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Three days.
It had been three days since Ema had gotten any meaningful work done. It had also been three days since she'd last seen Apollo.
This was not a coincidence.
It wasn't as if she didn't have work to do. On the contrary, she had a hell of a lot of work to do, and it was only piling up with the days gone by. Unfortunately, there was one particular thing currently getting in the way of her progress on that work. Or, rather, one person.
She closed her eyes, a hand pressed to her face. She grumbled into her palm. It was hard to think about getting back to work when every one of her thoughts seemed to twist its way back to a certain red-suited rookie defence attorney.
Apollo was a good friend. She had to admit that she'd been pretty awful to him the day that they first met. Being stuck in Criminal Affairs was hardly a catalyst for good moods, and having some newbie lawyer stroll right onto her crime scene had set off her crabbier side almost instantly. So, she counted herself fortunate that she and Apollo were friends by now. It would've been very easy for him to decide that he didn't want anything to do with her, and she couldn't have blamed him if he'd done so. But, instead, he'd stuck around, giving her someone to talk to after a dull or frustrating day at work, buying her the odd drink at the end of a week, and generally helping her out of her worse moods simply by being around and even, if she was honest, seeming to understand her.
She didn't like being the short-tempered and less-than-thorough detective that she was. She didn't like starting and ending most of her work days with a frown.
She liked swapping stories about the big and small annoyances of work with Apollo. She liked getting a surprise text from him when she was bored, asking her if she wanted to do anything, or even just talk for a while.
In short, she'd concluded, she liked Apollo.
This, it was now obvious to her, was the reason that her pile of work-related papers, memos, and notes continued to grow in size.
(Just what you needed. You're stuck in a shit job that you hate, and now you aren't even doing that job, because you're too busy thinking about a boy.)
Her elbow hit the desk as she slumped to the side, uttering a groan.
(I think I might have actually matured in reverse since high school.)
Her laptop's screen dimmed in front of her, and she tapped a key to light it back up. She had an inactive window open, containing an email from Trucy. She was probably going to regret enlisting the teen magician's help with her current problem, but she would deal with that later.
Trucy had compiled a rather impressive list of notes on Apollo's behaviour, many of which Ema was almost certain could've only been found by breaking into Apollo's own laptop. There were loads of small things, like notes on Apollo's favourite places to eat, and other meaningless points like that, but one bullet point in particular caught Ema's notice.
Apollo, it seemed, was attracted to two primary physical attributes in women. First, he liked them to be tall. Taller than him, specifically, though that wasn't really difficult, seeing as he was barely five-five in height himself. She already had a few inches on him.
Secondly, though, and catching Ema by surprise, Apollo seemed to like somewhat overweight women.
Ema glanced at her latest bag of Snackoos. She was addicted to the damn things, no doubt about that. They made for fantastic stress relief. However, she tended to force herself to watch her weight, so as to avoid ending up obese thanks to her snack habit.
(Thank God that Apollo only likes a few extra pounds around the edges.)
Maybe it was a little shallow to think so, but she thought she might be a touch offended if Apollo didn't already find her attractive. Still, if she wanted to catch his notice a bit better, putting on a little bit of weight might not go amiss. Yes, there would be downsides, but hey, if it worked...
There was a plan here. Ema wasn't about to just start neglecting her health to make herself more appealing to her defence lawyer friend. That seemed pretty impractical. She had a better idea, although it was very strange. She'd talked to Trucy, who remembered something odd she'd once found in the mountain village where her best friend Pearl lived. It was a kind of old, specially-made drink that would, if Trucy and Pearl could be trusted, let her fill her weight out a bit without needing to gorge herself on Snackoos.
Trucy had brought her one sample of the drink, which had apparently been all she could get. Ema had the little bottle in her desk, and took it out to look it over again.
(This had damn well better work, Trucy.)
Deciding to go for it, she uncorked the bottle and gave its contents a single sniff. It smelled a bit sweet. So, leaning back in her chair, she downed the contents of the tiny bottle. The drink tasted alright, but Ema was glad that there was only a tiny bit of it to go through.
She relaxed in her chair. According to Trucy, it would take a while for the effects to set in. Some sleep would help, apparently.
(OK, Ema. Just kill these last few hours, go home, and maybe then you can spend the weekend trying your luck with Apollo.)
Those last few hours were a drag, but Ema made it home alright. She wasn't feeling anything unusual yet. She was still as thin as ever, too.
She ate a small meal and browsed the Internet aimlessly for a while, then opted to just go to bed early. She wanted to see if this mystical Kurain elixir nonsense had any truth to it at all.
Luckily, getting to sleep was fairly easy. Ema awoke the next morning, staring up at her bedroom ceiling.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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