“Weeks?” asks Amber, brightening a little.
“Yeah. I mean, unless something drastic has changed, it should take a while for the last world to force open a new rift. Maybe two weeks at best, given how many of us are crowding into this reality.”
“Well, that’s…” She smiles over at Shashi. “That’s not so bad. We’re just on a trip for a few weeks.”
Shashi grabs her hand and kisses it. “It’s something. No reason to think the next world won’t have a particle accelerator.”
“It might,” August says, expanding with, “I’ve always hoped I’d come across a drastically advanced civilisation, like August’s, where I could tell some authority what happened and they’d fix the lot.”
“I’m not sure even we could do that,” Assassin August replies. “But we definitely could have worked with you to figure something out.”
“Everything’s possible.” There’s a wistful tone in August’s voice. “It’s all just time. Having enough of it to do all the things, to make it happen. Being able to put in a concerted effort.”
“Like building abs,” I joke.
“I’m still not convinced I’ll ever get them,” he sighs.
“I did see your abs,” Assassin August says to me. “They’re really nice.”
“August’s abs are so hot,” Jon agrees, getting a scowl from my August, a laugh from the other August, and an eye roll from me. He asks the new August, “Not thinking of joining them, are you?”
“Joining them?” The good-natured smile remains. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…” Jon nods pointedly at me. “The three of you. I would.”
“No!” he vomits out, looking maybe more horrified than is wholly necessary. “God, no. They’re so fucking weird.”
“No offence taken,” mutters my August.
“No, it’s not just that you’re, you know, the exact same person. It’s… Where I come from, people don’t couple off like this. It’s a very strange concept to me.”
“What do you mean?” Amber asks. “Don’t you fall in love like everyone else?”
“Yeah, we do. But unlike you, and a lot of other worlds by the looks of it, we don’t branch off into monogamous family groups. We just… Relationships of any sort are purely about pleasure.”
“You don’t date?” asks Shashi. He stares a while, questioning, so she explains, “You don’t spend most of your time with one special person, and want to move into a house with them, spend your life with them?”
“Not at all. I mean, if you really like someone, and they like you, of course you want to spend time together. But there are nostrings, not much jealousy. You just sleep with whomever you like purely for the fun of it.”
“You know,” says Jon, leaning forward far too eagerly, “that’s not totally uncommon here. I’d say it’s more advanced, you know, as a species, to live that way.”
“Unless you don’t want that,” says my August sharply.
“Yeah, of course,” Jon says. “But if you can accept that it’sjust sex—” Before my August can interrupt again, he changes course, throwing a hand up in front of himself. “You two are… a thing. We all get that. And that’s nice. For you. But forme…” I could swear his eyelashes flutter. “I like this August’s way of doing things.”
New August smiles, slow but a little sly. It’s not as though any of us haven’t noticed Jon coming onto him, and it’s not as though I’m not a little perplexed at how specific Jon’s ‘type’ of man is. But this is still confounding somehow.
Shashi sounds like she’s only half joking when she asks, “Is there any way we could get another room? Or perhaps Amber and I will move out by the elevator.”
“That’s a great idea,” says Jon. “I’ll stay in here with the Augusts.”
My own August’s head flops back against the wall. “What I’d give for more space. But no. We’re all stuck here in this little room unless you can find a whole lot more money and fast. You can’t get caught sleeping out there, or we’ll all get kicked out.”
Shashi makes a crying sort of sound, dropping down to lie her head in Amber’s lap. “If only there were some way to speed up the time. I can’t believe you can tear a rift in the side of a universe, then all we can do is sit here and wait. For weeks!”
“Well, there is one way…” August’s eyes are sparkling, full of humour when he catches mine. Then he looks away again, cheeks pleasingly flushed.
“What?” I ask him, my own smile irrepressible, even if I’m not sure what he’s on about.
