It was just a matter of tightening several loose screws to repair the ventilation system.
"that's all" I said to Lillie when I arrived at the reception" sorry for not coming so soon, how are your kids?".
Lillie had arrived in District 5 a couple of years ago with her couple of children, Glen had rescued her from District 11 a couple of years ago, when Lillie was working in dirty places. It was a blessing for that woman, who wanted to escape from that hell. She was a lady in her thirties, she was beautiful in her youth, district 11 molded her but when she came to district 5, she was beautiful again.
"we're fine" she said, " thanks for asking".
"It's nothing Lillie, I'm glad they're okay."
"You are very kind to help Glen" said Lillie, " everyone in the district appreciates you. I know it's none of my business, but that friend you brought, he doesn't look like he needs much help."
But it was worth a try, Wallace would be a congressman just like his father; so if Wallace knew how the unfortunate lived, maybe he could create laws that would help the most unfortunate.
"he's one of ours" I said at last, raising my men.
I took some coins out of my pants, it must have been about five thousand Jolts and tried to hand them to Lillie.
"try to take care of Wallace," I said, but Lille pulled her hands away.
"I will do what you ask without money, my family owes you a lot," said Lillie.
It's not like he owed me a lot, I fixed several appliances for him in the past without charging much, at the time he had fixed the building's ventilation system, what he was doing was owing me more to feel a real debt.
Between a little negotiation in the end I got him to accept two thousand Jolts, that helped my alibi so I could keep an eye on Wallace.
I walked out of the building with a smile on my face, took my slider out of my backpack and started to descend to the main floor of district 5 so I could get to my workshop.
It was too late to open the academy and fix the ventilation system. To my misfortune, there were several customers waiting at the entrance.
"Hi Aaron" they said when they saw me pass by, with a certain cheerful tone in their voice, as if we were old acquaintances.
Several of them had several devices to fix, others came to pick up parts.
"I'm sorry I was late " I said, but no one reprimanded me for that.
I actually never had a customer complain, other than a fat guy who came in with an old screen demanding that I fix it, he had burned the chips doing I don't know what and I told him it was best to buy another one. Of course I offered him several I had in the shop, but the jerk attacked me saying I was a scammer.
I had the customers come through in order of importance, handing over the appliances that were ready and then checking the new appliances they were bringing to me.
At the end of the day I fixed the appliances that I could fix that day and the others I put in the repair room for Bill to take care of.
It was a good day, I had outwitted Carter, done Glen a favor and made some good money. All that was left was to keep working on my power generator.
I went up to my room and stood in front of my desk, Bill decided to follow me, but I didn't blame him, he was a slacker who refused to work at night with the silly excuse that he had to rest to replenish his energy.
I started to place the new chips in my generator to start soldering them, when my display bracelet started beeping.
I decided to ignore it when I noticed that it was only a notification, which meant it was not urgent. But after a while, my curiosity got the better of me and I opened the screen.
Stupid Carter had sent me a video, it was a mistake when I decided to share my contact with him.
Press open the video and I observed a room that was too tidy, despite the wall that was too rusty and the opaque windows that let in too little light.
There was a bed in the center, with a blue bedspread that counterbalanced the dresser next to it. Above the dresser was a five-pointed star-shaped lamp with a small box underneath it.
He must have had about ten magazines on top of the dresser, I was curious as to what the knucklehead might read, maybe they were comics or something of little knowledge for him to understand.
My mind went to shit when Carter appeared half-naked, walking on the bed with a toy in his hand.
I couldn't help but stare at his well-sculpted body, his huge arms that must have measured the same width as his face and his huge back that doubled his size. Damn.
Bill appeared from behind me and I turned off the screen before the stupid robot looked at something it shouldn't have.
"Shit Bill" I said.
"Isn't that the friend you brought the other day, who was looking like he was crazy?" said Bill in his strange robotic voice.
"no, it's not and you're not interested, get out of here" I said, feeling the embarrassment start to creep up my face.
"but master, my hour of work is over".
"shit Bill, I told you to leave, how can you be so curious about those things if you are a robot" I repeated.
The robot wanted to protest, but I said nothing, stood up and walked to the door of my room, opening it to make sure the stupid robot actually came out.
I closed the door behind him and locked it, I didn't want Bill to get into what he cared about.
I sat back down at my desk and thought it best to delete the video and get back to work.
Carter was an airhead, he shouldn't have taken my words literally, I was only joking with him and he had been too stupid to take it into account.
I reopened my screen and making sure Bill was really gone, I looked at the video Carter had sent me.
Shit, I thought, when I replayed it.
***
I downloaded the pervesion in my hands and then turned off the screen.
Stupid and sensual Carter.
I had to delete that video before I was tempted to watch it again.
There was a bigger problem though, in a few hours I would see him again at the academy, what face would I look at him with? I couldn't pretend that I had been thinking about him while he was touching me, he wouldn't pretend that he had sent me that video either.
It would have been better if I hadn't opened my mouth so Carter wouldn't have turned into a jerk.