CHAPTER 1
The restaurant Sirin takes me to is cozy and quiet and… not private, but it is out of the way.
Plenty of people see us, but it’s pretty clear the people who work here know he doesn’t want to be bothered or fussed over.
It’s also pretty clear that he doesn’t bring other people with him when he comes.
The staff look at me with varying numbers of wide eyes before quickly turning back to what they’re doing.
“When I do go out to eat,” Sirin says softly as he settles into a chair that reminds me of a tipped teacup, “this is where I wind up.”
“The only place?”
He nods and his tentacles wrap around my waist, pulling me into the chair with him. Under other circumstances, I might object, but… I like being on him, close to him like this.
“You are going to have to let me up at some point unless you want crumbs all over you.”
He laughs and holds me closer to him for a moment, kissing me, and then, the chair moves, tipping us upright and his tentacles lift me into the other chair.
“No one can fault me for wanting to keep hold of you now that I have you.”
Least of all, me. I don’t want to let go either.
The waiter brings us drinks, setting them on the table that moves down from the ceiling, settling itself exactly where we need it.
She leaves without asking us if we need anything, or if we’d like to order… “There aren’t any menus.”
“No, there aren’t.” Wrapping a tentacle around his glass, he drinks it like a shot. “The reason I like it here is because you don’t order. They give you what you get.”
“I hope they have human food, then.”
“They do. They have everything.”
I take a sip of my drink, and it makes my nose tickle. Not alcoholic, just very bubbly.
“How did you wind up out here?” Sirin asks.
“Oh…” I laugh and look down at my drink, shaking my head because… most people would just assume Phantom brought me over.
“So, my mom was abducted by aliens while she was pregnant with me.” I wince and remember why I don’t love telling this story. “They were not nice aliens, and she’s never really gone into the specifics except to say that my dad—my stepdad saved her from them.”
“I’m glad.”
I nod, “Me too.”
“They fell in love, she went to Lacousa with him, and I was born there.”
My mother still sings the praises of the obstetrics ward on her new home planet.
“After I was born, the three of us went back to Earth for a little while—dad is able to blend in with humans pretty easily. My mom really wanted me to know where I came from, but eventually we moved back to Lacousa, which is where I met Kita. She was moving here because her uncle ran the station, and I came along with her because, well… I didn’t have anything else that sounded like a better option. And here we are.”
“Do you like it on the station?” One of his tentacles wraps around my hand, suckers kissing my wrist. “I know planet-born… individuals tend to find them a little confining.”
“It’s not always my favorite place to be.
It was a novelty at first, and for a little while, I couldn’t get a job because I didn’t have enough arms, or my skin wasn’t thick enough to deal with specific tooling…
And then I did find a job and it was just a job, you know?
” He might not, so I keep going. “And then I met another human who worked at Phantom’s. ”
“And here we are,” he says softly, repeating my earlier words.
“What about you? How did you wind up here?” I take another drink and wiggle my nose again.
“Sometimes, it feels like I didn’t really have a choice.”
I don’t like that.
One of his tentacles brushes across my lips. “Don’t frown. I’m not upset that this is where life has led me. It means that you are sitting here. And if I were asked to do it all over again, but knew any other choice I made would risk this moment… I wouldn’t change a thing.”
I flinch as the waiter comes back, setting food down in front of us. She says something I don’t understand before walking away from my cheeseburger and Sirin’s ogani puffs.
“Those are Kita’s favorite.” Which is the only reason I know what they are.
He smiles and picks one up. “I know. I have a system command set up to let three of us know the moment these clear customs and where they are headed.”
“That’s how she always knows where to get them?”
He nods. “It’s the only favor she’s ever asked of me, and I completely understand.”
I take a bite of my cheeseburger, and it’s perfect. There’s nothing in that bite that makes me want to peel off the bun and pick it apart.
Two more bites and, “This might be the best cheeseburger I’ve ever had.”
“They are very good at what they do.”
He eats his puffs, the sharp outer shell crunching when he bites down, and as I swipe a fry through something that looks like special sauce, I know exactly why this is the place he comes to on the rare occasion he ventures out. I’d be willing to bet they’re always perfect.
The way someone moans a few tables over… “Is everything they make exactly what the customer wants at the time?”
“The chef has some telepathic abilities… he knows what you want, and he knows exactly how to make it… so, it feels perfect, even if it isn’t.”
“I’m surprised they don’t have a line out the door and halfway around the level.”
He tips his head to the side. “If they wanted it, they would.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that if they don’t want you to come back, you won’t remember it exists.”
“I don’t like that.”
He shrugs one shoulder. “If it happened, you wouldn’t remember to dislike it.”
I lean close, pretending to whisper, “Have you brought me here before, and I just forgot?”
Laughing, he pretends to whisper too. “Not unless I forgot too, but that’s impossible. No force in the universe could make me forget a second spent with you.”
One tentacle curled under my chin, he draws me forward to him and when he kisses me, I know he’s right. Nothing could ever make me forget him, either.