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Jasmine lifted an eyebrow.“Is there something you want to tell me?”
“I can’t just visit for the hell of it?”
“You haven’t since the quake.And I’m not upset about that,” Jasmine quickly added.“You lost a lot in it and everyone grieves differently.I knew you’d come around when you were ready.”
Hannah had gone to Jasmine’s with the vague notion of talking about Rhys with her.The reminder of her lack of visits made her feel like a shitty friend.“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
“Don’t be.I know what it’s like.Maybe not the way you do, since I had a chance to say goodbye, but I know grief.”
Jasmine’s parents had died ten years apart, her mother most recently, about six months before the quake.Hannah had spent many nights at her house, knowing she didn’t want to be alone.“Yeah,” Hannah replied.“I didn’t see the point of unloading on you when everyone else has experienced loss.None of us who survived didn’t lose someone close to us.”
“I didn’t.You survived.”
“I miss them.”Hannah had never moved out of her parents’ house on her own, preferring to stay put, instead of fixing up one of the empty houses that littered the settlement.Or had, until the quake destroyed most of them and rendered others unsafe to live in.They’d been close, her favorite people in the small world that was New Eden.The threat of tears loomed behind her eyes, but she willed them away and reminded herself why she was here.“I’m not here to talk about my parents or the earthquake.”
“Yeah, tell me more about Rhys.Is he a good weird or a bad weird?”
Hannah quickly revised her earlier thoughts about favorite people.Her parents and Jasmine were equals in that category.“Definitely not a bad weird.I think he’s just not used to living with humans, and he’s having some difficulty adjusting.It’s like night and day when I talk to him, compared to when I talk with SP29.”
Jasmine nodded.“Aside from the power nodes in his hands and his eyes, you’d never know he was a cyborg.”
“What power nodes?”It occurred to Hannah that she’d never seen Rhys without his gloves.
“It’s so they can connect physically to their spaceship or something like that.SP29 said they can be used as weapons, too, which I guess could be helpful.He can burn through a tree in about ten seconds.It’s amazing.”
“Why would he need to burn down a tree?”
“Probably to impress me.It worked.And it was a rag bush, so technically not a tree.”
Rag bushes were native to New Eden and interfered with their crops, so Hannah was happy to see them destroyed.Her curiosity was piqued.“How did he do it?And what would we have done if he’d started a fire?”
“He touched the bush’s trunk, concentrated, and then burned through it.There wasn’t a fire, just the smell of burning.”She set her teacup on the coffee table.Hannah noticed she didn’t elaborate on what she would have done in the case of fire.“Tell me about Rhys.You keep distracting me.”
Hannah carefully chose her words.“I think he wants to talk, but he doesn’t know how.”Catching Jasmine’s bemused look, she added, “I know you know what that’s like.Rhys gets these...flashbacks, I guess.He says he’s getting old memories from his original.Has that happened with SP29?”
Jasmine shook her head.“He’s never said anything.Mostly, we just flirt.”
“How the hell is he learning how to do that?”
“Beats me.Maybe it’s reflexes from his original, I don’t know.But I’m not going to not talk to someone who thinks I have beautiful eyes or likes my decorating.It’s been a long time since anyone’s paid me compliments.”
When Hannah thought about flirting and compliments, she thought about Rhys’s question about what pleased her.The man had a deep, quietly authoritative voice that had done things to her insides when he’d asked that.It was a little unsettling, and she couldn’t tell if that was a good or bad thing.
“Rhys doesn’t do that,” she said.She paused, choosing her words carefully.“He’s happy to tell me how things are progressing, even though he isn’t exactly waving around pom-poms while he does it, you know?”That reminded her of something important.“Oh, we’re probably going to have the power switched on in the next day or two.”
“What the hell?Why couldn’t you have begun with that?”Jasmine exclaimed in mock protest.
“Because I came here to talk about Rhys.”
“Yeah, because you like him.It’s okay if you do.I’d climb SP29 like a tree if he wanted me to.DL16 too.”Her eyes glazed over.“Or both.”
“My God.Do either of them want you to?”
“I think so, but SP29 has also talked about moving out with some cyborg friends once a suitable house is built.If he’s going to make a move, he’ll probably do it then.It’ll make things less complicated than if we were still living together.”She picked up her tea and took a healthy swallow.“At least, I hope he does.It’s entirely possible I’m making up the vibes I think I’m feeling from him out of desperation and loneliness.”She poked Hannah’s leg with her foot.“Stop deflecting.”
“Yousaid you wanted to bang SP29 and DL16.”
“Stop being logical and tell me about Rhys and why you like him.”
