rolling forward again.

She laughed under her breath and leaned back in her seat while the car moved through the damp street. The rain tapped lightly against the windshield, and the city ahead looked quiet in that lazy, overcast way it always did when the weather could not make up its mind.

"How’s your mother, by the way? You two on better terms now?"

"Eh... yeah, I’d say so." Ivy nodded, though she still sounded a little unsure. "She understands me. And I understand her."

"That’s good."

"Yeah."

I turned right and kept driving at a steady pace. Ivy started looking through her phone, while I rested my elbow against the car door and my index finger against my forehead, trying to stay awake through the boring stretch of road ahead. To kill the silence, I switched on the radio.

"...another scheme, if you ask me," the man on the radio was saying. "An AI assistant for home security? No thank you. I don’t want my data getting stolen."

"For real," the host replied. "People act like they need some futuristic nonsense when they could just lock the door and not be stupid."

A familiar laugh track followed, the kind of cheesy radio noise that made the whole thing sound even more ridiculous. Damn. Nala really had every reason to be nervous about Project Phoenix going fully public like this. People would want proof before they trusted something like that, and Anotta had basically shoved the whole thing out into the open before it was ready. This had been Nala’s project, her dream, and now somebody else was dragging it around by the collar.

"Have you worked on this Phoenix thing?" Ivy asked, slipping her phone back into her pocket.

I shook my head. "Nah. I honestly still do not fully know what it is, to be fair."

"Jeez. You must love your work."

"Loved," I corrected her with a smile. "Not working anymore, remember?"

I kept going straight until the second street, then turned left. Ivy perked up and looked out the window, pointing ahead as if she had just spotted treasure.

"Hey, hey," she said. "I didn’t have breakfast today. Let’s get noodles. I heard this place is good."

"Noodles for breakfast?"

"You are so judgmental today, Mr. Marlowe."

"I am just saying."

"Come on. Stop the car and let’s eat."

"Fine, fine," I sighed. "I am not paying, though."

"I did not bring my wallet," she said casually as I slowed down.

"What? I thought you were going shopping."

She gave me a smug little smile. "I am. And you are paying."

I slumped my shoulders and let out another sigh. "Yay."

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