“Perfect,” he echoes.
“Something is wrong.” But just as I say that Flicka is buzzing around our heads, keeping safely out of my reach in case I try to swat her away again.
“Oh, no,” she squeaks. “Oh, no. This is bad. This is very, very bad.”
I look up at her and so does Jimmy.
“What’s she saying?” he asks.
“She says this is bad,” I admit.
“I’m getting the same feeling. You’re doing something to me, Delphi. And that’s dangerous in our world.”
“What world?”
“The one that genetically engineers soulmates for nefarious reasons.”
“Oh,” I say, pulling away from him. “That world.”
“Who sent you here?”
I just shake my head.
“Delphi, tell me what’s going on. I can help you.”
“Yes!” Flicka says. “Yes! You did it! All is not lost. This is the plan, Delphi. Tell him and get him to help you!”
“Now what is she saying?” Jimmy asks.
“She’s saying…” I sigh. “She’s telling me to trust you.” I raise my head up so I can look Jimmy in the eyes. “She’s telling me to ask you for help.”
He relaxes a little. “She’s really saying that? And not telling you to drug me, and kidnap me, and deliver me to some evil station on the edge of the known galaxy so I can be poked and prodded and made to breed with outlaw princesses?”
“What?” I say, snapping out of the dream-like state his kiss put me in.
“Sorry.” He laughs. “My imagination is in overdrive right now. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. The only thing I do know, Delphi, is that it’s got something to do with you. Except… it can’t. This cannot be happening.”
“Why not?” I ask, a little bit too loud. “Why can’t it?”
He takes a step back. Then another. And then he turns away and walks across the room to the table. I set out a fresh glass for the whiskey he was drinking earlier and he fills it now, dropping in two ice cubes from a bucket.
He drinks it down in one gulp, then places both hands on the table and bows his head a little. Like he’s trying to make a decision.
I bite my lip and hold my breath. He’s going to walk out, I just know it. That kiss. It did something to us. It eased the building tension. It defused the impending explosion. It… tamed us, somehow. And now he’s feeling better, because I know I’m feeling better, and he’s going to walk out. He’s thinking this whole thing is a setup. And hell, he practically figured the whole hot mess of a plan out already, didn’t he? I’m sure he thinks his imagination got away from him and that scenario was just some wild delusion, but it wasn’t. It was pretty much spot on. And he knows that. He feels it. I’m here to hurt him and I hate myself for that. I really do.
Because I don’t want to hurt him.
I want to do the exact opposite of hurt him.
Jimmy straightens up, turns around to face me, and then says, “Would you like to have dinner with me?”
“What?” I ask weakly.
“Dinner?” he says, panning his hand at the table laid out with a full spread of food and drinks. “Because all I ate today was a little container of Mighty Noodles and Dumplings that set me back four hundred credits and this…” He looks over his shoulder at the food. “This just happens to be all my favorites.” Then he scowls a little. “Did you do research on me? Is that how you knew what to order?”
I look at the food, which was totally picked at random. “No. I didn’t even chose that food. I just pressed a few tabs on the autocook and that’s what came out.”
He hesitates for a few moments. I can practically imagine what he’s thinking.
He’s thinking I’m a liar.
He’s thinking I’m a backstabbing cheat.
He’s thinking I’m here to hurt him, and kidnap him, and drag him off to the Loathsome One to be used for her nefarious breeding program.
Because all that’s true and I’m pretty certain he’s right. Something weird is happening here and I’m the reason why.
“So?” he asks. “Do you? Want to have dinner?”
“Are you sure you want to have dinner with me?” I ask.
He nods. “Delphi. That’s the only thing I am sure of right now. You are the only thing I’m sure of right now.”
I stare at him for a few moments, then nod my head. “OK. Yes. I’d like that very much.”
He lets out a long breath of air, then pulls a chair out and says, “Please. Have a seat.”
I walk towards him, wholly unsure how we got from this morning to this moment, but I sit anyway. And he pushes my chair in and walks around the other side of the table and takes his seat across from me.