Starting Your Morning with the Doll

Evan felt a blush creep on his cheeks, immediately looking away from her gaze.

"Yeah," was his stupid reply.

Curse him and his inability to think straight so early in the morning!

"Oh!" she exclaimed as she pulled away from his arm. Evan immediately missed her warmth. "I'm sorry for falling asleep on you like this! Your arm must feel sore right now."

Evan shook her head, feeling in awe at how courteous she was.

Not like he'll admit it, though.

"It's nothing," he replied coolly, as if he wasn't caught staring at her like a sparkling vampire creep. "Anyway, what's our agenda for today?"

She tilted her head to the side like a confused puppy. This seemed to be a running gag between them. It's a running gag that he will never get tired of.

"What do you mean?"

"We can't laze around here all day, Eternity," Evan pointed out. "I also have work today, so you have to do your bidding in the apartment."

"I can't go with you?" she asked.

"You lack a basic understanding of how the world works, Eternity," he pointed out. "You're like a tabula rasa that needs to be filled with information before you can set foot in the real world. Futhermore," he emphasized. "People would talk if they saw me bring a young woman like yourself into my office."

Eternity seemed unconvinced.

"You don't seem like the type to care about what people think, Evan."

"You're right," he agreed, contradicting himself. "I usually don't. But there's a big difference between mere gossip and the truth."

"And what is the actual truth?"

He was about to say that Eternity was an animated sex doll, but that seemed stupid even when he was formulating a reply to her in his mind. He sighed instead. God knows how many sighs will be released today.

"You'll understand someday." It was the only thing he could come up with.

Eternity seemed unsatisfied with his answer, but Evan couldn't simply answer every question she had. She needed to learn things on her own.

His patience could only go so far. He had already stretched it for her.

Out of nowhere, Evan's stomach started grumbling.

"Uhhhh..." Evan tried to make a coherent excuse for that rather shameful sound, but his words failed him.

His feelings of annoyance were replaced with mortification. A deep crimson blush colored his cheeks. Even his ears were tinted red.

His reaction made the doll giggle like a young schoolgirl. God, why is her voice like that? It was so childish yet adorable at the same time.

"You have yet to answer me, Evan," she said.

"What do you mean?" He looked confused.

"I asked you last night how you like your eggs cooked," she reminded him. "What's your answer?"

"I don't really care." He shrugged. "As long as what I cooked seems edible, I'd eat it."

"No, silly!" She giggled again. "I'll cook for you!"

Evan furrowed his eyebrows, wrinkling the skin between them.

"No."

"But whyyyyy?" Eternity whined. "I thought it was every man's dream to be cooked breakfast by their lovers."

"You've never cooked in your life." 'Her life' meant the single day she was activated.

He slid out of the bed while Eternity sat up, puffing her cheeks childishly like a porcupine fish. Evan went to his cabinet and started taking out a crisp, gray suit. She realized that Evan was already preparing for work and that she needed to convince him quickly.

Suddenly, an argument came to her.

"But I have also never bowled before, but you thought I could still beat you to it!"

Evan literally paused at her words, slightly impressed with her quick wit. But he remained steadfast.

"Touche," he said. "But bowling is bowling while cooking, which can trigger the apartment's fire alarm and cause a mass evacuation of the whole building."

Eternity pouted.

"You can't get away with everything you want, Eternity," Evan reprimanded. "And making that face won't help you," he added as an afterthought.

"But I'm doing this for you!" She insisted.

"Are you gaslighting me now?"

"I'm not." Eternity frowned. "I genuinely want to cook for you; I just want to ensure you have enough energy to start your morning and complete your day."

He placed his suit on the bed before walking towards Eternity to ruffle her hair. The doll made a sound akin to a purr.

"I appreciate the sentiment. I truly do." He spoke with the gentlest of voices. "But I would rather you cook for me when you gain actual first-hand experience rather than merely knowing hypothetical information."

"Okay." She finally accepted her defeat, but still made a long face. "Can I practice cooking when you're in your office?"

"That's even worse," Evan laughed. "You might not just trigger the fire alarm but also burn the whole building down without supervision!"

"You're exaggerating." Eternity knitted her eyebrows together.

Evan knew he was.

"How could I gain the actual first-hand experience that you speak of when I can't even try practicing my skills in the first place?"

This made Evan think for a moment, seeing her point.

"Should I enroll you in a cooking class?" he suggested.

"What's that?"

"It's basically a class where they teach you how to cook." Evan realized belatedly how stupid and obvious his sentence was. "Maybe I should enroll you in the kid's course since they probably teach frying eggs or whatever."

"I can already fry eggs, Evan."

"Hypothetically," he pointed out.

"Hypothetically," Eternity agreed, although begrudgingly.

A smile crept onto Evan's lips, but he immediately stopped it from fully emerging. Even though he made a special exception by treating this girl differently, he won't change his whole demeanor just for her.

That would be like destroying the whole foundation that he built in a span of a day and a quarter.

"I'll get ready for work," Evan announced. "Do you have anything else to say?"

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" Eternity asked. "In your office, I mean."

"I'm positive."

Seeing that Eternity had nothing more to add, Evan proceeded to his cabinet to prepare his innerwear. But of course, when did Eternity ever run out of questions?

"What am I supposed to do while you're gone?" Eternity pouted.

"That's for you to figure out."