Maria Rodriguez' head was in the clouds for the rest of the day.
Cute.
That word kept repeating in her head. That demonoid girl sure was nice, she thought. Unlike those three. Her blood boiled just whenever those stupid faces came into her head.
Well, no matter. She had better things to do anyway.
"Ummm... Young... Miss...?" Alejandro, who was sweating bullets from doing a plank, spoke up. "It's six now... How... long are we gonna be like this?
Mateo was beside him doing a plank too. But unlike Alejandro, he was barely damp. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying it.
"Wassup Alejandro?" he asked in a condescending tone. "Can't take a bit of muscle training?"
"Shut up, boy," Alejandro barked.
Maria sighed and broke their form by kicking their arms free. The two immediately hit the ground with a thud and proceed to lay there while gasping for air.
[If I catch you slacking again, I'll do something worse] she signed.
"Y-yes boss," the two said in unison.
[Now I'm gonna check your fridge. There better be food in there or I'm gonna kick your asses.]
"There should be some, Young Miss," Alejandro immediately replied. "I was in charge of stocking our supplies."
Maria headed to the kitchen and when she opened her fridge, she found a variety of food. Some were even foreign to her. Satisfied, she grabbed what were familiar to her and immediately started cooking.
"You really don't have to do this, Young Miss," Alejandro said while wearing a worried look.
"Ey just let her do it man," Mateo chimed in. "She's practicing for her man. I'm just glad Ricardo ain't here."
Alejandro chuckled nervously. "Yeah... It would've been a pain."
[Go clean up. You two stink,] she signed. [And prepare the table. I'll text Andrew to come here for dinner]
"Thanks Young Miss," Alejandro said.
"Same," Mateo added.
And before long, she was all alone with her thoughts once again. Cooking has a special place in her heart. It was a place where she could think and express herself in a way that she couldn't through words.
"I heard she's actually an Orc and she's wearing an artifact to look cutesy like that."
The words from the Elf came back suddenly in her mind.
She caressed her left arm and felt the metallic band that hugged it. Where did she hear that rumor from? Was that how other races see Orc women? Ugly?
She certainly took a peek of her true body before and for her, it was actually a noble form. A form filled with strength. But now she wondered. If Andrew saw the real her instead of her human form, would he have agreed to marry her?
While these thoughts swirled in her head, she eventually finished using the stove and was able to take out her phone. Time to send him a message.
She wrote some, then deleted, wrote again, and erased. She couldn't seem to find the words to send him. So she crafted and crafted. And as she became increasingly frustrated for minutes, a shadow suddenly appeared in her peripheral.
"Hey, cutie. Why so angry?"
Maria, in her surprise, immediately punched towards the direction of the voice. A sudden boom filled the room and a crack formed at a wall, but she hit nothing but air. In her other hand, her phone was completely shattered from the grip she exerted on it.
"Oh my god! Thank goodness I appeared in mist form first!" the voice yelled.
As Maria calmed down, she finally saw the figure who suddenly appeared. It was a deformed mist of a familiar face with four eyes and pink skin. She snapped her fingers in recognition. It was the demonoid girl receptionist she met earlier!
Upon realizing her mistake, Maria immediately bowed and apologized profusely. As much as she could without using words.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she chuckled as her mist form returned to how it was. "No harm, no foul."
She was the same beautiful creature she was during office hours. But compared to her prim and proper office lady uniform, she wore a slightly loose and revealing night dress.
"Intruders?"
"Imma kill them!"
The commotion seemed to have sent the guys on alert as they stumbled towards the kitchen with nothing but towels that barely covered their private areas.
"What was that noise, Young Miss?" Alejandro asked with voice full of concern.
"Is that her?" Mateo asked as he pointed a knife at the floating demonoid woman. "Should I kill her?"
[It's fine guys. It's someone I know,] she signed.
Alejandro sighed in relief and immediately dropped his guard.
Meanwhile, Mateo clicked his tongue as he went back to the bathroom. "Imma finish my shower. Just tell me when the food's ready," he said, slightly annoyed.
[Aren't you gonna go back too?]
"Nah, I actually just finished," Alejandro replied. "So? Who's she? I hope she's your new friend."
[Right, uhh... this was...] Maria started but immediately drew a blank since she never actually knew her name. To fix this, she tried to tap her shoulder but since she was made of mist, her hand went through her. She then did the next best thing to get her attention and waved her hands in front of her, but still nothing.
In fact, the demonoid girl's eyes were totally fixated on Alejandro. Her cheeks were a little red, and her mouth drooling a little.
Maria narrowed her eyes and snapped her fingers in front of her to demand her attention.
"Oh wh-wha?" she finally noticed Maria. "S-sorry uh..." she glanced at Alejandro again and looked at her current attire. "I'll be right back."
After saying that, she disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"You have an interesting new friend there," Alejandro chuckled.
Maria shrugged and sighed.
After a few moments, she reappeared again but this time, she wore a wholesome, red night gown. It still hugged her curves but it was far more conservative compared to her previous outfit.
Maria reached out to touch her shoulders and this time, she was able to touch her. She repeatedly touched her just to make sure.
"Yes, yes, it's the real me this time," she chuckled. "And by the way, my name's Rosemary."
"Nice to meet you, Rosemary," Alejandro chimed in. "Name's Alejandro Lopez."
"Lopez... So Rosemary Lopez...?" Rosemary muttered under her breath.
Maria raised an eyebrow as she was close enough to hear it. Alejandro, however, was none the wiser.
Maria grabbed a nearby pen and paper, wrote her name on it, and presented it to her.
"Oh, I know, cutie," she said as she patted her head. "Andrew's been talking about you. And I'm actually here because I sensed some sadness in you before you were leaving."
"Sensing emotions? That's impressive," Alejandro said.
"I'm half demon babe," she said in a more sultry tone. "Sensing emotion and desire's kinda our thing."
Maria recoiled a bit at Rosemary's sudden change of attitude. She also scanned her new choice of clothing and glanced at Alejandro who was seriously taking note on what she just said. Then her mind connected the dots on her new acquaintance's behavior. She sighed and patted Rosemary's shoulders. She chose a tough nut to crack, she thought.
"Anyway, I came here bearing gifts!" she said and pulled out a picture from her pocket. "I was thinking that you might be upset because of what those bitches were talking about. So, I dug up some old company photos and found this!"
Rosemary handed it to Maria. And as soon as she saw it, her eyes went wide.
"What's that?" Alejandro, curious at his boss' reaction, also took a peek. "Woah, that's curious..."
Soon after, Mateo came back to the kitchen. "Wassup guys. Is the food ready?" he asked. But no one answered. Seeing the three huddled, he squeeze between them to take a look at what was distracting them. "Woah dude, really?" he snorted.
That reaction earned him a punch on the shoulder from Maria.
"Agh!" he yelped.
"Was she...?" Alejandro trailed.
"Andrew's ex-girlfriend?" Rosemary smirked. "Hell yeah."
Maria rubbed her eyes and took a look again just to make sure it wasn't an illusion. It was the same picture. A picture of Andrew being carried princess-style by a tall, muscular, goth woman.
Rosemary then pulled out a few more photos of muscular women of varying sizes.
"And these were the women that Andrew were interested in during his time at the Academy," she presented proudly.
"Oh my god! Dude's got a type!" Mateo laughed.
"Quite a choice indeed," Alejandro cleared his throat.
"So see, cutie?" Rosemary sad as she cupped Maria's face with her hands. "Don't let those bitches shame who you really are. I don't know why you hide your true form, but even if you show it to Andrew, he'd be the last person to hate you. In fact, I think he'll absolutely fall in love with you then."
Maria was stunned. She looked at the photos again. Her husband was a weirdo, at least by normal standards. But to her, he turned out to be perfect.
Holding back tears, Maria embraced Rosemary.
"You're welcome, cutie," she smiled as she caressed her hair.
"Good for you, Young Miss," Alejandro added.
"Welp, glad the boss got a weirdo who'd admire her muscles," Mateo chuckled. "So where's the food? I'm starving!"
At that moment, a slipper flew at his face.