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‘Sel, you can breathe now.’
Selene inhaled before giving her friend a mirthless smirk. ‘Why do I care so much?’ she said slowly. ‘Why does he get to me like this?’
Rina cocked her head, studying Selene for a moment.
‘Come, let’s take walk it out,’ she suggested, grabbing Selene’s hand to pull her up from her chair.
Rina handed over command of the centre to her junior, a pleasant young lieutenant. Then she led her reluctant friend out of the Enclave’s Command Centre and into the late afternoon sunshine.
They walked past the mess, where Rina darted in and nabbed a flask and two tin cups before leading her exhausted friend to a bench in the small courtyard overlooking Zaalalum’s soaring emerald forest. The dell and valley below teemed with birds, bushbucks and squirrels playing in the dying sunlight.
Rina pushed Selene onto the bench and poured a clear liquid from the flask she’d appropriated into the two cups. She handed one cup to Selene, then sunk beside her best friend with the other in her hand.
‘Drink, woman. You need to drown your sorrows and sleep for the next 48 hours. But first, we talk.’
Selene took a sip of the drink in her hand and almost choked. ‘What the hell is this?’
‘Only the very bestwake-Selene-the-fokk-upneat gin. It’s the secret to longevity and healing strokes, insomnia and even broken hearts,’ Rina quipped.
Selene gave her friend a cold glare, then tossed back the drink, spluttering slightly after she swallowed. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and grimaced.
Rina watched her closely. ‘Seriously, now Sel, what’s going on with you and him?’
‘Him who?’ Selene said, feinting ignorance.
‘You know who. The sexual tension between you and that gorgeous mountain of a man was off the charts even way back in Eden II. And it seems that’s shifted between trying to ignore his existence to acting like you’re going to pass out every time you spot him in battle. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you’re stalking him on your comm.’
Selene glared balefully at her friend before looking down into her empty cup for a long moment.
Rina took the opportunity to fill the vessel once more. ‘Talk to me, Sel. Your reactions to this man are wild.’
‘Fine,’ Selene sighed, taking a sip. ‘I haven’t said anything because I’m still trying to figure it out. The short of it is that - he’s everything I never knew I wanted. He’s beyond my dreams. He’s magnificent. But he doesn’t want me.’
‘So you made love to the man? Like I suggested?’
‘Hmm,’ Selene said shyly, her face heating up. ‘When we were hiding out on J’Urg Mihòr.’
‘I figured as much,’ Rina said drily. ‘How was it?’ she added.
Selene blushed hotly under her honey skin and rubbed her flaming cheeks.
Rina pealed with laughter. ‘That good, huh?’
‘I couldn’t - we couldn’t - get enough -,’ Selene confessed.
‘Then what?’
‘Then he made a vague statement about how forever was not in his wheelhouse and that he only wanted a day-by-day arrangement. After that, I couldn’t cut it. So I may have shut him down after that.’
Rina scrubbed a hand against her frustrated face. ‘Fokk Selene, you’ve never been able to have a fling, have you? Remember Javier? The Senator from Rhesus, whom you had a thing with years ago?’
Selene groaned. ‘How could I not? I had such a major crush. I embarrassed myself with him.’
‘Selene, you asked him to marry you. I’ve never seen a man run that fast into a shuttlecraft and hoof it off the planet as he did.’
The two friends laughed until tears of joy fell.
‘Am I really that tragic?’ Selene asked her friend forlornly when they’d calmed down and wiped their deliriousness away.
