Gaia

Mari always knew she had good taste in men's clothing. She kept sneaking glances at Eli in that blue suit, resisting the urge to straighten his tie for him and looking away every time he caught her looking. She messed around with his calendars on the tablet he'd given her to take notes for him on the speakers at the conference, accidentally deleting a reminder for one of his other meetings in the process. She decided not to say anything, figuring that he'd do something about it himself later.

"Jeremiah's birthday is on Monday," she told Eli, on the shuttle to the tower the conference was being held in.

"Yeah?" Eli asked, eyes not leaving his own tablet.

"Do you want to get him a card or something?" Mari asked. "Or a note, at least."

"What for?"

"Because it's his birthday," Mari argued. "Come on, have a heart."

"Fine, if you want to send him a card, you can," he sighed.

"What's this conference about, anyways?" Mari asked.

"It's just a chance for a bunch of council members to pretend like they actually have authority over the lords and how the lords want to do things. Which they don't. It's amazing that the council hasn't gone extinct yet. Anyways, today in particular is about security, so I have to be there."

"Why am I going, then?" she asked.

"Because I said so."

Mari rolled her eyes, getting up and following him out of the shuttle to the Center Tower. This tower belonged exclusively to the council, and only the top three floors were actually occupied. They could only be accessed from the upper floors, and Mari couldn't even dreamed of getting close to it. It was the only perfectly round tower, and while most of the center was hollow, the top three was completely packed. The place looked like it was made of solid gold. It was so shiny inside, Mari was afraid of getting the mirror-like floors dirty.

Eli walked fast, and she struggled to keep up with him in the stiletto heels and form-fitting dress she'd decided to wear. She nearly tripped, but someone caught her. She looked up to find a good-looking young man help her back on her feet, with kind of a goofy grin on his face.

"Slow down there, you don't want to twist your ankle or something," he said. "You can't go around falling on that pretty face."

"No, we don't want that," Mari agreed, fixing her hair and clothes with a slight blush.

"I've never seen you around here," he said holding out his hand to her. "I'm Davis. Davis Wilbur."

"Mari," she said, shaking his hand. "Yeah, I've only been working up here for a few weeks."

"Just a few weeks, huh?" David nodded. "I work here with the council. I'd be happy to show you around, if you've got a number I could call."

Mari grinned and nodded. "Yeah, my number is-"

"Mari," Eli interrupted, nudging her away. "Come on. We don't have time for this."

"Oh," she said, shuffling in the direction he was leading her. "I'll see you around, Davis."

"Yeah," Davis muttered, looking extremely disappointed.

Mari followed after Eli, quickening her pace to catch up to him. He looked straight ahead, seemingly on purpose. Mari raised a brow, glancing over her shoulder at Davis once more.

"He was cute," she said.

Eli didn't say anything.

"Heaven forbid," Mari laughed. "Eli, are you mad that he was flirting with me?"

"What?" he frowned. "No, of course not. It's an unprofessional move to snag someone PA away like that, though. I might have needed you."

"Eli, are you jealous that he wants to show me around?"

"No, Marilyn," Eli said sternly. "Knock it off."

"So it's cool if I go out with him?" Mari questioned.

"Yeah, do whatever you want," he said. "It's a waste of time. Council workers are boring as hell."

"Alright, if you say so," Mari grinned.

He rolled his eyes and held the door open for her into the large auditorium, where the speakers were talking to an audience full of tower security. Mari was amazed at how many people were involved with security. All these people, and Andy still wasn't in prison.

"You okay?" Eli asked.

"Yeah, I've just never been in a room with so many enforcers," she said quietly. "You understand, right?"

"Yeah, I get it," he said. "Don't worry, you're safe."

She nodded and took a seat next to him just as the lights dimmed and a speaker began talking about a new camera system with advanced facial recognition, which could instantly identify someone from the mere shape of their head. They just made it harder and harder to steal ramen noodles these days. She started out taking good notes, but eventually got so bored from the monotonous presentations that she resorted to doodling messy caricatures of the speakers. At one point Eli started to nod off, and she bumped him to wake him up. He rubbed his eyes, blinking a few times as he refocused on the speaker.

"We should get takeout after this," he mumbled. "Pot stickers sound good."

"Are you thinking about food or listening to the presentation?" Mari whispered accusingly.

"Are you taking notes like you're supposed to, or doodling?" he retorted.

"Touché," she smirked. "Want me to get you a cup of coffee."

He nodded, handing her a couple of bills. She snuck out of the auditorium to the banquet hall where there were various snacks and drinks assorted on a table, available for the attendees to take. Mari was amazed at how untouched it looked. People came by here and there, but for the most part, were too fascinated by the conference to care. Like that was possible. There were four bottles of expensive wine that hadn't even been looked at. Mari sighed and got the two cups of coffee, discreetly shoving some snacks into her purse before making her way back to the auditorium. This time, Eli was adding onto her doodle, making the little man fatter and giving him a curly mustache.

"Cute," Mari said, trading the tablet for the coffee.

"This can't be over soon enough," he sighed.

Mari looked around, making eye contact with Davis from across the room. He gave her a half smile and she smiled back with a tiny wave.

"Knock it off," Eli said quietly.

"Knock what off?" Mari asked.

"Waving to your shmuck of a boyfriend," Eli said. "It's disrespectful to the speaker."

"Disrespectful? You drew a little poop pile between his legs."

Eli just shushed her, sipping his coffee. The conference lasted until a little after midnight, and by then, Eli and Mari were both dying of exhaustion. She fell asleep on the shuttle back, and when she woke up, was surprised to find that she was curled up against Eli. He was struggling to stay awake too, but hadn't made Mari move away from him. She thought for a moment that he was going to carry her back inside, but he seemed to change his mind and shook her gently to wake her up.

"Can I come over?" Mari yawned. "If you're ordering food, at least."

"Yeah, I guess," he shrugged.

"You look good in that suit, by the way," she said. "I don't think I got a chance to tell you."

"Thanks. Uh, you too."

She watched him shrug out of the jacket and loosen his tie as he flopped onto the couch. Reuben was still out of commission so he had to call for delivery himself. Mari sat down next to him, opening up her purse.

"Oh my god," Eli said, eyes widening as he put the caller away. "You were carrying that around in that purse all day?"

Mari blinked a few times, looking from him to the bottle of fine red wine in her hand.

"Not all day," she said. "It was going to waste, anyways. Someone had to put it to good use. They had a few more."

"You mean to say that you stole expensive wine from a conference – which was full of enforcers – that was about how to prevent theft?" he asked, exasperated.

"I also took a little box of petite fours," Mari grinned, taking that out of her purse too.

"You're unbelievable," he sighed.

"Maybe, but I suggest you get a couple of glasses," she said. "This thing was heavy, and I've been looking forward to it all day. It's the only thing I've been looking forward to, after seeing you in that suit."

"Lord save me."