o1. Temptation Provokes
Smack.
…
…
Smack.
…
Smack.
"Would you quit it, Cid's Girl?" I released the tangled wires and bent my head around the electric column to glare at her. It wasn't the first time I told her and I knew it wouldn't be the last by the shrewd amusement that revealed itself through her teasing lips. "Some people need to concentrate," I added in my boss-voice, and even as I spoke she gave me a look of unadulterated mischief before tauntingly moving her lower jaw.
SmmmaaaCKK.
It wasn't hard to realize she was purposely trying to push all my buttons rather than actually committing to the work she had promised she'd finish by the end of the day. The thick air was saturated with shivers of dust and moistened sticky with steam, but one didn't have to squint at her workstation to understand she had other things on her mind than drilling holes and welding plates together.
SmackSmack.
She was looking at me with those teasing eyes again, deliciously savoring the annoyed look on my face, anxiously waiting for the next words of irritation to come out of my mouth like I owned her. But she knew as well as I that she had a mind of her own and a will of whim that made her dance circles around me. Telling her to stop was never enough. Telling her to quit it was just the beginning. She would continue to look at me with those eyes of hers, occasionally smacking her gum until I finally grew aggravated enough to get up and force her to be silent.
SmmmaaaCKK.
I never really went that far though. How could I? She knew I wouldn't. It was a game to her, each look of infuriation on my face making her reach closer and closer to a previous personal high score. It was Sunday afternoon and she was all flirty skirts and pink bubble gum against the backdrop of a sultry machina landscape. It was near the end of our shifts and she hadn't and wouldn't speak a word. Wouldn't acknowledge she tried provoking me all day to approach her. To come to her like she owned me in her little game of temptation.
Smack.
It was a dare, and she knew I'd take the bait in an instant. We were competitive like that, me and her, ever since we were kids. But this was a different kind of competition. And one that she initiated entirely on her own. Unfortunately for her, I've played these games several times before, and all's fair in love and war.