Page 27 of The Artist
We had split up, but I had my map that showed me their positions. Simon had stayed with Thor, but I couldn’t see his avatar. The French government limited the communication between their citizens and the rest of the world. Because of those restrictions, our electronic devices weren’t paired up. Simon appeared on the map merely as a red dot identifying a warm-blooded being. The rest of us were supposed to spread out and keep on a straight line, but from the avatars on the map, I could tell Aubri and Indiana were together.
Twenty years ago, their friendship wouldn’t have been allowed. Back when my mother was a teenager, no one but her family members were allowed to physically touch her. It was the historic triumph of Indiana’s adopted sister Raven that changed the strict rules. Against all odds she became the first female police officer in the Northlands. She couldn’t do her job if a colleague’s touching her was an automatic death sentence.
We Nmen still couldn’t touch women in general, but at least now there were exceptions. Physical contact was allowed if the woman gave her permission, which Aubri had done with Indiana. It was necessary for all the times they sparred together, and as one of Aubri’s protectors I didn’t have an issue with it since the Boulder family, although not blood related, were as close as cousins to us.
The others were moving again so I got up and walked slowly through the forest. The cracking sound of my boots on the snow was all I could hear.
A red dot showed up on the map telling us another warm-blooded being was close. To my disappointment I was the one furthest away. My breath hung in the air like a damp cloud and my nose felt cold as I kept walking. The others had seen the target too. I could tell because their avatars moved faster now.
It was Thor who shot the deer. Simon, who had never been on a winter hunt before, wouldn’t stop talking about how precise Thor’s shot had been while Indiana and I tied up the animal’s front legs and rigged a strong stick to help drag it out of the forest.
When we returned to the cabin, I took a warm shower and changed into comfortable clothing. The evening was uneventful, with everyone getting along for once, but as soon as it was time for bed, I was reminded that I would be sleeping next to Victor.
“You better not snore into my ear,” he warned me and got onto his side of the bed with overemphatic movements.
“What’s your problem?” I asked and leaned back against the window frame while letting the tiny tooth cleaner work in my mouth.
“I wanted to sleep in the living room. Do you know how rare it is for me to have some privacy lately?”
“Why? I thought you bragged one year that you had been rewarded with a single-person apartment.”
“I did, but then for some reason everyone in my apartment building had to take in a roommate.”
“Okay, that sucks, but you still have your own bedroom, right?”
“Wrong.”
“You don’t even have your own bedroom?” I gaped at him.
“For the past two months I’ve shared my room with a woman called Vivian. Her sector is being rebuilt because of mold issues and it could take another seven weeks before she can move out.”
“And you don’t like her?”
“She grinds her teeth while sleeping and she eats too much garlic, which makes her breath stink.”
I licked my front teeth feeling how fresh and smooth they were after the teeth cleaner had worked its magic. “So, no romance, I’m guessing?”
Victor wrinkled his nose up. “She’s at least forty years older than me.”
“And you’re not into older women?”
“Are you?” Wrinkles formed on the side and bridge of Victor’s nose and his upper lip rose in an inverted U. “Are you Nmen so hungry for females that you’d be with anyone who offered themselves?”
I smiled and ignored his offensive comment and disgusted expression.
“What’s funny?”
“You are.” I pulled off my shirt while Victor lifted his hands and placed them on the back of his head, leaning against the wooden headboard of the bed. “You’re so confused about our relationship with sex that you think we Nmen would fuck anything that moves.”
“No, I know that’s not true. If that were the case, you wouldn’t have rejected Belle yesterday. Not that she would have accepted you.”
“No?” I had unbuttoned my pants but stopped to look at him. “What makes you so sure?”
He shrugged. “She had her period. I wanted to comfort her after you treated her so rudely, so I offered to give her some quick sexual release, but she declined because she’s on her period.”
I stared at him feeling my skin itch from the indifferent attitude he had. As if having sex with Belle would have been a matter of convenience to him rather than the greatest honor of his life.
“I think I forgot to check up on the fireplace.” I knew I had to get out of the room before I did something stupid like hit the man. If Freya were here, she would have reminded me he was a product of the environment he grew up in and that I couldn’t blame him for having different values than us, but I was fuming.
