CHAPTER 3
I’ve been to Kita’s office three times.
It’s not designed for humans, but I can deal with a little discomfort.
She works in logistics and dock scheduling and luckily… her office has a door.
It also has a very large window and nosy coworkers.
I keep my back to both.
“What do you need to tell me.” She makes a strange sound and covers her face with five of her tentacles. “I think I already know. Is my uncle one of your clients?”
“Yes.”
Kita slides to the floor. Spreading out like a puddle and I swear I hear her make a retching sound.
“This is the second worst person it could have been.” She makes a strangled noise.
“Probably third, actually.” I say it even though I know I shouldn’t.
She glares up at me and I remind her, “You have a father.”
“God, don’t even joke about that.”
I hold up my hands, even though she’s gone back to covering her face. “I’ll stop.”
“Are you going to stop seeing my uncle, too?”
I should have expected it, but the thought hurts.
“No.” I won’t lie to her.
She makes another strangled sound and somehow gets even flatter.
“I really like him, Kita. We talk every day and… well, I just really like him.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.”
She takes a deep breath, drawing herself back up to her normal height and exhales. “Okay. I will try to wrap my head around this. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
Head twisted, brows pinched, she asks, “How long have you known?”
“How long ago did I meet him?” I shrug. “I wasn’t paying attention to the station clock.”
“Today?” she screeches and I wince.
“Yeah, I knew his name, but you two never use it. And I hadn’t seen his face, just heard his voice.”
“Does he know you’re you?”
“He’s seen a picture of me.”
“Oh my god.” She slides into her circular desk and hisses, “A naked picture?”
“Yeah.”
“You haven’t even shown me a naked picture of yourself.”
“Do you want me to?” I laugh because it’s a ridiculous thing to be upset about.
“Well no, but…” Scrubbing at her face with two tentacles she takes another deep breath. “Get yourself together Kita, you are a grown ass woman.”
I press my lips together and let her process.
“Okay.” She logs into her work and says it two more times before she looks back at me. “We will talk about this later. I love you. I want you to be happy. But I am not going to call you my aunt.”
I laugh at that. “I sleep with him Kita. I don’t think he’s planning on proposing.”
The look she gives me actually makes me stop laughing. “You talk to him every day, he’s seen you without your clothes on and you’ve… done things. If he doesn’t want to make you my aunt, he’s a fucking idiot and I will tell him as much.”
“Two things. First, you are contradicting yourself so much there. Second… I need you to keep this a secret for me.”
She makes a strangled noise and I say, “Please. I’ll tell him you know and you can say whatever you need to to him. But in private.”
“Fine. But only because I love you.”
“Love you too. Have fun at work.” I blow her a kiss and she catches it.
“I will not be returning the sentiment anymore!”
I leave her and I don’t pull out my comm until I’m back in the corridors and have found a place to sit where I can keep my screen to the wall behind me.
There are messages waiting.
I am so sorry.
I never meant to encroach on your real life without permission.
Exhaling, I decide how I want to respond to that. The cat is out of the bag… not that they have cats on the station.
You are a part of my real life. Besides, how could you know? I didn’t.
I still feel like I should have done something to spare you that.
Which part?
Having to pretend like you didn’t know me.
I should have opened the profile before now. I should never have let him think I didn’t want to know who he is.
It was the* very* specific company that was the problem. If Agan hadn’t been there, I might have done something ridiculous like maul you right there in the corridor, and then you’d have to have me arrested for indecency, or at the very least assault.
Only Agan?
Kita knows what I do. Agan doesn’t.
That’s probably for the best.
And now that I know who you are, Kita also does… I’ve never given her any of the specifics of our interactions, but… she might be traumatized.
Poor Kita.
I did notice that you didn’t seem to want to be around Agan.
I hesitate before I tap out the next part.
He’s been more and more of a jerk lately.
I was informed this morning that it’s been worse since he knows I don’t have a crush on him anymore.
He doesn’t respond, and I know how it probably sounded.
He presented himself as something he was not… I’m starting to think he mimics you, but with no intention of being the person you are.
So when I realized that I wasn’t attracted to him, he got the picture real quick and didn’t take it well.
When he doesn’t respond right away again, I get nervous, but the bubble pops up a moment later.
As someone who would be distraught to lose your affections, I suppose I can’t blame him for wanting to change your mind.
He doesn’t want to change my mind. He wants to punish me.
Explain.
He’s been saying horrible things to and about me.
I may have antagonized him a little bit today… I told him I thought you were hot
Actually, I told him you were the most fuckable man I’ve ever seen
You did?
He said you’d never debase yourself with something like me… I didn’t tell him you already have. Multiple times.
There’s a long pause. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Bubbles pop up, pulse like he’s responding and then disappear. It happens three times before he says.
Can I take you to dinner?
I would like that, but…
You don’t go out to dinner.
And you don’t have to try and prove him wrong. I know.
I watch the bubbles appear and disappear and appear again.
Do you want me to cancel today’s reservation
My skin goes cold, like I’ve had a bucket of water dumped over me.
What? Why?
You didn’t want to know who I was. I overstepped that boundary
That’s not true. I’ve wanted to know. I just…
I was afraid that if I saw your face I’d spend every minute of the day looking for you
I was a little afraid that trying to find you would be a compulsion
Please don’t take away what I’ve been looking forward to all week
Can we change the location?
I’d like to actually see you this time.
Every time we take one step forward, it feels like we tumble ahead three. But…
Yeah. We can do that. We can keep the booth appointment and link them or we can do one of the private rooms.
I’ll request the change. All you need to do is approve it, okay?
Sure.
I bite my lip as I wait for the request to come through and as soon as it does I approve it and head for Phantom’s.
I don’t even look at the terms until I’ve made it to my locker room.
And then, I stare at my locker, wondering what the hell I’m supposed to wear to a ring view room.