He climbed out of bed and returned to the mirror. He sucked in his gut again and turned to the side. And then the other.
No way. I’m not pregnant. Can’t be.
After a few more minutes of gazing at his mostly flat stomach and hearing it growl, Kenji scooted back into his bedroom, threw on some clothes, and headed out for something to eat. He walked through his neighborhood and read through the half dozen angry messages from his boss before ending up in a Chinese restaurant he’d never had a chance to check out.
Once he’d ordered his wanton soup and lo mein, he took a seat on one of the ancient vinyl chairs and glanced around the restaurant. On the large photo menu board, where the images looked nothing like the food actually served on the menu, there was a bowl of steaming soup at the top. With two purple tentacles flopping outside the bowl.
He stared at them a moment, feeling almost surreal with the way his head felt. Kenji closed his eyes and scrubbed his face, hoping they wouldn’t be there when he reopened them, but there they sat. His mind shifted to Qylar in his shifted, tentacled form, swimming aggressively his way—and how those tentacles had dwarfed him once caught.
Although he’d been terrified and fought with all he had left, there had still been a sense of peace, sensing the creature was like him. When he’d seen Qylar appear where the tentacled alien had stood, he’d stopped breathing for a few seconds, his mind stretched too thin.
The woman behind the counter walked over with his bag of food, a smile on her face.
“Thank you,” he said, standing and slightly bowing to her.
“Good boy,” she said with a smile. She reached over and squeezed his upper arm. “You have a good night.”
He didn’t feel like such a good boy, especially after the way he’d ditched Qylar without a word—but he’d needed quiet against the loudness of his head.
After walking back to his apartment building, he climbed up the two flights of stairs. When he walked in, Tacoma was on the couch, making out with one of the many identical-looking men he made out with on the regular. As soon as he shut the door, they stopped and gazed at him.
“Sorry. I’m just headed to my room.”
“I thought you worked tonight,” Tacoma said.
“I was supposed to… but my schedule got changed.” He wasn’t sure why he lied other than he didn’t want to hear any shit about paying his rent on time. He’d never been late in the many months he’d lived there, but Tacoma never missed an opportunity to make him feel like he repeatedly had.
He might as well not have bothered lying.
“I hope you’re going to make enough to cover rent,” Tacoma said.
Kenji stopped in his tracks and glared at Tacoma.
Tacoma, who’d never looked intimidated since Kenji had moved in, did for once. He lifted both palms in a show of surrender. “Sorry… just want to make sure there’s no issue.”
“Has there ever been?” Kenji asked.
“No,” Tacoma said, his voice low.
“Then stop nagging me about it,” Kenji said before continuing on to his bedroom.
Seconds after he closed the door, a knock sounded. He whipped it open and glared at Tacoma again.
“Don’t be rude. I have a message for you,” Tacoma said.
“What is it?”
“Some big, huge guy ran into me at the Eagle last night. He said he’d been looking for you since the last time you were there. He recognized me and asked for your number. I didn’t give it to him, though. He seemed like he might be a stalker.” Tacoma handed over a slip of paper. “He asked me to give you his instead. Not sure if I spelled his name right, but I figured you’d know who he was.”
“Qylar?”
“Yeah,”Tacoma replied.
Kenji scoffed. “Well, he wasn’t lying about looking for me.”
“You two already caught up?”
Kenji nodded. “Late last night.”
