The Soulmate Curse

BERGAMOT (for control)

"And who's bail will you be posting?" asked the lady behind the desk.

"Zhen Chi-Ling Roberts," said Finn.

"And are you a relative?"

"No, just a friend."

The lady entered the details into the system, accepted Finn's payment and made the call to get Zhen released. She'd been in here for a few days, but Finn had only just learnt about it from Jed who'd been trying to reach her about a new apartment. The people at Housing had limited access to criminal records to allow for filtering new applicants, and when Jed realised that she was missing he'd done a quick search in every database he had access to and found her. Why he'd called Finn first, she'll never know.

"You?" Zhen wondered when she saw Finn. "Why?"

Because I love you and I will always love you, even though you sometimes act like a moron and frustrate me beyond all reason.

"You know why," Finn said.

As the autonomous cab drove them back to their apartment, Finn watched as Zhen crumbled into herself, pulled her knees to her chest and quietly sobbed. Finn pressed the button that transformed the cab's cabin space to change the seats so that they were sitting next to each other on a sofa-like arrangement. Finn got her legs around Zhen and wrapped her arms around her. Zhen let her, collapsing into the close embrace. They stayed like that for the whole trip back. Zhen was back to normal as they disentangled themselves and walked out of the cab to the apartment.

As Zhen showered, Finn ordered them dinner. She bought all of Zhen's favourite foods, something she'd learnt from their stay at the hotel during the awards show. Finn also got liquor, fresh fruits, fruit juice and sparkling water to put together a jug of sangria for them. She was just finishing up with the punch drink as Zhen walked out of the shower. Zhen stopped for a moment, looking at the spread on the dining table.

After eating stale and bland 3D printed food for three days in holding, Finn figured this would be a nice way to help Zhen forget the experience. What she didn't expect was the hug. Zhen was not a touchy-feely person. That she'd allowed Finn to hold her in the cab was already throwing her for a loop. She was grateful for every ounce of emotion that Zhen threw her way. True, it was kind of pathetic, but it was what it was. What else could you do when you knew for sure that you're looking right at your soul mate? Especially when you were also certain that the feelings weren't completely unrequited. So, when Zhen hugged her, she felt it to her core. All those heavy, bittersweet feelings that let her know she was alive.

"Thank you, Finn," Zhen whispered in her ear before walking to the table and digging in.

Finn joined her at the table. "Did you want to talk about it?"

"Yeah," said Zhen with a nod.

She went quiet after that, but Finn didn't push. Zhen looked broken. It took every fibre of Finn's being not to stand up and just hold her. Instead, she waited patiently for her to speak.

"He set me up," Zhen finally said.

"Who did?"

"Roy Cruz."

Finn choked on her sangria, coughing a few times before she could reply. "The MechSoft CEO?"

"You were right," Zhen said, looking up at Finn. "You were right about everything."

Finn stayed silent, trying to process what she was hearing. Zhen, the person who had wanted nothing to do with this whole MechSoft thing, was saying that she was actually might now be in the thick of this whole Mechsoft thing.