Page 19 of The Genius
“Will there be people brawling and fighting?”
“Nooo, don’t worry, Shelly.”
I inhaled deeply and gave him my sternest look. “Tristan, I’m not going with you unless you tell me where you’re taking me.”
His hands came down and he moved to the edge of the seat. “Fine! One of the drones I designed is competing tonight. I want to be there when it wins.”
My forehead wrinkled. “Then you go. Drone races are too overwhelming for me. The noise and all those people.”
“I’ll keep you safe, I promise.”
“It’s not my safety that concerns me. I’m just not good with crowds of people.”
Using his chin to point to my workstation, he ordered, “No more excuses. Shut it down. You’re coming with me. Charlie’s orders.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Charlie sent you?”
“Yeah, he mentioned that you work too much and that he worries about you. I didn’t even know you were in the Northlands until he told me.”
“I see.”
“Hey, don’t give me that look. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to spend time with you. And really, I’m the one who should be offended that you didn’t tell me you were here to begin with.”
I cleaned up my workspace. “Sorry, I meant to. I’ve just been busy.”
“You’re forgiven, but only if you come with me to the drone race.”
With a sigh of resignation, I looked at him. “It’s just going to be you and me, right?”
“That’s the plan. Unless you have some cute girlfriends you want to invite.”
My raised eyebrows said it all.
“No, that’s what I thought.” He laughed. “So just me and you then. With me there you won’t even have to bring that protector along that Charlie hired for you.”
“Thank god. To be honest, I don’t like him much.”
“Why? Is he coming on to you?”
“No, he’s just very talkative and sometimes it’s too much. I’ve tried giving him the cold shoulder, but you know how Nmen are – they don’t get offended by Motlander rudeness.”
Tristan laughed and came up with all sorts of ideas on how to offend an Nman.
An hour later we were sitting high up on bleachers overlooking a large area where drones were lining up to race.
“Sorry about the food. This place doesn’t have many vegetarian options.” Tristan held out his box to me. “The chicken sticks are good and spicy though, wanna try?”
“Tell me again, when did you begin eating meat?” I asked and took a bite of the large breadstick that had been my only choice of food.
“When I was enrolled in school here. They didn’t always have vegan options so it was either starve or eat meat.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Tristan swallowed a bite. “I don’t eat a lot of meat, but I’ve learned to enjoy it when I do.”
“How is your family doing?” I asked, knowing that Tristan had an enormous family since he grew up in a family unit in the Motherlands with his biological mom, and also had a family on his father’s side.
“Do you mean my dad and Athena?”
