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Chapter 33
Sophie
“Friend of yours?”
The calm question came gently to her lips as Sophie dotted her contour stick across her cheeks and across her hairline.
She wasn’t even sure why she was doing her makeup. After coming in here, she needed to do something to take her mind off that fight she had with Serval, and somehow, she ended up with her makeup in hand and her combot recording as she went through the motions of doing a makeup tutorial that she could voiceover later.
Not that this video would likely see the light of day. It had none of her usual bubbly personality in it, just her angrily slathering primer and foundation on her face. And while she enjoyed playing as a friend with her viewers, the truth was that she wasn’t. And she wasn’t going to become some drama channel and come on here to immediately begin dissing her mate at their first fight. That wasn’t what she wanted for her channel, and it wasn’t what she wanted for herself.
But recording like this was therapeutic for her. It helped ground and center her. Even if she wasn’t actually posting this video, being in front of the camera was her happy place. It was where she returned to when she was upset.
Like when her mate was accusing her of some bullshit.
How was she supposed to know that blowing a smoke cloud into some random guy’s face was his equivalent of flirting? There were over two hundred alien species in the Coalition, and she could count how many she’d met on one hand. Was she supposed to just know, intuitively, what was rejection to one but invitation to another?
He could have warned her. He could even have been firm about it to drive the point home about how she should just immediately call for him next time – even if it felt rather juvenile. She’d never needed help before turning down persistent males whose entire brainpower could be contained in the head of their dicks, but she admitted that she wasn’t in her usual place, and that being out here came with a different set of rules.
She would have understood.
She even agreed.
It was the anger and accusations that pissed her off. So, she angrily blended out her contour as he stepped into her line of sight and focused on the conversation she’d just overheard.
Because that pissed her off too.
Who was this guy that apparently knew her mate enough to comm him at random times and invited him to go out to dangerous, illegal dwarf planet colonies? And talk about their mates too. This person clearly knew about her. They’d been chatting, comparing her to some unknown other female. They knew each other well.
But Sophie didn’t know about him.
“Korvii is… a professional acquaintance,” Serval said carefully.
“Do you usually get into arguments like that with professional acquaintances?”
“It’s not like that,” Serval shook his head. “Korvii and I both work for Nox. We both cover the same types of stories. We’re rivals if we’re anything. And, honestly, I don’t even want to know him that much.”
“You know his mate.”
“Who? Hela? I’ve never met her. Just in passing on one comm.”
“So, you have met her.”
Serval hesitated. But that was okay, she didn’t need his cooperation to continue being mad.
“You have some kind of competition with him about who’s better. Me or her.”
He scoffed, turning from her. “It’s not a competition. He’s just an idiot.”
“He seemed to think there was a competition.”
“That’s because he’s a domini. The entire species is a bunch of thoughtless hotheads who are under the impression that punching is a viable form of communication.” Serval crossed his arms, sneering his displeasure. “Unfortunately, since Korvii and I are in direct competition when it comes to stories, that gave him the impression that I’m always trying to compete with him about everything. Yes, including our females.”
“And you never saw a reason for me to be involved in this?” She very calmly and deliberately set her concealer and setting powder out on the counter before her.
Sophie felt… left out.
Why was she just now hearing about this guy, yet his mate knew Serval? Was Serval really having some kind of ‘my girlfriend is better’ competition? She didn’t even know how she felt about that yet. Was it insulting? Was it cute? Was it nothing?
