It had been more than an hour, and Daemon was leaving the apartment building, with Cynthia by his side. She was seeing him off now that the dinner was over. Even if the latter had taken a different turn after the thanks had been conveyed, the resulting atmosphere didn't make any of them waste the food.
The cool evening wind moved the hair that Cynthia was trying to tuck behind her ear. And because of the thin fabric of the clothing she had over her dress, she was forced to cross her arms in front to preserve some heat.
Daemon saw her reaction from the corner of the eyes and spoke:
"Go back, you don't need to see me off further."
Cynthia smiled, but she didn't agree immediately:
"About what my father said, please don't take it to heart."
Daemon stopped walking.
"He is just a father concerned about his daughter and her future. I didn't take it to heart."
Cynthia hid her slight disappointment.
"Maybe. But I know that you are having your own troubles. It was wrong of him to intervene and ask for a commitment from you when you are not ready."
"You are not wrong, and neither was he. Let's leave it at that."
"I will listen to you."
She smiled, then tried to appear cute:
"Since you are not angry, can you be my companion for a party held one week later?"
Daemon hid the beginning of a frown that showed on his face.
"Why? What kind of party?"
"It is a party organized by the company, a mid-year party. It is for the employees and the friends of the company. And I'm asking you because I would be happy to have you with me at the event."
He didn't reply immediately, so she hurried to add:
"Take it as a chance to relax. If not for me, you might have become a recluse after you left the hospital."
He gave her a faint look, but she was not wrong.
"And I won't force you to stay till the end. You can leave whenever you feel like it."
The prolonged silence made her fear a possible rejection. She got an idea and changed her tactic. She gently held his arm and said:
"I have no one to go with. You won't let a beautiful girl like me go by her lone self, will you?"
"What about Kelly, Jane and Rachel? You can invite them to go with you."
"How is that the same? Moreover, they can already go by themselves. I gave them invitations. But if I go alone, it will look like I have no charm as a woman."
Daemon was still reluctant. Unlike the nightclub where everyone was a stranger to each other, the party would have people trying to socialize. That was a killjoy for someone like him who only wanted some period of calm.
But from another perspective, it was also a good way to step out of his past. Going to a party, not for a mission, but as a normal person. To be frank, he had never done that.
Looking at Cynthia suppressing her reactions to the cold, he relented:
"Alright, but…"
"That's great, it's a promise. I will prepare everything for you, even the smoking, just don't forget."
Cynthia almost jumped in happiness. To prevent any unforeseen circumstances, she hurried to seal the deal, kissed him on the cheek, and ran back inside.
"See you in a week. Be careful on the way."
That was the last thing she said before disappearing around the corner, leaving behind, in the wind, Daemon who could only swallow the end of his sentence.
He shook his head, before going to the roadside to hail a cab.
The next day, he left the hotel as usual and went to the rented apartment.
There, he first went through his notes, ensuring that his plan and his calculations had a tolerable margin of error. He didn't want to disable or kill himself by accident when the time came.
After that, he did a check on the suit he had been making. As it might get troubled by sweat when worn, he had to figure out how to avoid having the latter get in the way.
He nodded after the check, and powered up the laptop he had bought.
Buying some softwares, and getting a few others for free, he used the rest of the day to prepare for the creation of the brain of his project.
The following period, he calibrated his tools, then started coding. The suit he made was supposed to have electric currents travel through the electrodes to serve their purpose. But those currents had to be regulated, their frequency and intensity varying accordingly. And the situation was determined thanks to some electrodes that were for checking the state of the body.
So the software he was building needed to be able to receive the information, understand it, process it, and adjust the settings of the suit.
That was even more time consuming than putting the suit together. Unlike during the conception stage where it had been more difficult to determine the least difficult and time consuming part of the project.
With a busy mind, Daemon lost track of time. Only when his phone rang from the alarm he had set did he come back to reality.
He looked at the displayed 6 PM, and knew that the time to leave his routine had arrived. It had already been one week since he had had dinner at Cynthia's place. He saved his work in more than one emplacement, locked the computer, then the apartment.
He returned to his hotel to take a shower.
Cynthia had proposed he take the shower at her place where she had his clothes ready, but he was not dense, nor was he oblivious to her interest in him, so he declined.
That made him think of how he declined more than one chance to enjoy himself when he had been on active duty. The reason made his mind drift away, leaving him to wear something casual practically on automatic mode.
Even in the cab, his faraway expression remained. He passed by without even noticing the scenery.
"Sir, we are here."
The voice of the driver made him come back to the present. He was in front of the building housing Cynthia's apartment already.
He took a deep breath, then exhaled to leave the negative thoughts behind.
When he left the car, his face returned to its calm mask. And by the time he reached Cynthia's door, his stoic armor was back in place.
Ignore and override. It was a low level way to deal with his emotions, but that would do for now.