The Well of Time: Chronicles of the Second Empire (The Chronicles of the Second Interstellar Empire of Mankind Book 5) by Robert I. Katz

Author:Robert I. Katz [Katz, Robert I.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

“I don’t understand him,” Gloriosa said. She wrinkled her tiny, perfect nose and sipped her drink, a mug full of hot chocolat flavored with nutmeg and bourbon whiskey.

“What’s not to understand?” Rosanna said.

They were sitting at the same table on the sidewalk outside the same café. It was getting to be a habit, but one that Frankie quite enjoyed. The avenue looked like a prosperous street in ancient Paris, with low, colorful buildings, planters with flowers beneath shuttered windows and pigeons flying overhead. The designers, she thought, had done an excellent job.

“He didn’t want to fuck,” Gloriosa said.

“Oh,” Rosanna said.

Frankie blinked. “Is he gay?”

“No. I could tell if he was gay.”

Frankie accepted this without question. Most women, in her experience, could tell. “Sometimes, they don’t,” Frankie said. “Want to fuck, that is.”

“No?” Gloriosa sounded doubtful.

“So, what happened, exactly?” Rosanna asked.

Jeffrey Billings had sent Gloriosa an invitation to accompany him on a virtual exploration of Mars, followed by dinner. Gloriosa, having never before received such an invitation, had been bewildered.

“It’s called a ‘date,’” Frankie said. “It’s something people do when they want to get to know somebody, maybe explore a relationship.”

Gloriosa, the majority of whose previous relationships had lacked emotional nuance, being more in the nature of master to slave, seemed uncertain, but at Frankie’s urging, had accepted.

“We toured the sights on Mars. Did you know Mars was the first settled planet after Earth?”

“I did know that,” Frankie said. “I read it somewhere.”

“Then we had dinner.” Gloriosa fell silent.

Frankie and Rosanna glanced at each other. “Then what?” Rosanna said.

Gloriosa frowned. “We talked.”

Frankie and Rosanna exchanged another glance. “Isn’t that good?” Rosanna said.

“I don’t know,” Gloriosa said. “What is the purpose of all the talking? What’s it supposed to achieve?”

Frankie sighed. “The purpose is to see if you share any common interests, if you find each other to be compatible, to see if you like each other.”

“Was he boring?” Rosanna asked. “Did he seem like a jerk?”

“I wasn’t bored. I was bewildered. The whole thing seemed strange. He talked about himself for a while, then he asked about me. After that, he didn’t have much to say. He seemed surprised by my answers. Then he seemed thoughtful.”

Rosanna winced.

“Yeah,” Frankie said. “I could see how that might happen.”

“Explain,” Gloriosa demanded.

“You’re having difficulty relating to each other because you lack a shared background. You don’t have the same reference points. He was expecting you to talk about your happy family, Mom, Dad, big sister, little brother, growing up in a big city or maybe a small town; what your parents do to earn a living. How they always annoyed you with their stupid demands but now that you’re all grown up you realize that they love you and only wanted the best for you. Going to school. Your favorite subjects, like art or music or quantum theory. Your hobbies, like riding horses, building model star ships, playing the violin or knitting ugly pieces of clothing that nobody wears. Your hopes for the future. Your plans.

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