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Dora leads me to the mess hall of my small ship and to my surprise, Jamef is there, looking as sleepy as I am. He straightens at the sight of me, pulling his legs in from their sprawl, and I have to admire his form. Every time I see him, he looks good enough to eat. There’s nothing quite like the sight of a male that’s been broken and remade stronger. Maybe that’s why I want the fluffit to get cybernetic parts. I find them sexy.
“Good, you’re both here now,” Dora says. Her voice is a little nervous as she leads me toward a seat that puts Jamef to my right. His eyes are hooded, and I’m guessing he hasn’t yet gone to sleep. I deliberately yawn widely again, and the little human puts a fresh cup of night tea in front of me, and then sets one in front of Jamef. She takes the third for herself and sits at the table as well, her seat to my left.
She holds the mug in front of her as if it’s made of precious metals, and when she lifts it, her hand trembles. She’s nervous.
My stupid heart squeezes at the sight, and I want to pull her into my arms and comfort her.
Instead, I kick her under the table.
She gives me a scowl and sets her mug down. “Okay. I’m just going to say this quickly and get it all out on the table. I know there’s some…vibes between myself and Bethiah, and Bethiah and Jamef, and, well…” Dora looks at Jamef and then blushes.
And I hate that I’m a little bit jealous.
“What I’m trying to say,” Dora continues, “is that there’s a lot going on between the three of us. And I think we should explore it.” Her gaze locks on me, and then on Jamef, and then back to me. “Together.”
Does she…
Does she mean what I think she means?
Thirty
BETHIAH
I rub my ear as the human female blushes. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard that correctly. Could you repeat what you just said?”
Her face gets redder and, under the table, she kicks me back. “You know what I said, Bethiah. And I wanted you both in here because I wanted to talk it over with both of you.” She bites her lip and looks over at me. “Please don’t joke. I’m being very serious.”
Don’t joke? If I don’t joke, I might have absolutely nothing to say. I cross my arms over my chest, noticing that Jamef’s gaze is drawn to the skin I’m exposing. I’m tempted to pull my entire tunic down and show all the goods, but Dora is looking so woebegone and worried that it amps up the protective instincts I’ve been fighting to hold back so hard.
I know it’s a bad idea—I know it is—but I reach over and take Dora’s hand and give it a reassuring squeeze, because she looks as if she’s about to collapse. “Why don’t you tell us what you have in mind, fluffit?”
She clings to my hand, and my traitorous heart gives an involuntary squeeze. This is bad, I tell myself. This is bad, this is bad, take your hand from hers. Protect yourself. But the harder she holds on to me, the less inclined I am to let her go. I let her squeeze the kef out of my fingers as she gathers her thoughts.
Dora takes in a deep breath and then looks over at Jamef. “I just…we all want to be here, right? On this ship? And no one wants to back off of the relationship. I know I don’t want to leave…and I don’t want either of you to leave. So I thought maybe we’d try this. Just the three of us. Not an open door, of course. We’d stay faithful to each other and maybe see where this leads?”
I eye Jamef. If he says something cruel to the fluffit, I might have to rip that red eye out of his face. “What do you think?”
“Shouldn’t we be asking you?” he retorts, voice raspy. “You’re the one with commitment issues.”
“We,” huh? As if I wouldn’t catch that. Are they already together in some way, then? Did Dora latch onto him while I was gone because she needed safety? I understand if she did, but it still makes me feel oddly left out. “I mean, I’m down to try new things.” I lift Dora’s hand to my lips and kiss her knuckles. “But I would assume this means that I’m in a relationship with you and in a relationship with her, and you’d be in a relationship with both of us, Jamef. And Dora would be with both of us. Is that what you both intended?”
Dora watches me mouth her knuckles and says nothing.
Jamef just shrugs. “This is all news to me. I’m just listening and taking things in.”
