Valeria by Kaitlin R. Branch Page A

dinner how the prototype was going, she always waved it off as fine.
    He was cooking dinner four days later when she rushed into the room. “She’s coming in twenty minutes.” Valeria said, “You’ve got everything ready, right?”
    He tipped the dinner he’d been cooking onto a plate. “Food’s ready, just have to make sure everything’s put away in its place.”
    She nodded. “You sweep the rooms and I’ll get my projects together.” She paled.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked.
    “The prototype.” She said, “It’s finished, but I meant to gild it.”
    Mache swallowed. “How long?”
    “At least an hour,” she said, and shook herself. “No. I can tell her that with the bearings, the gilding would put the functionality in danger.”
    “Good girl,” he said, and kissed her cheek. “And offer to do it while she’s here.”
    “Exactly,” she said, taking out her hair stick and pulling her tresses into a bun. “Meet me in the ballroom, okay?”
    “Shouldn’t be more than five minutes,” he said, already flying around the kitchen to put things away, get them to their proper place and give the impression Valeria was cooking for one. He frowned as he did. The CEO snooped around the ballroom without Valeria sometimes. The habit made him nervous. She would come down and pace, studying the floor, patting the curtains. Once she glanced at the ceiling and nearly gave him a heart attack. She never seemed to have a moment of inspiration, though, because he wasn’t caught. He hadn’t mentioned the incident to Valeria.
    Still, she seemed the type to pounce on any variation to a routine. She was never early! He shook his head. There were many reasons to be early. It was possible her radio signal was slow. It was cloudy today, to the point he wouldn’t have flown. On the ground it was probably raining.
    Once he finished going over everything he hurried to the ballroom, where Valeria waited for him. She was facing the windows, but turned at the sound of his footfalls, smiling brightly. “I finished the rings,” she said. “I wanted to give you yours before you got shut up.”
    He grinned. “How’d you get my size?”
    “When you were sleeping of course,” she said, teasing as she dug a polished silver ring from a leather bag on her belt. A golden line wound through the middle of the band, which severed at the top to seat a magnificent golden stone Mache felt looked familiar.
    She took out a second ring, much smaller and matching the first in every other way. “These are the left over stones from when I made my eye,” she said. “They’re precious in that way.”
    “I’d take a part of you over some diamond any day,” Mache murmured, and pulled her in to kiss. “They’re lovely, Valeria. Is the gold made of the wire?”
    She beamed. “Yes. Just enough for both rings.”
    He kissed her again, filled with love. “Perfect.”
    “You should get in,” she whispered, though she continued to kiss him lightly, gently, as if sipping at a sweet drink. “Ah, love, I wish you didn’t have to.”
    “Some day.” he murmured. “You’re my wife. There’s nothing that can keep us apart now.”
    She smiled, kissed him once more, and helped him into the vent. He kissed the ring on her hand, she kissed the ring on his, and the door was shut.
    He lay back, sighing. There was no use in worrying about what might happen. He’d done it before and accomplished nothing but an upset stomach. As he watched for the rest of the day, though, something seemed off. Normally Valeria came in the evening to work on her projects in the ballroom but this week she was strangely absent.
    He fiddled with the ring, frowning. Perhaps she was busy. He’d watched her gild things before, through a chemical reaction which bound tiny portions of gold onto other substances. It was fascinating to watch and Valeria needed to be present for every moment of it to be sure everything was coated evenly. It was possible the CEO had asked for