Page 34 of CHOICE Lover
“No, Electra.” He waves a hand through the air as if he can bat away her comment. “Relaxing, or, I don’t know . . .”
“Have you ever relaxed before? I hate to inform you, that’s not what it feels like.”
“Perhaps the narrative I read was referring to the calm state after an adrenaline spike—” His eyes go wide as a berry smacks his face.
“God, Res6. Do you always have to be so serious? I was teasing you.”
He stares down at the uneaten part of his sandwich like it might contain answers. “You were teasing me.”
She watches him for a minute. Has his skin become a shade paler? “Are you okay?”
“It’s been a long time since someone did that.”
“Oh.” The safest thing she can think to ask is, “Who?”
Res6 nods to himself like he’s come to some sort of conclusion. “Hopefully, you’ll get to meet him soon. I think you’ll like him.”
She shakes her head. Maybe her hearingisa problem. “Res6, you didn’t say who.”
He glances off into the distance, and his voice is wistful when he says, “My brother.”
9 – Accidental Dates
Res6
October 20, 2390.
Of all their daily outings over the past ten days, the boat ride was the most productive. After a little research, Res6 discovered that in the center of MSP, there’s a large indoor holo-lake in a building that used to be a sports stadium. Citizens could go there and rent all sorts of equipment, from small roller-boats to artificial sunbathing rafts shaped like lily pads.
Future people, as she calls them, fascinate Electra, and there were tons of them for her to observe from her bench across from him in the roller-boat. So, they spent one afternoon with her “future people watching” and excitedly detailing her observations to him.
“Look at thatman over there,” she’d said. He followed her gaze. “Does that man have two manupartners?” The man in question did in fact have two CheapDate off-brand manupartners, if his guess was correct. “Look! Those people appear to be building some sort of shrine.”
He looked as instructed to see MSP’s famous feline cult assembling a five-foot-tall scratching post. “I believe they’re trying to show the”—he cleared his throat—“cats they worship that the world is a safe and hospitable place for them to return to.”
Her dark eyes went wide and full of wonder as she observed them. Fortunate, since his eyes remained glued to her. “Really?” she asked, and he nodded. “That is so messed up.”
He actually agreed with her, though she seemed more intrigued than horrified. “Especially considering the atmosphere isn’t remotely hospitable.”
She nodded. “That’s what I was thinking.”
She was so elated from their experience, she didn’t retreat to her—technically his—room until after dinner.
That bolstered his mood so much that instead of reviewing the sales report in his inbox the next morning, he planned their next excursion—the private food-building workshop. That didn’t go quite as well, but she seemed amused.
What he really needs to do is figure out her thoughts about his efforts without her knowing.
He rolls over, trying to get comfortable. The new bed he ordered for his spare room isn’t as inviting as the one in his room. When he finishes the Jerme project, he’ll relocate her to this room and she and Jerme can share it. Or maybe he’ll exchange it for a different bed and let them keep his bedroom. He doesn’t entirely feel comfortable sleeping in his bed since her scent probably permeates his mattress the way it does his nostrils everytime they’re near.
Like during the horseback riding, how she leaned back into him. The smell that tantalized his olfactory receptors was torture—some sort of amber rose. Vanilla musk. He isn’t a perfumer, and he didn’t ask the shopgirl to add it to her items. Nor did he ask her to add the pink Electra had taken to wearing on her cheeks or that glossy stuff on her lips, either.
Honestly, who goes above and beyond in this day and age?
He flips over, burying his face in the pillow. This is precisely why he needs Jerme as a buffer. The ridiculous, teasing woman. Obviously, she wouldn’t know the teasing reminds him of his brother, which gives him a warm feeling that he’s problematically beginning to associate with her.
Jerme could make light of moments like their birth mother dropping them off for the year at Best Young Citizens School for the Especially Gifted and not returning for two years. Well, Jerme had handled it with levity at first, joking,Mummy’s gone mad!But then she only stayed for a week before leaving again for another two years, and the reality of their situation set in.
If he recalls correctly, which due to him being ten at the time he may not, the note she sent said,Raising two troublesome boys makes Mummy so sad, so Mummy needs a break.
