Page 24 of Right Next Door
People waited on Tsok, and because she was his charina, that meant they waited on her. Just by sheer virtue of proximity, she was someone who would be waited on.
“Screw it,” she sighed, resigning herself to the fact that she was now dancing to someone else’s beat. At least until the end of the party. Do it for the allowance. “I’m already up. Let’s get going.”
“Wonderful. Right this way, the hover is waiting.”
Misty had been here, on Kree, for quite a while now. Months, if she did the math right. She was easily switching to thinking about time in increments of marks and tendays now. But she had spent most of that time getting herself settled in the manor and with her business. She saw the city, and while part of her wanted to explore the white and glittery sci-fi utopia beyond Tsok’s land,another part of her wasn’t willing to go somewhere she didn't know yet. She had more than enough to explore on her little piece of land – for the moment anyway. And her business kept most of her attention, so there was no real need to go exploring.
She had been doing herself a disservice. The city was incredible! All the streets were full of people, not cars, because the hovers could just fly right over their heads. There was a wonderful mix of modern, urban sprawl combined with vibrant plant life. The plants on Kree tended towards the dusky blue range of colors. Some were brighter, some were darker, but that was the medium point. And the result was a beautiful, cool toned city that honestly had more of an ocean vibe, despite the fact that they were nowhere near a body of water.
But maybe that was just her Earth centric way of thinking. The oceans here were white and gray - she knew that from vids and pics she’d seen since arriving. If their plant life was blue, they wouldn’t really associate the color with water like she did.
Though she was irritated about her day being hijacked, all in all, it wasn’t actually a bad day. The tailoring experience was like getting fitted for a wedding dress. Complete with not-wine, sales ladies tittering over how pretty she was, and picking styles and colors and embroidery patterns like a celebrity, lounging on a settee with finger foods at her side. There was no way she wasn’t going to enjoy that experience.
Especially when it came time to pick her jewelry. She thought her facial piercings would be a problem – they would be at a fancy party on Earth. But the sales ladies who were bringing her jewelry – literally on velvet trays like she was a damn queen – looked shocked when she suggested having to remove her piercings.
That was when they pointed out something that, honestly, she should have already realized. The kreechmaralovedjewelry.They decked themselves out in as much as possible, sometimes past the point of even being cute anymore. They had their own piercing culture, and it wasn’t considered alternative. It was mainstream. And because it was mainstream, there were tons of subcultures around styles of piercings. Every jewelry shop would have piercing jewelry right alongside necklaces and bracelets. Misty had more options than every before.
She wasn’t alternative here. She wasfashionable. Trendy. Classically beautiful, even.
She did have to get small sized piercings, because she was smaller than every kreecharma that wasn’t an adolescent. But that didn't bother her. In fact, it was kind of a stroke to the ego to be able to say she was small or medium in everything. This planet was awesome in so many ways.
By the time she got to the spa, she wasn’t even salty anymore.
And by the time she left the spa, she was feeling outright sweet. She was still mad at her neglectful mate, but if she thought of him as a sugar daddy, she wasn’t so bothered anymore. Because there were no feelings involved with a sugar daddy. And since he was a daddy on diet, she didn't even have to give up her sweetness, which was a great deal, when she really thought about it.
She was feeling so good, she was even able to hold a calm conversation with Davard when she told him not to move or cancel any patient appointments without her permission in the future.
The next few days, she had another appointment each day for something – hair, nails, etc – to get her ready for the party, but Davard no longer cleared her schedule for it. They just did everything in the afternoon after she was done with work.
The day of the party, she agreed to have her schedule moved again so that she could sleep in and go through the long process to get herself ready. Davard offered to have people sent that would do it for her, but she denied the offer.
While she got to see that they knew how to do her hair at the salon she went to for a hair treatment the other day, she still wanted to do it in her own style.
Tsok might be dragging her to this thing, but she was going her way.
She was already fully dressed, ready and waiting, when Davard sent her the message that Tsok was waiting for her in the entrance hall. And it irritated her because Tsok hadn’t sent her the message himself. This guy really was doing the most to make sure they never crossed paths.
She gave herself a few extra minutes to calm down. She was even going to be generous. Maybe she was reading Tsok wrong. Maybe he just had no idea what he was doing. Maybe social situations were a nightmare for him. Maybe he really was so busy that months had passed since she came here and he just didn't notice.
And maybe that was a stretch, but she was trying to be nice. To talk herself into treating him sweetly – artificial sweetness, because he was a sugarless sugar daddy.
“Wish me luck in battle, General,” she said, looking at her cat. He blinked at her from his place on the sofa before uncurling from his circle, stretching his paw out while twisting on his back. “You’re lucky this robe is white, or I would be giving you so many kisses right now. Prepare yourself to be molested when I get back.”
He just blinked at her as she turned, ready to meet her mate for the first time in months. And not at all looking forward to it.
Chapter 10
Tsok
It was the way of females to put their males through a trial.
That was directly from the published report on humans that had been completed some time ago. It was a fact that human females would test their males, sometimes without even realizing they were doing it. A human female demanded fealty from her male, in all things. She would test him to prove his loyalty and satisfy her own inner urges. Not all females would do it, of course, and not every female would do it to the same degree, but they all felt the urge at some point to put their male to the test.
Clearly, his female had decided to test his strength of will today.
She came down the steps – wooden rails carved to resemble the fellbud trees that gave it its name – her new robe splitting with each step she took. Granting him teasing, tantalizing flashes of the smooth, dark skin of her legs accented by the shiny black leather sandals adorning her adorable, human feet. Her toe claws had been painted a bright, metallic blue, that matched perfectly to the blue coloration of the underside of her hair.
She’d changed it since he last saw her. It was purple before. Blue now. Beautiful. He loved that color on her. He loved the purpleon her. He couldn’t think of a single color she wouldn’t look good in.
