“Mmm,” She nodded. “I’d like that,” Marisa responded before her mind really had a chance to process his request. But once it did oh did her thoughts exploded in half a dozen different directions. Thankfully he wasn’t wearing one of her special earrings otherwise they would have surely overwhelmed him.
It wasn’t so much the frequency that caused her to panic, two hours a week wasn’t much time. If anything it was more that she’d have to make sure to set an alarm on her tablet as a reminder because one day often flowed so seamlessly into the next that she lost track of time so easily.
However, he was different. Samir experienced days, nights, and the passing of seasons. He had a job and family, moonlighted as a General in the late evenings, as well as a budding relationship. Two hours a week, not including shopping, might prove to be too much of a strain on his free time. But more than that she didn’t want to give Alpersite any reason to doubt Samir’s commitment to him.
Early in her relationship with Wolframite, she had been kind of demanding with his time. He had several partners before her and she did
not want him coming back to their dorm with any of their scents. He upheld the promises he’d made but still, she worried, compared herself to former flings she’d never met, and tried to live up to unrealistic expectations impressed upon herself because in her heart she knew that eventually he would no longer be interested in having her around and at times it felt like that day was already here.
That worry aside, there was another reason for her to feel apprehensive about the suggestion… Money.
Three years now she has been without a job. If she’d been smart then she would have used the time to look into investment funds or cryptocurrency, something to gain a passive income to support herself since there was no way for her to make money in the Dark Kingdom. The jobs here were not paid, they were, as far as she was aware, just an expectation of those with power to fulfill certain tasks.
At most, the best she could do was treasure dive in the off-season to retrieve items lost in rivers, lakes, or the reservoir and pawn them off. It wasn’t much but kept things going- kind of.
The last thing she wanted to be thought of as a freeloader or leech. Not due to lack of trying, but more so that aside from a freak show at a moving circus, there weren't any jobs looking to hire a half-youma and part-time jobs would require at least four to six-hour shifts which far exceeded her allotted glamour time. Aside from stealing from the people she drained, something she did not partake in, there wasn’t much she could do and for one reason or another, asking for help didn’t feel like an option.
“Just, if things come up, be sure to let me know. Ok?” Marissa smiled sincerely but her heart still ached at the thought of it.
