Chapter 396 Trouble in Paradise
The night in New York was more interesting than the day, the sidewalks were filled with all kinds of people. Street musicians, artists, people walking hand in hand and another outright fighting. Dave had seen the city and enjoyed the atmosphere. He knew that if he kept his head low, and moved with purpose, no one would pay attention to him. Especially with the hot dog, he was stuffing in his mouth right now.
The people were all moving about minding their own business, and they left Dave alone. He was thankful for all the weirdness New York presented, it had muffled his presence well and no one came rushing toward him yelling, "Skelly, let's take a selfie!"
Not that Dave would berate or stop anyone, he just wasn't a people's person. He had spent most of his life alone, or in solitude, he enjoyed his privacy. And would find it difficult to change old habits.
Dave walked back to his apartment for the night. He debated against calling Lone to stay the night with him. The idea had crossed his mind more times than he would care to admit. She was a wonderful girl, and he was lucky to have trusted her the moment he saw her. But being all friendly all the time wouldn't yield him any progress in his relationship with Zoe. He knew that he had to take things to the next level, the only problem was, How?
Most of Dave's relationships were flimsy one-night stands, besides his hateful Ex, Dave hadn't stayed in a serious relationship ever. He knew he had something precious, and he didn't want to ruin it by doing something too hasty, however, he knew that doing nothing at all was the same.
Dave took the elevator back to his apartment and found someone waiting at the door. It was a womanly figure, she was peering through the peephole in Dave's door, hoping to see something on the other side.
The idea that the woman might be Zoe spiked his heart rates, however, noticing her dark hair color rebuked the thought.
"Ophidia, what are you doing?" Dave said as he got closer to the door.
Ophidia, the current head of R&D in Sigma—Skelectronics was the name right now thanks to Dave's personal appointing—
"Ah, Mr. Ruster," Ophidia fumbled, fixing her hair and looking awkward as she was caught spying on Dave's door.
"Please don't fire me!" she said as she realized what she was doing was very wrong.
Dave laughed and shook his head, "I think there's something important going on, seeing you still in your working clothes."
"Um, yeah, kinda," she said. Her face turned red.
Dave had a bad feeling about where this was going and asked, "So?"
"Um… when you came to the company…I, I said something—"
Dave held his hand forward stopping Ophidia from further embarrassing herself, he knew what she was about to say, "If it's about the blow job, don't worry about it," Dave laughed and added. "I'm not that kind of guy,"
Ophidia almost slumped to the ground, sighing in relief, and was there a look of mild disappointment on her face?
Dave didn't pry and said, "Is there anything else I need to know?" he asked.
"No, Uh, yes. I filed the project. Fenris had agreed to the budget and we should start producing prototypes by next week." Ophidia said.
Dave didn't want to sound ignorant and said, "That's good. I'll check out on the reports when I have time." He smiled and went to the door, pressing on the print scanner and walked in. He had left the door open.
"What? Not gonna come in?" Dave asked.
Ophidia fumbled a bit then nodded and walked after Dave. Her mind was racing, Dave could clearly see that. But he didn't say anything. He opened the fridge and took out a bottle of wine. He went to the round table in the living room and sat with the wine bottle and two glasses.
Ophidia was unsure of what was going on, so she kept calm and quiet like a docile lamb in a wolf's nest. Her mind was racing with all kinds of ideas. Some, however, didn't seem so bad at the moment.
Ophidia shook her head and asked, "What's the occasion?"
"Your promotion," Dave said in a wide grin. Ophidia laughed and took the glass from him as soon as he finished filling hers.
Dave took his own glass and the two began drinking and chatting. Ophidia talked about the work, the company and the new responsibilities of her new job. Dave listened, he didn't know most of what she was talking about, so he asked questions. Questions that anyone would never think the CEO of a company would ask.
And Ophidia provided. She answered some of his questions and explained more about stuff he didn't fully understand. The two continued talking and drinking until Ophidia looked at the time.
"It's getting late, I need to go," she said.
"Yeah, sure go ahead," Dave said.
"But…" Ophidia hesitated, her face turned a bit red. Dave thought it was the alcohol.
"Yeah?"
"I need to use the loo," she said in an awkward voice.
Dave laughed, did people still call toilets the loo?
"Yeah go it's upstairs," Dave said.
"Thank you," she said and walked toward the upper floor of the penthouse.
Dave noticed that it was really late, and he needs to sleep early. Tomorrow would be the third round of the Clash of Gods event. He needed to have enough sleep to stay ready and prepared for the upcoming fight.
Dave remembered that he had promised Desmond, AKA Swingem to visit his gym. Dave thought that he could use the exercise.
His phone rang stopping his line of thoughts.
It was Zoe, "Supp," Dave said as he answered.
"Hellooo," Zoe's cooing voice sounded from the other side of the phone. Dave smiled to himself like a schoolboy. It's been ages since he talked to a girl he liked this late.
"Hey, Z,"
"You're home?" Zoe asked
"Yeah,"
"I didn't wake you up, did I?" Zoe asked. Dave thought she was considerate. He had already mentioned that he needed to sleep for the event.
"No, I was still up," Dave replied.
"What are you doing right now?" she asked, her voice sounded a bit… woozy, was she drunk?
"I'm—" Dave's words were cut short when Ophidia's own voice sounded from upstairs, "Whoa, that's big!"
Dave's mind almost stopped, he forgot about Ophidian still being in his apartment.
"Big?! What big?! Is that a girl in your apartment?!" Zoe's drowsy voice turned sharper.
Dave's words were tangled in his mouth, it was probably the alcohol, but he was sure it wouldn't be just that. Dave was genuinely confused and didn't know what to say but "Um, yes."
After a moment of silence, "I'm coming over!" then she hung up.
Dave's mind finally snapped back to reality, "Ah shit!"
"What's wrong?" Ophidia asked as she came down. "By the way, your bathroom is huge. It's pretty much as big as my bedroom."
Dave facepalmed himself, "I think I'm in trouble." He said as he laughed, he didn't know how he was going to explain this.