Serenity #3
But a little niggly section in the back of my brain reminded me his father cheated on his mother, that had cataclysmic results for the both of them, and this was not cheating (per se), but it might not be about him being a bossy, domineering king, but considering he’d made it clear he already thought I was his, it might be about that.
“I had no intention of doing that, and therefore I already was not going to do that,” I forced out.
He nodded.
Once.
And then said, “I’ll comm you Sunday afternoon.”
“I’ll be busy.”
“Then I’ll comm you Sunday evening.”
“I’m busy then too.”
“Then I’ll jet to Nocturn and be in your flat Sunday night so you can not only confirm things are over with that male, we can enjoy a long chat.”
Gah!
“I’ll accept your comm Sunday evening,” I relented.
“Excellent.”
“Are we done now?”
“Now? Yes. Done? Never.”
How much trouble could you get in for slapping a king?
I’d have to look it up.
“Talk to you Sunday,” I bid.
“You will,” he replied, like it was a threat.
Okay then.
I was officially done.
Without saying goodbye, I ended the comm.
I allowed myself a moment to seethe. That felt so good, I allowed myself several more moments.
Still minorly seething, I tossed aside the straw, downed the last of my martini in one gulp, donned the spa-visor to finish the program and sat back in my pool.
It only took a couple of minutes for the visor to finish.
This left me in my pool with no martini, a fresh face, a whole night ahead of me where I naturally needed to sleep, and despite my best efforts…
No serenity.
After work the following evening, I was in my kitchen.
I’d put the ingredients of the ready-meal I’d grabbed on the way home into my Cook-Companion and that was doing its thing (and I was looking forward to it seeing as I’d grabbed it before: salmon in puff pastry with a delicious cream sauce, roasted asparagus and saffron rice).
Now, with the small screen I had in the kitchen broadcasting the news, but doing so muted, I was checking my pack-chute to grab mail and any packages delivered from the big wintery shop I’d done on the panes last night.
I was carrying everything to the kitchen when the screen caught my attention, as moving pictures had the tendency to do.
On it was Tanyn.
I stopped at the island, setting my packages on the counter, not tearing my eyes from the screen.
There were subtitles at the bottom that I didn’t bother to read as I watched what clearly was arranged by Mira Loreling to be pushed out into the world.
It was Tanyn, looking criminally dapper in a superbly well-cut, three-piece brown suit with a shirt that was so light blue, it was almost white, and a blue-patterned tie.
This all did amazing things to his startling eyes.
He either knew how to shop, or he had a fantastic stylist.
He was shaking another demon male’s hand, others clustering around him vying for attention, as they walked up the grand steps outside what I knew was the Chambers of Assembly in Abyssinia. Sky’s Edge’s government building.
This cut to Tanyn, same suit, different venue.
He was walking with a female carrying a tablet tucked to her front.
She was leading him around, pointing at things while others followed slavishly (mostly females, a couple of males).
They were all staring at the king like he, personally, was going to tuck the sun in its horizon that evening and bring out the moon.
“Yuck,” I muttered, my gaze dropping to the bottom of the screen to see he was visiting the Escu Centre, a battered female shelter. “Totally Mira in PR overdrive.”
I watched the way the beings responded to him. How he spoke to some of the female clients in the shelter (their faces fuzzed out), his expression grave, attentive, but not emotive, and in that situation, this worked very well.
I could tell, just by watching him, he wasn’t hearing. He was listening.
And he gave a crap.
Like…genuinely.
“Kill me,” I mumbled.
The moderator’s face filled the screen, her mouth yapping, no doubt about how mega the newly throned King Tanyn was.
I didn’t even have the sound on, and I knew she was right, and not just because he wasn’t filth, like his half-brother, but because he gave a shit.
I didn’t need this, so I called, “Screen off. Withdraw.”
It went blank and whirred back into its hiding place so it didn’t mar the clean-lined aesthetic of my kitchen.
I then turned my attention to the packages, which of course reminded me again of Tanyn.
This was going to be my life.
It just was.
Unless I could figure out how not to make that so.
“I have to figure out how not to make that so,” I muttered to myself as I unearthed the cutest puffy jacket in history.
Okay.
So.
My immediate future might not be all that bright.
But that jacket was the bomb.
As such, in that very moment, I decided this was going to be my new motto until this whole crazy situation was all over: Keep hold of the small things that made me happy.
And persevere.
That puffy jacket made me happy, thus, I returned my attention to opening the other packages.
In them, as ever when I got something new, were things that gave me a thrill.
As such, I persevered.