“Like… you know. We didn’t linger with each other. We didn’t share a space. Or a bed.”
I pull the curtain aside again. “So this is a first for ya? Living with a man?”
She cocks a hip, folds her arms, and narrows her eyes at me. I withdraw back into the shower once again, grinning.
“Don’t get excited, Tyse. I’m a grown-up. I can be in the same room with a man without sleeping with him. Trust me, I’ve gone on hundreds of dates with gentlemen while I was in service to the god.Nothinghappened.”
“Yeah, but… I’m not a gentleman.” The water goes cold and I laugh. “Hey! Come back!”
She doesn’t answer. She doesn’t come back either, so I’m drenched in cold water. But it was worth it.
I like up-city Clara Birch. She’s serious, and smart, and strong.
But tower-ruin Clara Birch is positively delightful. And that’s who she is right now. A woman high on her own spark, and matching yellow décor, and a boutique bag filled with very sexy underwear that I’m a hundred-percent certain she bought by mistake.
I’m still grinning when I get out of the shower with a towel around my waist and take my dripping wet and nearly-naked self over to the chair, where I plop down.
She’s still putting her clothes away and she does her best to ignore me, but I’m kinda hard to ignore. “Oh, my god. Why must you walk around wet?”
“I like to air-dry.”
She wants to be mad, but she smiles despite herself. Though she does turn her back to me a little, so I can’t watch her too closely.
“Hey.”
She doesn’t look at me. “What?” She just continues to fold her clothes and put them neatly away in her new chest of drawers.
“It’s nice to come home to you.”
She stops what she’s doing, going still for a moment. Then she looks over her shoulder at me. “Yeah. It’s nice to be here when you get home.”
“Your man?—”
“Finn.”
“Right. That guy. What’s he look like?”
She snickers a little. “Picture the opposite of you. That’s an easy enough way to describe him.”
“Short, fat?”
“No.” But she smiles. “You’re a little bit taller, but not by that much. But you’ve got way more muscles. His hair is blond. Kinda shoulder length. And he’s got blue eyes.”
“We’re nearly a perfect match.”
“Yeah. But no. People in up-city don’t get tattoos.”
“So you’re slummin’ it with me?”
“No. I’m just saying. He’s very up-city. He wears tailored clothes and his manners are impeccable. His father was the Extraction Master.”
“Which is?”
“The person in charge of sending Maidens into the tower.”
“Ah. A bloodline thing. Poor guy.”
She stares at me for a moment. Then lets out a breath. “Yeah. It actually is unfortunate. I can’t imagine what he’s feeling right now. I can’t imagine what’s going on back home, either. Chaos?” She shrugs. “Or… did they just forget about me, like they’ve forgotten about all the others? Did Gemna get called in? And if so, are they just relieved that all ten of us are gone and it’s over now?” She shrugs again. “I just don’t know.”
