Chapter 689: Put A Ring On It
Before I knew it, morning had already arrived. Millions and millions of miles away, you’d have some sort of leeway, but nope... the speed of sunlight ain’t got time to take it slow, and when the crack began to bleed through the curtains, I had to literally rouse every fiber of morale within me to even make it out front the door and brave an entire morning of espresso-making and Nick yapping.
Amanda had left for home a little while before sunrise. Here and there, she did what little she could for the house on her own firm insistence, but hearing her moan and grumble with exhaustion at the mere task of mopping the floor had me dying on the inside that I just had to shove her out my doorstep before the guilt just outright kills me.
And the nerve of the girl, she even tried to take back her gift, attempting to swipe it from my hand, with a little ol’ casual, “Welp, guess you won’t really be needing this now.”
I promptly pulled it out of her reach so fast the ring flew pretty much like a bullet.
“Like hell, Amanda,” I said. “It’s perfect, I love it. I’m keeping it.”
“I know it’s perfect. That’s exactly what I said before,” She said to me. “And maybe if I had been a little bit more early you could keep it. But you already have one perfect memento swinging around your neck, you don’t need two. I rather give you nothing than give you a rehash. Give it here, I’ll think of something else for you to fawn all over me for. And hopefully this time, it’d be something a bit more original.”
“Whatever happens to ‘it’s the thought that counts’?”
.....
“Yeah, of course, the thought counts,” Amanda replied. “But some thoughts are just simply worth more than others.”
“That doesn’t even make any sense.”
“Sure it does. Look, if I got you a shirt and you already have the same shirt... what would you think of that?”
“That now I have two perfectly good shirts?”
I thought it was a perfectly valid enough answer, in my opinion, so seeing Amanda look at me with this long, dull stare like I was beyond any form of human comprehension felt a little unjustified. I mean, two shirts’ good, right?
Right?
“Fine, fine, you’re happy, I’m happy,” Amanda sighed, finally caving. “But that still leaves the question of what you’re going to do. You have one neck, and two necklaces... and knowing you, I’m sure you made an oath never to take hers off, so... your plan?”
Then before I could even think of a thought, she went ahead and immediately put a stop to it.
“And if you’re gonna suggest you wear both of them at the same time...” deeply she breathed in, her face tightening as if the notion pained her. “No, just... just no. Understand? I appreciate the gesture, but if you actually go through with looking like some kind of rejected rapper then I’m going to throw both of them into the bottom of the ocean.”
Okay, thank God I haven’t spoken yet. I’m still two necklaces up.
“So,” She looked back up at me. “Gonna hang mine up on your wall or something? Maybe a bedside drawer decoration?”
“I’ll think of something,” I assured her, securing her gift deep down into my pocket. “You just go to sleep.”
And indeed I thought, and I thought hard of something that by the time I was wiping down the countertops and grinding coffee beans into a fine powder, the gift dilemma was all over and dealt with.
As always Nick was already in, and party or no party, he looked the same as he ever was, hunched over his desk, clicking and clacking at whatever it is a cafe manager clicks and clacks at.
“Your hair’s a mess,” He said hi to me over the glow of his monitor. “Get it sorted.”
No praise for being a diligent worker in the midst of a hangover, not even a pat on the back for being alive. Good ol’ St. Nick, his eyes biased to the plight of none.
So for the past few hours, my station is where I’ve been all this time, sifting through another listless day of the usual morning commute. As always, to stave away the creeping feeling of boredom, I’d sneak a peek at my phone every now and then... it was pretty much the only way to make the day go any faster.
read a text Sammy sent me. <>
Nick was watching, so I left her on read, but didn’t stop her from occasionally beeping me updates.
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Sanny must have thought of something else, because after bidding farewell to a customer, I was beeped again.
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Then five seconds later...
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Which thus puts an end to Sammy’s bizarre misadventures.
Grinning a little, I quickly set my phone flat down on table, sensing a pair of heavy eyes peering at me from the window of the back office, and pretended to keep busy with wiping cups I’d already polished to a perfect shine for like the tenth time now.
Then faintly I heard the little jingle of chain, and when I looked back over at my phone, I saw a hand stretching over the counter.
“Nice keychain,” Irene remarked, her arm hovering over her half-drunken cup of chocolate latte, fiddling with the long stretch of narrow gold. “A gift?”
“Amanda,” I nodded, watching as she took the jagged ring attached to it between her fingers.
“Could have surmised that,” She said, still ogling the ring with a mild sense of interest. “And this, huh... Frederika’s ring, the first Divine. Never thought I’d see this here. It’s usually on the finger of her most devoted worshippers. Are you a fan?”
“It’s a nice gift,” was all I had to say. “Amanda says it was her lucky charm.”
“Lucky charm, hm?” She rose a brow at that, snorting. “You know, the legend goes that Frederika had this ring forged to act as a catalyst for her immense, infinite power... and upon her death, the ring was sadly lost to time. They say that whoever comes to possess her ring would also be endowed with the power and might of Kronocia’s first Divine.”
The First Divine, huh? Come to think of it, wasn’t Amanda’s character in the movie supposed to be like the great-great-great-great descendant of Frederika herself? Tressa Yar. Hmm, I wonder if this ring would ever come into play as a plot device.
“But alas,” Irene withdrew her arm back to her side of the counter. “If only it were actually true.”
“It isn’t?” I asked.
“Who knows?” She shrugged, lifting her pen back up and setting the tip down to the very top of an empty page she had set on a table. “How I know it, it’s merely just a bedtime tale for parents to appease their rowdy kids. True, untrue, whatever case... doesn’t really matter now, does it?”
“No, I suppose not,” I agreed, understanding what she meant by that. An entire realm decimated, kinda leaves this kinda mysteries forever unresolved never to be solved.
“But at any rate,” I said. “As it is now...it does kinda make for a very good present, don’t you think?”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” She said, glancing up with a faint smile, her hazel eyes gazing directly at the little swirl of red hanging against my chest. “I daresay I think I made the better choice here.”
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