Chapter 3 #2
Why did he have to be so sexy? His arms were crossed over his broad chest, and his forearms were bare as he had rolled up his Earth style dress shirt.
His hair was getting just a bit long since he hadn’t had a chance to cut it, and she longed to see if the strands were soft or if they were just as hard and rough as the rest of him.
Upon catching sight of her, he dropped his arms and stood straight. His blue-green eyes flashed in the fancy light of the crystal chandeliers overhead. He didn’t come to meet her, but he did watch her as she closed the distance.
“Hey, Tuvo,” she greeted in Standard, trying for normal. Probably the first time she had ever greeted him in a normal way instead of excited and eager for his attention.
“Hattie,” he inclined his head. “Are you enjoying the party?”
She beamed. “Yeah. I’m having a great time. The music is nice.”
“Yes. It’s very nice. Human music is very melodic.”
“Yeah, you guys seem to emphasize drums more.”
“Indeed.”
“Uh-huh.” Oh, god, this was painful. It felt like there was so much between them for her not to say that she was struggling to find something inoffensive to say.
“Hattie.”
“Yes?” She perked up immediately. A thrill going through her that he addressed her so casually. Even before she had started avoiding him, they hadn’t really talked.
She definitely shouldn’t be so happy about that. That wasn’t a friendly thing to feel.
“I’ve been talking with Bertrand to start setting up our security for the separation. Romival helped me translate.”
“Yeah? You think it will work?” She perked up immediately. No amount of awkwardness could keep her from being excited to see her parents again.
“We’re constricted by numbers. Separating all of us into five groups means splitting our security by five. But if Survii and Alanna only take one or two people since they won’t need anyone on the island, and you and I take no one, we can probably swing it.”
“Take no one?”
He grunted in affirmative. “We’re going to contact Alanna’s uncle. Since he is the ruler of the country we’re visiting, we can trust him to set us up with security. So, we’ll only be without security for the duration of the flight.”
“Oh. I see.” She beamed, bouncing excitedly. “So, then our security team now will only need to be split three ways. Minus one or two for Survii and Alanna.”
“Exactly.”
“And then… So, that would mean you and I would be alone on the plane?”
He gave her a long look before answering, “Aside from the pilot. I cannot fly an Earth aircraft. They aren’t made to Standard.”
“Right,” she rubbed her arm self-consciously, forcing a smile. “Of course.”
“Are you uncomfortable with me being there?” He asked, voice softening.
“No!” She answered, perhaps a bit too quickly and loudly. “Sorry. No. Definitely not. You’re doing me a huge favor by going out of your way like this. Thank you.”
He waved away the words. “Don’t worry about it. I’m… grateful.”
Her head cocked curiously. He took a breath, straightening his shoulders.
“Hattie, I owe you an apology.”
“Oh, no,” she hurried to assure him. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I jumped to conclusions-”
“No, I was being unkind to you-”
“-should have just come to you directly-”
“-no reason for me to say those things-”
“-really fine, I promise.”
He let out a breath. “I already know that fine doesn’t mean fine for human females. Romival has already given me that warning.”
Hattie laughed. “Okay, fair. But I am fine, Tuvo. Really. You don’t have anything to be sorry about. I’m sorry that I judged you as a human when I should have judged you as a domini.”
“And I’m sorry that you were forced to find out that way. I should have been direct with you. It is not an easy conversation to have, but I never meant to make you feel bad. Especially not so bad that you stopped eating.”
She sighed. “Yeah. Sorry. That was a bit dramatic of me.”
“No, I…” He hesitated, hand reaching out for her. He let out a long breath before dropping it back to his side.
She offered him a shy smile. “Maybe we can just… start over?”
“Start over?”
“Yeah. Humans, you know, we don’t fight to clear the air.
And I don’t think I could beat you anyway,” she laughed a bit breathlessly, imagining those big, thick arms tightening around her.
His heavy body weighing her down. “Er, yeah. So, when we’re trying to make things up with each other, sometimes, we just ask to start the relationship over. ”
He chuckled once. “Start it over? You mean, pretend as though we never met each other?”
“Well, not that literal. But essentially, yeah. No hard feelings. No past mistakes. Just us meeting again on neutral terms.”
Tuvo looked thoughtful for a second before grunting. “Very well. I should like to start over with you, Hattie.”
She smiled, heart jumping with excitement. “Thanks. I’m glad we can just… put all that behind us.”
“Put what behind us?”
“You know… that whole thing with…” She trailed off at the knowing, amused look in his eye. Bursting into laughter she smacked his arm. “Oh, you.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, almost fully seriously. “I need to go see to the preparations for our journey.”
“How soon are we leaving?”
“Might take a day or two.” He thought for a second. “Yeah, a day seems like enough time for me to get everything in order.”
“Really? Only a day? To call the president and organize five different security teams and coordinate all of that? You only need a day?”
“You wanted to see your family, correct? And if we do it quickly, there’s less chance that something can go wrong. So long as our security team keeps things in order.”
Hattie beamed, rushing forward. She threw her arms around him, eager to give him one of her signature hugs.
They had the best ratings. She squeezed tight, trying not to think how good it felt for her soft body to mold to his harder one.
Or how nice he smelled. Or how adorable it was when his hand cautiously came up and patted her on the back.
Pulling away, she beamed at him. “You’re amazing, Tuvo. You know that?”
He offered her a very soft smile. Just the slightest upturn of his lips. “It’s not a big deal, Hattie.”
“Still, thanks. A lot. This means so much to me.”
Still warm from the hug, she whirled around and returned to the party.
He was just a friend.
No matter how much her body ached from that one hug. Desperate for him.
A friend. Only.