Chapter 79: A Day For Redemption
David’s eyes settled on her and his brain took a second to catch up.
April Holliday. Standing at his door. At whatever ungodly hour this was.
’Why is she here.’
The last time they’d been in the same space he’d made contact with her ass in a way that was not — by any reasonable social standard — acceptable.
’One thing is for sure— She definitely still thinks I’m a pervert.’
He looked at her. She looked at him. Neither of them moved.
’Act cool. Act normal. You are a normal person who does normal things.’
He leaned against the doorframe and arranged his face into something casual. Easy. The expression of a man who had not just slayed a herd of magical beasts.
"Holly...hey... Avoid you? Me? No...I’ve just been busy, that’s all. Umm...What’s up?" he said.
April looked at him. Then she looked at him more carefully, identifying his faint bruises around his chin from the scratch one of the Silver-backed rabbits had landed on him.
"You look like shit," she said.
"Uhh...yeah...Rough night."
"Rough night? Did you get in a fight?..." She repeated it back to him, flat, like she was checking the weight of it. Then something shifted at the corner of her mouth.
"...Or were you out doing pervert things?"
"I’m not a pervert."
"That’s exactly what a pervert would say."
"That’s also what a non-pervert would say. You understand those are not mutually exclusive statements."
She tilted her head slightly. "So which one are you?"
"I’m the one who answered the door at—" he glanced back into the apartment at nothing in particular, "—whatever time this is. What do you want, April."
She didn’t answer that. Not directly. Just kept looking at him with that same expression, and he’d known her long enough to understand that the conversation would move at her pace and not his.
Then she said, "It’s been a week since your... ungodly actions. You really thought I’d just let it slide?"
David said nothing.
’ Shit...There it is...sigh... my time has come.’
He exhaled slowly through his nose. Looked at her standing there — arms loose at her sides, chin slightly lifted, waiting — and understood what this was.
’What should I do? What shou- an apology! That could actually work... and it does feel like the accurate thing to do.’
She deserved an apology. That was just the truth of it. Whatever the system thought of the situation, whatever complicated mess of circumstance had led to that moment — he’d misstepped. Badly. And the decent thing, the human thing, was to say so.
He straightened up off the doorframe.
"Ohh, yeah. No, no, I wasn’t expecting to just let it slide... umm, actually...Look." he said. "I owe you an apology." He met her eyes and kept them there. "What happened — that was a misstep. I shouldn’t have done it. It was wrong, and I’m sorry."
Silence.
April looked at him. Her expression didn’t change — not outwardly, not in any way she’d let him see — but something behind her eyes shifted just slightly. A recalibration. Like she’d walked in braced for a different conversation entirely.
’Hmm...he actually apologized?’ she thought. ’Just like that.’
She’d half-expected deflection. A joke. Something that put the thing just far enough away that neither of them had to touch it. Instead he’d just — said it. Plainly. And now she was the one standing here recalculating.
"If you didn’t feel the need to justify it," she said slowly, "why did you do it?"
David opened his mouth. Closed it.
Reasonable question, honestly.
"...I uhh...I actually don’t know. I just... did it." he lied.
April held his gaze for a moment longer. Then she exhaled — quiet, not quite a sigh — and said, "It’s okay."
He blinked. "Really-"
"But," she added, and the word landed with full structural weight, "I’m not forgiving you that easy. You’re going to have to make it up to me."
"Alright.. that’s fair." David said. "What do you want?"
She inspected him then. Unhurried. Eyes moving over him the way someone reads a document they’re deciding whether to sign, and he stood there and let it happen because there wasn’t a dignified alternative.
"Two things," she said finally. "First one — I can’t tell you yet."
’Huh? Then why the fuck is it a request? Puff... just go with the flow David.’ He thought.
"...Okay... and?"
"Second one I can tell you now."
"Those terms aren’t exactly inspiring confidence."
"Neither was you squeezing my ass."
It landed clean. David absorbed it.
"Noted," he said. "Alright. Deal."
David kept one hand on the door, the other braced against the frame.
"So....you said there was one you could tell me and one you couldn’t." He looked at her. "So which one can you tell me?"
April considered him for a moment. Like she was deciding how to present it.
"I want....A tour," she said. "Of your place."
David blinked.
’A tour.’
He turned that over once. Then again. Because the last word she’d had for him — to his face, with full conviction — was Ecchi. And now she was standing at his door asking to come inside.
Then again.
’She’s a hunter.’
E-rank. One above him. And if April Holliday had done the math and decided she could walk into his apartment without being in any immediate danger, that was probably less about trust and more about the fact that she could handle herself if it came to it. Which was fair enough.
"Ohh...umm..." David said. "Sure." He stepped back from the doorframe, pulling the door with him. "When do you want to do it?"
"Now."
"Now?"
"I’m already here, aren’t I?"
He looked at her, pausing for a moment as she looked at him. He gestured inside.
"Then come in."
April stepped past him without ceremony, and David stayed where he was for just a moment — one hand still on the door — watching her cross the threshold into his apartment.
’She actually wants to step into my place? This is for real a new discovery. ’
He let that land.
He was grateful — sincerely, privately grateful — that he had evolved to the kind of person who kept his apartment clean. Not spotless. But liveable. Nothing on the floor that shouldn’t be there, dishes dealt with, Eva’s enclosure hidden away from sight, not like he could get himself to toss her out.
’Play cool David....This is the first time April’s in my house,’ he thought. ’Better not mess this up.’
He pushed the door shut behind him.