As the day passed, Susan spent most of her ti watching TV, and when she was bored, she dragged the armchair that Apex had created for her toward the window. Pushing the small table and chairs to the side, she sat at an angle from the window so that she had a view of both the concealed doorway and the view from her window.
“Is that a see-through mirror…” She spoke to herself while looking closely at the wall opposite the window. “Probably is. If this is a military facility, I doubt they would let stay here unsupervised. Then again…if his words are to be believed, there’s a big chance that I actually am in a room in a penthouse and the whole military facility thing is just a lie. I can only ask him when he cos for dinner. At least the view is good.”
She put her feet up on the chair and wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her chin on her knees.
“Superpowers, huh…” she mumbled before raising her hand. “Invisible!” Nothing happened with her words. Then, she tried to think about being invisible, but that still didn’t work. ”How did I do it before?” She frowned. “Maybe emotions are the trigger?” She thought of how she had been frustrated and desperate to escape when she had turned invisible the last ti. Trying to recall those feelings, she turned invisible again.
“To think this transformation releases enough gamma radiation to match the radioactive waste of a small nuclear reactor… Though that Cobalt-60 analogy was a bit weird.” As if thinking of sothing, she suddenly frowned and beca visible again. “I get the couch and stuff being unaffected by my radiation because he made them. The dical equipnt also looks like it has a sufficient level of protection against radiation…but what about the bed…” She stood up and pressed down on the mattress. “This feels like simple mory foam...did he create my bed like the other furniture? As harmless as he seems in front of . I’m pretty sure that he’s holding back quite a lot. I have to be on guard against him… It’s going to be terribly hard if I have to work with him every day, though.”
After so thought, she went back to her chair and wrapped her arms around her legs again.
“I have to ask him about Johnny. I’m sure he’s clamouring to et ,” she said. “With his trigger-happy nature, I doubt he’s going to wear a hazmat suit. And those flas…”
Hours passed as her thoughts continued jumping from one place to another. Before she realized it, the sun had set, and Apex ca into her room once again with a cart that presumably held their dinner.
“Is it too late for to ask for that baguette from France?”
“How have you survived in this world with that attitude?” Apex asked her with a sigh as he rolled the card over to the window and made the armchair disappear before pulling their small dining table and chairs back to their previous position.
“Oh, that’s easy. Beautiful people can get away with almost anything,” she said smugly.
“I have found that to be true,” he shot back.
“Right,” she rolled her eyes. “So what’s for dinner? I didn’t get to make any demands, so I can only hope that you got sothing good for us to eat.”
“Why are you still in bed?” He asked. “Co on,” he said, standing beside her bed and extending his arm toward her. “I’ll introduce the food as we start eating.”
“Fine,” she grabbed his arm and scooted to the edge of the bed before standing in front of him. “Let go wash up first.”
She ca back around thirty seconds later, after brushing her hair and washing her face. He stood behind her chair with an inviting gesture.
“Thank you,” she said and sat down as he pushed the chair slightly forward. “Is my bed also made of…you?”
He chuckled at her hesitation. “Yes, your bed is also made of . As are the protections for all of that dical equipnt and the TV. The radiation you emit wouldn’t let half the stuff in here survive beyond a few seconds.”
“Another thing… my nurse said that this was a military facility. Which ans one of the walls is see-through from one side. There’s no way a military facility would just give a room without any supervision.”
“The thing is, it’s easier to make civilians sign NDA’s and adhere to them when they believe that their work has sothing to do with the military,” he said. “For all intents and purposes, this room is designed with your privacy in mind. I am the highest authority here, and the only way for soone to monitor you is through those machines. And even that requires a physical interface because of all the radiation issues. There are no caras here either.”
“So I can try to use my powers to try and break free, and no one will co by?” She asked.
“Do you want to break free?” He asked. “Your re presence could give the people around you radiation poisoning. If you were to use your powers in their presence, they might even die instantly.”
“Consider it a hypothetical scenario.
“I will be notified and imdiately restrain you,” he said. “I have a responsibility to the planets that I have sovereignty over to maintain order and protect their citizens. I will do so by any ans necessary.”
“Restrain? Not kill?”
“Why are we talking about this? Why don’t we simply eat dinner, make small talk, and enjoy each other’s company? We will be together for a month at the very least. Can we make it a pleasant experience?”
“Fine… I’m sorry I’m being like this. It’s just I was alone all day with nothing to do and my mind kept coming up with all these theories and thoughts…”
“I understand. I’ll leave you with enough books to fill a small library. But after we’re done eating. I have noticed that ninety percent of human frustration cos from being hungry.”
“Yeah… What did you get us for dinner?”
“All that baguette talk gave an idea,” he said, pointing his finger at the table as a white tablecloth was created atop it with plates, cutlery, and two champagne glasses. “We shall start with the champagne—Dom Pérignon.” He pulled out the bottle from under the cart and popped it open.
“You are pulling all the stops…” she said. “Though I have to say. I used to date a billionaire. If you want to impress , don’t do it with money.”
“I am hurt that you would think that,” he said while pouring the champagne into her glass. “Just for that, you’re getting a chicken sandwich from McDonald's for breakfast.”
“Don’t forget the fries and a complintary hashbrown,” she said with a chortle.
“You’re lucky you’re cute,” he said as he put the bottle on the side
“It’s a blessing and a curse, really,” she said. “God, this is good.” After taking a sip, she downed the whole glass. “More, please.”
“Try not to get drunk before we reach the main course,” he said while refilling her glass. “Next, we have foie gras canapés.”
As he took off the lid and picked up the serving plate from the cart, Susan patiently waited for him to place two pieces on her plate and two on his plate before putting the serving plate back down.
“This is a surprise,” he said. “I thought you’d be wolfing it all down in no ti.”
“I like food, sure. But I’m not a glutton. Lunch was different. I was just starving after spending two months in a coma,” she said. “These are really good… the best I’ve ever had. Where are they from?”
“This entire al has been cooked under my supervision by the White House kitchen.”
Susan chuckled. “No, really. Where’s it from? I’d love to eat it again.”
“I’m serious. When I told you that I’m the highest authority on multiple planets, I ant every word.”
“You brought this here all the way from the White House?”
“Sothing like that,” he nodded with a smile.
“Crazy…” she said. “So, how does managing so many planets work for you? Must be pretty stressful.”
He chuckled. “The stress that I’m under, you cannot even imagine. Right at this mont, I am juggling work between almost a hundred different bodies on the forty different planets in this cluster. But you don’t want to listen to talk about boring bureaucratic stuff. You want to tell you why I sent your ex-boyfriend to another planet, don’t you?”
“Well…” Susan suddenly looked to the side awkwardly. “The thought may have crossed my mind.”
“Try not to maneuver around things that you want to ask . Just speak up and I’ll tell you. I understand that it’s hard for you to trust entirely, but I would appreciate it if you would give a chance. I really do want to make this work.”
“I got it,” she nodded. “And while I am curious why my brother hasn’t co to et yet, and why you sent Victor, Reed, and Ben to another planet, I would rather enjoy this dinner with you and then have this talk. This is truly amazing food, and I don’t want to ruin our experience of it by bringing up sensitive topics.”
“Hey, so you can be serious sotis,” he teased her.
“Don’t even start. What’s next? If it’s even a fraction of how good the foie gras was, then I will be fulfilled.”
“It’s going to get better with each step,” he said. “Now we have scallops in cream sauce. Or its actual na—Coquilles Saint-Jacques.”
“Hm?” She raised her brow as he took off the lids. “I’ve never eaten this before.”
“It’s going to be great,” he said.
“No more appetizers after this, I hope. I don’t think I’ll have the space for the main course after all this.”
“That is false. Your stomach is equivalent to a bottomless pit.”
“…Right. I’d forgotten about that.”
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