✅ A Dose of Humiliation

Aftermath ✅

The doorbell caught my attention instantly. I put down the book I'd been idly leafing through, and hurried to let our guests in. I wasn't entirely surprised to see that they had all arrived together; Serena was attending some big business conference in Sinhapur, and although she'd left her cars behind, Marcie didn't have the confidence to try driving them. They'd asked Mum and Dad to give them a lift, which I thought made perfect sense.

I smiled as everybody said variations on "Hi" at about the same time. Dad looked a little grumpy, and was wearing a suit that wouldn't have looked out of place in any lawyer's office. Not fancy, but formal. I couldn't guess what had upset him today; I might have hoped he would be happy to see me again. But I guessed that he felt like chauffeuring Marcie and Eli to my place felt too much like grunt work, especially when Cecilia and Walt had both jumped at the chance to ride with Mum.

Mum, on the other hand, was wearing one of her fanciest silk dresses and grinning from ear to ear; an expression that I was almost certain hadn't been diminished by the detour to Serena's place. She'd always been disappointed that we couldn't afford to maintain two cars, and felt like she couldn't really enjoy driving in the succession of functional runabouts that Dad had chosen. These days she was driving the customised sportscar that had formerly belonged to Todd Becker; and I could tell she enjoyed it a whole lot more.

Marcie was smiling too, dressed up like a princess. I didn't know for sure, but thought that she was probably trying out the outfit Serena's tailors had made her for the graduation ball. She looked stunning; and I was sure that when it came to the ball everybody there would be jealous of Eli. Who was standing there with one arm across Marcie's shoulders, smiling proudly in a check shirt and tan jeans that also looked brand new.

"Marcie," I said, "Eli. Great to see you both." This time, I didn't have to catch myself at the last minute to keep from saying 'Ellie'. It had taken nearly six weeks, but I was finally getting used to using the right name pronouns. Somehow, being pretty close only made it harder when I wasn't paying attention. I shook his hand and leaned in to hug Marcie, and then hugged both of them tightly. They were still some of my best friends, even if the long ordeal of high school was over. And hosting my first dinner party didn't mean I had to be extra formal all the time.

"You're doing well for yourself," Mum said, looking around the house again. "Business doing well?"

"Not so bad," I said, laughing just a little. It had turned out surprisingly easy to take over Becker's little empire. Almost all of the pharmacists on his staff were fully qualified, and they were quite capable of doing their jobs without supervision. Some of them even had ideas to increase productivity, now that they weren't under the thumb of a micromanaging dictator. "The shop pretty much runs itself. My job's just going through the records, trying to work out who else he's been doing shady stuff with, and deciding how much compensation they deserve."

"You shouldn't be doing that," Dad said, repeating something he'd said every time we met him recently. "The victim can't be impartial."

"I'm not judging him for what he did to me," I said with a shrug. "I'm determining the punishment for breaching the HumiliX code of conduct. And I can be an independent arbiter for breach of contract, because I didn't sign that contract and I don't work for HumiliX or Becker. Taking over his business is just an administrative convenience to prevent him hiding misdealings; and taking over his house and cars is a happy accident because he registered them as pure business assets."

"Well, that car is the business," Mum said with a laugh. "I can't imagine Todd Becker needing a company car, though. Did he even do any work?"

"Well, I think that..." I started, and then hesitated for a second. The first tingle of pressure from my bladder; a sensation I was having to get used to again. Even after getting the antidote, it would take time for my muscles to recover their previous strength; so I didn't want to leave it too long. I hastily continued: "I'll be back in a second. Clint! Can you offer everybody drinks?"