I Know, I Know
The door to her lab swung open, colliding with the wall, and Chloe almost jumped out of her boots. A grumble escaped her as she pulled away from the oversized psychoseismometer, which was still out of commission. She had been assigned to reassemble it after it suffered a devastating blastokinesis strike from an emotionally compromised teenager, who had been woefully unprepared to face the hordes of mental enemies in the controlled environment. The damage she had caused left Chloe working on the device for most of her shift, its circuitry nearly fried, but she had persevered and continued until the noise jarred her train of thought.
Slowly, she lifted up her welder mask. Even with the shadow crossing her face, she still squinted at the entrance, where she heard the hustle and bustle from her coworkers in the hallway. Chloe set aside her tools on her desk, but she kept the metal panel on the psychoseismometer open. Pressing a dark blue button to fully power off the device, she gave her boyfriend her full attention, furrowing her brows.
"Bobby, I asked you to be more careful when you enter my lab while I'm working," she said, scolding him as if they were still children.
The left side of his mouth lifted. He sauntered inside, giving a cursory glance at the other machines and blueprints scattered around her workspace. She noticed he kept his right hand behind his back. "I know, I know, I jerked it open way too fast again. My bad. I'll work on that," he replied, his other hand rubbing the back of his neck.
Chloe patted the side of the machine. "It's fine, but I could have permanently short-circuited this psychoseismometer had I been truly startled."
He sucked in a breath, realizing the gravity of her statement. "Oh, shit. That'd come outta your paycheck, huh?"
"Indeed." Chloe arched an eyebrow, a slight smile playing on her lips. "Would you have been so kind to allow me to redirect the blame to you and have your pay be docked as a consequence?"
He tilted his head from side to side, a noncommittal hum rolling around his mouth. "Dunno about that, babe. You know I never wanna give the big shot higher-ups any reason to cut back on my cash flow again."
She chuckled. That comment had been almost brutally honest. There were times in the past when Bobby's paycheck suffered due to his misbehavior around the Motherlobe. Forgetting to turn in paperwork or jeopardizing a mission had been two of the several ways he lost a portion of his income. But he had grown wise to the follies of his past, sticking to what worked around headquarters to maintain his annual pay raises in addition to his other sources of earnings.
"So," Bobby said, holding out his right arm and revealing a small, plastic container, "you eat yet? It's almost three, and I didn't hear from ya earlier."
In the palm of his hand was a bowl of fruit taken from the cafeteria. Chopped strawberries and melon slices mingled with grapes. The colorful array of fruit surprised her, and her stomach emitted a subdued growl in response. She tugged off her mask, tossing it onto the table and accepting the bowl with a word of thanks.
"I must've lost track of time. Speaking of which..." Chloe telekinetically tugged down her sleeve and stared at her wristwatch. She hesitated, then pursed her lips into a straight line. "Oh, wait. I just realized what I said. I've done it again, haven't I?"
A lopsided smirk stretched into Bobby's cheek. It had been one of Chloe's bad habits to work for many hours without stopping, which had stemmed from her childhood. When she became engrossed in a project, she sometimes acted as if she had all the time in the world to complete it. The hours slipped by until she noticed an oddity around her like a sudden lack of lighting from the windows, implying the afternoon had turned to night.
"I suppose it's my turn to say, 'I know, I know,'" she admitted, pulling off the top and popping a grape into her mouth.
"Guess you can say we're even," he said, snickering, and she couldn't help but snicker and agree as well.
