The Soulmate Curse

ORANGE (for fun) - Part 3

At work the next day, Finn pinged the office robot for her mid-morning cup of tea. She loved how the robot made her Earl Grey with frothy steam milk. She took a sip of the delicious smelling drink and immediately spat it out. Salt. And it wasn't just that the sugar had been replaced by salt. It was more like drinking ocean water with tea flavouring. Finn was too shocked to process what was happening. The robot never got her drink wrong. Robots never got things wrong once you told them how... Finn looked up at Zhen's desk. Zhen was smirking. Finn acknowledged defeat, disposed of the tea, and began plotting her revenge.

They worked on their new case file, the design of more efficient landfill mining robots that could better differentiate between different types of plastics. Zhen was good at coming up with ideas for the robots. Finn was good at interpreting her ideas into designs and printed prototypes. Working with Zhen just worked. Finn enjoyed how frantic Zhen would get in her brainstorming sessions. She'd get so passionate about her ideas, so animated, so happy. When she was like that, she wasn't afraid to show the chinks in her armour. She'd even become open enough to let Finn ask her about things other than work. But as she got lost in watching Zhen be Zhen, Finn had to remember they were at war. She couldn't get too distracted.

Zhen tapped on her screen repeatedly, cussing under her breath. She couldn't get the large touch screen to work. For some reason, none of the icons were responding. Finn tried not to laugh, sitting on the opposite side of the table. While Zhen had been using her VR headset for one of the designs, Finn had changed her tablet's background into a screenshot of the open tablet with the icons in place and then packed all the icons into a single folder, the one least used by Zhen. It was hilarious watching Zhen finally figuring it out. She chuckled to herself vowing sweet revenge. Finn smiled. This was a hundred times better than indifference.

"Guys, this is great," said Jack when they sent him their proposals for the landfill robot designs. "We might have to change a few material choices and redesign these joints here, but I think our client can start testing these soon. You two make a good team."

When Jack exited the conference video call, Zhen turned to Finn and stoically said, "That doesn't mean we're friends."

"Of course not," Finn replied, hiding her smile.

The autonomous car dropped off another co-worker and it was only Finn and Jani left. Finn had noticed that most of her co-workers met for dinner after work about two or three times a week. They'd go to this hole-in-the-wall restaurant that was owned and run by a former colleague who'd worked in their company years ago. Jani was the last of her actual work cohort left in the company, but he'd kept the tradition of having weekly dinners there with each wave of new employees. If Jani left, Finn was sure someone else would take his place, leading a group of them there every week. It helped that the restaurant served amazing food.

"Why don't you ever invite Zhen to dinner?" Finn asked as the vehicle was heading to her apartment building.

"She's got an open invite," said Jani. "She just doesn't take it. Probably because she's way too busy. For as long as I've known her, she works the usual four-day work week and then does her astronaut training the other three days. She's never not working."

Finn took a moment to think about that. She was a little high from the dessert edibles. The perfect amount of high, in fact. The restaurant had dosed them exactly right, making every one of the dessert pieces to order and tailored to each customer's preference. She was feeling floaty, but not completely out of it. Just the way she'd wanted. It felt like the very first time she'd gotten high. It was in the company of Zhen at the engineering camp. Finn looked at Jani.

"Are you a simulationist?"

"The movement's been gaining ground, that's for sure," said Jani. "But no, I'm not. You?"

"No, but aspects of it fascinate me," said Finn, lying back and closing her eyes to enjoy zoning out a bit. She wondered what kind of human she would choose to be if we were all really just in a simulation. Would she do what the outside observer running the simulation expected? Or would she rebel against the simulation's hypothesis. She wondered if there really was a choice. If the Darrow curse was a part of the simulation that she could just choose not to believe, despite the evidence.

"Well, that was as random a question as any. It tells me that you're just about ready to leave and go enjoy this in a more ideal space," said Jani, standing then helping her up. "I'll take you home."

"Thank you, Jani," said Finn. She felt his biceps as they walked to the cab stop. "You really are big and strong, aren't you?"

Finn walked into the apartment feeling amazing. She was settling into her high and couldn't wait to just sit back and relax through it all. Maybe eat something crunchy. But she didn't have crunchy things. She'd have to order some crunchy things. Thank goodness for twenty four hour drone delivery. The lights were still on in the apartment, even though it was late. Zhen was in the living room. Was that a romcom she was watching? Finn stopped and stared at the screen for a few moments. Exactly how high was she? Zhen's tough exterior was honed like a weapon and it was seriously messing with Finn's mind to see her wipe a tear away as she watched the screen, oblivious to Finn's presence.

"Are you crying?"

Zhen jumped at the question. "What the hell, Finn! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry, I was just..." said Finn, fumbling for words and silently berating herself. She was supposed to be staying on Zhen's good side. She slowly turned towards the door. "I mean, the door creaked. I wasn't trying to sneak up on you."

Zhen quickly wiped the tears away. "That's okay. I didn't hear the door. Gavyn?"

"Yes, Zhen?" replied the AI.

"Could you please increase the door creak?"

"It is at the maximum comfortably audible level."

"Whatever," said Zhen. She turned to Finn. "Are you going to stand there and watch me watch this all night?"

Finn wanted to say yes. "No. I'm craving crunchy things. I'm going to order some."

Finn walked to her room, picked up her robe and a warm, freshly laundered towel and asked Ares to order way more crunchy snacks than she'd ever need, and then mix her up a nice calming shower gel and shampoo recipe for her chilled state of mind, with a little THC oil in each for the steam. She wasn't going to listen to music in the shower tonight. She was too relaxed to want to interrupt the little trance she was in right now.

Right as the instantly hot water hit her, Finn jumped away from the under the showerhead, shouting expletives. She could hear Zhen laughing in the living room. The whole bathroom smelt like soup. Zhen had placed bouillons in the shower head, heavy on the onion and garlic. Finn could feel the seasoned, savory water seep onto her scalp. Her hair was going to smell like a packet of beef noodle soup for days! She unscrewed the shower head and cleaned it out then asked Ares to remix her shower gel and shampoo recipes to something that would help with the soupy aroma. She wanted to be mad, but she was high and Zhen laughing made her laugh too. Oh, it was so on!

A few mornings later, Zhen snickered as Finn walked past, still smelling just a tiny bit garlicky. Finn quietly walked to the pantry and reached for a jar of tea leaves that she'd labelled 'Shrivelled Fae Gonads', back when Zhen had gone on a labelling spree. She put on the kettle and filled a reusable tea bag with the loose-leaf tea, as she watched Zhen go through her morning ritual. As always, Zhen filled a glass with ice, then topped it up with orange juice and went to the dining table to enjoy the stack of four perfectly round, printed pancakes with three cubes of butter and maple syrup. A few bites later, she took a sip of her juice and immediately spat it out.

After rinsing her mouth a few times, Zhen turned to Finn. "Gavyn?

"Yes, Zhen?"

"What liquid are you using to make the ice cubes?"

"I'm using hotdog water, Zhen," Gavyn replied cheerily. "There's enough for an additional five morning servings of your orange juice. Should I order more? Finn said you'd love it."

"She did, did she?"

Finn feigned innocence as she took another sip of her warm and delicious herbal tea, sugared with a dash of sweet, sweet revenge.