Skylar stared at the screen in front of them, tentacle hovering by the decline button. Benti came into the office sidling up to Skylar to take a closer look.
“Now that is a fancy invitation.” Benti clapped two tentacles together. “Not everyone takes the time to animate every single letter.”
“Because it’s not necessary.” Skylar rolled their eye.
“But it’s fun.” Benti protested. The invitation started blaring music into the small space. Skylar flinched while Benti started to wiggle and jiggle along. “This too!”
“Maybe for a dance party.” Skylar grumbled. “Not for some long and boring dinner party celebrating how far we’ve come since the famine.”
“So many people want to go.” Benti pat their stomach. “All the best chefs are unveiling their newest creations of blended Qwortarian and Earth cuisines. The speech may be boring, but the food I’ll bet,” Benti’s eye looked more carefully at the invitation. “Will be exciting.” Benti squawked and pointed to the part they had missed earlier. “They asked us to create a new juice to be featured! Us!”
“I know.” Skylar’s chirp sounded more like a sigh.
“We’re part of the VIP group!”
“If we accept.” Skylar pointed out while they squished in on themselves, bracing their listening hairs for the inevitable screech coming from Benti. It was high pitched, loud, and long.
“What do you mean if!” Benti yelled when they were done with their screech. “We are a new business, and we can’t just float along with the one concoction and your fame forever Skylar! This is the kind of event we can create new connections, and make a new boon for our business.”
“But it’s going to be boring.”
“That is the lamest excuse. Give me the real reason you don’t want to do this.”
Skylar had rolled themselves into a ball, and they twisted their beak. Benti prodded, a little more gently.
“I doubt they invited us because they think that liquid sustenance is a cool thing they want to showcase. I think they invited me because…” Skylar trailed off.
“Because you were the one who came back with food.” Benti huffed. “And your parent Leama.”
“Right.”
“Well then you certainly earned some perks.” Benti placed a tentacle on to of Skylar. “Even if they don’t think juice is cool, or worth it, we can showcase and prove them wrong, right?”
“I guess…” Skylar started to loosen up.
“Great. RSVP yes. We’ll go to the market tomorrow so we can get some new fruits to experiment with.”
“You’re sure we can come up with something else people will love?”
“Of course we can.” Benti rolled their eye. “Now, up up.” Benti clapped their tentacles. “Let’s finish cleaning up so we can go to sleep and dream about juice!”
Skylar chuckled and roused themselves. Benti was right. Maybe the invite was because they brought food back, and not because they could create new and exciting drinks, but the two of them could prove them wrong.
Word count: 496
Comments