He gestured toward her brother and sister, who were now seemingly in a heated game ofkamesszywith a group of juvenile basilisks. “I think we’re gonna be here for a while.Kamesszyhas fifty rounds.”
“Fifty?” She groaned. “Fine.” Reaching for her drink, she downed it. “But I’m going to need more of these.”
Pythorus signaled to their waitress. “No problem.”
And so, she told him everything about Hektor and her basilisk problem over another round of drinks. Surprisingly, shedidn’t detect any judgement or condescension from him, only understanding.
“And so, I’m stuck now.” She placed her elbows on the table and planted her chin on top of her interlocked fingers. The room was spinning a little bit—or it was the Solkarian alcohol she’d had.
“Ah, I see. You can’t tell him you were lying about your supposed basilisk boyfriend, but you can’t tell him you broke up with this fictional male because it might make you seem frivolous.”
“Oh my gods, you really get me, Pythorus.” She let out apffftt.“Why can’t I be attracted to someone like you? Instead of a stupid, stubborn Drakkon.”
“Well, I’m flattered, but first of all, I don’t swing that way.”
Her eyes darted up at him. “You’re only attracted to basilisks?”
He chuckled. “Basiliskmales.”
There was an echo of an emotion that said that wasn’t quite true.
Well, at least she didn’t doubt themalepart of that sentence.
“Onlybasiliskmales?”
Color flared under his scaly cheeks and his eyes flickered back to thekamesszyboards. Waves of pure lust so thick rippled from the basilisk, Zara could hardly breathe.
She followed his gaze—right at her own brother.
“Oh. I see.”
Pythorus cleared his throat. “But, back to you. I have a solution to your problem.”
“You do?
“Yes.” He took her hands from under her chin. “Zara, will you allow me to be your boyfriend?”
“Huh?” Was she drunker than she thought? “You just said you were gay.”
And you want to bang my brother like a screen door in a hurricane.
“I mean, be your pretendboyfriend. Once Hektor gets here, you can just tell himI’mthe guy you’ve been chatting with.”
“What? You’d do that?”
“Sure, why not?” He winked at her. “If he’s a typical Drakkon, then he’ll be furious with jealousy and be forced to admit his feelings for you. But if he doesn’t have feelings for you, then we can just break up, and he’ll be none the wiser. No harm no foul.”
The thought of Hektor truly not feeling anything for her plucked at her chest.
But she supposed, she needed to know, one way or another, and end this torture.
“Alright, if you don’t mind…”
“Of course not.”
She paused, thinking about it. It was one thing to tell Hektor about a fake boyfriend, but to actually play pretend with another person was different.
Are you really going to do this?
