“I could give you a shopping list and tell you which shops to go to, if you would meet me here after I am finished working for the day. I will then cook dinner for us.”
I grin. “It’s a date! And I won’t even ask for a contract for it.”
“I believe you agreed to an oral contract,” Olarte says. “I offered to cook, and you agreed to buy the ingredients.”
“Well, whadaya know? You sure did. See,thatkind of contract is sort of normal among everyone. I mean, I can only cook scrambled eggs. So I’m cool with buying the groceries and letting you do the work.”
They retrieve their com unit and type up a shopping list and send it to me. My com unit alerts me almost immediately.
The text is a little blurry since I’ve downed an entire bottle of wine and nearly half of the second all by my lonesome, but I can read it. “Fantastic! This’ll be fun.” I try to focus on them, but they’re now looking a little blurry, too. “Thank you.”
“You are most welcome. I do not get to cook for others very often when I am here. I rarely cook beyond very simple food for myself. My parents sent back nearly a week’s worth of meals when I returned from my last leave. They are always worried about me not eating enough. It will be a nice change to cook for someone here.”
Everything goes blurry, and I only realize it’s because I’m crying when Olarte looks alarmed.
“Are you all right, Davies?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I sniffle back my drunk tears and wipe my eyes with the back of my hand. “You’re lucky, all right? Love your family. They obviously love you. You havenoidea how much being alone in the universesucks. And if you don’t have to leave Pfahrn, don’t. I speak from experience that being alone is no picnic.”
“I thought you said you enjoyed your chosen life?”
“I do, usually. But a guy can only spend so many nights alone before he starts realizing maybe thereismore out there than exploring the universe. Unfortunately, it feels so damned out of reach.”
“Could you not meet someone and settle down, if you wished to?”
I force myself to look them right in the eyes.
Those fucking gorgeous…sexy, dark golden eyes.
“Maybe I have met them, but I’m worried they might have zero interest in getting to know me better like that.”
“You mean me?”
“I mean you.”
Olarte holds my gaze for a long moment without blinking. “You have just met me,” they quietly say.
“I know.”
“And, according to you, you are very experienced in having romantic partners.”
“Sexual partners, but yeah. Can’t exactly call what I’ve been doing romance, though.”
“Then how could I possibly be different than all of those others?”
It’s a fair question for them to ask.
“Because I’ve never felt like this about anyone before you. The very fact that thisdoesfeel so damned different is what makes me want to beg you to give me a chance.”
I let the silence settle between us. It’s not an uncomfortable one, either, and Olarte continues looking me in the eyes.
“I do not think you are ready to sign a mating contract,” they finally say in that soft voice.
“You’re right—I’m not. Not tonight, obviously. But maybe it’s time you start thinking about whether a contract is more important to you than having someone in your life to call your own.”
Chapter Ten
Olarte
