Read Online Dark Ascension: A Generation V Novel by M.L. Brennan - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: M.L. Brennan
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definitive answer on that, I was sticking like glue to my no-meat approach.
Not that I still didn’t miss hamburgers. And while I’d certainly learned a lot of different ways to prepare tofu, the truth was that it was still pretty far down on my list of preferred meals.
Suze sauntered out of the bathroom then, rubbing her hair dry with a towel and giving me a smile. She’d gotten completely dressed—the sad fact was that the heating system in the apartment was sluggish at best, and no matter how often Dan and I dialed the thermostat up to eighty, the temperature in the rooms never seemed to inch above fifty. We had more than a few suspicions that Mr. Jennings had locked the main heating system. I knew that Mrs. Bandyopadyay relied on plug-in electric heaters in every room and a heavy robe from Land’s End.
Of course, Dan and I were manly men, so we just gritted our teeth and wore thermally layered shirts. The lack of exposed skin from our respective partners (and both Suze and Jaison seemed very willing to bitch about the ambient temperature) was the tragic result of Mr. Jennings’s suspected parsimoniousness.
After breakfast, Suze headed for the door. Whenever she wasn’t working with me, Suze helped out at her family’s business, Green Willow Escorts. Not that she actually did escort work herself—while her hugely intimidating grandmother, Atsuko, had been a geisha in Japan during the thirties and forties, she’d moved into a management position when she came to America.
“Getting to beat anyone up today?” I asked Suze as I leaned in for a good-bye kiss.
The kiss was good enough to pleasantly spin my head and make me wish that I didn’t have to hurry down to my mother’s mansion for the meeting. “Nah, I’m just helping out with scheduling. If I get really bored I might ask Taka if she wants any help with payroll.” Then her eyes took that extra foxy gleam that always made me act especially cautious. “So . . . you’re working at Redbones tonight?”
I could feel my mouth flatten into a thin line. After having to leave my last part-time job as a dog walker because of how the animals were responding to smelling Suze’s scent marks on me, I’d spent a soul-killing week as a telemarketer before picking up my current work. It wasn’t the worst job I’d had, but it definitely had its drawbacks. One being just how much Suze was enjoying it.
“Yes,” I said reluctantly. “Why do you ask?”
Her smile showed a lot of teeth. “Well, a day doing office drudgery needs something fun at the end of it. I was figuring that I’d swing by and say hello to you while you’re working. Maybe bring a few of my cousins.”
“How many of your cousins?” I asked, worried, but Suze was already strolling down the hall, giving me a cheerful wave over her shoulder. Shit. Suze had eighteen first cousins, and so far they’d
all
gotten far too much enjoyment out of my job.
A glance at my watch reminded me that that particular problem would have to wait. If I was going to make the ten a.m. meeting that Loren Noka had scheduled for me, I was going to have to leave soon. And since the succubi badly needed for me to bring them good news, it wouldn’t hurt to spend a little extra time on my appearance. While neatly combed hair and a clean shirt might not be enough to secure a yes vote from my sister and mother, the truth was that it certainly wouldn’t hurt.
* * *
At my mother’s Newport mansion, we convened the meeting promptly at ten minutes before ten. Loren Noka had put together binders for each of us that contained all of the pertinent information (neatly bullet-pointed) that she and I had collected yesterday, as well as the results of the credit scores and background checks that she must have done in the early-morning hours. It was the kind of presentation that would’ve warmed the soul of any corporate drone, which made it a strange counterpoint to my mother’s sitting room, where this
Not that I still didn’t miss hamburgers. And while I’d certainly learned a lot of different ways to prepare tofu, the truth was that it was still pretty far down on my list of preferred meals.
Suze sauntered out of the bathroom then, rubbing her hair dry with a towel and giving me a smile. She’d gotten completely dressed—the sad fact was that the heating system in the apartment was sluggish at best, and no matter how often Dan and I dialed the thermostat up to eighty, the temperature in the rooms never seemed to inch above fifty. We had more than a few suspicions that Mr. Jennings had locked the main heating system. I knew that Mrs. Bandyopadyay relied on plug-in electric heaters in every room and a heavy robe from Land’s End.
Of course, Dan and I were manly men, so we just gritted our teeth and wore thermally layered shirts. The lack of exposed skin from our respective partners (and both Suze and Jaison seemed very willing to bitch about the ambient temperature) was the tragic result of Mr. Jennings’s suspected parsimoniousness.
After breakfast, Suze headed for the door. Whenever she wasn’t working with me, Suze helped out at her family’s business, Green Willow Escorts. Not that she actually did escort work herself—while her hugely intimidating grandmother, Atsuko, had been a geisha in Japan during the thirties and forties, she’d moved into a management position when she came to America.
“Getting to beat anyone up today?” I asked Suze as I leaned in for a good-bye kiss.
The kiss was good enough to pleasantly spin my head and make me wish that I didn’t have to hurry down to my mother’s mansion for the meeting. “Nah, I’m just helping out with scheduling. If I get really bored I might ask Taka if she wants any help with payroll.” Then her eyes took that extra foxy gleam that always made me act especially cautious. “So . . . you’re working at Redbones tonight?”
I could feel my mouth flatten into a thin line. After having to leave my last part-time job as a dog walker because of how the animals were responding to smelling Suze’s scent marks on me, I’d spent a soul-killing week as a telemarketer before picking up my current work. It wasn’t the worst job I’d had, but it definitely had its drawbacks. One being just how much Suze was enjoying it.
“Yes,” I said reluctantly. “Why do you ask?”
Her smile showed a lot of teeth. “Well, a day doing office drudgery needs something fun at the end of it. I was figuring that I’d swing by and say hello to you while you’re working. Maybe bring a few of my cousins.”
“How many of your cousins?” I asked, worried, but Suze was already strolling down the hall, giving me a cheerful wave over her shoulder. Shit. Suze had eighteen first cousins, and so far they’d
all
gotten far too much enjoyment out of my job.
A glance at my watch reminded me that that particular problem would have to wait. If I was going to make the ten a.m. meeting that Loren Noka had scheduled for me, I was going to have to leave soon. And since the succubi badly needed for me to bring them good news, it wouldn’t hurt to spend a little extra time on my appearance. While neatly combed hair and a clean shirt might not be enough to secure a yes vote from my sister and mother, the truth was that it certainly wouldn’t hurt.
* * *
At my mother’s Newport mansion, we convened the meeting promptly at ten minutes before ten. Loren Noka had put together binders for each of us that contained all of the pertinent information (neatly bullet-pointed) that she and I had collected yesterday, as well as the results of the credit scores and background checks that she must have done in the early-morning hours. It was the kind of presentation that would’ve warmed the soul of any corporate drone, which made it a strange counterpoint to my mother’s sitting room, where this
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