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I snorted so loud the people at the next tables turned and stared. I ignored them.
"Yes, one or two," I agreed. "Some countries have lots of words for snow."
"Interesting," he said. He pulled out his own chair and went to sit, but caught himself at the last moment. "I should get us food." He shot back up so fast, he knocked into his chair. It skidded back into the one behind him, earning him a glare from its occupant.
"Um, sorry." He retrieved the chair, tucked it back under the table and hurried away. Eyes and chuckles followed him.
My gaze followed his ass. Brinley was right, it was as perfect an ass as I had ever seen.
Friends, friends, I reminded myself again. I focused my attention out the window at the twinkling lights of some city below. I couldn't tell where it was and truthfully I wasn't trying very hard. If I did, I might cry. I hadn't expected to feel homesick, but it crept up in me while I sat alone at the table. I almost gave in to tears when Danec plonked a plate in front of me, startling me out of my thoughts.
"I'm sorry, the plate got hot." Danec placed his down opposite me and blew on his fingertips.
"Did you burn yourself?" I asked. "Here, let me see." I held out my hand.
I examined his fingers closely, partly because it's my job and partly because I hadn't seen blue skin up this close before. Like humans, he had fingerprints, but they all looked like arches, rather than whorls or loops. Lines crossed his palms the same as they did mine. That was a no brainer. without those, he couldn't open and close them. Still, it intrigued me.
Without thinking, I traced the lifeline across his palm with my fingertip.
"Is it all right?" he asked. "Did I damage myself?"
"Hmmm? Oh." I almost dropped his hand when I realised what I was doing. "Yes. I mean no, everything seems fine. No burns that I can see." I hadn't expected to find any, or he would have been more distressed.
"That's great," he said. "Thank you, I feel much better having you look at it."
"Even if I'm not familiar with your physiology?" I asked. "You might have nerves in the skin I can't see."
He flexed his hand, then picked up a piece of pizza—for some reason they were cut into squares—and shrugged with his opposite shoulder. "It feels fine. I might even be able to play the, what do you call it, piano, some day."
"Oh, you play?" The pizza looked as though it was made out of spare sheets of cardboard, but it tasted okay.
"No, I've never been any good at music." He grinned.
I chuckled. "Being uninjured doesn't give you magical powers, my friend."
He seemed disappointed at something, but he didn't say anything other than to flash a vague smile and went on eating.
We ate in silence for the next few minutes. Every so often I glanced out the window. Clusters of light were interspersed with great expanses of blackness. Oceans, I supposed, or places too small to be visible from space.
"It's so dark compared to Frey-T," Danec said softly. "Everything is run on solar power, water and all of that, but there are more lights at night. Even the oceans are dotted with floating cities."
"It sounds pretty," I said.
"It is," he agreed. "Our population is a lot more spread out, so everyone has privacy and room to— I'm babbling, aren't I?"
I smiled. "Not at all. I like to hear about other planets. I've only seen them on my vidscreen."
"Same, until I came here." He waved toward Earth. "Seeing it from the station, or a screen, and being there, are two different things."
"I suppose that's true." Seeing Earth from here made it look like any other planet. That thought sat so heavily on my chest it became difficult to breathe. I grabbed a cup from the tray in the centre of the table and poured myself a drink of water. I gulped it down so fast I almost choked.
"We call it The Yearning," Danec said softly. "When you're missing home. Do you have a groin related word for it?"
His joke took me by surprise. I started to laugh, but ended up snorting water out my nose.
"Shit," I said under my breath. I pulled a tissue out of my pocket and wiped my nose. "I'm sorry." He must have thought I was an absolute dork by now. No wonder he only wanted to be friends.
He sat with his head cocked, eyes wide. "Fascinating. Your nose leaked. Are you unwell?"
