บท 14: Snow White or Sleeping Beauty Doll

Eternity looked down at the bed's white sheets, her hands tightly gripping the cotton fabric. I'll just shut down all day to conserve my energy.

"'Shut down'?" Evan repeated her odd choice of wording, pausing for a second from taking out his briefs, undershirt, and socks from the underwear cabinet.

"Yes." She nodded. "Just like what I did last night. I was only reactivated when you kissed me a few minutes ago."

Evan tried to keep up his stoic facade, but he ultimately failed.

He thought Eternity hadn't noticed his small peck, but that would be asking too much (he realized belatedly) since kissing was also how she started to turn the cog in her machine if that's how she worked anyway.

"So whenever you 'shut down,'" he drawled as he made the 'quote-unquote' sign with his fingers. "You needed to be kissed to be reactive? Every single time?"

"Not necessarily." She shrugged her dainty shoulders. "Any physical stimuli can wake me up."

"Oh, that's great." Evan sighed in relief. "Or else you'd be an extremely demanding Sleeping Beauty."

"Or Snow White," she added.

"Or Snow White." He agreed before proceeding with a pregnant pause. "Wait a minute, how do you even know who Sleeping Beauty or Snow White are?"

"Would you prefer that I didn't?" She asked.

He was silent as he gave her a stern look, contemplating her words.

"Yeah, you're right. It's troublesome to keep explaining every little thing to you."

"I'm sorry." Eternity lowered her head in shame, feeling like she was burdened on Evan's shoulders.

He was feeling a sense of déjà vu.

"Don't apologize." He motioned in dismissal. To cheer you up, I'll cook breakfast for us."

Eternity's enchanting green eyes widened in delight, clasping her hands together. Only for the cheerful glint in her eyes to disappear as soon as it showed up

"That would be lovely," she said with a smile, but her smile didn't reach her voice. "Though I won't be able to eat what you cooked…"

"Why not?" Evan cocked his head to one side.

"Eternity women do not need food," Eternity explained. "Our source of energy is sexual activity and well…"

"Well?"

She hesitated.

"Semen," she said at last.

Evan choked at nothing in particular.

"I actually gain more energy when ingesting semen compared to sexual interaction," Eternity expounded further.

"Just like how humans need food," Evan said, making a face of disgust as soon as the sentence left his mouth. "Comparing food to semen is rather unappetizing early in the morning."

"Sorry about that." Eternity lowered her head again.

Evan shrugged, not wanting to do this again for the third time in a span of two days.

***

After paying his fare (and adding tips, of course), Evan fixed his gray business suit as he got out of the taxi.

Today, he was forced to take a cab instead of walking to his workplace like usual because he was running quite late. Eternity was pestering Evan to take her to his office until the last minute, and he wasted an hour's worth of walking time just to repeatedly tell her 'No.'

'How annoying,' he thought as he entered the building's premises. 'I broke my years-long streak of arriving 30 minutes earlier than our time-in just because of Eternity.'

The receptionist and other employees at Royal Blue greeted Evan, who simply nodded in acknowledgment.

He headed towards the elevator and went in. There was no one there except the elevator operator.

"Good morning, Mister Holz," the operator greeted. "To your floor?"

"Yes." He nodded.

The liftman (if he was not mistaken, his name was Esteban) smiled and pressed the floor where Evan's office was.

Usually, as they wait for their arrival at Evan's floor, Esteban would initiate small talk. But this time, he was unusually silent.

Evan just shrugged it off and assumed that Esteban probably had a lot of small talk with previous passengers and was too tired to do so now.

The elevator made a 'ding' sound, signaling that they had already reached Evan's floor. Just as he was about to leave the elevator, Esteban spoke.

"Were you at Andromeda's yesterday, Mister Holz?"

The "Andromeda's" that Esteban referred to as the Andromeda's Mall, which he and Eternity visited yesterday.

Evan got out of the elevator and nodded.

"So it really was you," Esteban muttered, looking down.

Before Evan could ask what the elevator operator meant by that, the elevator's doors were already closed.

He blinked, wondering what the fuck was going on so early in the morning. He shook his head, thinking it was probably nothing, and started walking down the hallway to his office.

He reached his office's doorstep and was about to open the door when he noticed it was a bit noisier than usual. The noise was seeping through the wooden door.

Evan was about to ignore this when he realized they were repeatedly mumbling his name. They must've been gossiping about him again, like usual. But he had a weird feeling in his chest right now.

It felt like something was amiss.

Evan leaned closer to the door, eavesdropping on his workers' conversations.

"Is it really Mister Holz?"

"It's rather hard to make sure with this angle…"

"Wow…"

"It would be so weird if it really was Mister Holz!"

What in the name of…?

When Evan pushed open the door, his coworkers were standing in a circle holding their phones. Upon seeing him, they immediately pocketed their phones and forced a tensed smile.

"Oh, good morning, sir!" If a choir sang in unison, this was the opposite of it.

'How odd…' Evan thought as he walked towards his office, but he needed to pass through his worker's office.

Their demeanor was completely stiff as if they felt more awkward than Evan's.

No, it seemed like they were ashamed for him.