Page 155 of Stars on Fire

Ziemer blanched, and then his lip curled. Almost like he loathed that she was calling him out on his bull spit.

She, on the other hand, was especially protective of xentium. It was her lifeblood, and she would safeguard it with her existence if she had to.

Just then, she caught a slight shimmer with a unique signature to the right of her table. She frowned momentarily, peering at it through the haze of the low-lit dining space.

Was that a meta-material fractal shield? Impossible,she thought.Perhaps just a trick of light in the dimly illuminated restaurant.

‘Anyone for dessert?’

The words cut short her examination of the strange phenom.

Their waitress wheeled smartly to their table on air skates, did a mini pirouette and grinned down at them.

‘Oh, YES, please!’ Harlow breathed in relief.About time.

‘What can I get you?’

Harlow nabbed the dessert menu and opened it to the right page of her long-awaited treat. She had just launched a pointing finger when Ziemer leaned forward and snatched the menu from her hands.

‘I thought you worked out? And ate healthy? That’s what you said in your DuRom profile.’ He sounded pretty peeved.

Harlow cocked an eyebrow.The gall of this man. ‘As I told you on our previous dates, I work out and eat a balanced diet. But what does that have to do with anything? And why do you keep asking?’

He didn’t even seem ashamed to be badgering her - like he’d done a few times before - on her fitness and diet routine.

‘Four dates, and on each four, you’ve always eaten dessert,’ he grumbled. ‘You’re pretty but I can see why you’re not as fit as possible. Also, it would be best if you didn’t put interests in your profile that don’t match your IRL. And that includes saying you work out and eat well while instead ordering dessert!’

Annoyance began to ripple through Harlow’s being. ‘Are you saying I shouldn’t order dessert?’

‘Precisely. You look like you need to lose some Ks. Extra sugar won’t help.’

Harlow felt a wave of red heat crash over her head.

‘Says the man who ogled my beautiful butt and tried to tap it! What the actual fokk?’

By this time, the waitress was beginning to look alarmed. ‘Should I come back -?’

‘Stay here, please,’ Harlow said slowly and deliberately, tamping down the urge to reach over the table and slap her date. ‘Because I need a witness while I rip this arrogant jackass a new one. First of all, Ziemer, my weight is none of your business. Neither is my fitness routine, food choice, or lifestyle. You haven’t got a stake in my health. As a scientist, I’m pretty across what is and what is not healthy. Yes I’m curvy. But I’m well within the Dunian health range for a woman of my height. I love what I wear, how I look, what I am and what I chow! I’ve worked hard, and I’m at the top of my field, so I deserve to eat the best. I’m also independent and proud of myself, so I paid my half on all our prior dates. You have zero right to comment on my body, weight, and choices. I’m an acquired taste. If you don’t like me, acquire some taste. Meanwhile, take yourself and your three-inch wiener and find some other emaciated, underweight, insecure pansy to try your small dick energy on!’

Harlow rose from the table slowly because she wasn’t about no drama. She looped her bag over her shoulder and pushed off. Slowly, deliberately, rolling her hips.

Ziemer was left staring in shock at her curvy behind while she made a beeline for the restaurant’s reception desk.

‘Paying my half on table three,’ she announced at the droid payment station.

She swiped her wrist comm and abruptly took a left to the back of the restaurant’s adjacent bar. Which was conveniently hidden from sight by the dividing wall between the restaurant floor and the reception area.

From her vantage point, Harlow coolly scrutinised a flustered Ziemer while he paid for half the meal and hurried into his ostentatious gold Sable Sphinx custom flyer.

Moments later, she reappeared at reception, where her server was busy retelling Harlow’s story to a group of her fellow servers.

The attendant gaped at the star of her saga. ‘I thought you left,’ she said. ‘I’m so sorry I -.’

Harlow acknowledged her remorse with a smile. ‘You’ve nothing to apologise for. It’s me who’s sorry. I don’t usually behave this way, but I had to dump that loser. Please forgive me.’

The server waved off her apology, leaning in conspiratorially. ‘Honey, you did what you had to. You stood up for us girls with a little jiggle!’

That was when Harlow noticed the woman was also a curvy club member. She smiled.

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