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Maybe next year. I touch my stomach again. Maybe if we have a baby.
Flowers and vegetable in hand, I head toward the room I've set up as my kitchen. After I pointed out to Jerrok that the food preparation should be in a different area than his worktable, he spent two weeks setting up one of the cleared out rooms as a kitchen and dining room for me. Now I have a large hotplate that acts as my stove, two sinks, and cabinets for storing foodstuffs. I have a little table set up with chairs on the far side of the room, and there's even a pretty checkered tablecloth to cover my table, courtesy of Bethiah. I'm pretty sure she stole it from the cantina at the nearest space station because the pattern looks awfully familiar, but I don't care. All the stations treat humans like crap anyhow, and I'm never comfortable visiting. We've had to do it a few times for food supplies—Sleipnir eats a LOT—and it always makes me appreciate my nice, quiet home here with Jerrok in the asteroid belt.
I love how remote it is. It doesn't feel lonely. It feels private. Cozy. And Jerrok and I never tire of each other's company. There's always something to do, something to scrap, a book to read and discuss, gardening to tend to, and Sleipnir is a delightful pet.
I never thought I'd be so happy.
Humming to myself, I get out a delicate crystal vase—a gift that Jerrok saw at a trader's stall on a station visit and bought for me—and fill it with the flowers, arranging the only-slightly-smashed blooms so they look their best. I chop vegetables after that, making an enormous pot of noodles, since Bethiah will be here shortly.
Bethiah. I sigh. I suppose in-laws of all kinds are a trial, no matter where you are in the universe. She's Jerrok's family, though, and so I smile and tolerate her visits even when I'd like for her to take a long walk off a short pier. She has her good moments, of course, like when she sat on my bounty until it expired, and then let me know that my old master declined to renew it. But then there are the times that Bethiah has done small, irritating things—like constantly trying to bring Jerrok on a drinking trip while I stayed home. Or the time she brought him a sex robot and gave it my name.
She loves Jerrok. Because of that, I tolerate her…but just barely. I know she's afraid I'll somehow hurt him, but you'd think that since we've been together almost two years now that she'd stop with her little comments. Not Bethiah.
Grumpily, I add more diced vegetables to the noodles and hope she hates them.
I move the noodles to the warmer just as the perimeter alarm pings with an alert. "Ship approaching. Identification: The Pleasure Spot."
I make a face at the ship's name—funny that Jamef let her keep it after all she put him through, but I suspect Bethiah never tells us the full story of what's going on between them. I wipe my hands and smooth a piece of hair back into my braid at the same time that Sleipnir pads into the hall and moves to my side. By this time, my carinoux knows what those alarms mean, and he sticks to me like glue whenever there's someone visiting. He's still a little clingy, my poor love, but something tells me he might always be.
I run into Jerrok in the hall. He's switched to a different, clean uniform, his shaggy hair pulled back into a neat queue at the base of his neck. "You look nice," I tell him, beaming. He's so handsome, my mate. I could look at him for hours and never get tired of it.
He puts a hand to the small of my back as we turn down the hall, and I notice he's walking faster than usual. His new prosthetic leg has made a huge difference in his gait, and my heart swells with happiness to know he's not in pain. Zakoar of the Broken Back is as good as his word, never rips us off with his pricing, and he's always fair. He's gone a lot, though, so we haven't been able to finish getting Jerrok's prosthetics all switched out. He's got one leg left to go, and we're saving up for that. But with his new arm, a new leg, and synthetic bracing along his spine, Jerrok stands straight and tall, my handsome mesakkah, and best of all, he doesn't wake up in pain. His old leg drags just a little, but Jerrok swears the pain is almost nothing at all, and he smiles a lot more lately.
Plus…the sex has been intense. I suck in a little breath at that, thinking about last night and how he made me come for hours before he finally took his own pleasure. Stamina is definitely not an issue. Not anymore.
