Chapter 19
Holly
“He’s a jackass and you’re too good for him anyway,” Peony was saying, marching up and down the common room of their suite.
“Yeah, screw him!” Holly added, rubbing Hattie’s back.
Hattie, for her part, didn’t appear at all mollified by their reassurances. It was a hell of a hard thing hearing someone you like dismiss you with so much disgust and disdain. It hurt more than just the rejection alone.
“Come on, Hattie. Eat up. I ordered your favorites,” Alanna said, hovering over her. She had already been in the room, having returned from whatever adventure she had gone on that day, when Hattie had come rushing inside, Holly right at her heels.
Peony joined them just as Holly was finishing the story and the gathering had turned into a chance to trash Tuvo, as well as males in general, and remind Hattie that she was perfect just the way she was and if Tuvo couldn’t handle a curvy girl, that was his issue.
Hattie, however, wasn’t willing to believe them. She didn’t touch the food. She just looked defeated and sad. Her shoulders hunched. Her eyes devoid of their typical sparkle. She just kind of slumped in the lounge and listened to the others defend her and denounce Tuvo.
“Men are trash the universe over,” Holly sighed, sitting back in her own lounge. “Even if he doesn’t like curves, he could have just said he wasn’t interested.”
“Men suck,” Hattie mumbled, the first thing she had said since getting here.
“Men do suck,” Alanna nodded along with the sage pearl of wisdom. “That’s why we’re lucky we have sweets and vibrators.”
“We don’t have vibrators here,” Hattie pouted.
Holly laughed, leaning into her side. Trying to give her a hug and knowing that it wasn’t going to be as good or comforting as the ones Hattie herself gave.
“Bet I can get one,” Peony continued, pushing the subject since it was the first one that Hattie had responded to thus far. “Tuvo probably couldn’t find the clit anyway. Domini females don’t have them. He’d be no good in bed at all.”
Hattie was startled into laughing which made the rest of them smile. Partially with amusement, but mostly with relief. That first laugh to break through a morose attitude was the hardest and seeing it meant they were on the right track.
“I don’t know what day it is, but it’s officially Men Suck Monday, which means we drink whatever fruit juice they have, pretend its wine, and have a good time,” Holly said, reaching for the pitcher of not-wine in question.
In fact, she was pretty sure it was just fruit flavored water, but they didn’t have alcohol, so they had to make do.
And make do they did. They gathered together and talked about shitty exes and laughed and had a great time. It only got better when Scarlet showed up.
Holly had tensed for a second when the gorgeous, statuesque redhead returned that afternoon, worried that seeing the beautiful girl, knowing Tuvo preferred the tall, leggy, Golden Era Hollywood starlet looking woman to her, would make Hattie more depressed.
But Scarlet got even angrier for Hattie’s sake than Holly had when they told her why they were gathered and talking trash.
She called Tuvo absolutely ridiculous, promised she wouldn’t touch him with a twelve-foot pole, and then told Hattie she was too good for him anyway.
Which was what they had all been saying already, but it made Hattie laugh this time.
It wasn’t Scarlet’s fault she was gorgeous and modelesque and that men would prefer her over Hattie’s curvy frame.
But it was fun to have friends that were willing to come together and verbally eviscerate a guy that, honestly, they didn’t even know that well.
Which they did, like he had personally insulted all their mothers.
They weren’t risking their friendship over that guy.
They couldn’t get drunk without booze, but they could – and did – let themselves get caught up in the energy.
Scarlet and Hattie became attached at the hip, struggling to remember all the lines to every girl power song they could think of while Alanna did some kind of weird interpretive dance in the background that had Peony and Holly falling over each other laughing.
Though she tried to resist as long as she could, eventually Peony had to call it quits.
Her anxiety had started flaring after multiple hours away from Atem.
She hugged them goodbye, reminded Hattie that she was so fucking beautiful, extra weight and all, and then messaged Atem to meet her back in their room so she could sniff him.
That wasn’t a joke. It was his scent that she needed to keep the anxiety at bay.
“I am so not letting myself get knocked up here,” Holly said after she left.
“Was that a concern?” Scarlet asked, Hattie and her now seated side by side, Scarlet’s arm was around Hattie’s shoulders as Scarlet snacked on Hattie’s most recent attempt at cookies.
They were too hard to be proper cookies, but the flavor wasn’t altogether bad.
Very nutty. They tasted more like homogeneous granola bars than anything.
Hattie wasn’t eating anything, but Holly was choosing to chalk that up to her recent emotional upheaval. She did make a note to keep an eye on her though.
“You mean, you didn’t know?” Hattie grinned wickedly at Scarlet. “Holly and the First Scholar have been making serious kissy face.”
“Don’t call it that!” Holly’s face turned bright red, making them both laugh.
“First Scholar, huh?” Scarlet grinned. “Good for you. I met him the other day when he came around to ask Donivi some questions about medical sciences. He seems nice.”
“He is.” Holly squirmed a bit, dancing somewhere between uncomfortable and excited.
“He was saying he wanted to make her his adassi,” Hattie added quickly. “He was saying he was getting her used to him so she wouldn’t be scared when he asked.”
“Really?” Scarlet grinned. “Holly. I’m surprised. You were the most outspoken about thinking it weird to mate with an alien, yet here you are.”
“It’s still weird,” she said quickly. “It’s just… not that weird anymore.”
Scarlet and Hattie laughed as the door chimed, signaling there was someone outside.
Alanna got up to open it but immediately stepped back. “Holly, it’s for you!”
She turned, face immediately brightening to see Romival – wearing blush pink again – walking into the room.
His eyes caught on her, a grin pulling at one corner of his lips.
Without hesitation, Scarlet and Hattie started in with a prolonged, teasing ‘O-o-o-o…’ that only made her blush brighter and his grin deeper.
“Shut up, you two,” she mumbled, getting to her feet and rushing towards Romival.
He said nothing, only continued to look quietly smug as she took his hand and dragged him to her room as Alanna joined the other two with a wolf whistle before telling her not to do anything that they wouldn’t do.
Holly’s face was on fire when she pulled a very willing Romival into her room and locked the sliding door behind them. She blew out a quick breath, unsure why she was so nervous. She was a grown woman. She had nothing to be embarrassed about.
But…
She turned slowly to face Romival. He was still just grinning at her.
“You, er, finished with your meeting?” She asked for want of anything else.
He grunted in agreement. “I need to return to the academy, but I wanted to check on you first.”
“Why?”
“Well, it’s common knowledge that eavesdroppers rarely hear anything they like.”
“Oh. That.” Holly’s racing heart immediately cooled as her irritation rose. She crossed her arms, letting out a huff of breath. “Look, I’m not saying Tuvo can’t have his preferences. Big, small, it’s whatever. But he didn’t have to say it like that.”
“Ah, I see. It’s not so much his comment as his tone when he made it.”
“Well, yeah!” She blew out a quick breath, dropping her hands to her side.
“Hattie is sweet and incredible. When we were first abducted, the only reason I didn’t lose my mind is because she was always there.
She held me and talked me down when I was going crazy.
I don’t think I could have gotten through it without her. ”
Romival was looking at her curiously now. “Hattie means a great deal to you.”
“Of course! She’s my best friend here. Or at all, I guess.
” She sighed, rubbing her arm nervously.
“I’m not saying she’s a replacement for my blood family, or that I love any of the other girls any less, but Hattie is special to me.
And she was really into Tuvo. Hearing him say those things hurt her and I’m not saying Tuvo has to mate her, of course not, but he didn’t have to say it like that.
I know we’re at fault too for eavesdropping, but still… ”
Romival made a thoughtful sound. “I see. Well, I cannot speak for Tuvo or what he will do. If he feels he must atone, he will make it up to Hattie. Or Dominani will force him to. Regardless, I wasn’t referring to what you overheard Tuvo saying.”
“Hm? Then, what-… Oh.” Holly bit her lips, her spine straightening as her face heated again when she realized what he meant.
Romival’s grin widened as he leaned over her. “Exactly how much did you happen to overhear, vi Vakara?”
“Well… Just… I mean…” She floundered, heart pounding so hard she was surprised it didn’t just leap out of her chest. He looked so damn smug, but she was too flustered to actually be annoyed by his reaction to her reaction to him.
“Vas, adassi?” He whispered the title to her.