“Good riddance, though. I mean, at least now, you know.” The flashtack gun brightens in his hand. A small wisp of smoke curls up from where he works.
“I guess,” I grumble.
“Hold your breath,” he says. “Don’t want your future children growing extra limbs.”
I wrinkle my nose.
“Oh, wait.” He finishes and looks up at me, then chuckles. “Guess that depends on which species picks you.”
“I’m not interested in extra limbs. But I’d take a tail, maybe wings, tentacles…”
“Hold up. You’d take tentacles over extra hands?” Talros lifts a hand and limply shakes it.
I can’t help but laugh a little. “You’re a turd, making it look so awkward. What if I get stuck with a squid dude now? I’m going to feel bad and be secretly laughing for the rest of my life.”
“As long as it helps you remember your old friend.” The way Talros says it makes me sad.
“Come on, after fifteen years, I can’t forget you. You’re the only person who hasn’t betrayed me. Not in middle school space camp, not since.”
He sighs and continues replacing diodes. “Same for you.”
“Just don’t want to date another coworker,” I admit, averting my gaze.
He sways and waggles his blonde brows. “Made that mistake one too many times myself.”
I test the diode with the multimeter built into my right gauntlet. Two probes extend from the housing in my controls. I clip them into each circuit and get the green light with proper voltages. “Would yoube my plus one?”
Talros shrugs. “I have vacation time. But this is going to be a mess when I get back, you know that, right?”
“Sorry, but I just can’t take having this leach of a shadow anymore. I literally have to go off-world where she can’t afford to go.
“I’ve tried to put her through rehab twice. She’s got to want to do it on her own. All I can think of is to remove the temptation to cling to me and siphon life from me like some sort of slutty vampire.”
He smiles to himself and then nods. “You don’t want your sister weaseling her way into the plus-one slot. You need someone else to fill it.”
I grimace. “I’m not going to lie, that too. But seriously, if we didn’t work together, I’d be stupid not to be interested in you. But I care too much about our friendship to wreck that.”
“Not to be weird, Jovie, because you are beautiful, and someone will be very lucky. But, after all these years, I think of you more as a sister. Always wanted siblings. I kind of think they’d be like you: happy to tag-team a problem, remember my birthday, and someone I could talk to about anything. But Dad died in the war with the Nebs. Then Mom…”
I rest a hand on his shoulder when he looks away. “I would be honored to have you watching my back up there. I have no idea what I’m getting myself into. I just want off of Earth because my sibling is slowly killing me. It’s like she either doesn’t have her own ideas, or she wants to take everything I have that she doesn’t and destroy it, maybe both. I just hope an alien picks me and actually wants to keep me.”
“He will. And I bet you get banded yellow.”
“What? No. I was thinking green.”
“Definitely yellow. It’s your try-again-tomorrow attitude. Even when life sucks balls, you find another way to keep moving forward. You never let people get buried in negative thoughts.”
I roll my eyes, disbelieving that anyone could think I’m that cheery. “Whatever. As long as I’m not a pink.”
He chuckles. “No, but you areturningpink.”
“Just excited and nervous,” I admit with a shy laugh. “I also am worried that all this money I’ve spent is going to go down the shitter if I mess this up.”
Talros takes my right armband in his hands and inspects my recent defense system modifications with a disbelieving smile. “Naw. Just be yourself, the person I see here, now. You’re going to impress whoever snags you.” He points at me. “And I’ll be close by to kick some scaly ass if needed. I saw the mayhem last round over that bounty hunter’s daughter.”
“You watch the races?” I’m shocked.
“Worried about what my little sister is getting herself into.”
