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Max, ever unable to keep from poking an open wound, said, “I noticed the upgrades in the rooms. Thank you. I’ve got to finish writing my collection and it will be wonderful to do it in the peace you’ve created.”
Kira glanced under her lashes at Quinn, but fixed her plate.
Quinn shrugged.
Kira jumped in. “Did you finish what you needed to do with Toke?”
“Oh, yes.” Max turned to Kira.
She knew what subjects could carry him on for some time. He wasn’t awkward, and he wasn’t bubbly, but straightforward, kind, pious in the best ways while allowing for understanding that the very nature of every race was to be chaotic. He talked for a while on Toke, reminiscing about the man’s underlying qualities, a topic that Kira had wondered about, as Quinn knew.
Quinn never interjected, nor did he interrupt. When he cleared his plate, he said to Kira, “Thank you for dinner.”
“You’re welcome.”
The drone popped in to clean up. Kira excused herself, catching him in the hall. “Quinn?”
The tenseness loosened. “Yeah?”
“You can’t.” She knew she needed to rephrase the instant those two words left her mouth. “Well, I mean you can do it, but I’d prefer you didn’t cut me off anytime that either of us does something embarrassing. That’s part of being friends, laughing and moving on.”
Kira could read him much better than he read her, but her shoulders hunched and her hands fidgeted at her sides betraying her nervousness that this might make him more distant.
“I don’t know what to say,” he admitted, not the most in-depth explanation.
“You don’t have to say anything. Do you want to have lunch tomorrow? Some of the other crew members will arrive in the morning and we generally have dinner together, but we could eat lunch, just you and me.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Kira believed helping him by ignoring the problem would be best, but perhaps it was the opposite. His general hesitation told her she was wrong somewhere, but she wasn’t sure where.
“Great. Promenade at noon?” It wasn’t private, but it wasn’t public either, though the crew knew where to find her usually if they needed her.
“Okay, I’ll see you then.” A weak upturn of his lips, not promising, yet not off-putting.
On a tray were hamburgers and some fries that were still warm. Then Kira, her legs hanging off the ledge, eyes forward. Turning Watson off her comms and she put herself on emergency communications for the next hour.
Quinn remained as punctual as ever, which with him meant arriving exactly at the appointed time. Never early or late, just there when asked to be. He plopped down next to her, selecting a fry and munching on it.
“We’re handling things rather poorly, aren’t we?” A statement more than a question, but somehow she made it come across as both.
“I don’t really know.”
She smiled despite everything, popping in a fry, chewing thoughtfully. “I’ve been attracted to men physically, but not emotionally if that makes sense,” she started in, going for the obvious problem of his conflicting emotions. “It’s possible to find someone attractive without meaning to as well.”
“I wasn’t attracted to anyone.” He pulled out a knife. The burger sliced up and paired with different combinations of ingredients.
She gave him a pointed look. “I’m sure lab coats weren’t really attractive.”
“Not particularly. I saw some women wearing less than you when I stayed at Toke’s place.”
“Did you pay attention to them at all?” If he’d not cared to even look or they’d not looked his way, it could explain a lot.
“I saw them. One tried to talk to me. Didn’t really care about them, though.” He shrugged as he focused on his experiment, keeping himself busy.
“Well, maybe if you’d cared, it would have been different.” A bit of mustard shot out the side of her burger, the foil crinkling.
“Isn’t that the problem?” He made eye contact.
