Everyone pauses in what they are doing and moves toward him, interested to hear what he has to say.
“Scar,” he yells out, delighted, loud enough for the whole crew, “was up on the human female’s floor last night.”
A frown spreads across my face.
“Leah and I saw him leave,” Hook continues. “Twenty-two hundred. From Mara Wilson’s quarters. Walked right past our door like he owned the hall.”
“Twenty-two hundred?” Chief repeats. He’s leaning on a support strut, arms crossed, and he’s looking at me with the slow interest of a male fitting two things together. “That’s late for a work meeting.”
I say nothing.
“You weren’t at the compound for the evening meal. I asked where you were. You said it was a work meeting.”
“I was working.”
“Working.” Chief’s mouth does something. “With the two new humans? The Wilson female and her brother?”
“No.” I set the cutter down. “Just Mara.”
I hear it the moment it’s out of my mouth. I hear it the way they must hear it.
Just Mara.
Six heads turn. Nobody says anything for a beat.
“You spent hours alone in Mara Wilson’s quarters last night,” Trunk questions, “spoke to her about work and then stayed because…?”
“We had dinner together. She made human food for us.”
They continue to stare at me.
Then Cannibal says, around a mouthful of ration bar, not even bothering to look up, “Is she your mate?”
“No. I scented her,” I admit. “We’re not compatible.”
And that does close it, mostly. That’s the thing about the scenting, it isn’t an opinion. You don’t argue with a male’s nose. The crew makes the sounds beings make, half disappointed and half relieved on my behalf.
“Sorry about that Scar,” Rook says. “She was starting to sound perfect for you.”
Everyone returns to work. Chief pushes off the strut, and the shift starts to fold back into the same routine.
Except Trunk hasn’t moved. He comes and stands beside me, close. “At first, I thought Ines wasn’t mine, too. I scented her a dozen times and got nothing. I told myself I’d read it wrong and then I told myself I hadn’t, and I was ready to let her go, because the nose doesn’t lie.” He keeps his voice even. “And then she was in the med lab for her injuries and they also fixed something that was causing infertility and I walked in to see her afterwards and suddenly her scent was compatible.”
“Heh.”
“I’m only saying, a negative isn’t always a no. Sometimes it’s anot yet.Sometimes there’s a reason a female reads blocked.”
I nod, thinking he has a point, which is what kept me up all night. And I cannot tell my brother that there is a second life growing in that female. But yes, there is the distinct possibility that this is why I do not get a positive scent from her.
Or…it could simply still be the fact that we will never be compatible. “Or we’re just friends,” I say. “Coworkers.”
“Well.” Trunk looks at me for a long moment, “That too.” He picks up his own cutter. “It’s only that normally, you don’t like anyone.”
He’s got a good point.
Mara Wilson arrivesat my office after lunch and brings her brother.
Andrew is her partner. They work the grid as a pair, and it makes sense that she’d bring him to look at the records with us. Mara’s brother is tall for a human, with short, dark hair and similar blue eyes. It is obvious that they are siblings. He does seem to treat her well and I’ve heard no complaints about his work while on the mine. So, I allow him to enter my space.
