Page 14 of Kuaket

“I was just ordering food. Want some?” She held up her phone, presumably as that was where she was doing the ordering.

Surprise flitted through me. “Are you sure? We’ve never eaten together before.”

She shrugged. “I just got back from a drink with my brother and his new girlfriend and I’m starving. So, want some?”

“What are we getting?”

“I’m not sure, it’s too late for much to be open, but there’s a good pasta place I like to order from.”

“Sounds good.”

“All right.” She tapped a few buttons and then handed her phone to me without any preamble, surprising me with how much she was clearly trusting me.

I scrolled through the menu, tapping on a pasta dish that sounded good and handed the phone back to her.

“We should get garlic bread too.”

“If you want.”

“Better than only one of us having garlic breath,” she responded. “Shall we?” She gestured to the door of what I knew to be the living room, but I’d never actually been inside.

“Sure.” There was something strange about the whole situation. We’d never acted like this around one another, but I also liked it, perhaps it was something that had been missing from between us the entire time.

I followed her into the living room, only mildly surprised to realise that the shared wall with the bedroom was a snake tank on this side too.

“You really love Pattie, don’t you?” I asked, heading over to the tank and looking in. The large rock python was lounging under her warming light looking perfectly content.

Or I was reasonably sure she looked content. I actually had no idea how to tell what a snake was thinking.

“Don’t you love your pets?” Kua came to stand beside me, almost close enough that I could touch her.

I hesitated for a moment, then gave in to temptation and slipped an arm around her waist. I thought she’d pull away, but instead, she put a firm hand on my chest and leaned against me.

“I haven’t had a pet since I was ten,” I admitted softly.

“Oh.”

“He was a really dopey dog,” I said. “Too much leg for his body, and he’d look like he was going to fall over every time he chased a ball. He never did though.” I smiled at the memory.

“What happened to him?”

“Old age,” I responded. “My parents never got another dog.”

“But you wanted one?”

“I think so. I liked the companionship. It’s not something I’ve had much of since...” I trailed off, not knowing whether or not I should be saying any of this. We’d never really talked about anything that approached feelings and emotions, it was strange to start now, even if there was something comfortable about it.

“Since?” she prompted.

“You don’t want to hear it,” I murmured.

“What if I do?” The question was almost too quiet for me to hear, but I did. And every word lit something in me.

I looked at the woman beside me, noticing a strange vulnerability that wasn’t normally in her eyes. This was definitely a different side to the confident take-no-prisoners goddess I was used to.

“You want to talk about our lives?” I checked, searching her face for what her real answer was going to be. Though regardless of what I thought the truth was, I wouldn’t push her if she said no.

Kua frowned and looked back at her snake. “Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just hungry.”