THERE IS A QUICK FLASH OF EMBARRASSMENT that makes itself known upon his face when she references robin hood. it’s not an unfamiliar thought, as the son of hermes himself has considered the very idea numerous times throughout his own…career. yet, knowing himself too well, believing he’s yet unworthy to take up such a mantle of a legendary man from debatable history, anton has never been so bold as to make the overt reference, preferring instead to make it one of his goals to reach the heights that the myth has. or at least somewhere close. “well, i mean, robin hood’s not real… i am. but i guess that technically works?” he tries to shrug it off, hoping she wouldn’t ask more about that, downplaying his own delight at freya’s comparison: she thinks i can be like robin hood? whoa there, anton, don’t poop where you eat. you can’t date business partners. that never ends well. then again, she’s technically your boss, so not a business partner?
“oh, well, uhh,” he takes in a breath when she asks more about the thing with the heph kid. in retrospect, he should’ve expected that, but his own muddled, cluttered, often barely coherent train of thought when put on the spot made it a little more difficult. fortunately, the memory was fresh, the event happened not so long ago, and the heph kid is still on campus tasing willing freshmen volunteers for a youtube video. “there’s this weird heph kid who posted this notice on the bulletin board, right? asking for paid volunteers to test his new security system, so i was like, paid? i can definitely do this. so i hit him up and we talked and he told me to just try and break into his workshop that night. i called up a few friends, for, like, support, one of them was his own sister, and she gave me this thing to help work some magic against his passcode, his electronic combination lock thing. but he had a guy or two guarding the place. i managed to sneak in, take them down without provoking a fight, and voila! i was in. unfortunately, my employer must’ve forgotten about our arrangement because moments after i proved his system needed more work, he arrived at his workshop with a girl. they were smooching all over, rip my eyeballs. i tried to get out of there but i tripped an alarm because i just really wanted to get out of there. when he caught me, he laughed and said his system was superior but i said i was already in there before he knew i was in there and the only reason i tripped the alarm was because i didn’t want to see them naked. i mean, i’ve already seen the girl naked but that’s beside the point. anyway, he laughed it off, told me he’ll wire me the money, and call me again if he needed more tests. he didn’t. i mean, he didn’t call me again. he did wire me the money, though, but it’s already gone, so…” he heaves a sigh of relief, more for the satisfying fact that he’s finished telling the story than anything.
when she expresses interest in sponsoring his idea, his eyes light up, his grin grows wider, almost matching if not exceeding her own. “oh, just a small amount of money… like $10,000.00 in upfront investment, an insurance between $3,000.00 to $6,000.00 per year, and uhm something for a physical office? i mean, we can do a shared office space, to be honest, but i’m not sure where to find one,” he lets out an awkward chuckle, losing confidence in the fact that he technically did not expect to get this far in the conversation. he didn’t even remember the part about licensing and legal registration costs. oof.
his reaction causing a sheepish smile to appear on her lips, “right. sorry.” her lack of knowledge in these things more than evident. she may have been a lot of things but street smart was easily not one of them. books were her preferred method of choice. she loved learning new facts through them, living vicariously through characters from her beloved novels. which is why she’s probably in over her head with the deal she’s making with anton not that it serves as any indication for her to want to back out.
she nods slowly, clinging on to his every word. “oh, wow.” an entertained expression is written across her face as she chuckles lightly at his story. it sounded wild, to say the least, but nonetheless proved to be a very interesting story. she can’t help but laugh. there’s no party within that story that she would liked to have been but then again, freya’s better at listening to these things than living them. “that sounds like one heck of job. i’m sorry he didn’t call you back though, it sounds like you did everything you were suppose to but glad you got paid.” she can’t help but feel a little sorry for him. she was all too familiar with that type of employer. her father being the prime example of using others and then spitting them back out when he no longer rendered their services. it was something that frustrated freya to no end.
“so, twenty thousand dollars, give or take?” it’s definitely a lot less than she had been expecting him to say and for a moment, she’s actually disappointed it’s not more. that amount of money she can easily fund herself and even if she were to take it from her dad’s account, she knows it’s not enough to make a dent big enough for him to notice. it was pocket change for the one perfect, as much as she hated to associate herself within that group. her attempt at a rebellious streak proving futile, though she’s still interested to see what anton can do with it. “that’s fine,” she answers with no hesitation, “don’t get me wrong, though. why would i need an office?"