Ch 38. Daily Routine III
John awoke to the steady drop of water on his forehead. He was about to lift his arm to wipe it away and reset his alarm when he realized that Andressa was still laying across his chest, sleeping softly. He very carefully extricated his arm from beneath her so that he could reach up and stop the water. After that he even more carefully extricated the rest of himself, needing to actually roll off his bed and onto the floor before he stood back up. He leaned over and kissed the top of her head gently then grabbed the blanket at the foot of the bed and draped it over her. He’d stopped using a blanket when she was over, as she gave off so much heat, but he’d noticed she slept better with it on if he wasn’t in the bed.
He was feeling much better than he had the previous day, probably thanks to Andressa’s care. That was good, since he didn’t want to reschedule any of his clients for the day. He made his way into the bathroom and ran his fingers through his hair before he reached for a bottle of dental refreshment and started swishing. He nearly spat it out right away when he realized it was cinnamon flavored, but finished the rinse before spitting so it wouldn’t go to waste. He took a moment to rinse with some water to get the taste out of his mouth as well before looking back at the bottle. It was Andressa’s. His was on the other side of the sink. He sighed, wondering how anyone could deal with the taste of cinnamon that strong first thing in the morning.
He turned on the shower, activated the heating rune, and hopped inside. He noticed that the soap and shampoo he usually used were both a bit lower than he’d thought, and so shamelessly stole a bit of both from the small collection Andressa had added to the shower.
He heard stirring in the other room and after a short while Andressa opened the door to the bathroom. She was wearing a kind of long shirt that hugged her well in a number of places and her hair was a tremendous mess.
“Good morning,” she said as she grabbed her bottle of rinse and began to clean her sharp teeth.
“Good morning,” replied John as he finished rinsing the shampoo from his hair. He turned off the shower as she spat out her rinse and grabbed John’s best hairbrush. It was made from elven boar fur and could break and fix the knots in anyone’s hair.
“You know, you could’ve waited for me to join you,” said Andressa slyly.
“So that you could turn the heat up and I wind up with burns again?”
She shrugged. “Not my fault you like showers as cold as the circle of betrayers.”
She handed him his brush, her own hair thoroughly detangled, and he kissed her before he took it and began to brush his hair out.
She got into the shower and the bathroom was soon filled with so much steam that John couldn’t see and so left the bathroom and went into the kitchen. He planned on heading to Hilda’s and having his coffee at the office, but he was finding himself too hungry to wait after having been ill the previous day. He grabbed some frozen grapes from his cold-runed chest and snacked on them until Andressa walked out of the bathroom. It released so much steam that she looked like a wrestler entering a stage through a fog machine. She blew him a kiss as she made her way to their, no, his bedroom. He shook his head and put away the grapes before going to get dressed.
Andressa took one of the spare outfits she kept in the drawer he set aside for her. A black shirt with a dark red skirt, navy blue boots. John looked through his endless green suits of different patterns and the single blue suit in the far corner.
He leafed through them, sliding them to the side as he tried to decide on one.
“I like the one with the checks,” said Andressa sliding behind him and indicating it with her tail.
“The checks it is then,” replied John, pulling it from the wardrobe. He took his time getting dressed and paired the suit with a tan belt and matching penny-loafers.
“You know, I’d like to see you in red sometime,’ said Andressa as she smoothed out the lines in her skirt.
“Red on redheads rarely looks good.”
“I don’t know… maybe if you went dark enough.”
“Maybe,” replied John, unconvinced.
They made their way out of the apartment and started to walk down the steps.
“So, will you be staying again tonight?” he asked.
“Afraid not. I’m having drinks with a few friends visiting Avalon from Hell and my apartment’s closer to the bar.”
John hid his disappointment. “That sounds cool.”
“No, it’ll be quite hot around us most likely.”
John sighed at that and they stepped out onto the street. It was one of those mornings where it was too hot for a jacket with no breeze and too cold to not wear one when there was a breeze.
“Huh, different sky today,” said Andressa looking up.
John looked up and saw she was right. It was still the usual blue, but he could see a number of planets in the sky close enough that he could make out some of their geography. That happened in Avalon every once in a while. There was so much cosmic energy and magic concentrated there that little breaks in reality just happened from time to time. Changes like the sky usually reverted after just an hour or two.
They held hands as they made their way to the office. The streets weren’t as busy as usual, but they still had to dodge a couple of Jotun, and duck under some small harpies. The weather change must’ve put them into their swooping season.
They arrived at Hilda’s just a bit earlier than he normally would have and waited behind a few birdfolk loading up on bread before they made it to the counter.
Mia was working it, and she was wearing a black pantsuit with the sleeves torn off under which was a band shirt with intense orcish lettering under it that John couldn’t quite decipher. Her makeup was a bit heavier than usual, with her face made to be pale white and black eyeshadow with small drops underneath meant to resemble tears. In contrast to her outfit she smiled widely as she saw them.
“Andressa! John! Welcome in.”
“Hey Mia,” said Andressa. “I love your outfit today.”
“You say that every day.”
“You dress fun every day.”
She smiled and looked at John. “Thanks again for agreeing for me to be your apprentice.”
“Don’t thank me. I’m going to be flying by the seat of my pants the whole time and it’s one of the weirdest jobs in every dimension.”
“I don’t know. I know a man whose job is to convince people at crossroads to give up their shoes,” said Andressa.
John frowned. “Maybe the second weirdest. Have you started on the psych 101 book I gave you?” he asked.
“Yeah… this Freud guy… you don’t like, use his stuff every time right?”
John laughed. “No, no. There’s some ideas he had that aren’t all that crazy, but he’s mostly in there for historical context since he’s one of the first to do the work.”
“Phew, good,” she looked as a minotaur walked in. “Oh, he’s the one with the big order. Let me get you both settled really quick. Bagel and the special?”
“Two bagels,” said John.
“Can do,” said Mia, disappearing briefly.
“She’s going to be good at the job.”
“I hope so,” said John. He was still worried about how ad-hoc the apprenticeship would be, but Mia was good with people, and smart. He had more hope about it than pessimism.
They got their baked goods and made their way across the street to the office, dodging a Yeti that seemed to be running to deliver a message. Andressa unlocked the office door with her key and pushed it open for him since he was carrying the bags.
John carefully placed Andressa’s coconut macaroons onto her desk before he went to place his own bagels on his and started their coffee. Once that was done he went back to where Andressa was sitting. He grabbed the armrest on either side and dropped himself forward to give her a long kiss before pushing himself back up.
“So. Who do we have scheduled for today?” he asked.
She grabbed his collar and brought him in for a second kiss.
“Not sure yet, I haven’t exactly been in long enough to check the calendar.”
“Well what could’ve slowed you down? Is something distracting you?”
“More of a someone.”