Page 34 of Steve's Barmaid
“And breakfast?” she asked, brow cocked.
“I went early. I wanted to see what the bar looked like as the sun rose.”
What the fuck am I talking about? I wanted to see the bar at sunrise?I would need to get better at lying to Joey real fast.
“Suuuure…” was all she said before heading into the bar.
I grimaced as I watched her walk away. I didn't want to keep things from Joey, but I didn't want our budding relationship to be the talk of the tribe. She didn’t seem mad, just as if she didn’t believe me in the least. She would be the first person to know—when it was time.
All of my helpers started showing up, including Steve’s gang. Reykr came up to me immediately.
“Steve wasn’t at breakfast and was gone when I woke up this morning,” he said brusquely. “Do you know where he is?”
“I haven’t seen him. Maybe he went to the showers early?” I suggested.
This was a much better lie than watching the sunrise over the bar.Bonehead, Billie.
Reykr cocked his head to the side, squinting as if he was deciding whether or not he trusted my lie. Then, to my great embarrassment, he leaned in and smelled me. Not too close, but enough to make it weird. His eyes went wide, but he said nothing.
“Um, are yousmellingme? Because maybe that is normal for orkin, but that is definitely not normal for humans.” I raised my brows, disturbed.
“Sorry, I just thought—you know what, never mind.” Without further ado, he walked away from me to join the group.
I worried. What if he could smell Steve on me? I knew that orkin had a better sense of smell than humans did, but I didn’t really think anything of it until just now. Fuck. A shower would be necessary after our berry-picking date tonight.
Osif arrived, and we began working on the interior walls. Steve joined us just a few minutes after we had all started, and no one seemed to notice. He gave me a heated look as he walked in and then looked crestfallen when he saw he couldn’t work beside me. I had Tyr to my left and Berit to my right. Steve would have to pick a different spot to work. I sighed but knew it was probably for the best not to spend the entire morning with him
We all focused on sanding down the walls for several hours. Tyr, Berit, and I made small talk, but it was all surface-level. I hadn’t gotten to know them like I had gotten to know Steve or even Reykr. I had grouped them in my head as “dumb jocktypes” which probably wasn’t fair, but they didn’t seem to have much to add to the conversation whenever we spoke, and they always traveled in a pack.
I focused on sanding down the exposed wood. Trying to get some conversation rolling while doing the tedious work, I started with the best question I could think of.
“So what did y’all have for breakfast?” I cringed inwardly at how inane the question was.
“Gautr,” they responded in unison.
“Is it the same as the gautr you have at home?” I asked, hoping I could learn more about them and the Snaerfire.
“Not quite,” said Tyr. “I don’t think we have the same dried fruit up in the mountains as you have down here, but it is close enough. Your cooks are excellent.”
“Is how we eat different from how you eat at Snaerfírar? Do you all eat together?”
I’d never specifically asked Steve if they all ate communally because I assumed it was a standard orkin practice.
“Já, though our longhouse is smaller than yours,” Berit answered. “But it has fireplaces at both ends because of the cold.”
“Do you miss it?” I asked. They’d now been at Fýrifírar for more than a month, and while I knew Steve was more than happy to be here, I often wondered if the others were only staying because of him.
“Já, but I don’t miss the cold.” Tyr said, “The warmer season is already starting here. It will be cold for at least another several weeks in Snaerfírar.”
He moved closer to me as he spoke and I could almost feel him taking a whiff of my hair. I tensed as I waited for him to say anything. He just raised his brows at me and said nothing.
“Okay, that is the second time one of you has smelled me today,” I said, calling out the creepy behavior. “It is consideredweird at best and outright rude at worst to smell someone during casual conversation.”
Berit looked alarmed and placed his hands up in the air as if to say,I come in peace.
“Sorry, we do have a keen sense of smell, and you smell different today,” he explained, still looking concerned that I might slap him.
“Good different or bad different?” I asked.
