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I was about to whip the shirt off over my head when I caught a glimpse of who was in her shop.
It wasn’t Maggie.
It was amale.
My hackles rose at the sight of him, yet another unfamiliar feeling. I was known to be a friend to any and all, so long as they were good-natured enough. So why the sudden tension radiating down the column of my back?
You know why. Because he’s in Maggie’s shop. Because he got here before you did. Because he’s presumably been with her all morning while you were not. Because he’s just a little taller and broader of shoulder than you...
The man heard my approach, spinning with silent, dextrous power. I recognized him instantly. He, too, was one of my neighbours. I’d never spoken to him, but he stood out. He was the only chimera who lived on the station, as far as I knew. A hulking, snouted, horned behemoth of an ex-soldier from one of the most powerful and dangerous empires in the known universe.
He also, I knew, was married to a sweet-faced human woman. I’d seen them together, along with their child, many times around here. The glint of a black metal matrimonial band on his left hand caught my eye.
See. You are being absurd, Archie Mountainbound. He’s married. And if he’s a friend to Maggie, he’s a friend to you, too.
“Greetings,” I called into the space as I walked towards the chimera. His blazing yellow gaze narrowed for a moment, then he gave a nod and grunted something I assumed must have been a reply.
Not the conversational sort, it seems. Ah, well! I can converse well enough for the both of us.
I placed my mug of chai on the ground and then came to a stop before the chimera.
“I’m Archie Mountainbound. I’m the hall-father of the pub next door,The Middle’s Guardian.And I’m a friend of Maggie’s.” That last part came out a little more insistent than I’d meant it to. A little more possessive. I felt the odd need to assert my right to be here.
I’d never felt the need to assert such a right anywhere before. I’d just... Gone. Forged my way forward into any world or place before me.
But here, in Maggie’s shop, under the watchful gaze of the chimera warrior, I felt myself slightly widening my stance, as if planting myself in place.
“I’m X,” the horned ex-warrior said. “My wife, Sophie, and I runHallowed be thy Bean. It’s a coffee shop down the way.”
So he can talk, then.
I stuck out my hand, grinning and nodding at him to take it. Shaking hands was largely a human custom, but having been aboard the human-run Elora Station for so long, I’d adopted it quite naturally. X gave another low grunt and took my hand.
“Ha! What a grip, my friend,” I said, grinning wider and slamming my other hand over his, pumping it wildly in an enthusiastic shake.
“Perfectly average, I’m sure,” he said with a slight shrug of his beefy shoulders when I let go.
I laughed heartily. Now that some of the tension between us was easing (largely due to X being married, that fact branded on the inside of my brain-bowl) I decided I liked the growly, grumpy chimera. There was decidedly nothing average about him, I was sure. And yet there didn’t seem to be any false humbleness in his words. I got the sense he just didn’t really care about how strong he was. Which rather made sense, considering he’d taken a job aboard Elora Station after his term in the Chimera Guard. Most other chimeras, from what I’d heard, ended up as mercenaries or bodyguards or things like that after their time as soldiers was done. And here, X had taken up a post as a coffee shop owner, married to a human, with a round-faced toddler.
Definitely not average.
“Oh!”
The sound made behind me made me spin.
There she was. Looking even lovelier than my memory had painted her.
The grin that had split my face with X softened as my heart beat out a loopy rhythm in my chest. Like me, Maggie was wearing tight black trousers, the soft fabric stretched across the expanse of her shapely thighs.Strong legs. I inhaled sharply through my nose, suddenly unable to shake the question of what those thighs would feel like around me, straddling, squeezing...
Her shirt was also a T-shirt style, hers red instead of black. Her dark curls were tied atop her head, the station’s bright lights catching on individual spiralled strands, making them gleam like spun bronze. I was very glad to see she looked well-rested – her smooth brown skin glowing, her long-lashed eyes shining, her full lips pulling into a smile at the sight of me.
“You’re here!” she said, her brows rising slightly.
“Of course,” I said, much more quietly than I’d intended. Much more quietly than I usually spoke. As if she and I were alone in a secluded, silent place. “I said I would help. And,” I turned slightly to clamp my hand down on X’s shoulder, “can’t have X here tiring himself out doing all the hard work now, could I?”
Maggie snorted, shaking her head, as X quirked his heavy brow at me.
“I imagine you got home pretty late last night,” Maggie said. “I know it’s not that early, but still... Did you get enough rest?” Maggie’s smile faltered slightly, and she looked at me appraisingly. I let my hand fall from X’s shoulder, raising my chin.
