Saturday


    8/9/25


    I woke up as per usual, in Harley''s arms, in our bed, in our abundantly decorated bedroom. We moved into this apartment two years ago and have been filling the walls and floors with stuff ever since. Paintings, prints, pictures, and Polaroids filled the walls in an orderly array of sizes and shapes, and the soft red light cast on them by the LED strips that bordered the ceiling made the whole room feel like a contemporary art exhibit, with the bed and its inhabitants as the centerpiece. I quite liked the vibe, it set the mood well and had the effect of quickly lulling you to sleep.


    Harley was a deep, statuesque sleeper, so it was relatively easy to get out of bed without bothering her. I stretched and padded out of the bedroom and into the living room, letting the warm midday sun shining through the windows pull me towards wakefulness before going into the kitchen and making myself some coffee. I pulled my phone out and went through my notifications whilst I waited, ignoring most of them and eagerly clicking on the messages from Alton.


    Good morning love, I took the liberty of analyzing the DNA of the cells we worked on last week. The experiment worked, and the new genome is accurate to the template. We''re live.


    11:22 AM


    I''m free tonight if you want to stop by and proceed with the next step, just let me know if you''re coming.


    11:25 AM


    Please keep in mind my side of the deal, I have a project I''m working on as well, I''d like your help with it, we''ll discuss in person.


    11:26AM


    Holy fucking shit, it actually worked! I mean, of course it worked. We didn''t do anything new, and we followed procedures that had been established years ahead of time, it was just a proof of concept experiment, but the success was still invigorating. I pondered my plans for the night and couldn''t think of anything aside from my lunch with my mother at 3, so I thumbed a quick reply and walked over to the machine to retrieve my steaming cup of coffee.


    Fantastic! I''ll be there around 7, is that cool?


    1:13PM


    I did not forget about my side, I''ll help however I can.


    1:13PM


    The coffee kickstarted my soul as I sat and pondered a while about what I was doing, and what I needed to do. I''d been neglecting my social responsibilities, namely those to my parents, and to Harley. At least I hung out with the gang a few days ago. Days? Shit, it''s Saturday, that was last week. I''m really losing the plot here, but at least I''m going to see my mom tonight, that will put a temporary reprieve on the complaints from her end. My mother and I have a good relationship now, it has been improving the last couple of years, especially since the incident. She basically raised me alone for most of my childhood and worked hard to be a good inspiration, building me up to be strong, independent, and not take shit from anybody. She was the example on those fronts, she worked hard to get herself through college with a young child and little money, she had men in her life, but was quick to discard them if they ever did her wrong, and she fought to carve a life out for us despite the difficulties and bullshit that others gave her.


    It was a great upbringing, but my transition had the effect of driving a massive wedge in between us for a while. She was completely blindsided by the whole thing, I was a good actress, and I hid my feelings and questionable tendencies well. It took a long time for her to finally come around to respecting the person I was becoming, and I was patient. The incident did help in that regard though, we both realized how important the other was in our lives, and we both made a sincere effort to rebuild the relationship we had, and make it stronger than ever. Honestly, nowadays, it seemed like she had always wanted a girl. I felt like shit for neglecting her as of late, and it was time I returned and made things right, hence today''s lunch.


    Harley, on the other hand, was a different story, I''d been neglecting her too, but it takes more of a sustained effort to restore things with a partner than it does with a parent. At least, parents are supposed to love you unconditionally. I needed to make more time to be with her, and show her that she was loved and cherished. I needed to stop going on bullshit benders and fucking the first guy who gives me attention. I had to start being a partner to her again. Easier said than done when you''re going through as much shit as I was.


    My father is basically out of the picture nowadays, we see each other about once a year or so, but ever since I transitioned its clear he doesn''t see me as the same person he "helped" raise. We hung out every weekend while I grew up. He taught me to love math, science, and engineering, and he taught me to be stoic in my life and my relationships. As time went on, however, I saw him less and less, and transitioning put the final nail in the proverbial coffin. He doesn''t look me in the eyes anymore. He''s respectful enough, but the distance is clear. It doesn''t help that he has a new family, and a nine-year-old son to look after now, maybe that kid will become the man he wanted to raise.


    I sat there at the kitchen bar pondering, going through my phone and drinking my coffee for quite a while until I heard a faint rustling from the bedroom. I looked over to the clock on the stove and realized how much time had passed. It''s 2:13PM, shit, I was running late for lunch. I made my way back into the bedroom to change for the event. I changed into some nicer black pants and a white cotton crop top while Harley slowly gained consciousness. We didn''t speak much, simply opting to exchange some "good mornings". She settled back onto her pillow and watched me get ready for the day with a lover''s fascination.


    I appreciated that about our relationship, not much needed to be said. A great deal of the joy we got in it was purely from being a part of each other''s lives and enjoying the simple moments together. A shared meal, a good show, a wordless morning watching the other go about their lives. It was lovely and serene most of the time. Even something that could be stressful, like hosting dinner parties for our friends was alleviated by this, we were each other''s sous, taking up the slack where we had to, and making sure the other had what they needed to do what they did best. We communicated best with glances and nods, an unwritten language that to us, held a world of meanings.


    I did my makeup, just some quick smudges of eyeliner and blush, and walked back to Harley in bed to give her a kiss goodbye. "Alright babe, going to lunch with mom, then stopping by her place to help her assemble some new bookshelves, I''ll see you tonight." I felt bad lying to her, but there was no way she could know the truth of what I was doing.


    "Have fuuuun!" She kissed me back and flashed a quick smile as she laid back in bed and pulled the sheets over herself. Clearly more than happy to vegetate in bed all day.


    I don''t blame her at all, I missed doing that. I probably should focus on getting some quality me time soon.


    ---


    I met my mom at one of our favorite spots close to her in Park Slope. Altar was a quiet and moody bar with amazing food, strong drinks, and a comfy candlelit interior featuring well upholstered red leather couches. I found her in the extra secluded back room wearing a long sleeveless black dress with a matching handbag and chunky heels. She looked gorgeous for her age, which wasn''t old by any means, but most 53-year-old women would kill to look like she did. She saw me walk in, flipped her short blond hair, and stood up to greet me a warm hug.


    "Hey, dear, I''m surprised you''re awake! She teased in Romanian. We tried to keep our heritage and culture alive as much as possible within the family. Speaking Romanian whenever possible, and enjoying our family recipes. I chose a more American name when I transitioned to make life a little easier for myself, I had never-ending frustrations growing up due to mispronunciations and misspellings.


    "Haha, yeah, I''m trying to get better at not sleeping in." I''ve been busy lately, so I need all the daylight I can get. I responded in Romanian as well. We''d switch back and forth as needed throughout the conversation, but we always understood each other perfectly, no matter how many words we swapped in the same sentence. "How are you? You''re awfully dressed up. Did you cut your hair?"


    "Yes, I got sick of tying it back at work. Do you like it?" She teased her locks, which fell to her chin now, and gave me a switched between a few sassy looks, imitating a red carpet appearance. "Why is your belly showing? This is a nice place, you''re still dressing like a slut?"


    She was only half teasing, unfortunately the side effect of her no longer hurling transphobia is that she had since switched over to misogyny and body-shaming. She now loved to enforce her ideas of femininity on me. Dress nicely, act like a lady, no tattoos, normal hair colors, and shave your fucking armpits. I''m more than used to hearing it at this point, but I won''t lie and pretend that it doesn''t annoy me a little. I''ve tried to explain to her the fact that her ideals of femininity are by no means the norm in my circles, but that fact always fell on deaf ears. I let the insult slide off me, and the smile returned to my face soon after.


    "Of course, gotta find a rich husband somehow, it''s our family legacy." The smirk that escaped my lips was devilish enough to make her back down slightly. "Let''s have a nice lunch, what are you getting?"


    The mild insult and distraction did their job, redirecting her focus back onto the menu for some time before she responded with her usual order. "Burrata, and a mimosa of course, do you want to split the olives?"


    "Of course I do, I think I''m going to try the duck this time too." I perused the menu for a little longer, weighing my drink options before settling. "And I''ll have some fun and get a Negroni Sour."


    The waiter, a tall man with a well-groomed mustache, came over soon after and kindly took our orders and menus. We sat in silence, looking through our phones for a few minutes until he returned with our drinks and gave us space to resume our conversation.


    "So... How''s work going?" She spoke while putting her phone down and interleaved her fingers on the table. "You said you''ve been busy with something?"


    "Oh yeah, I''m doing a side project for a new friend, writing some backend code for one of his personal things." It was often difficult to meet her eyes without a few drinks, so I opted to focus my attention on the straw in my drink, stirring the liquid and making designs in the egg white froth. "It''s nothing serious, but he''s paying decently well, and the project is quite interesting to me."


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    I decided to give her a hint of the truth to cover my tracks because she could always tell when I was lying or withholding information from her. The misdirection seemed to work, however, as her gaze softened a bit and she took a sip of her beverage.


    "Bravo dear, it will be good for your portfolio, you have to build it up as much as you can while you''re still young. What''s the company?"


    "It''s not a company, like I said, it''s just a passion project of his that I''ve been asked to help with, he''s probably going to sell the result when we''re done with it. We met through a friend who recommended me."


    She stated contemplatively at me, seemingly trying to decide if this was a worthwhile pursuit for her daughter. "And how long will this project last? I don''t want you ignoring your responsibilities at your real job."


    "Only a few months, don''t worry about that, I have plenty of time for both."


    "What about that girl you''re seeing? You''re still together?"


    "Yes mother, I''m still dating my girlfriend, that''s not changing anytime soon." The subtext behind her question was clear, she never approved of anyone I was with, she liked them for a few weeks until they did something that upset her, then she encouraged me to find another.


    She dismissed my defense with a wave of her hand. "You''ll change your mind eventu-"


    The waiter has returned with our food and set the plates before us. Everything looked amazing as always, and I took the opportunity to dig into my meal before the conversation could continue. She followed suit as well, seemingly content with letting the interrogation die there.


    We finished our meal, exchanging little more than passive compliments to the chef and small talk regarding the weather and plans for the week. We had both decided not to order more drinks, so the lunch did not last longer than an hour or so. I offered to walk her home after we had paid the bill, but she had dismissed that as well, citing some errands she needed doing. She did pull me aside as we left the restaurant, however, fishing through her purse and extracting a cigarette to light. Her face appeared tired and haggard.


    "Vivienne, I know I''m hard on you, but you know it''s out of love. You''re the most important person in my life, so I want you to be happy and successful. Fuck the bullshit, focus on yourself and your future."


    "I know, and you know that that''s the only thing I care about. I''ll see you soon, okay? Let''s make dinner sometime."


    She nodded slowly and gave me her second smile of the day before wrapping me in a big hug. "Okay, be good, I love you."


    "I love you too, I''ll try." I returned the hug, and let it last a while as I breathed in her signature vanilla and bergamot perfume. It reminded me of the comfort of home, and the childhood nostalgia was crippling.


    With that, she ended the embrace and turned to walk away.


    I was left in a daze, the vicious blend of insults, interrogation, and unconditional love were enough to stupefy. I should have been used to this by now, this is what the median of our relationship, but even now, it still takes time to recover from.


    It may seem nonsensical to have such a reaction, but behind most of her words often laid a million unsaid thoughts and judgements. The love may be unconditional, but her acceptance and pride were very much conditional, and that''s all I''ve ever wanted from her.


    It took some time to regain control over myself, but I spent it walking back towards the train station, and decided to try to head over to Alton''s early. Maybe Harley and I could have a nice, relaxing night in afterward.


    Hey, finished my lunch early, mind if I head over now?


    4:03 PM


    I didn''t wait for a response. I just hopped on the subway and made for Astoria. Worst-case scenario I could kill some time in a park.


    ---


    I arrived at Alton''s about an hour later, the train ride and walk over quickly becoming a typical commute. He had responded to my message a few minutes after I sent it.


    No worries, love, that may actually be better for us both.


    4:12 PM


    I''ll leave the door unlocked, see yourself in, I''ll meet you downstairs when I get a chance.


    4:14 PM


    I found the lab door open and unlocked, waiting for me, and I made myself at home quickly in the basement, eager to check on the results of our work. We had made some other edits to the cells we cultured that encouraged the cells to glow under a black light. The idea is that if the change that made them glow took hold, so would the ones we actually cared about. I excitedly removed the Petri dishes from the incubator and spent a few minutes looking around for a black light to inspect their progress.


    I soon found it and ran over to a darker part of the lab with my supplies in hand. They fucking glowed. The effect and the accompanying emotions were enough to leave me giggling and prancing about like a schoolgirl. I knew it had worked before I got here, but seeing it for myself was so much more impactful. I practically skipped back to Clara with my Petri dish to check on the DNA Analysis. As expected, she...it had reported a perfect match between the intended sequence and the measured results, and I was beaming with joy.


    I was hard at work with the next step of the procedure a while later, I was to use a virus to inject numerous chemicals into the cells that would encourage them to turn into "Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells" or iPSC''s for short. The chemicals, which were referred to as "Yamanaka Factors" had just been prepared, and I was gearing up to get them introduced into the cell line. I would need this line for all my experiments in the future anyway. I had studied up on this process a few days ago, so I was eager to put my newfound knowledge to use in the real world without supervision.


    "I see you''ve made yourself into quite the busy bee, Vi. You''re satisfied with the results of Wednesday''s work, I take it?"


    I was visibly startled by his quiet intrusion into my bubble, I had music blaring in one of my headphones, and I was properly in the zone, pipetting chemicals between different tubes to get the experiment ready when he walked in. I removed my headphone and looked up to greet the intruder, he was wearing one of his comfy outfits and sported a boastful grin, clearly proud of himself for scaring me.


    I narrowed my eyebrows at him and pointed the pipette menacingly in his direction.


    "Hasn''t anyone ever told you to not sneak up on a girl with a weapon? You''re lucky your cells aren''t being induced, sir."


    The joke hit its mark, and he gave me a soft chuckle as he made his way over to inspect my work with his hands in the air. "Don''t shoot, last thing I need is to grow a third head. The horror!"


    "I''m sure all the ladies would adore it, though. I''d certainly love such a fun surprise one day." I gave him a sinister grin and turned back to the test tube I had damn near nocked over. It was kinda nice to joke around with him like this, up to this point all our conversations were so serious, it was too rigid and transactional. Yes, this was a transaction, but I''d appreciate a bit of banter with the man I''d be spending countless hours with going forward.


    "I wouldn''t go getting your hopes up in that regard, love, I''m pretty sure snake morphology is quite uncommon in men these days. Such a shame." He came a bit closer and peered over my shoulder as I finished setting up my test. "Ahh, you''re preparing the stem cell culture I see, glad to hear it. You''re going to need a bloody ton of those growing forward."


    I finished transferring all my liquids to their various containers and started spreading the resultant cells onto a fresh dish. "In fact, I''m just about done in that regard, these puppies should grow up big and strong." I finished spreading the cells and capped the dish, marking it "SC1 08/09/2025", and turned over to meet Alton''s gaze. "You said you wanted my help with something?"


    The question made his smile grow, and his eyes quickly lit up. "Ah yes, wonderful, how familiar are you with working with large data sets? I''ve recently come into quite a treasure trove of questionably legal biodata that I''d like classified and fed into Clara."


    My smile dropped along with my eyebrows as I thought over his question, he''s not talking about what I think he is, is he? "You mean... you got data from a gene library?"


    "Yup, one of the largest in the nation was hacked recently, about 250,000 genomes were published to the dark web for pennies on the dollar. I know it''s morally dubious, but that kind of data could really help with Clara''s training, you know how helpful that would be."


    "Morally dubious Alton? That''s straight up wrong, you''re benefiting from the theft of confidential medical information." I was shocked by the fact that he would even think about asking me to help him with such a thing, it''s fucked up on so many levels.


    His face turned serious, and he inched closer to me, looking deep into my eyes. "This is where you draw the line Vi? You''re fine with experimenting on yourself to improve your mental health, but won''t help me try to improve the physical health of countless people in the future? Using this data won''t harm anyone. It''s already out there, others will use it too, and I''m sure you know their goals won''t be as noble."


    He did have a point there, it''s wrong, but the harm had been done, at least we had a chance to try to make the best out of a bad situation. It still weighed on me, but I also realized that I didn''t really have a choice but to concede if I wanted my experiments to continue. "Fair, I''m sorry, how can I help?"


    He visibly relaxed and stepped back a bit. "Nothing crazy, the data is already partly categorized, I''d like you to categorize the rest and make it as digestible as possible for Clara. No rush, let it be your side project." He finished his statement by walking over to a set of drawers and pulling out a thumb drive and handing it to me.


    "It''s all on here? I asked in a baffled tone.


    "Oh god no love, we''re talking about 37 petabytes of data, it''s all encrypted in that rack." He chuckled and pointed to a chest sized networking rack in the corner of the room. "It can only be accessed in this room, and only with a key, the drive I gave you contains one of the two keys, I have the second, of course. Don''t lose it."


    I frowned, guess I wouldn''t be taking this work home with me, commuting between home and Astoria is a bit of a hassle, but it would all be worth it in the end. "Got it, I''ll do my best. I''m just about done for the day anyway though, do you mind If I get started next time?"


    My question seemed to disappoint him slightly as his gaze wandered a bit and his face slackened. "You''re not going to stay for dinner?"


    "I can''t tonight, I''m sorry, got responsibilities at home. I''ll stay next time though!" His response surprised me a tad, maybe he was growing used to the company. I wasn''t sure how many people he had in his life, but it did seem like he was getting used to my increasing presence in his home now that I thought about it.


    "Very well" He stiffened. "See you soon love, I appreciate the help." He watched me for a bit as I gathered my purse and stuffed my phone and headphones back in it.


    "Likewise" I smiled broadly" See you soon love.


    ---


    I arrived back home around 9pm, and I made sure to ruffle up my jeans and top a bit, and smeared a bit of dust on them for good measure. Making doubly sure the lie was believable, wouldn''t want Harley questioning if I really had been helping my mom with furniture. The apartment was as mellow as it usually was around this time. The overhead lights were off and the only other lighting in the living room coming from the dimmed standing lamps and tv.


    I found Harley on the couch in front of it, sprawled out comfortably with one of our large knitted blankets covering most of her body, and a glass of wine on the side table nearby. Fucking perfect, this was proving to be a great night.


    "Hello love, sorry I''m late." Shit, the anglicism seemed to have gotten into my head. I knocked off my sneakers and headed into the bedroom to change into my inside clothes quickly. She waited for me to return into the living room before turning to greet me.


    "Oh hi love, how was your day?"


    I chucked at the light tease. "It was mostly good, my mom was her usual judgmental self, but I persevered. We had lunch at Altar, and then I had to do most of the work assembling her bookshelves. The last thing I needed was her getting frustrated over the instructions. How about you?"


    "Glad to hear it, honestly not much on my end, just caught up on The Circle and lazed around. I ordered pizza and your half is on the counter." She pointed vaguely to the kitchen.


    I appreciated the gesture and the fact that she knew me so well, but decided to ignore the food for now and plopped down on the couch next to her, shuffling closer before tucking myself under the blanket as well. "Thanks baby, I appreciate the thought, what episode is this?"


    "The finale, John just found out that Kate was actually a catfish and is super embarrassed that he spent weeks sexting a 40-year-old guy. Sorry about the spoiler."


    "Ahh, no worries, you know I''ve been too busy to catch up anyway." I cuddled up closer and leaned my head on her shoulder, more than content to spend the night with her, as we had early in our relationship.


    We laid on the couch, watching reality tv and video essays late into the night, and Harley seemed at peace for the first time in weeks.