Page 6 of Sloane

Jovi and Alik look at each other, then Essa, then back at me. All six of their dark eyes are wide, and their mouths open to say something, but they end up backing out. Essa wasn't lying about them not talking to me when it's red. It's kind of cute how badly they want to stick to the rules. It doesn't at all make me want to see if I can get them to break them for me. Nope. Not one bit.

"We'd all love for you to speak with us," Essa answers for them. "We have rules, especially the males, if they want to continue being allowed a pleasure crew member. So, we need to figure out a way around this. If the company finds out about them speaking to you when it's red, their overall rating will go down."

I hold the pendant up again, clicking through all the options until the light turns off. "Oh!" I smile up at Essa and show her the pendant, "What if it's off?"

"Off means…" Essa flips through the handbook, skimming over every page that may say something about the pendant being turned off. I also try to rack my brain, thinking if I remember reading anything about it being turned off, but I don't come up with anything. Essa looks at me and shrugs. "Off means you are human crew, not pleasure crew. Your paperwork is for both, so I don't think it should be an issue. Does that sound good?"

I beam up at her, the idea of being an actual part of the crew making me more happy than I thought it would. "Yeah, that's great."

"Good." Essa pushes off the couch and then points at the two males sitting across from us, who have decided it's finally safe to look at me. "She is human crew when it's off. If you wouldn't do it to me, you don't do it to her."

Her words have them both turning dark purple, their eyes finding new homes on the floor, trying to make themselves small, like that's even possible. When she's sure they're thoroughly humiliated, she offers me her hand to help me up.

"Come, I will show you your room."

As we leave the living area, I wave one final goodbye to Alik and Jovi. They keep their arms crossed over their chests, trying to cover what I assume is a flush of embarrassment. Their other hands still block my view of their crotches.

Jovi gives me a crooked smile while Alik stares at me with confusion and wariness etched into his features. Whatever they're worried about, I can ease those worries. I have three days to make them comfortable with the idea of me as the pleasure crew. That's plenty of time to get them to like me.

three

Sloane

Ipull out all the ingredients I brought from my house to make cookies from my duffel bag. Sure, I could've brought something to share with everyone already premade. But one of my favorite hobbies, when I had enough time to have a hobby that wasn't working every waking moment of my life in a soul-sucking office job, was baking. Plus, I'm never going back to my apartment. There wasn't a point in keeping anything perishable there.

Essa gives me a worried look when I pull out eggs and butter from my suitcase. Her gaze, looking more and more concerned with each new ingredient, I plop onto the bed.

"What are you doing?" Essa asks, standing in the doorway to my room.

I have to admit, it's a pretty nice room. The bed is enormous—big enough to fit a few people, and it takes up most of the space in the room. That part makes sense, considering what I'm here to do. There's a small dresser for my clothes and a bathroom offto the side that I haven't gone to look at yet, but I imagine it has all the important things like a shower and a toilet.

"I brought stuff to make cookies," I say as I hand her the flour and sugar. She takes it without question but continues to stare at me like I've done something confusing. I turn with my hands on my hips. "Am I not allowed to bake anything as part of the pleasure crew? Because I'm human crew right now, and I think that means I can make food."

Essa's eyes widen a fraction as her tail thrashes behind her in a motion that tells me she's either upset or worried. Lots of species that have tails normally have their movement tied to emotions, but different cultures mean different tail twitches for different things. I don't know enough about any of their cultures to know if this is an angry thrash, an uncomfortable one, or an embarrassed one.

"Sorry," Essa says, her tail swishing back and forth even harder. She winces as her eyes crinkle, her lips pressed awkwardly together like she isn't sure what to do. Okay, so the tail thrashing right now is embarrassment. That's good to know. "You're right. This is all new for me as well. Normally, I show you to your room, you close the door, and you don't speak to me for the entirety of the mission."

"We're the only girls here now. We gotta stick together, right?"

Essa's tail pauses its movements before locking around my ankle again as she leads me down the halls to what I'm assuming is the kitchen. "I'd very much like to stick together with you, Sloane."

I let out a snort of a laugh right as Essa looks back at me, a serious look on her face that tells me she isn't joking. I silence my laugh, schooling my features to be serious like hers and give her a quick nod. She shakes her head, a smile tugging at her lips before turning back around.

"I think we'll make fast friends," Essa says.

"Yeah, I think so too."

What's crazy is I actually feel like they're true, even though we've only known each other for maybe an hour at this point. Sometimes, there are people you meet in life whose vibes match up so well with yours that you just know you're meant to be friends, and that's how I feel about Essa. Sure, I feel that way about a lot of people, but I also get along with most people, so it works out most of the time.

We turn around one last corner to a closed door that whooshes open when we near it. There are two males inside, the other two who came out to see me when I first arrived. The human-looking one notices us first, his eyes lifting from whatever he's reading on his comm and then widening when he sees me right behind Essa.

He stands from his seat and steps up with a hand out toward me. "Holoth, Rytharian crew."

"Sloane, human crew," I take his hand, noticing how his eyes flicker down to the pendant that's still turned off between my breasts before flicking back up to my face after only a second. Holoth offers me a small smile and then turns to the other male, who's standing behind the counter in the center of the kitchen with a confused look on his face.

"Did you not read my message?" Essa asks as she moves deeper into the kitchen, dropping the flour and sugar onto the counter and nudging me to her side so I can set my stuff down as well.

Holoth sits back down and holds his comm up like he's reading, but his attention keeps snagging on the area where the rest of us are still chatting.

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