Page 26 of Far From Center
Chapter 10
“Where have you been?”
Gabe watched Nyalla wipe the sweat from her forehead as he scowled at her. It wasn’t really anger he was feeling, it was relief. Sometime in the night she’d crept into bed with him, and he’d awoken near dawn with arms and legs wrapped tightly around her. It felt right to have her there. She was warm and soft. Her presence calmed him, relaxed that tense, tightly wound part inside himself that never seemed to loosen. He’d dozed back off, the smell of her vanilla shampoo and the feel of her slim body against his filling his thoughts and fueling his very unchaste dreams.
When he’d woken to find her gone, he’d nearly panicked. All sorts of horrible images had been going through his head: Nyalla being raped by the Gormand. Nyalla being killed by that Gormand. Nyalla being killed by Tura. Nyalla being killed by a stray car, or a homicidal human, or a wild dog, or a shark. He had no idea how to contact her, no way to locate her. He felt trapped here, unable to go look for her in case he got lost or she returned in the meantime. Barely tamping down his anxiety, he’d spent the last hour re-folding all of her clothing, organizing it by type and color in the various drawers and closets, then doing the same with every one of her belongings. He was just starting in on the contents of her purse when he’d heard the beep of a swipe card in the door and saw her enter the room.
“Ooo, are we a bit grumpy in the morning? I think so. Relax. I went for a jog. You were sleeping and I didn’t want to wake you.” She looked at the object in his hands. “Are you going through my purse? Seriously, Gabe, you can’t do that. You can’t mess with a woman’s underwear, and you can’t go through her purse.”
“What else was I supposed to do? I’ve already organized all of your clothing and the hundreds of little bottles and jars in the bathroom.”
She rubbed her face with her hands, sighing. The woman didn’t seem truly upset. How could she be when the room was now tidy and neat, with everything in its proper place. He’d even moved the furniture to more aesthetically pleasing locations.
“Let’s make breakfast. You’ve got to be starving by now.”
He’d assumed the twisted knot in his stomach was over worry for Nyalla, but now he was remembering it felt similar to this last night as well. But food… It was one thing to drink water and the occasional wine for his heart. It was another to consume dead plants and animals. It all seemed so base, so primitive. Even if he did recover from this spell, his vibration pattern would never be the same.
“Gabe, youhaveto eat. I promise I won’t tell a soul and once all this is over and you’re an angel again, you can forgo food and drink once more. Heck, you can even stop breathing if you want.”
“I’ve done that, but I can’t communicate with the humans if I’m not breathing. Plus, it tends to cause alarm among them.” Another cramp hit his mid-section. She was right. The pain was horrible, and he already was feeling weak, as if he might lose consciousness. “What do you recommend I eat? It needs to be nutritionally sound. And it shouldn’t be decadent enough to cause me to fall into the sin of gluttony.”
Did she roll her eyes? Gabe was pretty sure that Nyalla had just rolled her eyes.
“Omelets, then. And toast with butter.” She started to pull pans out from under the stove. “Did you shower yet? If you don’t mind me all sweaty cooking breakfast, I’ll grab mine after we eat, and you can get yours while I’m cooking.”
“I couldn’t figure out how to work the bathroom equipment. The water was very cold, and the tub won’t fill up. It just goes down the drain.”
She hesitated. “Did you pee? Do you at least know how to work the toilet?”
“That I figured out, as well as the sink and the mouth-cleaning supplies.”
“You used my toothbrush.” She sighed, as though he’d done something wrong.
“There was only one there. Wasn’t I supposed to use it? I boiled it afterward. Well, I think I boiled it. The machine there with the dirty dishes in it has a setting called sanitize.”
“You ran my toothbrush through the dishwasher?” Nyalla waved a hand in front of her face. “Never mind. Come on. I’ll show you how to work the shower.”
Gabe followed her into the tiny bathroom, taking off his clothing and folding it neatly on the sink while he watched her explain the tub stopper, the temperature controls, and the lever to divert the water to the shower nozzle up on the wall. She turned around and her eyes widened as she looked from his face downward.
“What? Is something wrong? I’m not supposed to take a shower with clothing on, am I?”
“No. Nothing is wrong at all,” she squeaked. “It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before. I mean you were at the beach last night when we were swimming, but it was dark and I don’t see well in the dark, but now it’s daytime and it’s very bright in this bathroom. And…in fact, everything is just perfectly alright. You…scrub everything. I’m going to make omelets now. Making omelets while you’re in here. Then afterward I’m going to take a very long shower. Very long.”
He watched her leave, then adjusted the water to optimal temperature, pushed the lever for the overhead shower, and got in. The moment the water hit his skin, Gabe felt as if he were in a state of bliss. He’d always had an attraction to water, and being one with the sea was equal in his heart to being in Aaru. This was better. Being human meant he felt every drop of water as it impacted his flesh and slid down along his skin. The room steamed up. His muscles relaxed. Even that annoying painful knot in his midsection went away. He could have stayed here forever, but Nyalla was preparing food, and it would be rude to make her wait while he enjoyed the newfound sensation of a hot shower. Reluctantly he turned the water off and dried himself with a towel.
To dress or not to dress? He’d worn those clothes all day yesterday, and since he’d slept in them, Nyalla hadn’t had a chance to wash them last night. The idea of putting them back onto his clean body was revolting. So instead he tried to wrap the towel around himself, abandoning it after several failed attempts to secure it around his hips.
Naked it was. Still he brought the towel with him to put on the chair seat, since he wasn’t confident in the cleanliness of the cushion.
Nyalla caught her breath when she saw him, her eyes doing that slow perusal again. “Oh no. I forgot to buy clothes on my way back from my jog. And yours are dirty. And there’s no way you’ll fit into any of mine — no way at all. She grabbed her phone and typed something, flipping the omelet as she read the response.
“I’m guessing you don’t know what size you wear, do you?”
Gabe looked at his arms, then down at his lap. “Human male sized?”
She grabbed something off the counter and came toward him. “Stand up. I need to measure you.”
He stood and she wrapped a piece of string around his waist, pulling it away to look at it a moment before bending down to wrap it around his lower rear. That dangling appendage used for urination and procreation twitched upright, tapping her in the chin. She giggled and looked up at him.
