Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Candy
Candy didn’t know what she expected when it came to working with Votra, but what she learned pretty quickly was that Work Votra was very different from Party Votra.
They didn’t talk much, save for Votra thanking Candy every time she brought her coffee.
She strictly spoke to Candy only when she needed something or when she was showing Candy how to do something.
And as much as she knew she shouldn’t be thinking about it, her heart went crazy every time Votra leaned over the back of her chair to look at her computer screen.
It was her third day of work when Xyxy sent her a comm message. Votra’s hand was on the back of her chair, and Candy was so focused on how incredible Votra smelled that she almost missed the text message. She smelled smoky but sweet, like the strong brewed Thai teas she used to get back home.
ur going on a date tonight, fyi
okaaaaay with who??
hes one of qaeds friends… friends? idk how he knows him but qaed said he was single so
what do you know about him??
hes a film dude, i know you like those film dudes
and hes actually pretty hot. his names dren
ur meeting him at laika at 7
Well, at least Candy didn’t have to do any of the work.
And honestly, she could use the distraction.
She hadn’t been on a date in years—a date that wasn’t with Ross, anyway, and those barely counted.
They weren’t really dates; they were more Candy being held hostage for two hours while Ross talked about whatever film he was working on and lecturing Candy for saying the word ‘movie.’
But tragically, her attraction to the creative types never waned, no matter how shitty a lot of them could be.
She got home from work two hours before her date, which gave her more than enough time to get ready.
God, she didn’t even remember how to get ready for a date.
With Ross, it didn’t really matter what she wore.
He never seemed to notice—she’d had to point out her newly bubblegum pink hair to him when they went out the night after she’d dyed it.
But those days were over, she reminded herself. She was gonna go out with someone who was going to notice her, someone who was going to compliment her outfit and maybe let her get a word or two in during dinner.
But she also had every intention of looking so hot, her date could do nothing but stare at her. She layered a black camisole under a white tie-front blouse, shoving her tits up to her neck with her smallest bra. Her skirt fell to her ankles, with a slit that reached her mid-thigh.
“You can do this, Candy,” she told herself, staring into her own green eyes in the mirror.
“You’re gonna have a good time and you’re not gonna think about Votra or work.
” She was in a brand new galaxy, after all.
She’d never lived anywhere but New York, and she should be taking this time to have new experiences, not being hung up on her boss.
Laika was a glamorous but casual restaurant in Veterok-III’s commercial district, nestled on the corner of a street.
Outside, the tables overflowed with young aliens enjoying meals of vibrantly colored food; the air hummed with conversation and the warm, spicy aroma of a food that Candy didn’t recognize.
She lingered outside the restaurant, her comm buzzing with a message from an unknown user.
Hey, this is Dren! Xyxy passed me your comm info. Just letting you know I’m running a little late. Grab us a table and I’ll be right there!
Being late on a first date wasn’t exactly the greenest of flags, but she didn’t exactly have the best idea of what traffic on Veterok-III was like, or how traffic even worked. God, she needed to get out more.
She gave him the benefit of the doubt and obliged, following the host to a secluded corner table bathed in the soft glow of pink-orange moonlight streaming in through the window next to it.
She peered out the window; one of Veterok-III’s moons bared its warm face to her, taking up a much larger portion of the sky than Earth’s moon did.
Her heart quickened at how intimate the setting felt. It’s just one date with one guy, Candy. You’re gonna be fine.
The waiter, a kind-faced ersea with skin the color of algae, had been over twice to check on Candy by the time Dren arrived. He already wasn’t doing so great in Candy’s book, but first impressions weren’t always right. The least she could do was give him a chance.
And anyway, Xyxy had been right about the fact that he was hot.
He was a tall orlix with brick-red skin and fiery orange hair clipped close to his head.
At least he’d dressed nicely—his pinstriped slacks fit him well, and his white linen button-up hung about his thick torso loosely, the top two buttons undone.
The last time she’d seen someone with two buttons undone like that, she’d felt a lot more tempted than she did now.
“Traffic was nuts, you wouldn’t believe it,” Dren said, taking his seat across from Candy. “I hope you weren’t waiting for too long.”
She was, but there wasn’t much she could do about it now. “I figured I would wait for you before I ordered anything. Are you gonna get a drink?”
“Probably. They have a pretty big selection of spirits from outside Kratos. If you’ve never had a zyphar fizz, you should definitely try it.” Dren placed his hands on top of the menu, pupil-less topaz eyes settling on Candy. “So, you’re from Earth, right? How are you liking Kratos so far?”
“I haven’t seen a lot of it yet, honestly. I’ve been working a lot, so I haven’t had the chance to see much. But it is pretty cool to be somewhere brand new. I was born and raised on Earth, so….” She cleared her throat. “What about you? Are you from here?”
“Yep. Born and raised on Veterok-III, so I can be your tour guide whenever you want. I can show you all the places only the locals know about.” Dren grinned. See, your first impression of him was wrong. He’s nice!
“I’d like that,” Candy said, looking back up at their server as she approached the table again.
“I’ll take a zyphar fizz,” Dren said, his eyes flicking down to his comm. He didn’t look up at the server as he continued. “And can we please have an order of fried thryska for the table?”
“I’ll have a zyphar fizz too, please,” Candy said. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah! Sorry. My friend is texting me about our show. I don’t know if Xyxy mentioned it to you or not, but I’m an actor.
And writer… and director. Not to brag or anything,” he said, flashing her a fanged grin when he looked back up at her.
As Dren spoke, his eyes twinkled, and a wave of warmth washed over Candy.
This was what got her. She couldn’t resist the pull of someone talking about their passions, even if it meant that they didn’t want to hear a word she said.
Their server returned with their drinks, and Candy thanked her before she hurried off. “So you’re writing a show?”
“Well, writing it and directing it. My friend is taking the lead role and he’s gonna help me–” He looked back down at his comm when it pinged again. He abandoned his sentence as he started to type back.
This time, he was silent for a while. Candy drummed her fingers on the table.
Unfortunately, she was all too used to this. Ross used to do the same thing—he was practically glued to his phone, especially when he was waiting to hear back about auditions. This was what she got for always going after film bros. She would always come last, apparently.
Dren looked back up as if surprised that Candy was still there. “Shit, sorry. There’s so much going on in my brain right now.” He took a sip of his drink and let out a gasp of satisfaction. “What do you think of the zyphar fizz?”
She took a careful sip, and the bitter taste immediately exploded across her tongue and filled her mouth.
It wasn’t immediately off-putting, but she definitely didn’t enjoy it.
Apparently, she wasn’t great at muting her facial features, because Dren laughed a full belly laugh at her.
“Don’t worry. One day, your palate will become refined enough to like it. ”
She slid it towards him. “You can have it if you want.” Maybe he'd pay more attention to her if he was a little tipsy.
Their server returned with their fried thryska, which almost reminded Candy of calamari. The plate was piled high with what almost looked like fried tentacles, an array of brightly colored sauces circling them.
The thryska was much better than her drink. It had an almost meat-like texture but practically melted in her mouth, the softness offset by the crunchy, fried coating. “Oh my God, that’s good,” Candy sighed. At least, even if the date sucked, she’d discovered some Kratos food that she liked.
“Right? Try the green sauce. It’s the best one,” Dren said.
She wasn’t entirely sure that she trusted his taste, but she followed his lead, dunking a sliver of thryska into the sauce.
The sauce was creamy and vegetal, and honestly, she thought the thryska was better without it.
But she didn’t particularly want to hear Dren’s critique of her taste buds, so she kept it to herself.
Dren’s comm let out a series of beeps, and once again, he was lost to his conversation with his friend.
Candy let out an irritated sigh, and Dren either didn’t care about it or didn’t hear it.
She snacked lazily on the thryska between them, and by the time Dren looked back up at her, she’d nearly finished the entire plate. His loss.
“You know what? I really need to call him real quick,” he said, his eyes on her looking genuinely guilty. “I’m so sorry. I told him I was going out tonight, but this is something that I really have to handle.”
Candy knew that she shouldn’t take this personally, but she was.
She knew his type. He was a fledgling screenwriter/director/whatever the fuck he wanted to call himself who thought his not-quite career was more important than everyone around him.
She couldn’t help but think that, if he was really sorry, he’d deal with this later.
But maybe she was being selfish. “It’s fine,” she said, waving him off. “Take your time.”
“When the server comes back, can you order the spicy craukvek for me?”
Was he really going to be gone that long? But Candy acquiesced and nodded. She’d gotten good at this over her time with Ross. This was no different.
But why would she come out here to date someone who was exactly like Ross? There was a reason they hadn’t worked out—aside from the whole cheating thing.
The minutes Dren was gone slowly turned into half an hour, and Candy had already ordered her food and picked at it for a few minutes by the time she looked down at her comm again. She wanted to be polite and wait for him, but her food was getting cold.
She asked the server for her food to go and left the table in favor of the bar. Something told her Dren had already forgotten that she existed.
A long bar lined with seats ran through the middle of the restaurant—a perfect hiding spot.
Candy took a bar stool on the opposite side from where she and Dren had been sitting.
The bartender, a golden-skinned drucaro wielding four cocktail shakers, gave her a questioning look.
“That bad, huh?” she asked, skillfully pouring a milky blue substance into a glass.
“Yep.” Candy’s eyes prickled with irritated tears. She hated that she cried when she was angry. All in all, this wasn’t the worst date she’d ever been on. Was she dumb to have expected better?
Or maybe she was just expecting too much out of men. “Do you have any Earth liquor?”
The drucaro chuckled. “We work with a distillery based on Earth–but we just have tequila. That okay?”
Now Candy was actually going to cry. “I could kiss you right now.”
The bartender poured her a shot and slid it to her. Typically, Candy would take her shots with lime and salt, but she tipped the shot back without thinking twice. It burned in a way that made her feel like she was home again.
Maybe coming out here was a bad idea. There had to be a reason that all of this was going wrong.
Or maybe it was just her. She’d been so convinced her whole life that love was easy. It was for her parents—they were so disgustingly in love, Candy had no reason to assume it wasn’t like that for everyone.
But she’d learned pretty quickly in her adult years that it definitely wasn’t like that for everyone. In fact, it might just be them.
“Can you give her one more and then close her out? I will pay,” came a voice from behind her, forcefully yanking her out of her self-pity. Votra was standing beside her, cradling a container of food.
“You want anything, Votra?” asked the bartender, and Candy’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. Votra didn’t seem like the type to be a regular at any restaurant, never mind one as nice as Laika. Hell, Candy hadn’t so much as seen Votra eat the entire time they’d worked together.
“I am alright, thank you. I am going right back to work after this.” She tapped her comm to the bartender’s, and the bartender slid Candy another shot.
Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. The last person Candy wanted to see her like this was Votra. What cruel god had placed her in a room with the only two people in the galaxy that she had ever been remotely interested in?
“You didn’t have to pay for my drinks, y’know,” she grumbled. Her second shot went down much easier than the first.
“I know.” Votra’s eyes on her were infuriatingly soft. “What happened?”
“Nothing.” Candy slid off her bar stool, looking everywhere but at Votra. The thought of her boss seeing her after a less-than-perfect date set her nerves on edge. “I’m leaving now.”
She didn’t know where she was going. She sure as hell didn’t wanna go home and face Xyxy, because she knew that as soon as she found out how the date had gone, she’d make a huge fuss over her. And honestly, Candy just wanted to pretend none of this had happened.
“Wait.” Votra’s large hand circled Candy’s wrist, stopping her in her tracks. “Would you like to come back to the office with me? I have a bit of work to do and I could use the company.”
“Yeah… okay. Thanks,” she said, her voice brittle.