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“What’s up?” I pour him a stiff drink. The poor guy looks like he really needs it.
His eyes dart around the room, taking in all the people unwinding after a long day. “In private?”
I glance at the clock. “Closing is in about an hour. Can it wait that long?”
He’s silent for a moment, performing some kind of calculation in his head. “Uh, yeah. I think so.”
“Okay.” I pass the drink to him. “It’s on the house.”
He huffs a laugh and downs it in a single gulp. “Thanks. Needed that.”
I wince and pour him another. I can afford comping it if I skip dinner tomorrow. “Oof, work’s been that rough, huh?”
“You have no idea.” This time, he drinks it more slowly.
“Will you be okay if I get back to work?” I ask. Drex is a powerful Kaleidian warrior. If something has rattled him, then it has to be bad.
He nods, waving for me to go on. “Yeah, I’m good. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”
I side-eye him but don’t press, and I try not to fret. Whatever it is that he wants to talk to me about, it’s not so urgent that he’s asking me to drop everything, so it can’t be that bad, right?
Who am I kidding?
This is Armstrong. The only news is bad news. Still, I have a job to do and people depending on me, so I forcibly put whatever has Drex upset to the back of my mind and focus on the rhythms of the bar.
Soon, it’s the last call. Drex is helping shoo out customers and put up chairs for the cleaning bots to vacuum the eternally dusty floors. He sticks close as I lock the door.
“Thanks,” I say as we walk home.
He shakes his head. “It’s nothing. But, uh, we really need to talk.”
“About what?” Terrified by what I’ll see if I look into his eyes, I keep my gaze straight ahead. He’s breaking up with me. He’s got what he wanted, lost interest, and is breaking up with me.
He stops walking to lean against the wall and look up at the stars. Out of fear of the bombs, every occupied house has blackout curtains, and the streets don’t have lights.
Without the light pollution, the galaxy is painted across the sky in all its brilliance. It’s the one beautiful thing to come out of the war and may be a cold comfort, but I’ll take beauty where I can get it. “I got orders today,” he says.
I swallow, my throat dry. Was he going to the front lines and that’s why he seems so out of sorts? He never struck me as the kind of guy who would show his nerves in the face of death. “O-okay? Am I allowed to ask what they are, or are they top secret?”
“They’re sending me out.” He sighs, shaking his head. “No, it’s not just that. There’s something else going on. Something they’re not telling me about. Today my CO told me to be ready to ship out in a week. That’s it. He was so vague and cagey, and I just – Never mind. The point is that I did some digging. I don’t know much, but I do know I’m leaving Sintaca.”
“Oh,” I say, unable to formulate a more articulate response. For so long, I didn’t let myself hope for a better life, but then I met Drex and began to wonder if I had a future beyond this hellhole. The hope had been delicate as a soap bubble, and now, without any fanfare, it popped.
He takes my hands, giving them a gentle squeeze. “But I don’t want to leave you. No.” He shakes his head “I’m not going to leave you.”
I look up at him, scrutinizing his face for any sign of guile, but he looks so painfully sincere. “But you have orders…”
He huffs, and I can see the wheels turning in his head as he carefully considers his next words. “Sophia, have you ever heard the word jalshagar?”
I furrow my brow. Some of the Kaleidian holostreams I watched with Mama would be about them. Usually, they were romantic comedies where two people fated to be together were kept apart by miscommunication and forces beyond their control. “It’s like a soulmate, right?”
He smiles, some of the tension leaving his muscles. “Exactly. A jalshagar or fated mate is the person you are destined to be with. And I didn’t want to dump this on you so soon after we met and scare you off, but you are my jalshagar.”
I blink, stepping back in surprise. We’re soulmates? It’s something that the logical part of my brain cannot wrap my head around, but deep in my soul, I feel it, too. Drex is telling the truth.
That must be it. The pulling, longing feeling in my gut. The strange sorrow at his absence and delight when he’s near. It is nothing like anything I’ve felt with any other guy before. I don’t know if he feels it the way I do, but I know it’s the truth, regardless. Drex is my soulmate.
I guess I’m taking too long to respond because his shoulders droop and he lets go of my hands. “Sorry. Like I said, I didn’t want to dump this on you, but you deserve to know,” he says.
