"Don't worry about it. I like the company," she promised.
"Even when you live somewhere like this?" I waved my hand around the oasis.
"I live here because it's beautiful," she responded. "And peaceful. Not because I don't want to see other people."
"Oh."
"So, dinner?" she asked. "Because I'm hungry too."
"Sure." I took a step towards the house in front of me.
"Wrong way," Menhit said.
"Oh, I thought that was your house," I responded, gesturing to the building in front of me.
"No. That's the guest house," she said. "Not that it's ever been used. When I built it, I imagined that there'd be someone who wanted to live in the oasis too. Not with me, but a neighbour, but it's never happened."
"I'm sorry." I looked over at the house, feeling a surprise draw to it. "This would be a lovely place to live."
"I'm glad you think so. Maybe I'll be able to convince you to join me." My friend flashed me a genuine smile.
"Maybe." There was a part of me that wondered if that would be possible. Though I supposed it would depend on how things went with Ptah when I attempted to talk to him about what happened tonight, and whether it was going to be possible to see a future for us. Otherwise, I might be going back to avoiding everything to do with the god realm and Ptah again. But I didn't think so. I wanted to be back in this life, even if things didn't work out with Ptah.
Chapter 14
Bastet
I paced around the room, drawing the attention of multiple cats as they watched me curiously. There was a part of me that wanted to explain what was happening to them, but I didn't think they'd fully understand the complexities of human relationships. It wasn't that their own couldn't get complicated, but feline relationship problems and human relationship problems were two entirely different things.
A knock sounded on the front door, and I took a deep breath, knowing that this was the make-or-break moment for my relationship with Ptah. If the conversation didn't go well, then there'd be no future at all for us. But if it did...
I pushed those thoughts to the side and headed over to the door, undoing the catch and letting Ptah into the sanctuary. The urge to go up on my toes and kiss him was strong, but I ignored it. As much as I wanted to do that, I knew that it was better to wait until after we'd had a conversation.
"Hey," he said.
"Hi. Come in." I stepped back and tried to ignore the brush of him against me as he stepped past, or the fact that his scent lingered by the doorway. It reminded me of all the times we'd been close together, including the other night when we'd been entwined in my bed.
I led him through to the kitchenette and gestured for him to sit down at the table. It's laden with nibbles, along with a pitcher of water and two empty glasses.
"This is nice," he said.
"I didn't think there was any reason to have this conversation without refreshments." I looked at him, not entirely sure what to make of my own decision. It wasn't exactly signalling that I was hesitant about our relationship. But then again, I supposed that I wasn't. I knew what I wanted from today, I just didn't know if it was what I was going to get.
"I was relieved to get your message," he said.
I nodded. "I thought we should talk." I took a seat opposite him, not trusting myself to be any closer than this. I wanted to have all of my wits about me.
"I'm sorry about the other day," he said. "I really didn't mean to be late."
I let out a sigh. "I know you didn't mean to be late, but isn't that the problem we've always had? We never meant to keep one another waiting, but we always did it anyway."
He grimaced. "It wasn't like how it used to be," he responded.
"Wasn't it?"
He took a deep breath. "I was cornered by a journalist after I left here the other day. They wanted to know more about me as a god," he said.
"That's not good."
