"Boss?! What are you doing?!"
"It's just a little game I suddenly thought of to help you with your self deriding attitude. You have two options, take the key away from me forcefully or make me fall in love with you and get me to willingly return it. If you can't do either, then we'll just be stuck together like this forever."
"The bar is too high! Please lower it! Actually, no, what am I even saying? Would you stop messing around? We have to get to work."
"Then the choice is simple, reach in and take the key back. However, I can't promise you whether your job will be safe if you offend me in some way after going with the first choice."
"What the hell do you even mean by 'make you fall in love with me'?"
"I've only been in love once in my life Mr. Genovese. Since that person, I've never fallen in love again. I simply want to be able to fall in love with someone all over again."
"Why me? You can choose anyone you want. I'm sure there would be men lining up for miles if you announced you were looking for a relationship."
"I don't want a guy who'll just blindly chase after me. I'm more interested in the type that would challenge me and won't easily fall for me. Someone who also has similar interests and hobbies would be nice. The type of men that would chase after me without even knowing a thing about me, I have no interest in them."
"Mr. Genovese… no, Dio, am I so unattractive in your eyes that you wouldn't even consider me as a potential love interest?"
"It doesn't matter how attractive you are, if you're a psychopath I'll absolutely refuse."
"Even when I'm coming on to you this strongly, you'd still refuse me?"
"Like I said, if you're a psychopath I'll absolutely refuse."
She smiled beautifully as she pulled out the key herself and unlocked the handcuff on my wrist before she got up.
"I see. I'm glad."
"What's the meaning of this? I didn't accomplish either objective just now."
"Are you sure you didn't?"
"Of course I didn't."
"Wait. Boss, you don't-"
"Haha. Who knows, Dio?"
I was speechless, was she playing around with me yet again, or was she really serious?
"Dio, I'm slightly troubled on what I should do right now?"
"What are you talking about, shouldn't it be obvious what you should do? Naturally, we need to get our asses to work."
"That's not what I meant."
"Then what?"
"It's a bit troubling as I might be slightly psychotic after all."
"Boss, jokes like that aren't funny."
"Haaaah. It's always boss to you. Well, it's fine for now I suppose. I'll make sure you get used to calling me by my name in the future."
"No, calling you by name was just a one-time courtesy deal when I treated you to a meal. The offer has already expired."
"You mean when you took me on our first date, right?"
I didn't know how to respond, so I got up and diverted the topic, "Since we don't need to go to a locksmith any more, we should head to work."
"Running away? Did you get embarrassed by the fact you went on a date with your boss?"
"No." I actually was very embarrassed.
"Hmm? Weren't you going to take a shower and get ready before this little ordeal? Or did you change your mind and plan to just go as you are?"
"Ah. I forgot."
"Then hurry up and fix yourself up, you can't keep a lady waiting."
"What about your clothes? You can't seriously be considering going to work in those, right?"
"Why not?"
"Are you crazy?"
"I'm kidding of course. I'll give you a bonus on your next paycheck to compensate for your recent tardiness if you pass by my place on the way to work."
"Deal. You better not go back on your word."
"How rude, I would never go back on my word. Now hurry up and get ready."
As she'd urged me, I grabbed my clothes and a towel; I quickly shaved, took a shower, and brushed my teeth all in the short span of fifteen minutes. When I exited the bathroom, I was greeted by her eyeing me up and down curiously before she shook her head in disappointment.
"You're such a letdown. I was hoping for you to shake off the water in your hair dramatically while sending the droplets flying in slow motion in all directions when you got out."
"Like hell that's going to happen." I'm not a hot hunk in a movie.
"Can't you at least have more sex appeal or give a girl a bit of eye candy and come out with your dress shirt unbuttoned?"
"What?" I stared back at her with a deadpan expression as I wondered what really went through that brain of hers.
"I'm just kidding, don't take it so seriously."
"Right... Sorry for doing the normal thing and not taking every opportunity to make girls go crazy about my nonexistent ripped body."
"Haha. You're not that bad despite not working out though."
"How would you know that?"
"It's not that I was a bit curious and took a look while you were asleep or anything."
"You did what now?"
"Nothing. Forget about it. Let's go already."
"Hey, wait. You can't just escape when it's convenient for you."
We were beside the exit and she opened the door with the intention of running out and fleeing from me, but the moment I saw outside I instinctively latched onto her hand to stop her.
It wasn't that I intended to stop her from escaping, but rather, what I saw startled me. I really thought she was about to die just now. What was it I saw behind the door?
Nothing.
It was a dark empty void as far as the eye could see. There was a small rocky ledge connected to the exit, but that was all. Below the ledge was a dark bottomless chasm with no end in sight.
She looked at me with a weird puzzled expression and asked, "Mr. Genovese, what are you doing?"
"What do you mean what am I doing?"
"Could it be you had some naughty thoughts in mind and wanted to prevent me from leaving so you could keep me all to yourself?"
"Absolutely not. Sorry."