She quickly glanced at me and nodded her head. “Of course, Sir. Both versions?”
“Yes, please. Both. One for each of us. Might as well try them all. We will probably be here for a while.”
Her eyes bugged out in shock before she rapidly shook her head. “Yes. Yes. Of course. I will place your order right away.” She typed something on her tablet before dashing away.
“You have nothing to worry about,” Xylo murmured. “There is nothing to be jealous or upset about.”
I met his gaze. “I know. It is foolish since you share me with others, but that doesn’t mean a part of me doesn’t get angry when someone wants something that is mine.”
He smiled brightly at me. “Something? I am an object now?” he teased.
I rolled my eyes. “You are something pretty to look at. In fact, both you and Odelm are.”
“Are you saying you only want me because of my looks?” he asked, as a vine started to crawl up my leg.
I glared at him. “Behave.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
I rolled my eyes.
What few lights there were were dimmed, pulling my attention away from Xylo’s mischievousness. The cylindersand stage walkway lit up brightly, blinding me. I covered my eyes as the curtains parted, and the music lowered.
“Welcome to Zero G-Spot. This afternoon’s show will be performed by Xenja and Masmi. Give a hand to these lovely ladies,” announced the advertiser from outside. I tried looking around and couldn’t find him in the darkness, the cylinders and stage making it impossible to survey the room.
No one clapped. I felt bad, so I stood up from my seat and clapped as loudly as I could. Hands grabbed me and pulled me back down in my seat.
“Selena, what are you doing?” Z’fir hissed.
“Isn’t that what you are supposed to do?”
“No,” my Circuli mates said.
The music started back up as the tops of both cylinders opened, allowing a figure to drop into each one.
The water cylinder held an aquatic species—one more fish than the Ulax. Her scales were golden with a green tint along the sides. She had two legs, but her feet were large green flippers. There were huge green fin-like wings under her arms, and her fingers had green webbing between them. There was a single golden antenna-like horn on top of her head that glowed teal. She didn’t have hair; instead, a large, teal, fan-like dorsal fin ran along her back.
The other cylinder was a zero-gravity container. The female who dropped in was a younger Euvrel than the shopkeeper. She was light blue-gray and had a more agile figure. Her tail blade was whole and shaped like a hook. Her long black hair flew wildly in the cylinder as she floated in the middle.
She was also naked.
I watched their performance. They were in sync as they danced to the music in three dimensions, in two separate mediums.
I couldn’t fathom how they could do what they weredoing, and why the room was empty. The dancers were elegant and seemed to be very talented—not that I would know, since this was the first show I had ever seen. The music was too loud for my taste, either designed that way to prevent conversations or create false privacy between tables. One thing was for sure, they were hypnotic. Just like listening to Odelm playing his music, I could watch them all day and never get sick of it.
“Odelm, is that you?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Selena
“Is that you, son?” another male asked behind us, the exact moment the music died down.
The performance was over.
I turned around to see two blurry figures on the edge of my vision, walking toward us. It was too bright from the stage to see exactly who they were, but the word “son” stood out and made it obvious they were Odelm’s fathers—or at least close enough to him to consider him their son.
I faced Odelm, who stiffened under my gaze, mouth ajar, trying to figure out what to do.
