Page 10 of Collision!
“Why did the anomaly materialize in your knot?”It sounded like an indictment.
Enough was enough.She glared back at him.“Ask the loveffervescence.”
He stiffened.“The…what?”
“The resonark,” she clarified with a sigh.“I’m trying to come up with a more meaningful name for it.”
“You haven’t.”
“Sorude,” she muttered under her breath.“Love plus bubbles makes perfect sense.”
“It very much does not.The anomaly does emit vibrations, but it is not a bubble, and it is not…love.”
With a shrug, she picked up her needles to signal an end to the conversation—or maybe as a weapon.He should know he wasn’t the only one with pokey bits.
Although she wished she wasn’t working laceweight right now.Definitely needed bigger needles.
She rummaged around the stash she’d brought.“I only know what everyone else has said about the…” Weaving one fine skein between her fingers, she considered.“The soul-sync?Heartanglement?”
His lip curled in a soundless snarl.“No.And also no.”
Oh, this was a much more enjoyable way to poke him.“The passion plasma?”
This time he recoiled.“Absolutely not.”
She grinned.“Fine.The resonark.But are you hearing me now when I say I don’t know anything more about it than you do?”
For several beats, he stood, rigid with some tension she also didn’t understand.Then he spun on his heel and stalked back the way he’d come.
Instantly she regretted her silliness.She’d seen he wasn’t the teasing sort.
But he didn’t leave.Instead, he diverted behind the bar, ducked out of sight, then returned with two oddly curving bottles—both of which he clunked on the table before sliding into the booth across from her.
He stared at her, and she stared back.
“Your hand,” he said.“Any problems?”
Did he have any idea about the effect of his venom?Slowly, she unfurled her fingers in front of him, revealing her empty palm.“Nothing to see.”
As she said it, she watched him closely.Though she wasn’t the sort to question others without cause, she’d always prided herself on her empathic lie detecting.
Except when it failed her, of course.
But Suvan didn’t squirm or smirk like he knew what she’d experienced.He twisted the caps off the bottles and nudged one across the table.
She looked at the unmarked drink.“What is it?”
“I believe you Earthers call it soda pop.”
In one blink, the seemingly alien curves of the glass resolved into the familiar structure of a carbonated beverage bottle.“Oh.Actually, we don’t usually call it soda pop.It’s either soda or pop or cola, depending on…” She bit her lip.“Not that it matters.Thank you.”An awkward gulp stopped any more babbling.
Suvan took a drink then tilted the bottle away from him, studying it suspiciously like it was an alien artifact.“Is soda pop always this sweet?”
She huffed out a laugh.“Yes, that’s always true.”Despite herself, she had to ask, “So you also perceive it as very sugary?How interesting.”
“Our tongues are not so different.”By way of demonstration, he let his loll.
Oh.Ohhh.“Yours is just…a bit longer,” she said weakly.
