“This is for me?” she asked, and she couldn’t help the smile that grew on her face. “What is it?”
The merchant smiled at her. “A beautiful outfit for a beautiful female,” he said, giving her a wink.
Ro growled and snatched her hand, making her lurch as he pulled her away, the merchant’s laughter fading behind them. He stomped out of the market, which was luckily emptying as the evening progressed. The after-work rush was over and the Teissians were heading indoors for their dinner, their errands run. After a minute or two, Maggie pulled back on Ro’s hand to make him slow down, and he gentled his grip. She tried to examine what she had been given with her free hand. He had said it was an outfit, but she couldn’t see how that could be true. If she balled it up it would be smaller than a baseball, the fabric was so fine and light.
A loose piece fell to the floor and she dug her heels in, crying “Stop! I dropped something!”
Ro turned and watched her go back for it. As she put her hands through it, she saw it was a loop of fabric in exactly the same pattern as the rest, which she shook out and held up, trying to make sense of it all.
“Oh, they’re shorts!” she said. She judged they would come to just above her knees, where they tightened into cuffs of beautiful dusky blue ribbon that matched the waistband. They must have been designed for a Balin female. “But they’re torn…” she said, lamenting over two slashes that ran from knee to hip on either side. She didn’t think she could have done that. Had the merchant known they were broken and given them to her as a joke?
“They’re not torn, they are meant to be like that,” Ro soothed, sounding like he was putting his insult aside in the face of her appreciation of the gift. “As the male said, we show our colours.”
“So all Balin pants have these? No wonder you said you couldn’t wear them to work,” Maggie remembered, making him chuckle. She tried not to imagine where on Ro’s body his ‘colours’ might be. “So what’s this?” Maggie asked, holding up the loop of fabric she couldn’t identify. “Is it a belt?”
“No,” Ro said carefully. “That’s for your… upper body,” he informed her.
For a moment Maggie couldn’t picture it, then she got it and her face flamed. It was a bra! Or a crop top, but it was tiny! She hurriedly bundled it up with the shorts as if she was trying to hide it. She glanced at Ro and saw he was glaring back at the market in the direction of the merchant, his eyes narrowed.
“Ro?”
His attention snapped back to her.
“I don’t have to keep it,” she offered. It seemed to be making him angry, and she didn’t want it if there was some hidden meaning.
He sighed as if he was trying to calm himself. “If you like it, please keep it,” he said. “I was just wondering how he knew your size,” he growled, and Maggie grinned. Maybe he was just being protective rather than jealous, but she liked it anyway. She took his hand and squeezed it.
“I’m sure it’s wrong,” she joked, hoping to placate him. He rumbled in doubt, but he didn’t look back at the market. “Are we going back to your apartment?” she tried to distract him. He looked surprised and she back-peddled. “We don’t have to! I just meant so you could try the new stuff on. I don’t have to come for that, I can just go home, but I thought you were pulling me that way.”
He looked down at their joined hands, then over his shoulder at the dorms behind him as if only then realising where they were and what he was doing. “Oh…”
Maggie waited, letting him sort it out. She didn’t want to invite herself again. She’d had a good time, and truth be told she didn’t know what would happen if they went back to the dorms. It might be hard to stay purely friendly with him. Going home was probably the smart thing to do.
“I don’t mind if you come with me, but you might not like it. Balin are used to the dark and my apartment is underground,” he said.
“So I wouldn’t be able to see at all?”
“There are some lights that I can turn on but… I don’t know how good your eyes are compared to mine.”
Maggie thought about it. She wanted to go. She didn’t want to go home yet and she wanted to see where he lived. She wanted to get closer to him, even if it wasn’t the smart, professional thing to do.
“I can give it a try,” she said, giving him a smile.
Chapter 9
Ro unlocked the external door of the tower he lived in, or rather under, by scanning his keyring. He pulled the door open and stood back to let her through, then led her through a lobby to the elevator. He pushed the button for the second basement level, and when the doors opened again, Maggie immediately understood what he meant about the darkness. It was pitch black as far as she could see. She hesitated, knowing she wouldn’t be able to see a thing if she left the elevator’s light.
Ro stepped out and flicked a switch, and a couple of weak white wall sconces lit up. They barely did more than show the dimensions of the corridor, but it was something. She couldn’t have described the colour or pattern of the walls or floor at all. Ro offered her his hand and she took it. As long as he was leading her, she supposed she’d be alright, as long as there was more light in his apartment.
As they walked, the lights ahead of them turned on and then turned off as they passed, clearly on a motion sensor. The elevator door slid shut again, and the hallway got even darker. The pale white lights were almost the only things she could see. She looked over her shoulder to assess her retreat but the elevator was invisible, there was just a wall of darkness.
“Maggie? Are you alright?”
“I’m okay…” she said. “I just really can’t see much.”
He was just a shadow to her, only visible when they were right next to a light, except somehow the pink on his cheeks seemed to draw the light to them, almost glowing.
“We will be there soon,” he said.
He stopped at a door and his hand left hers while he unlocked it, and she tried to stay calm. Her eyes were starting to adjust and it wasn’t so bad. She could see the floor. She could find her way back if she had to. It was just claustrophobic to know they were underground with a whole apartment block over their heads.
“Wait here,” Ro told her, his voice sending shivers down her spine in the dark.
She heard the door open and Ro moved from her side. After a moment, light came through the open doorway and she sighed in relief, going into the room. It wasn’t much light, but it was a huge difference compared to the corridor.
Ro’s apartment was small, simple, and nice. On the far side was a small table lamp which was where the light was coming from, throwing the room into soft golden mood lighting. He had a two-seater couch in front of a TV, an empty bookcase, an end table, and a kitchen separated from the living room by a breakfast bar. There were no personal decorations or even any items that didn’t look like they had come from the same catalogue.
He turned to her and smiled. “Better?” he asked.
She returned his smile. “Much better.” The lighting was still pretty cosy, it wasn’t enough to do her make up by for example, and if she wanted to read she’d have to sit right next to the lamp, but she didn’t have to worry about tripping or walking into a wall.
“Please sit down. Would you like a drink?” he said, and she moved to the couch.
“A glass of water would be nice,” she said. She watched as he lay the new clothes on the breakfast bar and got her a glass. Her being there suddenly felt strangely intimate. They’d never been alone together before. It felt too quiet, like they could say anything.
He came to give her the glass of water and she tried to look innocent. “So, are you going to try the clothes on and let me see?” she said, trying to keep it playful.
“Is that what normally happens now?” he asked.
Maggie looked away, putting her mouth to the glass to hide her face as she tried to make herself believe that wasn’t an invitation to tell him what else normally happens when a man and a woman were alone together. She wou
ldn’t make suggestions. Just because she was in his home didn’t mean he wanted anything. He was just being friendly. They weren’t dating and they hadn’t kissed. They had just held hands for almost an hour.
She wanted the water to cool her blush but she didn’t think it worked. She hoped the light wasn’t good enough for him to notice, but he looked concerned.
“Are you feeling ill?” he said, stepping closer, and then his hand was on her cheek, the points of his claws on her temple, in her hair, and at the corner of her mouth. She watched his eyes flick back and forth as they looked between hers, the almost-invisible iris the only indication of movement. She could smell him, like an outdoor fire, smoke in October. Her heart raced and she couldn’t believe he wasn’t doing this on purpose anymore. She couldn’t believe they were, should, or could be just friends anymore.
She opened her mouth to respond just as her attraction to him choked the words from her throat. She laid her hand over his, her fingertips following the path of bones and tendons under his firm scales to hold onto his wrist.
“I…” Maybe she should just lean in for the kiss, start that way. She had no pretty words. She hadn’t prepared for this.
Ro frowned. “Sit down,” he said.
Maggie blinked. “Huh?”
“Sit down, rest,” he said again, moving his hand to her shoulder, the other one cupping her elbow to support her as he gently pushed her down onto the couch. “Are you hungry? Perhaps the meat didn’t agree with you? Do you feel sick?” He crouched in front of her, touching her like he was looking for symptoms.
“No,” she was able to reply, the realisation that she had read the mood wrong like a bucket of cold water. “I’m fine. Really – I don’t feel sick.” She caught his hands to get them off her body, keeping them still in her lap.
He didn’t look convinced. “Drink your water, maybe that will help. Do you want me to get you anything? I don’t have any human medicine.”
“No, of course not, why would you?” She tipped back the water and forced a smile. “I’m fine, really. Why don’t you go show me how good you look in your new clothes?” she said, biting her tongue too late. He looked like he didn’t want to leave her so she tried again. “A quiet minute is all I need.”
He watched her for another moment, trying to read the truth in her eyes, and she forced herself to smile and look innocent.
“Alright,” he agreed. “I’ll be back soon. Stay seated until I return.” Then he stood and left her.
Maggie waited until she heard a door close down the hall, then she slumped against the sofa back and rested her head, looking at the ceiling. She felt worse than she would have expected, emotionally not physically. In fact, she felt tears prick at the corner of her eyes. Why? What was she getting all emotional over? Just because she had a crush on a handsome, kind, fun, sexy, charming, smart guy who was so unaware of her as a woman that he could touch her face and look deep into her eyes and feel nothing? Because she hadn’t had a date in eighteen months and it didn’t look like she was going to get one anytime soon? Because she was going to have to sit opposite Ro every day feeling the way she did and not be able to do anything about it? Who cared about that?
Whoever said office romances were a bad idea was right. They sucked.
She closed her eyes, forcing herself back to composure. Maybe she was just tired, or hungry, or her body really was rejecting the foreign skewers. Maybe it was the choba, she could believe that stuff was poison. She drank more water. It was okay, she told herself. She’d only embarrassed herself a little.
She continued to talk herself down until she heard the door open again, then she pulled her head back up and screwed her smile into place. This was still a good day. She still had a mission here, and she couldn’t let her mood ruin Ro’s when this whole thing had been her idea.
She turned to look at him and was glad she’d already made up her mind to smile so that her jaw didn’t drop. The pants fit him like a second skin, blending in with his black scales in the half-light until she could only assume they were there. She saw his legs, with his extended heels and his wide clawed feet that looked powerful and positively vicious, and convinced her he could only have been using magic to fit them into human shoes. His shins were marked in pink, the single lines slightly curved like shading on a painting.
He had chosen to model the white wrap shirt that was so popular with the other Teissians at DETI, but if it had ever looked like that on any of them, she’d never noticed. The wrapping gave it almost a V-neck, exposing his collarbone and neck, and giving just a tantalising peek of something pink in the centre of his chest at its deepest point. The fabric hung loosely, and shone like pearl against his black scales. The sleeves were just the right length, baggier than she was used to, giving the impression of a comfortable and full range of motion, and reminding her of romantic leads in period dramas.
His head was ducked as he fiddled with the clothes, unused to them, tucking a loose bit of shirt into of his waistband before plucking it out again, then tugging the pants up and then down again. He looked at her, obviously unsure, looking worried and shy.
“Oh my god, Ro!” she said, trying to sound just like she would if he was one of her girlfriends, not like she had to hold onto the couch just to stay seated. “You look amazing!”
He watched her carefully, his head still ducked. “Do you think so?”
“Of course!” she replied a little too passionately. “I mean, are you more comfortable now?”
“I am, but…”
“But what?”
He looked conflicted, like he had something to say he wasn’t sure about. Maggie stood up and walked around the couch to face him, leaning against the back of it to keep herself anchored. As long as she could feel it against her, she knew she was at a safe, friendly distance. She crossed her arms, and then her ankles. She raised an eyebrow and waited.
“Do I look too… alien?”
For the second time, Maggie had to keep her jaw from dropping. That was his problem? But now that she thought about it, she couldn’t remember ever hearing him say that word before.
“I mean, you can see my legs, and my claws,” he explained, standing on one leg to touch his ankle self-consciously. “Will DETI accept this?”
“Ro…” Where to begin? “People already dress like that at DETI. It’s fine. We know you’re- I mean, we don’t expect you to look human. We know you’re Teissian. I hate to break it to you but it’s not your legs that give it away,” she told him as gently as she could, but he still flinched. “Hey, come on. Come here. Sit down with me,” she said, returning to the sofa and waiting for him to join her, which he did reluctantly.
“Do you mind if I take my shoes off?” she asked.
“No, go ahead,” he said, waving a hand to give her permission.
She kicked off her smart court shoes and pulled her feet up under her so she could sit sideways to face him properly, though he stayed facing forwards, looking at his claws picking at each other in his lap.
She thought about taking his hand to get his attention, but she didn’t. She’d been holding it all day, but they didn’t have that kind of relationship. “You know if you want to wear a suit, you can, no one is going to stop you. Though to be honest, I don’t know how you managed to walk in those shoes, or even get them on.”
“I use athletic bands to bind my claws together to make my feet narrower, and then fill the heel with a rubber prosthetic.”
“That sounds painful,” Maggie replied, trying to keep her voice level. The truth was she was horrified he had been doing that to himself, crushing his feet like that. “Why did you do that?” She didn’t think it needed pointing out that he must have noticed none of the other Teissians did.
He shrugged. “I wanted to prove I was- that I could be-”
“What?”
“…Human enough.”
Maggie was honestly speechless. “I don’t understand,” she said.
For a moment, Ro didn’t an
swer, but Maggie wasn’t going anywhere. She was just thinking of something else to say when he spoke.
“I came here for a new life,” he said.
Maggie waited for more but none came. “Okay,” she said to prompt him.
He sighed. “On Teiss, being Balin means something different than being from Vol. Bala is different. I don’t want that to follow me here.”
“Okay,” she said again. He was being cryptic and cagey and she assumed there was a reason for that, so she didn’t ask about the past. “I believe that you can have whatever kind of life you want to have here.”
He looked at her, again as if searching her eyes for the truth or a lie.
“But how is this related to clothes?” she had to ask. “You want to blend in? That’s what Kez said, isn’t it?”
He pulled a face at the mention of Kez’s name, as if frustrated by his friend’s big mouth.
“Everyone at DETI respects you. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like you. If you’re worried about your work, you’re new and everyone understands that and you’re doing really well-” Maggie shut up as Ro growled and pushed to his feet, walking a few steps away from her to lean against the wall, his back to her. She stayed quiet. She didn’t know what he was going to do. She wasn’t afraid of him, but all this over a change of clothes?
He turned his head to speak to her over his shoulder. “And you?” he growled.
“Me?”
His eyes pinned her to the spot and she suddenly felt like the future of their relationship depended on what she said next.
“Of course I respect you. I respect you a lot,” she almost whispered. It wasn’t what she meant but it was all she could say. “I think you’re really… smart.”
He huffed a bitter laugh through his nose, turning away from her. Apparently it hadn’t been the answer he was looking for. Waiting for what he would say next was agony.
“Thank you,” he said, sounding defeated. It felt like the end of the conversation, like whatever had come to the surface of him had been forced back down.
“And I think the new clothes look really good on you. And I don’t care that you’re Balin. It doesn’t mean anything to me,” she added.
The New Guy (Office Aliens Book 2) Page 7
