Note: First off, just to clarify, Cagalli's job at Servitude Inc is a personal assitant/secretary ... it's mentioned once or twice in the first two chapters. Thanks to all those who reviewed! First update of 2007, January 17th. Wow, A Surprising Proposal has now been finished. Yay! Leave a review after you finish, and enjoy:
Chapter Three
Cagalli shut the door behind her and leaned against it, visibly breathing a sigh of relief after the taxing day. All things considered, her meeting with the head of Servitude Inc didn't go all that badly—wait, his name was Athrun.
Cagalli snorted. Athrun. Like as if someone who thought of Naturals as possessions and treated them as such even deserved to be addressed by name.
The alarm on her watch tinkled out a melody, notifying her that it was now 9pm. Right, time to contact Kira. First she made sure that the door was locked and secured, then popped a CD in the boom box and shifted up the volume in the living room. She did some fast calculating. One wall of the living room faced the interior of the apartment, another the balcony, a third the corridor, and the fourth—well, on the other side was Athrun's penthouse.
There, nice and loud. Cagalli hurried into the bedroom and turned on the water in the shower and shut the door, then flopped down on the bed and reached for her cell phone.
Anticipating a lecture from Kira for being late, she nervously punched in the numbers in quick succession, hoping to get it over with as quickly as possible.
"Cagalli?"
"Hello, Kira."
"Are you alone?"
"Yes."
"Okay." There was a pause. "How could you possibly be late?! Don't you realize the importance of this mission? Don't you know how worried I've been? How could you—"
"Kira—stop! We don't have time for this right now. I met with the head of Servitude Inc today, and I got the job."
Cagalli heard Kira sigh in relief. "Great. So what's this mysterious guy's name?"
"Zala. Athrun Zala."
Kira gasped loudly, and a bang followed, indicating that he had fallen off his chair. "Are you alright?" Lacus's worried soprano transferred over the phone line.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Cagalli heard him reassure the pink-haired songstress. "Are you sure?" Kira asked Cagalli forcefully, sounding almost bitter and wishing that it wasn't true. "Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yeah!" exclaimed Cagalli in disbelief. "Why wouldn't it be? You think I'm making this up? Or do you think that I'm so dimwitted as to not even be able to remember my boss's name?" Indignation was written all across her fine features, but unfortunately Kira couldn't see them.
"Right. Sorry…"
"Wait a minute!" said Cagalli interrupting. "Do you know this Athrun figure or something?" she asked suspiciously.
Before Kira got a chance to answer, a booming knock rang through the apartment, surprisingly loud and somehow audible over the noise of the boom box and the running shower combined.
"Someone's here!" Cagalli whispered.
"Well—Ignore them or something!" suggested Kira.
"No! I can't do that, they'll know that someone's home with the ruckus I'm making. I have to go!"
"Be careful!" Kira tried to tell her, but Cagalli had already hung up. She rushed into the bath room and switched off the shower, then ran into the living room.
She stashed her cell into her sweatpants' pocket and peeked out of the peephole, and gasped loudly.