Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 29593 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 148(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 99(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29593 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 148(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 99(@300wpm)
“I’m not offering myself again,” she says, her tone bitter. “I can only fling myself at a man so many times before it hurts my feelings.”
“I never meant to hurt your feelings,” I tell her. “I should have never let it get this far. I’m sorry.”
“Me, too.” She turns and goes inside, all but slamming the door shut behind her. I stand outside, head down, wondering if I made a mistake. But if I ask her what my favorite food is, she won’t know. If I ask her what I’m allergic to, she won’t know. She doesn’t know anything about me, except that I saved her that one time.
Seems like we need more of a reason to fuck. Maybe I’ll regret this, but for now, I can’t do it. It still feels like I’m taking advantage of her in a vulnerable moment.
I just…can’t.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Weeks Later
MELODY
I stare out at the rain pounding down on the small town of Port. It’s such a cliché, but I’m glad for the rain. It matches my mood.
Not only that, but every day that it rains, it delays the construction on the space port. It’s another day that Brux is here, breathing the same air I am. I shouldn’t be as obsessed with him as I am, but I can’t help it. I’ve thought about him constantly for the last five years, wondering what it would have been like if he’d come to Risda with me. Instead, he abandoned me to someone else and went off to work crummy jobs because he thought I “deserved” better. As if I’m some perfect prize instead of a real human being who just wanted to be held and to feel safe.
Ugh. Whatever. His loss. I hope it rains all over his head.
“You seem very far away today,” says a voice at my side.
I turn, smiling brightly at Aithar. He’s one of the a’ani clones working on building a new cantina here in Port, and I’ve been talking to him about utilizing whatever scrap they have left over, and to see if they need my help creating anything for their human patrons, as I’ve been getting pretty good with toasters now. It’s business. Just business.
Well, except for the fact that Aithar is one of the few men that I’ve dated here on Risda, and he’s made it very clear to me that he’s still interested. He smiles encouragingly at me and offers me a drink. It’s water with a piece of fruit in it, cool and refreshing. I take it from him with a smile and sip it as he watches me with an avid, intense gaze. I’ve been coming around to their cantina for the last few days, some for conversation, some for eyeballing scrap.
Some because I’m circling around the idea of going out with Aithar again.
I need to move on, right? I need to stop thinking about Brux, because he’s made it very clear to me that he’s not interested in what I have to offer. Aithar is handsome, with bright red skin, a chiseled jaw, and thick black hair. He’s got black tattoos climbing up his arms, but those just add to his attractiveness. He’s tall and lean and eager. So eager.
Nothing like Brux, who looks out at the world with wounded eyes.
Ugh. There I go again, thinking about the wrong person. I beam a bright smile at Aithar. “It’s just the weather. I prefer when it’s sunny. Makes my job easier when I have a big project. I can take it outside instead of hiding in the basement.”
“You can always come here if you need to work,” he volunteers, and one of the a’ani at work behind him whips his head around, frowning in our direction.
“Oh, I’d just be in the way,” I tell him. “But I appreciate the offer. It’s very kind of you.”
“I am not kind. I am just eager to see you every day.” Aithar clutches his own drink to his chest as if it’s the only thing holding him together. “You…would you like to go and eat? Together? Today? Or tomorrow? Or whenever you like?”
“Are you asking me on a date?” I flirt, determined to forget Brux. “If so, I accept.”
Aithar smiles at me so brightly that my heart warms. Just a little. “I will buy you everything you wish to eat. It is as the humans say, your treat.”
The a’ani behind him rolls his eyes and goes back to laser-punching holes in a piece of metal.
I chuckle despite myself, setting down my drink and then plucking his from his grasp. “I think you have that backwards. And I can pay for my own food. You want to go now? I think we’re in the way of your friends that are working.”
He turns and glances behind him. When he sees who it is, he dismisses him with a wave of his hand. “That’s just Sakkar. He likes to frown at everyone. Thinks it makes us work harder. But I would love to have food with you, no matter who is treating who! It will be a joy for me regardless.”