Welldark B1 Ch. 09

'Obviously, I shouldn't have gotten angry.' After a few moments, I softly shook my head. 'No, I was perfectly justified to get angry. The problem is that I lost control. I should have shown that her indecisiveness was annoying me and then delivered an ultimatum. Something like, 'I give you another two weeks to come to a decision, then I'll look around elsewhere.' Not that that makes me feel any better about myself.'

I grabbed my head, shouted and kicked the air in a desperate attempt to find some relief of these relationship issues in physical activity. It only helped a little bit and I rolled over on my stomach.

'Why did I have to fall for the most complicated woman around?' I asked myself. 'I could have fucked Karona three times a day for the past month already.' That was the base male in me talking and I shoved him aside. As much as I liked sex, this was about a bit more than that. 'Aclysia... I guess she would have her own troubles? She seems a tad better sorted in her life than Esther though...'

I turned around and was on my back again. Through fate and the publicity my victory at the introduction ceremony had brought me, I had multiple genuine opportunities to find other women to start building a harem with. If I started investing all the time I spent with Esther into other advances, there was no doubt I could land with someone. Not to blow my own horn too much, but I was handsome, powerful and smart. None of those three guaranteed a successful relationship. They did mean I had an advantage over the vast majority of other guys though.

'I should have made a proper ultimatum,' I repeated to myself. 'I had already threatened this course of action, adding a date to it would have meant she needed to actually decide and I would have time to prepare myself for the break-up.'

Instead, I was staring at my ceiling, wondering how, if at all, I would speak to the lady I loved tomorrow. I spent hours just lying there. Sometimes I put on a video or some music to distract myself from misery, but it was never successful for too long.

And sleep evaded me for most of the night.

___________________________

I didn't see Esther at all on Wednesday. I wasn't even sure if she had even returned to her room at any time. Willt and Arlethia hadn't seen her either, so all things pointed towards Esther having returned to her own mansion for the moment.

All I could do was try and reach out to her via Ashod, but that felt like an inappropriate option. I would still use it, if I saw no other path forwards. Until there had been at least a few days without contact, however, I wouldn't stoop down to text messages or awkward phone calls. I wanted to resolve this in person.

Until I stumbled over her again, my best bet was to just follow my regular schedule. A good strategy, since it made her and my path cross again on Thursday. Albeit, not in the way I wanted.

It was in the Café Served. I arrived at 13 hours, about thirty minutes before my shift should start. The floor was absolutely packed, courtesy of some student group taking up a whole quarter of the available tables. The red and black school uniforms stood out in the beige and white room, contrasted with the potted plants and universally made them stand out from the normal customers and the employees in their servant outfits.

I saw Esther walk around with quick and measured steps. It should have been the end of her shift already but she was still in full get-up. The only pause she took was a very forceful halt that came when she spotted me. The empty dishes on the salver she was carrying slid forwards. None of them fell off, such a rookie mistake wouldn't have happened to her, but it created a series of clanking noises that had a few people look up.

One of whom was Allister, our boss and owner of the establishment. He waved at me with hurried movements and I, with no idea what else to do, obliged and walked in his direction. "Could you do me the favor and start early?" he asked and gestured towards the busy room. "Esther is staying overtime, but I don't think that'll be enough. I'll pay you the extra hour."

Although this was not the environment that I wanted to interact with Esther in again, my sense of duty made me nod instinctively. Allister had been nothing but nice and obliging so far, he had even taken the risk that came with hiring two young lovers at the same time. This was the absolute least I could do for him. "Don't worry about the money," I therefore responded and hurried into the back area.

My uniform was quickly gathered together, all of it being exactly where I had left it on Monday. I had changed in less than ten minutes and went out into the battlefield of dining service.

My weapon was the electronic device that we used to keep track of orders and their state of completion. Colour-coding made the initial overlay easy to get. Red meant a table had yet to have their orders taken, orange that they were waiting on what they had asked for, yellow stood for orders being available and waiting in the kitchen and green meant that the table currently had everything they could ask for. Aside from those, there was white for an empty table, grey for a table that needed to be cleaned and black for a table that had been reserved.

I tapped on one of the yellow tables to find out what I was supposed to fetch from the kitchen and got to work. As chances would have it, and the chances for this were quite high, Esther was already present and loading the two meals onto her salver. "What does the boss tell me I need to start early for when you have a clear handle on things?" I asked with a reflexive smile.

Esther was as surprised to hear my friendly tone as I was to have spoken it, albeit I hid it a bit better. "As competent as I might be, I cannot be at two places at once," she answered with a slight smile, as two more finished meals were placed on the counter between the kitchen and the server's area. It was a hip-high wall that separated the place where everything was cooked from the storing room for drinks and snacks that required little to no preparation. One was the domain of us servants, the other was reserved for the cooks.

"I'm sure you could be if you tried hard enough," I complimented, grabbed myself a salver of my own and placed the two meals on top of it. Took me a second to find out which table they belonged to, but then I followed her into the customer area. There was a big smile on my face as I served the meals and none of it was fake.

As much as I wanted to continue the talk we had, in calmer spirits if possible, retaining our ability to banter was a good sign that there was no permanent damage to the relationship. There was an argument to be made that this meant she hadn't taken me seriously. Given her reaction when she first saw me, I doubted it though.

Our conversation went on seamlessly in the little breaks and during short meetings in the customer area. Every sentence had a minute or two between them, but we didn't mind. It was a little game that we played while we served food to whatever student society had decided to take their lunch in the café today.

"I would think your powers are more suitable towards duplication," Esther said while making a cup of cappuccino.

"I could make an empty puppet, you could try summoning your past self for help," I went on, when we passed each other.

"It is inadvisable to mess with the timeline in such blatant a fashion. Hypothetically, were I to find myself able to utilize such an ability, I would abstain," she responded as we waited for a few meals to get finished up.

"A real shame, I would give my left hand to hold two of you."

"Your condition and your goal are in opposition."

"A little paradox I'm willing to make if you mess with the flow of time for me," I smiled before I drank a little bit of tap water to keep myself fresh. "That aside, maybe I could make a new one with my powers, if we increase our abilities by such hypothetical absurdities."

"Perhaps you could," Esther answered and marched back out into the customer area to start cleaning the tables. Something I joined her in. The large group of students had left, leaving a lot to be cleared and the pace of the business slowed to the usual level.

While we cleaned, our happy little conversation continued and then petered off into nothing. Without the pressure of work to stretch it out, it came to a conclusion fairly quickly. "Guess you can finally finish up your shift," I suggested, trying to keep the carefree attitude from going.

"It appears so," Esther agreed, not sounding like she wanted to go along with that anymore. Turning towards me she started, "Karitas, I..." only to look around and shake her head. "...I can only apologize."

Although I hadn't known it, that was the last thing I wanted to hear and I pressed my lips together. This time I was somewhat prepared for the bitterness that overcame me at hearing her stalling and I managed to keep a cool head. "I don't want to hear that, Esther," I spoke the truth in as calm a fashion as I could. "I need some sort of answer."

"I know... what I can say is..." Those words trailed off, never achieving anything aside from an awkward pause. Her fingers nervously clawed into her maid uniform. "There are things I'm afraid to show you, that much I admit. I understand that I am selfish in leaving you with uncertainty. I swear that we will have a talk about us, sooner rather than later."

That was, at the very least, a clear improvement of where we had left off. "Thank you," I nodded and gave her a warm smile. "Seriously though, you should end your shift already. You're more than an hour in overtime. It's time for you to get lunch, right?"

"You are correct," Esther nodded and sighed, the pulling hand turning to one resting on an empty stomach. That she was this docile in her behavior despite a doubtless state of hunger spoke to a level of bad conscience that made me regret putting her in this state in the first place. It was also strangely adorable. The human mind was a mystery. "Thank you for being considerate, good Karitas. Genuinely."

Further talks were interrupted by the ringing sound of a new customer entering. I put away the washing cloth and went to the entrance to do the usual greeting. No matter how much I wanted to continue talking to her, I had a job to do. Esther took that opening to walk towards the employee area.

I guided the customer towards one of the many empty tables. The rush hour was over, at least as far as our restaurant was concerned, and now began the long lull that lasted until the evening hours. The new arrival ordered a coffee and some cookies. Just some snacks to eat while they read the news or something. Not all that unusual.

When I stood in front of the coffee machine, I let out a gargantuan sigh of relief, anticipation and uncertainty. I had hoped to let that out in relative isolation, but my boss chose exactly that moment to enter the room as well. Whatever he wanted to originally say to me, Allister kept to himself. Instead, he leaned against the wall and adjusted his monocle. The pose didn't quite fit the mustache-wearing man's image of a 19th century butler of British royalty.

"Do you have trouble with your lady?" he asked. The wonder how he guessed that must have been written all over my face, as he added, "I noticed Esther isn't eating here today, so you must have something bad going on."

I just nodded. "I think it's getting better though?"

"You sound doubtful."

"Because I am, which is part of the issue." I watched the coffee trickle into the cup and gave into the urge to talk about things. It was much easier to do so with my boss than it was with my friends. Maybe because I was calmer today. Maybe because he was older and an authority figure. Maybe because he was less involved in my private life. "I want us to advance our relationship, she can't decide, and I don't know how much more I want to push her on the topic."

"Until she gives you what you want," Allister said with absolute certainty and I looked at him with a bamboozled expression. As much as I thought I belonged in the category of romantically aggressive people, that sounded a bit strong even for me. The head butler elaborated, "Look, that isn't general life advice. I remember why you originally came here and I have seen you two interact for over a month now. Has she gotten angry with you about pushing her?"

"No... the opposite, really," I said and watched the last few drops of coffee drip down.

"Then you shouldn't let up until you have an answer. Just remember the three Cs: be confident, calm and a bit of a cunt." Hearing the butler drop that word so casually had even me surprised. He smiled. "Look, as much as we all like to pretend that you can get all things in life by being nice, there are things you can only get if you pursue them with insistence."

"That's true enough," I agreed, since that fit with my life experience as well. There was a large difference between assertive and forceful. To put it in very blunt terms, the former got one laid and the latter made one a rapist.

"Great that we understand each other," Allister stepped forwards and calmly took my place in front of the coffee machine. "Now, go get her," he said and grabbed the cup I was meant to bring to the customer.

I needed a second to digest the meaning of those words, the last few minutes were a bit high on the unexpected development side, "Wait... you mean...?"

"A little tip, if you exit the city to the northeast and get over the hill, you will find the exit of a maintenance tunnel. The road going out of it leads up the central mountain. It's an easy walk and the view is spectacular." My boss gave me a little wink behind the monocle. "There are more good excuses for a young man to miss work than sickness."

"But... the evening rush hour..."

"Let that be my worry," Allister said and already walked out to deliver the coffee. "A happy employee is a good employee, Karitas!" It sounded like he was trying to give me his rationale, but the lie was rather thin. "Just remember to leave the uniform here."

I hurried into the employee area and undid the buttons as quickly as possible without tearing them. It was against the code of the café, but I threw all of the parts over the same coat hanger and left it for someone else to figure out. There probably would be some wrinkles as well, but I had an inkling suspicion that the only reason why Allister had told me to leave the uniform was to avoid the kind of stains that were not easily removed.

Grass, of course, that was the only thing I meant with that.

Those kinds of stains could get rubbed into white clothing really easily during hard, repetitive moves. Like fucking, just as a random example.

'I'm getting distracted and too hopeful,' I reprimanded my joking side as I put the last bit of my uniform together. As much as I liked to take life with a bit of sugar, to inverse a popular idiom, this was not the time. Instead, I grabbed my Ashod. Enough time had passed that I was worried Esther could have already left the city, so I had to shoot her a message. 'Where are you?' it simply read.

'On my way to the train station -- Why?' The answer came quickly, thankfully.

'Wait for me there.'

'Why?'

'Just do.' After half a second, I added. 'I beg of you.'

'Alright.'

I pushed my Ashod back into its holster in my belt, grabbed my bag, and left the building. Although I had gotten her word on her staying, my beating heart spurred me into a sprint. An absurd amount of adrenaline pumped through my system. Even though my boss had told me it was fine, leaving work like this still felt pretty adventurous. Not to mention the fact that I was about to do something mildly crazy.

My feet hammered on the pavement, as I made my way through the streets. There were a lot of people on the street, all relocating in the aftermath of the lunch rush. Regular residents of Welldark City and hundreds of students, all taking their leisurely stroll back to work and university. I made my way through with relative ease, the streets were broad enough to handle this many people. I just had to swerve around them.

I arrived at the train station and looked around for Esther. There was no need to look around for long. Although she wore the same school uniform as the majority of the crowd, her tricorne and the white feather on it were easily spotted. The lady of my desires was sitting on a bench, munching on some sort of cheese-covered baked good. A crumpled-up piece of packaging indicated that this wasn't her first one.

When I approached, she looked at me like I was a mythical creature casually strolling out of the forest. "Karitas?" she asked, while I was gathering my breath. "Your shift continues for another six hours, what is the meaning of this?"

"Obviously I..." One thought stumbled over the other and a question surfaced before I could give her an answer. "Wait, did you agree to wait thinking it would take me six hours to get here?"

"Yes," she answered like it was the clearest thing in the world. "I restate: why are you here at this point in time?"

"Allister let me go... never mind that," I waved off before she could ask me more questions. Instead, I took her hand and pulled her to her feet. "Let's have a date!" I declared.

With all that had happened in the last 24 hours, she must have been mighty confused by now. "I still have classes today," she voiced a weak protest, while I took her away from the train station.

"You already confirmed you would have waited here the rest of the day, that won't fly," I dismantled that in a moment's notice.

"The trash..." she started, only for me to let go of her hand. It was just for a few seconds, as long as it took me to run back to the bench, grab the packaging she had left lying on the bench, throw it in the nearest trash can, and return.

"No more trash," I told her and wrapped my arm around her waist. "Anything else you have to say to try to stop this from happening?"

"I never wanted us to not have a date, however sudden. It simply strikes me as inappropriate." Her amber gaze met mine and for a moment it was like the awkwardness of Tuesday had never happened. Then she must have remembered and lowered her eyes.

"It is wholly inappropriate," I told her, while once more taking the lead over our steps. "I'm skipping out on work and making you skip out on your classes. However, I'm allowed to skip and attendance isn't mandatory, so we'll be fine." I gave her my warmest smile and pulled her a slight bit closer. "We'll be fine," I repeated, this time with a hopeful tone, changing the meaning of those words.

"You do not know that," Esther asserted.

"True enough, but I feel it," I responded.

"That is not a worthwhile substitute."

"Just for today, I disagree with that."

"Will you tell me what this is about or where we are going?" she looked around, our steps carrying us past dozens of shops and restaurants I would have stirred towards during a normal date already. Waiting for my answer, she took a bite of her meal. I was honestly lucky that she had decided to get something to eat before I caught up to her. This was not something I wanted her easily irritable for.

"No and I don't know." Nibbling on her cheese-covered bread, she gave me a glare. "I know only how to get there, not where our destination is. Therefore, our steps should carry us there eventually and anticipation will hold both of us."

She rolled her eyes and we went the rest of the way in relative silence, only stopping when she had finished that second bread and had to discard the additional packaging. It was a good silence, as far as I could make out. The tension of Tuesday's confrontation was still between us, there was no way to get rid of it aside from resolving the issue, but it wasn't what dominated our dynamic. We were still Karitas and Esther, two honest people attracted to each other, getting along splendidly.