“Hush.” She laughs and I do too. “But you’re still living with them… which one are you going to bond to?”
I bite my lip and look down at my coffee. “I want all three of them.”
“Oh.” There’s no surprise in her voice, no pity. Just… a reset of expectations.
That gives me hope. “Is it possible?”
“With two? Yes. With three?” She shrugs. “The other mismatched woman living with me just moved out becauseshewound up bonded to… two members of the brotherhood on the other side of the caldera, in fact.”
“How?”
“She told me that she decided to let fate decide and…” Mary makes a motion with both of her hands, swooping them together and then pushing up.
I blink at her. “Are you trying to mime DVP?”
Mary actually blushes.
“We work in an industrybuilton sex. How are you embarrassed right now?”
“I don’t know, okay!” Still, she covers her face with her hands. “But yes. They played bonding roulette and both chambers were loaded.”
“How is that any better?”
“Well, I didn’t have time to think of a medical way to say it!”
“So you just,” I make the same hand motion she did and she goes red all over again.
“Stop it!”
Paisley leans over the counter and glances at us warily.
“Sorry.” I give her a little wave and then turn back to Mary. “Sorry.”
She uses a napkin to wipe the tears away from her eyes. “But that’s why I don’t think it would work… physically or logistically, I don’t know how you’d get it all in there.”
“I mean… I’ve seen the logistics for how it could be done—they send alotof porn to Earth—but you’re right…Physicallyit would be a stretch.”
She groans and covers her eyes with one hand. “I wish Wren was here. Not because I think she’d make you stop, but then at least there would be someone else you could poke fun at.”
“Next time make sure she comes.”
“I will.” She claps her hands together, “Now. I know you haven’t been here long, but have they taken you anywhere fun yet?”
“Not yet. We’re going somewhere after this, but Arc hasn’t told me where yet.”
“Well we’ve got everything you could possibly want to do here, and if we don’t, it’s a very short trip to Kaveter. So, you tell them and they can make it happen. And if they don’t, you call me andI’llmake it happen.”
“Deal.”
SHOCK
Risk is off doing something down stairs. Kissu is sleeping on Chrys’ cat tree, and I have a call to make.
Noa answers before the second tone and he looks at me with a wide smile. “Mister Shock. I did not expect to hear from you again.”
“I don’t think anyone has ever called me that before.”
He laughs and shrugs. “It’s one of those Earth things that always made me chuckle. What can I do for you today?”
