Chapter 33: An Annoyed Aria

Chapter 33: An Annoyed AriaLillian dropped her bag somewhere in their living room before crashing face first into the couch.

Exhaustion crashing into her like a freight train.

Balancing school with OmniTech Corp has been anything but easy. Luckily she had quit her part-time job else she was sure she would’ve passed out from exhaustion by now.

The door to their apartment opened again but Lillian didn’t move a muscle or even bother looking up to see who it was.

After all, there was only two people with access to this apartment, so she didn’t need to look up to know that Aria was back.

Aria shut the door behind her with a soft click and kicked off her boots, the sound of her steps were smooth, almost as if she was tiptoeing although she was not.

There was a slight frown on her face seeing how Lillian lay on the couch but she said nothing...not yet anyway.

Lillian still didn’t move. "If you brought food, I love you. If not... I still love you, but slightly less."

There was a pause. Then, the familiar scent of something spicy hit her nose.

"I brought jollof," Aria said coolly.

Lillian’s arm shot up blindly in the direction of the voice. "Marry me."



"No thanks," Aria replied, placing the takeout bag on the kitchen counter. "You snore."

"I don’t snore," Lillian mumbled into the couch.

"You talk in your sleep."

"Lies."

Aria ignored her and walked further in, shrugging off her leather jacket and tossing it over the nearest chair.

"Did you wash up yet?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

Lillian groaned in response, her voice muffled into the couch cushions. "Mentally, yes. Physically, I’ve merged with the furniture."

"That’s disgusting," Aria replied, but there was a faint trace of amusement in her tone.

"Don’t judge me," Lillian mumbled. "I just spent six hours finalizing our hires and another three with media companies for the launch of our first software."

"Isn’t your PR team supposed to handle that?" Aria asked as she moved the Jollof from the takeaway packs to two bowls.

"Well yes, but the PR team is not completely set-up yet since I just completed the hires, so that falls to me." Lillian answered with a groan.

"You’re doing too much," Aria said bluntly, crossing the room and tossing Lillian a pillow from one of the couches. "Here. Hug something before you explode."

"I’ll explode after dinner," Lillian muttered, hugging the pillow anyway. "Thanks."

Aria then handed her a bowl before going back to the kitchen for hers, "what about Ethan? What’s he doing?"

Aria would never say it out loud, well not until she confirmed it, but by the way it sounded, it seemed like Ethan was just using her friend, a fact that didn’t sit well with her.



Maybe it was finally time she met this Ethan dude.

"Well he’s the brains behind the software so he’s making sure it’s ready for release," Lillian answered.

"And by ’making sure,’ you mean...?" Aria asked, eyebrow raised as she returned with her own bowl and dropped onto the armchair beside the couch.

Lillian gave a half-shrug without lifting her head. "Just... y’know, doing whatever to make sure the software launch doesn’t go wrong. He doesn’t exactly update me step by step."

Aria narrowed her eyes. "So while you’re juggling contracts, media, hiring, and handling a company in transition, he’s just sitting behind a screen?"

Lillian groaned. "It’s not like that. He’s been working too—on Sentinel’s backend, optimization, the launch patch—stuff I can’t even begin to understand. We split things based on our strengths, remember?"

Aria didn’t respond immediately. She just stabbed her fork into the bowl and chewed a little more aggressively than necessary.

"I get it," she said finally. "Division of labor. He’s the genius coder, you’re the COO, blah blah corporate synergy."

Lillian lifted her head just enough to blink tiredly at her. "Are you mad at him or mad at me?"

"I’m mad at the fact that you always return from work with barely any energy to do anything else."

"I’m fine Aria, it’s just that there’s always a lot of work during the early stages of a company especially when we’re simultaneously trying to launch a product during our setup phase." Lillian answered.

"Plus it’s not like Ethan’s dumping everything on me," she continued, "he’s the one who handles the deals and acquisition besides, he also makes sure to remind me not to burn myself out."

"Yeah real convenient," Aria muttered, "especially when he ’doesn’t see’ that you’re buried under work he benefits from."

Lillian didn’t say anything for a long moment. Then she softly said, "I’m not being used, Aria."

"I didn’t say you were," she said a bit too quickly.

"You implied it."



"I implied that if he doesn’t show he values you as much as he benefits from your work, I’m going to start asking questions."

Lillian sat up now, "Aria, I chose this. He didn’t ask me to stay up late reviewing resume or to be picky about hires. I’m the one who said, ’Let me handle the launch logistics.’ I want OmniTech to succeed."

"Good," Aria said, stabbing another forkful of rice. "Because the moment you don’t want to anymore, I’m dragging you out of there by your hair."

There was a moment of silence.

Lillian understood that Aria was only just worried about her, especially since this was the third time she had returned this exhausted.

That and the fact that Aria had recently learnt of her past. So it was understandable that she was this protective.

"Listen Aria," she started softly, "I know I made a bad call in the past before moving here but I promise... this is different."

Aria didn’t seem convinced. In her eyes, Lillian was someone, who although rarely interacted with people, trusted a little too easily.

A fact proven by her past. A past that made her the Lillian she was just a few weeks back but Aria had no choice but to trust her for now, so she just let out a sigh.

"Fine, I’ll trust you for now," she said "But if I even smell burnout on you again, I’m marching into your fancy OmniTech boardroom and flipping a table. I don’t care who’s watching."

Lillian let out a tired laugh, the kind that sounded more like a wheeze than actual humor. "Please don’t flip anything. The boardroom table was expensive."

With that, they let the tension fade as they laughed together and resumed eating with Aria talking about her day.