“Flint—” I start.
“Carla—” he says, at the same moment.
We both stop.
“You go,” I say.
“You go first,” he says.
“I really don’t mind. Go ahead…please.”
He cocks his head and pulls in a deep breath. “All right.” He puts the glass down. “I got word just yesterday. I’m going to Mistveil.”
I make a noise that tells him I’m all ears.
“They’ve asked Security Central to send me to the island for what will more than likely be a few months. Their security operation isn’t set up to handle the problem they’re dealing with. The rogue feral males are a huge issue. Beyond that, they want to actually try to do something about it. Not just manage it. They’re setting up integration centers. Programs to try to bring those males back into civilization. Step by step, over time.” He pauses. “It won’t be quick. Some of them have been in the jungle so long they’re more dragon than human. They’re going to have to relearn what they were before the jungle stripped it out of them. But Mistveil’s position is that they made the problem worse by exiling them and then ignoring them. They want to try to fix it, as well as the security surrounding them. For now, Draig Island will continue to help them, but over time they want and need to take over themselves.”
“It’s a good thing. It’s going to be tough. I saw those feral males firsthand and…” I shake my head.
“It won’t be easy. They have admitted as much.” He nods once. “I’m going to help them set up the security side and oversee the integration center structure. There could be a long-term position available, something in the same kind of role as Magma’s.”
I nod.
He looks slightly sheepish. “I realize the timing of telling you this is—” he stops. “I don’t know where my future is going to end up being. Starting something now, under those circumstances…It doesn’t seem fair to start a relationship. It would be long-distance. I think the timing is off.”
“Flint.” I put my glass down. “Congratulations. I think it’s really great. I’m very happy for you. I can see how excited you are.”
He exhales. “You’re not upset.”
“Not at all.” I look at him. “I was going to say something very similar, and I’m glad you went first.” I fold my hands around my water glass. “Since I came home, I’ve been trying to figure out where I’m at. The jungle changed something in me. I came back different, I think, and I haven’t quite worked out how I’ve changed yet. I need to do that on my own for a while. Get back to myself.” I glance down for a moment. “I was going to tell you that I don’t want a relationship right now. That the timing is off.”
“So we’re both on the same page here?”
“We are.”
He gets a look of concern. “But you’re okay, aren’t you?”
“I’m doing great. I really am. Just working through some things, that’s all.”
And the weight that I didn’t quite realize I was carrying falls away. At least, some of it does.
“I thought you might take it badly,” he says. “I was working out how to say it since I fetched you.”
“Was that why you had such a lot to say about the weather on the way over?”
The smile breaks across his face this time, wide and real, the first easy one of the evening. “Guilty.”
“Me too.” I look at him. “I asked about your hobbies to buy time.”
He laughs and lifts his glass again. “To being friends.”
I lift mine. “Friends.”
The glasses chink.
We drink.
The tension of the evening drains away so completely that I feel my shoulders relax.
