The walk is painfully slow and Clara’s draggin’. So I make my offer again as we head up to the third floor. “The piggyback offer hasn’t expired yet.”
“I’m not unfit, ya know. I lived on the ninth floor of my own tower and I walked up and down those stairs all the time. In heavy gowns, even.”
“Let’s race then.”
She scoffs, side-eyeing me, but skips over my playful threat. “It just felt… quicker. I almost never walked up alone.”
“Are ya alone?” I pan my hand at the—literally—hundreds of people all around us.
“No, I mean with myfriends. We would gossip and stuff. It took my mind off the climbing. Never mind. It was just different.”
“Did you just call me bad company?”
I get another side-eye. “Ya know, for a fuckin’ cynic, you’re awfully sensitive about what people think of you.”
“Nah, I’m not. I’m just trying to make a good impression on ya. But I’m not sure it’s working.”
She smiles, but doesn’t look at me. “Well, if that’s true, it is.”
“You like me.”
“You likeme.”
I laugh. “I do like you. Ya asked why I was being a dick? Well, that’s why.”
“You’re a dick to me because you like me. Got it.”
“It’s not that. I just need to know what you’re doing and why. Because I don’t get invested in much these days, Clara.”
“And you’re afraid I’m gonna fuck you over.”
“A little, but not really. I haven’t got much for you to take. It’s just… I haven’t had a partner in a while. I don’t mean women, either. I mean apartner. Someone I count on. Someone who counts on me.”
She looks at me now, not smiling. “Your… soldier friends. That’s who you named when you said you’ve saved people before. What happened to them?”
“What makes you think something happened to them?”
“Because you came here to Tau City to attend War College alone.”
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to. It was… understood. So what happened to them?”
“Dead.”
She frowns. “All four?”
“All four.”
“It was some kind of battle?”
“I guess.”
“That’s… not a good answer.”
“Why not?” She shrugs, not looking at me. “Come on, Clara. Fill in the blanks. Let’s see what ya got.”
“I don’t know much about war. Not enough to fill those blanks in.”
