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He clicked as he nodded his head, a curl of desire moving through her at the sound like a Pavlovian response.
“Literally in the woods, this family’s property extends into the tree cover. Every other city I’ve lived in, it’s been tiny little apartments with barely any trees . . . and here I’m in the forest with a solar-generator and retractable roof! I might be disgusted by the excess if I weren’t currently enjoying it.”
Grace laughed again, the sound bouncing off the stone walls of the circular building, earning another glare and huff from the lizard couple.
“I think they want us to be more serious,” she’d giggled to him in a stage whisper as they moved around the observatory's dim interior.
"Too bad," he said lightly, pulling his arm free from hers to thread his long spindly fingers with her own. "I'ma scientist. They don't get to judge me. And this isn’t a library." Grace giggled again, following him up the circular staircase to the door that would take them to the observation deck on the upper level. “Besides, science is supposed to be fun. Let's go outside."
The female half of the old lizard couple exclaimed in annoyance when the door pulled open, momentarily disrupting their work, before Merrick tugged her arm, pulling her outside and shutting the persnickety couple out.
"So are y-you from here?” he asked, once the heavy door had closed behind them. The evening was humid, and the gathering clouds to the east were an indication that the old lizard couple wouldn't be charting stars for much longer that night.
"No, I’ve only been here about three years. I'm from upstate, I moved here after I started working at the farm."
"Oh." He hesitated before continuing, a small fang appearing to worry at his thin lower lip. She grinned, silently marveling over how adorable his every gesture seemed to be. "Did-did you come here alone? When you moved? By-by yourself, I mean . . ."
He trailed off, a hint of his stammer making a return now that they were alone once more, the direction of the conversation more pointed.Ah. Gotcha.He was attempting to ascertain the lay of the land, and she realized he was probably wise to do so, chagrined that she'd not thought to do the same. After all, just because he stopped outside her bedroom window didn't mean he didn't have a wife and three children to fly home to, didn’t mean he wasn’t partnered, coupled. Grace found it was suddenly very hard to swallow, her throat sticking. She had made the assumption that he was as single as her, and the notion that she might be mistaken made her stomach bunch and twist.
He watched you and it was probably like watching porn. Easy to disassociate.She didn't like to think she had performed in such a way for someone whohada someone waiting for him at home, but that would be typical. Far harder to brush aside whatever he'd done to suck on her clit in such a way.Maybe that's why he’s so nervous and awkward. There’s a big difference between watching you orgasm andhelpingyou orgasm. Here you are thinking he's just a sweet dork, and he's probably just twisting in guilt for having cheated.She wondered if it was a partner he had at home or a spouse, if his life was perhaps as uncomplicated and easy to leave behind her own had been.No children, no pets. No assets to divvy up.The single joint banking account she and Tormand had shared had been used to pay household bills, and was not for savings. She'd simply turned off her direct deposit once she'd started making her plans, and that had been that. She wondered if this winged stranger was entangled in all of the trappings of partnership; all of the things people arbitrarily used as checkpoints for successful adult lives.
Since her move, she had all but lost contact with most of her friends from high school and university. Keeping up with them on social media was an exercise in self punishment, and even though nothing was ever said, Grace picked up on the superiority they felt inhaving it all. Every group text wound up being a conversation about their children, comparing brands of sippy cups and swim lessons, conversations to which she had nothing to contribute. Every DM asking how she was doing turned into a story about a family vacation or the PTA or some other topic to which she couldn’t quite relate, utterly forgettingthey’dreached out toher; her single, solitary life seeming inconsequential as a result. One of the things she loved most about her friend circle here in Cambric Creek was that Caleia and Ennika genuinely just liked hanging out. They wanted her to get laid, not married. Tula didn't care to discuss her kids in any way, shape, or form when they were out, and the work Grace did wasn't deemed as inferior just because she didn't have kids and a husband at home.This is supposed to be a modern age, we're all supposed to be enlightened. Funny how they forget that.
She realized she'd not answered his question.
"I moved after my divorce, so yeah, alone. It's been nice, to be honest. We first got together when I was still in school, so this is the first time I've had to be an adult by myself."
"Why here? This doesn’t seem like the sort of place a human would willingly choose."
Grace glanced up in surprise. She'd not had anyone second guess her move to Cambric Creek since her arrival, and she’d not been expecting the question. She was far from the only human in town, after all, and her friends didn't seem to hold her majority species status against her.He's going to make you paranoid.
"Work. I applied for the job when I saw the position, and I got it, which necessitated moving. Why do you ask?"
He shrugged with his free arm, raising his free hand in the air in a gesture of meh? "It’s surprising to me that humans wouldchooseto live here, where they're not . . ."
"In charge of everything?"
He grinned sheepishly, ducking his head. "I suppose that's one way to put it, yes. Where majority rule doesn't hold as much societal sway. I heard werewolves were in charge of this town. Your ex-husband was human?"
She didn't especially want to think about Tormand. She didn't want the memory of their relationship and the things she'd tolerated tainting her night, the way it had tainted six years of her life. She didn’t want to speak of him or think of him atall, least of all to this adorkable stranger, but she supposed she was the one who'd opened this door.
"No, he was a minotaur." His brow raised in response, surprise coloring his garnet eyes. "The area I'm from, it's not mixed species the way this place is, I've never lived anywhere likethisbefore, but it was mixed enough, I guess? Humans are still the majority, of course, but . . . well, I didn't grow up in an all human town, not the way some people do."
"And your family was okay with that?"
"You say that like you are assuming they wouldn't have been.”
He looked abashed for a moment, before shrugging again, a bit sheepishly. "I guess I am. I'm used to working with humans. When I say ‘working with them’ I mean working in the same lab, not actuallywiththem. You keep to yourselves, mostly. Even if they respect you as a coworker or colleague, there's always a separation."
She frowned, disliking the knowledge that he'd been treated poorly by her kind, but knowing his words were true. There had never been a time in her life when she'd not been accepted or welcomed anywhere she went — she was the majority species, was the majority race within that species, and her life experience looked very different from those of her friends and neighbors. It was another reason why the property market in a place like Cambric Creek was likely so cutthroat. Her satyr and naga neighbors were insulated here, free from human majority, and the second-place status that came along with that majority.
"What about you? You just moved here this month, right? Are you here alone, or do you have like, seven little moth babies waiting for daddy to come home somewhere?"
He choked. Even the strangled sound that came from within that mound of fluff was adorable, she thought, grinning as he gasped and sputtered.
"N-no!" The horror in his voice made her laugh aloud, the sound swallowed up on the breeze. "Goddess no! I'm a scientist!” He threw up his free hand in a gesture of disbelief, the notion of him being coupled obviously one he couldn’t fathom.
"What’s that supposed to mean?! Scientists don't get to have love lives or families? Do you mean to tell me none of your co-workers are married?"
