AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And now you’re here,” he said, his voice carefully neutral. Studying her face as if waiting to see if she considered that a good thing or not.
Sandy smiled at him. “Yeah. She’d go crazy with excitement if she found out I just hopped off the planet like that. Though, really, that’s her fault too, since she signed me up for True Match and you just… happened to be my mate.”
She hesitated, her voice trailing off a bit as she looked him over. She had been so focused on everything else, she hadn’t really considered the real ramifications of the idea that this male before her now, staring and hanging off every word like it was gospel, was supposed to be her soulmate. Well, he was according to some magic science she didn’t understand, anyway.
He was cute, she could agree with that. And she didn’t mind talking with him. But it had been so long since her last relationship, she didn’t even think she knew how to flirt anymore. And this guy was gorgeous. And clearly very experienced. She had no idea how to approach him.
“What do you want to do?” He asked, surprising her out of her admiring thoughts.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, your grandmother said that she wanted you to go out and live your life the way you wanted to, right? So, what do you want to do?”
The question stumped her.
The answer was easy, in a way. She wanted to get rid of Elffa, she wanted to help Rane, she wanted to find out if she could sew or knit or crochet on this planet. But those first two things weren’t really about her, and the third one was the same old stuff she normally did. Neither of those were what her grandmother meant.
She couldn’t even claim that coming out here was what she wanted. She hadn’t made the True Match appointment, she hadn’t really wanted to mate an alien, she hadn’t even picked the planet she’d go to when she did get to space. All of that was just her following the next steps as part of the matchmating process.
What did she want to do?
She frowned, thinking. Trying to figure out the puzzling question.
Something came to mind, and she found her hand reaching up without thinking. She dropped it immediately though, shaking her head.
“What?” Rane asked, leaning in, surprising her, setting her heart racing.
“Er… Nothing…”
“No, you thought of something. What is it?” He started to smile. “Tell me. I want to know.”
She hesitated again. “You’ll think it’s stupid.”
“No.”
“It’s not adventurous, really.”
“So? It’s what you want to do. What is it?”
She fought against it just a moment longer before blurting-
“I want to cut my hair!”
He blinked, reeling a bit. Not from her confession, but from the force with which it came out. She grimaced as he chuckled.
“Cut your hair?”
“Sorry, that’s stupid,” she mumbled, shoulders slumping.
“No, it’s not.” He reached for her again, taking her hand in his. “You don’t like the length of your hair now?”
She shook her head. “It’s like, past my waist. My grandmother always said it was pretty long, so I never had the heart to cut it. But I’ve always wondered what it would be like. Every time I’ve thought about it before though, I’d always freak out. It just seems so… I don’t know. Like such a drastic change, I guess.”
A smile was pulling slowly at his lips, the more she blathered on about the silly thought. How was she supposed to do adventurous things when she got palpitations just thinking about cutting her hair? It was pathetic. A lame first ‘adventure’.
“Okay, let’s get your hair cut,” he said, sounding excited. “Do you have a style you’d prefer? Does it need special treatment? How do you cut hair?”
The questions came quickly. She didn’t realize until the last one that he had feathers, not hair. Which definitely didn’t need trimming like human hair did. She chuckled.
