Page 14 of I Married Kayog
“Maybe a little,” I replied with a wink.
She chuckled, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
“Will you walk with me?” I asked softly.
“Sure!” Linsea said, before cringing inwardly, no doubt berating herself for the overly eager way she agreed. “Someonehas to make sure the most famous singer of Acadia doesn’t hurt himself carrying a huge canoe on his own.”
I snorted, impressed by her quick thinking. Although only the smartest and elite people could enter the school, the occasional privileged brats managed to worm their way in. Obviously, my soulmate could never be such an individual. But this first glimpse of the skillful fashion with which she wiggled herself out of what she perceived to be an embarrassing admission piqued my curiosity. I would greatly enjoy mentally sparring with her.
“To be honest, when I heard about you also being a top athlete, I expected you would participate in flying sports like Lazgar,” Linsea mused aloud.
Lazgar was a game invented by one of our distant kins, the Zelconians. They were bird folks like us who lived on a primitive planet that still fell under many strict guidelines of the Prime Directive. While the local species had not yet achieved interstellar travel, off-worlders were allowed to land on the planet and interact with the natives in a limited fashion.
The sport, which took place in a special arena with looping obstacles that shifted overtime, involved groups of twelve to twenty people. The participants chased after Lazgar—a drone—in an attempt to capture it before the clock ran out. The faster you caught it, the greater your score. It had been created and named after a Zelconian brat named Lazgar who became famous for running away to dodge classes and being chased all over creation by every possible adult in town.
I smiled and nodded. “A fair assumption, and an accurate one. I actually hold the current record for the highest score.”
She burst out laughing and shook her head at me as if I was a hopeless case. “Figures. Is there anything that you don’t excel at?”
“Oh yeah! Far too many!” I exclaimed with an overly dramatic expression of discouragement.
“Really?” Linsea asked in a dubious tone. “Such as?”
“That would be telling,” I replied teasingly. “Hang around enough, and you just might find out.”
“Careful, I might take you up on that,” she said in the falsely menacing fashion.
Saying it was sexy as fuck would be quite the understatement. The ease with which we communicated further cemented the fact that we were meant for each other. Despite my nearly non-existent personal experience with females, I wasn’t so clueless as not to recognize flirting when it happened.
We entered the hangar located a short distance from the river. Dozens of canoes, kayaks, waterboards, jet skis, and various other crafts and water-based sport equipment were stored in neatly organized sections of the space more or less shaped like an H. I headed straight for the section with the canoes.
They each sat on racks secured by digital locks. Across from them, in the central part of one point of the H, a couple of washing stations allowed us to clean our crafts before storing them again. I settled my canoe on the left one.
“You’re up early,” I said while pulling the hose to start rinsing my canoe.
She nodded. “I like exercising in the park along the water. I got curious when I saw a lone paddler. So I came to have a peek.”
“I’m glad you did,” I said.
To my surprise, she gave me a strange look and tilted her head to the side while pondering her response. Based on her emotions, whatever thoughts were crossing her mind had nothing to do with her coming to investigate the lone paddler.
“You put on an amazing show the other night,” Linsea said pensively. “I’m not really into rock bands—even though that’s not really what yours is. But I can’t deny that I really enjoyed it.”
“Thank you. It pleases me.”
“You vanished really quickly. The rest of the band mingled with everyone, yet you were nowhere to be seen,” she said, her tone nonchalant despite the intensity in her eyes.
Although I expected that question would pop up sooner than later, I still fought the urge to squirm.
“I don’t like crowds,” I said, smiling at her confused expression. “Your reaction is normal. Everyone is baffled by this. Performing during a show is fine, but I’m really not too keen on what happens after.”
“Why? Too many groupies?” Linsea asked with a taunting glimmer in her eyes.
I snorted then nodded. “At the risk of sounding vain, I have to say yes.”
“That’s the price of fame for you,” she quipped, before taking a more serious expression. “There was a record label present that night.”
My face immediately closed off. “That’s a hard pass for me.”
