CHAPTER 4
Idon’t think about Agan again until I get out of the lift on one of the lowest levels of the station the next day and he’s there. Luckily, he’s not right there and I’m able to hurry down the hall away from him before he sees me.
He was leaning on a railing, talking to someone who thankfully kept him from looking at the lift when it opened.
I don’t know what else is down here, so I wouldn’t have been able to make up a convincing lie and I am not about to tell him the truth.
Luckily, the bath entrance is not that far away, and I slip inside through doors that open like they’re breathing.
It’s warm and cozy and the lights are low… Like a new-age spa in an Earth movie.
Bubbles of warm light roll across the floor, pile in the corners, and inch up the walls.
“Welcome,” a soft voice says as a Trulavian woman pushes past a curtain. “You must be Cherry.”
I didn’t expect her to know me by name—either of them. “I am.”
“Don’t look worried, dear. Your friend let me know you’d be coming.
” She wears a beaded hood that covers most of her face, woven diamond openings for each of her eyes and pieces dangle between her pedipalps.
Her blade-shaped hands are half covered by her long bell sleeves.
“He was worried he might be late or you might be early and wanted to make sure you were comfy in the meantime.”
“He’s very thoughtful like that.”
“Yes, he is.” She makes a happy little noise like marbles tumbling together, and a grumbling Trulavian man backs into the room, dragging another ball of light. This one is enormous.
“Gorfang!” the woman chides him. “That can wait.”
“It’s going to keep trying to get to the generator if I don’t put it on the coil now.”
“Hush, leave it. Sirin’s friend is here.”
He stands up straighter and looks at me with wide eyes. “Ay! Greeting.”
The words sound wrong… but he was speaking English when I came in, so I can’t imagine why. “Hi.”
“Stay here,” the woman says, pointing at him before turning to me. “Come right this way and ignore him.”
Following her through the door he had just pulled that enormous light ball through, I get a little dizzy when the curtain falls shut behind us and my eyes don’t immediately adjust to the change of the light.
But when I do, she’s waiting and she only walks when she sees I’m ready to follow.
“Couples use our facilities all the time, but we’ve never…” her voice fades. “Well, I am very glad that you’re here.”
It’s starting to feel like Sirin’s introverted tendencies are more of a concern to the people he sees regularly than I might have thought.
She opens a door and ushers me in. “This is your private room, and please do not worry, every bath is drained and sanitized between appointments.”
I hadn’t been worried, but, “Thank you. Are there any rules I need to follow?”
“Not a one. The room is yours until you’re done with it.”
She closes the door, and I turn back to the wide, round opening that’s covered with a shimmering curtain. When I peek past it…
The circular shape of this doorway is mimicked on two of the other walls and the ceiling… the fourth wall has a window out to the inky darkness of space and the floor…
The circular pool takes up most of the room. Only plants in the corners and more balls of light exist outside of the glowing, bubbling surface.
Private… but definitely big enough to play.
I slip my shoes off and then shimmy out of my pants and shirt and leave my underwear on top of it all before I hurry into the bubbling water.
He convinced me I wouldn’t need a suit, so I didn’t bring one.
Sirin should be the only one who comes through that door, but if it’s someone else, I don’t want to give them a free show.
The pool is deep enough I go in up to my shoulders when my feet are flat on the bottom and the warmth and motion sink into my skin, instantly loosening my muscles.
I don’t hear the door open, but the curtain moves to the change in the air, and I watch his shadow shift as he removes his uniform.
Funny how I know his movements after no time at all.
“Hi,” I say as he pushes past the curtains to join me.
He pauses for a moment, just looking down at me and I wonder what he can see beneath the bubbles.
Finally, he says, “I’m glad you came.”
“Me too.”
He adjusts the lights with a dial beside the circular opening and slips into the water with me.
“I’ve wanted you here with me every time I’ve come since we first spoke.” His tentacles wrap around my legs and pull me up off the bottom to press against his chest.
“I’m here now.”
He tips my head back and looks down at me with heavy-lidded eyes. “And I never plan on letting you go.”