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"Don't pretend you don't know," Dori says, her golden eyes narrowed behind tinted shades as she disdainfully raises up her nose at the silver-haired man confronting her. "Everyone's been talking about how you two went and shacked up, you… you cad! Taking advantage of one of my favorite customers while he's mired in debt, with nowhere else that he can turn…" She presses a hand to her chest and warbles, aghast, "What kind of person would I be if I did business with someone like that?"
"Dori, you're the one who put him in debt!" Alhaitham exclaims, disbelievingly, his hands raised up like he was about to throttle the air a few feet above Dori's head. "You're why he had to move in with me in the first place!"
Dori just looks blankly back at him, and inquires, "What's that got to do with anything?"
Alhaitham closes his eyes and takes a deep, calming breath, and then another, before he can swallow down his irritation and say, in his most reasonable tone, "Dori, if you're that concerned about Kaveh, what, trading his body for shelter, or whatever you've decided happened, then couldn't you just… forgive his blasted debt, so he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore?"
Dori considers this for a long moment, long enough that Alhaitham has time to wonder if he's finally gotten through to the bull-headed merchant, only to have those hopes dashed when she finally and firmly declares, "Well, obviously not—that would be absurd!"
"But," she allows, "perhaps you're right that I shouldn't refuse your money just because Kaveh has poor taste in men."
"…Oh?" Alhaitham says, hardly daring to suspect that he might at least get back to being able to access Dori's network without go-betweens out of this fiasco.
"Unfortunately," Dori continued, drawing out each syllable of the word to its absolute limit, "I still won't be able to take your money, Alhaitham, since you've got a responsibility now… to keep that boy in the manner to which he has become accustomed!"
And, with that, Alhaitham is left to stare gobsmacked after Dori as she flounces off, looking all-too-pleased with herself.
After a beat, he covers his face with his hand and turns to leave himself, heading in the opposite direction. And as he goes, he mutters under his breath, "Kaveh, you owe me so many blowjobs for dealing with this shit."