24. Terra
TERRA
The dining area occupied a broad alcove beside the kitchen, and Terra had noticed the table earlier but hadn't really examined it. Now she realized that, like everything else in the domicile, it hadn't been manufactured at all.
The table appeared to grow directly out of the floor.
Its thick central trunk spread upward into a broad flat surface polished naturally smooth, with faint green veins running through the pale wood. Two chairs had grown beside it, formed from looping branches covered in soft cushions of moss and small velvety leaves.
Terra ran her hand over the tabletop.
“This whole thing is alive too?” she asked.
Taurex nodded.
“Yes.”
“Does it grow larger if you have company?” she asked curiously.
Taurex nodded.
“If I have enough notice, it can accommodate up to twelve.”
Terra stared at him.
“You have an expandable dining table that expands itself?”
“Essentially.”
She put a hand on her hip.
“That is so unfair.”
“To whom?” he asked, looking confused.
“Humans. We think we're advanced because our refrigerators make ice. And here you have all this amazing biotech and living appliances. I’m jealous!”
Taurex laughed.
“You don’t have to be jealous. You can come back to the Mother Ship and use our biotech any time. What’s mine is yours.”
“Well…thank you.” Terra felt her heart flutter at his offer. “I might take you up on that.”
His golden eyes were suddenly half-lidded.
“I hope you will,” he murmured.
They sat across from each other, and once again Terra experienced the strange sensation of living furniture adapting itself to her body.
The chair softened beneath her, curling gently around her hips and lower back until she was supported perfectly.
It put the lumbar support chair Jackson had insisted on having before they got divorced to shame.
Taurex served the stew into deep bowls that looked like hollowed-out gourds but had a smooth pearlescent finish. The gravy was an alarming shade of midnight blue, and the chunks of meat were even darker now after simmering in the sauce, but it smelled delicious.
Terra stared into her bowl, her stomach rumbling.
“This is very blue,” she remarked.
Taurex frowned.
“Is that a problem?”
“No. It's just…not a color I usually associate with gravy.”
“What color is Earth gravy?” he asked curiously.
“Brown,” Terra told him.
He frowned.
“That sounds dull.”
Terra laughed.
“You know what? Fair.”
She tore off a piece of the warm fargas bread and dipped it into the blue gravy. Then she took a bite, and her eyes widened.
“Oh, wow…” she moaned.
Taurex watched her closely.
“Well?”
Terra took another bite and swallowed before answering.
“This is really good. I mean, maybe the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth!”
His expression brightened with unmistakable pleasure.
“So you like it?”
“I love it.” Terra took another bite and hummed with pleasure.
The stew reminded her vaguely of beef stew, but the flavor was much richer.
The blue meat was incredibly tender, falling apart beneath her fork, and the gravy had a deep savory quality that made her think of slow-cooked beef, mushrooms, roasted onions and red wine all mixed together, though none of those ingredients were actually in it.
The green roots had softened into something like potatoes while the turquoise seeds added tiny bursts of sweetness.
Terra took another bite.
“I cannot believe I'm eating blue gravy and enjoying it this much,” she remarked.
He raised his eyebrows.
“The color continues to trouble you.”
“I'm getting used to it,” she said, giving him a smile as she took another big bite.
Taurex tore off a piece of bread.
“You adapt quickly,” he remarked.
“Single motherhood,” Terra said dryly. “You learn to adapt to pretty much anything.”
He looked at her thoughtfully.
“I believe you have had to adapt to too much.”
The statement was so simple and yet so unexpectedly tender that Terra paused with her spoon halfway to her mouth. She thought of her first unexpected pregnancy, then her divorce and then having to start stripping to make ends meet.
“Maybe, I have,” she said softly.
Taurex didn't push. Instead, he simply reached across the table and placed another piece of warm bread beside her bowl.
“Eat,” he rumbled. “You don’t have to deal with anything else right now.”
Terra smiled.
“Yes, Mom.”
“I am considerably larger than your mother,” he said dryly.
Terra laughed.
“Trust me, that wouldn't stop her from bossing you around.”
He nodded thoughtfully.
“I believe Lucy is formidable.”
“You have no idea,” Terra told him.
They talked throughout the meal, and Terra found herself telling Taurex stories about Cody and Lisa, including the time Lisa had decided to give herself a haircut with kindergarten safety scissors and the afternoon Cody had tried to build a homemade rocket in the backyard using a plastic bottle, baking soda and far too much confidence.
Taurex listened as though every story mattered, asking questions and laughing in all the right places, and Terra was struck again by the difference between him and Jackson.
Her ex had barely listened when she talked about the children unless there was a problem he thought she should solve.
All he ever cared about was his own interests—gaming, buying a new truck, and things like that.
Anything that didn’t directly involve him personally had no chance of holding his attention.
But Taurex wanted to know about her life and her kids and her mom. The realization warmed her almost as much as the food.
By the time Terra scraped the last of the dark blue gravy from her bowl with a piece of fargas bread, she was completely full. She sighed contentedly and sat back in her living chair, which immediately adjusted to support her.
“That is honestly one of the best meals I've ever had,” she told Taurex.
He leaned back in his living chair.
“I am pleased you liked it.”
“You should be proud of yourself,” Terra told him. “You’re not just a successful CEO—you’re also an amazing chef.”
Taurex looked thoughtful.
“I suppose I am.”
She laughed.
“No false modesty, huh?”
He shrugged.
“You said it was excellent. Why would I pretend otherwise?”
She laughed again.
“Good point.”
They put the leftovers away together, which turned into another alien domestic lesson for Terra. Taurex stored the remaining stew inside a round green pod that sealed itself once he pressed the edges together, then placed it inside the cooling plant.
“It reseals itself?” she asked.
“Yes.” He nodded.
“That’s a hell of a lot better than Tupperware,” Terra remarked.
He shrugged.
“I do not know what that is.”
“Plastic containers that you can never find matching lids for,” she told him.
Taurex frowned.
“That sounds inefficient.”
“It’s one of the great frustrations of human civilization,” Terra said.
“I believe your tax system is worse,” he said, frowning.
“Barely,” Terra acknowledged.
Finally, they carried their bowls, cups and utensils to the cleansing vine.
Terra fed hers into the fuzzy leaves and watched with fascination as the plant wrapped around each piece, scrubbed it clean and passed it back to Taurex, who placed everything into storage hollows that opened automatically in the wall.
When the last bowl was clean, Terra wiped her hands and immediately glanced toward the hallway.
Taurex noticed where she was looking.
“You’re thinking about the bathing pool aren’t you?” he rumbled.
“Was I that obvious?” Terra asked.
He snorted.
“Extremely.”
She grinned at him.
“Guilty as charged. I've been thinking about it ever since you showed it to me.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“And the pleasure blooms?”
Terra narrowed her eyes.
“Mostly the pool.”
“Mostly?”
“Okay, fine. I'm curious about the flowers too,” she admitted.
Taurex shook his head.
“I warned you about them.”
“Yes, yes, they're aggressive.” Terra made a shooing motion.
“They can be,” he said cautiously.
“But you promised they don't bite, or sting and they don’t have any poison,” Terra pointed out. So I’m not worried.”
Taurex studied her for a long moment and the intensity in his golden gaze sent a small shiver through her.
“Very well,” he rumbled at last. “But you must promise to listen to me if I tell you to move away from them.”
Terra raised an eyebrow.
“You're being serious?”
He nodded.
“I am.”
She nodded.
“All right. I promise.”
Taurex nodded.
“Then we can go into the bathing pool.”
Excitement fluttered through Terra. She had been looking forward to sliding into that steaming water from the moment she'd seen it through the bedroom window, and now that dinner was finished, she suddenly felt like a kid about to sneak out to the hotel pool after dark.
Except this wasn't a hotel, she reminded herself.
It was an alien house grown from living trees on a vast spaceship orbiting Mars.
And she was about to get into a hot bathing pool surrounded by mysterious pleasure flowers with a nearly eight-foot-tall Minotaur she was becoming increasingly attracted to.
Terra smiled to herself. Her life had gotten very strange lately.
But she had to admit—she was enjoying the hell out of it.