Rose wasn't having much difficulty keeping up with her new responsibilities. Holla simply didn't receive any Emails, aside from the usual spam. Then there was the occasional creep offering up money for “private appearances.” The miner guessed that Holla  received work emails occasionally, but so far almost everything was taken care of by a simple deletion. Lenna's Emails were considerably harder to figure out. Most of them wanted spread sheets and status reports on things that Rose just didn't have access to. Finding that glowing blue fluid really did cause quite a commotion. Rose would never admit it, but Lenna was pretty amazing at multitasking if she could handle answering these Emails.

Lenna walked out of an elevator behind Rose. She was tightening a strap in her coat, and her hair was wet.

“Did you just take a shower?” Rose raised an eyebrow.

“One of the janitors left his mop bucket out around a corner.” Lenna finished tightening the strap and picked up her clip board. “You know you don't have to stay here. You can answer those emails anywhere.”

“I know. But this place is starting to grow on me.”

Lenna didn't look at Rose for more than a few seconds before glancing back at her clip board. “If you can't answer an Email, just leave it. I'll take care of it when I have time.”

Rose nodded.

“Oh, and before I forget.” Lenna pointed outside at the caved in mine. “It's probably going to be a while before we know if it's safe to drill again. Put in a request to find another mining site. I'm sure everyone wants to get back to work tomorrow.”

“Alright.” Rose was already bringing up to appropriate forms from that packet Lenna gave her. It would just take her a few seconds to fill out and submit a public notice to all the scouts. 

“I have some things to take care of.” The overseer spoke with her back turned to Rose. “If you get anything pressing, notify me immidiately.”

“Okay, will do.” Rose went back to filling out the form. As soon as she had finished and submitted it, Rose realized the overseer was still standing behind her, back turned. “Um, did you forget something?”

Lenna looked over her shoulder. “Rose, do you love Holla?”

“W-wha?” Rose chuckled. “What do you mean?”

Lenna turned around to face the miner. “I mean do you love her. You're a young woman, you don't have a lot of interests, but you've made Holla one of them. Do you love her?”

Rose made a small gasp. “I-I don't know! I've never been in love before.” Why was her boss asking her this? This was so random, yet it was making her think. “...Maybe, I'm not really sure.”

“It's a simple question.”

“Then how about you answer it!”

“I'm not in love with Holla.”

“You know what I mean!”

Lenna didn't get emotional, and continued to stare Rose down into her seat. “I've been in love a few times. Nothing ever really came of it.”

“Were any of your lovers...” Rose trailed off.

“I can't remember. If I did they weren't very serious.”

Rose groaned and looked away from her overseer. “You broke my nose, wasn't that enough humiliation?”

“I'm not trying to humiliate you.” Lenna placed a hand on her own chest. “Germany had the same progressive views as Sweden. It's my personal view that people who mock other people for who they love have weak character.”

“R-really?”

“I would not have my position if I enjoyed watching my crew suffer.” Lenna hugged her clip board. “So, do you love Holla?”

Well, this revelation changed everything. Maybe Lenna wasn't so bad after all. Rose nodded. “Yea, I think I do. I want to see her dressed up in the clothes I make, and everything she says makes me happy. I think I love her.”

“That's a shame...”

Rose's face turned completely pale. “W-Why!?”

Lenna broke eye contact with Rose and flicked through her notes. “Because we don't have that sort of luxury in this new world. Earth was overpopulated, and everyone was okay with slower birth rates. But now woman don't have the option to keep their legs closed. Especially someone as young as you. I wouldn't be surprised if they hooked you up with two men.”

“They'd never do that!” Rose was practically shrieking. “Besides, we could still be together. If we just got an injection-”

“Holla likes men, right?”

Lenna's words sent Rose scrambling to Holla's profile page. Typically anything about Holla Rose could recall in an instant, but her sudden shift in emotions caused her to lose focus.

“I was kidding when I said you'd have two men assigned to you. But you should be careful with your fantasies. These fantasies, you know why they call them dreams, right?” Lenna fashioned a twisted smile that curled under her eyes. “Because they can only be realized when your eyes are closed.” Without saying another word, Lenna left the bridge.

[@Mr Donny]