87 Party (1)

The next day, Kyro was holding a small staff meeting when Gale called. It was to the business phone, so he knew it wasn't important and ignored it. Instead, he listened to the reports, glad that they were positive so far. If everything continued this way, then they should succeed in this venture.

His phone lit up again with the call. 'What's going on with that guy?' he wondered and turned his phone over so it wouldn't distract the staff. They were already glancing at it with worry, wondering if they should stop speaking. "Continue," he told the speaker. Since it was his business phone, there was no rush to answer it.

Or so he thought. By the time the meeting ended half an hour later, he had thirty missed calls, all of them from Gale.

"Have you gone crazy? If it's important, call my personal number," he said upon calling back.

"It's not," Gale assured him, his voice light and cheery. "I just wanted to speak with you." When Kyro said nothing, he continued, "I'm bored and I didn't want to forget it, so I called you a couple times. Knew you wouldn't answer until you were free anyway."

"Couple times…" Kyro couldn't help shaking his head in wonder. Gale sometimes acted like a five year old. "So what's up?"

A greeting came from the other side, and Gale quickly said his goodbyes. "The investor came, need to talk to him now. Will tell you later. Bye!" And he ended the call.

Kyro pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it for a moment. Was Gale serious? He called him thirty times and when he called back he was told to wait until the meeting ended? 'That irresponsible, uncouth…'

"Mr. Hemming, you need to leave now to be on time for your meeting with the new manufacturer," Lara said, poking her head into the now empty meeting room.

"Thanks, I'll be going in a moment."

…

At home, Iris was having a dance party. She couldn't believe that she had finally gotten access to Kyro's computer. It took her a couple tries still, but in the end she managed to get through the login screen.

As she stared at his simple rainy forest desktop, she was lost for a moment. 'What now?' She'd been so focused on reaching the goal of getting access to a computer that she had never considered what she'd do with it.

Her first thought was to check her social media, but as she was writing the website's name in the private window's search bar, she stopped. What would be the point? The Iris to whom those profiles belonged was no longer her. Her logging in would also alert her old friends, which would be a catastrophe.

There were probably a couple messages sent to her already, but so far they hadn't been read. But if her friends saw that she read and ignored them, wouldn't that hurt them even more? It wasn't like she could answer them safely, either.

Nothing might happen out of it, but what if someone decided to track her IP or something and actually fly over to check this place? She wasn't certain how it worked, but she didn't want to risk it. If anyone came, she wouldn't be able to live with the guilt; they wouldn't find anything, and Kyro's life would have been seriously disturbed.

But logic isn't always easy to hold onto. Although she could tell herself that not speaking to her friends was for the better, what about Aunt Maddie? The letter before, had it reached her? Had she replied something?

Iris was tempted to open her mail, but every time she came close to typing in her password, she hesitated. Would it really be for the better? Aunt Maddie must have come to an understanding by now, and tearing her heart open again couldn't be a good thing.

If there was a way to return, keeping contact would be the smart choice, but now… 'I won't be coming back. Since I'll live and die as a fox, it's better to have hurt her once instead of extending the suffering. One disappearance is preferable to constant refusals to show oneself, tell what's going on, or even consider coming back.'

Resolutely, she closed the mail tab and went to look for cat videos. Although Lucifer was in the house, he wasn't as cute as young kittens. And he might wack her with his paw if she tried to move him from his perch on the sofa's backrest.

…

Late in the afternoon, Kyro finally received Gale's call.

"What's up?" he asked, whispering "Gale" to Jimmy who nodded in understanding and motioned at the papers, saying he'll read them then.

There was a tearing sound from the other end. "The bastard kept me busy for six hours, going in circles again and again only to say he had no interest in investing in our company. He was just here to see me, since apparently my father suggested that I could be a perfect match for his daughter."

"Did he find you fitting?" Kyro asked, barely holding back a laugh. He could feel his friend's frustration, but it was still amusing how far his parents went to have him married off.

"Shut up," growled Gale, tearing something again. "I'm going to smother that old man one of these days. If he takes up another working hour of mine, I'm seriously cutting myself off from that damn family. Wonder how they're gonna get their precious grandson then."

Kyro sighed. They had enough problems with running the company itself, but Gale's parents kept interfering again and again, this last one being one of their mildest attempts at a distraction.

"You're going to visit them?"

"Hell no!" Gale refused like Kyro had suggested something blasphemous. "I'm gonna get so drunk that I'll forget I have a family. Oh! And I'll do it at your place, this Friday."

"No."

"Yes! You'll be holding a party anyway, I heard from Jimmy. That's why I was calling before. Why the hell was I the last to know about it? Are we even friends still? How can you not tell me about a party at your house?"

Kyro was having a hard time following the conversation. What party? Why his house? And most importantly, why was he hearing about it for the first time?

"You said Jimmy told you?"

"Yeah! He- Wait! You can't be seriously angry that I got invited?" Gale said, shock evident in his voice. "You—"

"We'll talk later. I need to talk with a certain somebody who's been sending invitations to a party I didn't know I was holding." He then ended the call to Gale's laughter and turned to Jimmy, who was very diligently reading the reports on his table. In fact, he was so serious about it, he didn't even look up when Kyro put away his phone. "So… what is this I'm hearing about a party?"