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damp towels he had left in a tangle and the muddy clothes he had left in
a heap.
She kicked the dirty laundry aside, annoyed, and glared at the tracks her
younger partner had left on the floor.
Dammit! she thought. I know you're upset and distracted and excited and
everything else. But that's no excuse-!
A line of clayey mud ringed the tub. Now she was mad. She was
particularly irritated to have anything spoil this morning.
And why do I have to scrub the bathroom down
176 VONDA N. McINTYRE
twice, she thought, because Stephen Thomas can't bother to do it once?
She sprayed out the bottom of the tub so at least she had a clean place
to stand.
She washed her hair and rinsed the salt from her skin. The tub was
luxuriously large, with a rim wide enough to sit on, and a heater that
would turn the enclosure into a sauna. Victoria wondered if Starfarer
would ever have enough cedar trees to allow a few to be used as lumber.
Or maybe Crimson's driftwood technique could grow some cedar boards. A
sauna that did not smell like cedar was no sauna at all.
She had to use the last clean towel; damned if she would try to dry
herself off with the cold clammy dirty ones Stephen Thomas had left on
the floor. Grumbling, she gathered up all the dirty laundry she could
find. Her house had no laundry facilities; the AS housekeeper was
supposed to take care of that.
Satoshi was up now, sitting in the main room with a cup of coffee. He
always took a while to get going in the morning. Victoria dumped the
laundry by the front door, then turned on the kettle to make a pot of
tea. Today the coffee smelled almost good enough to drink. Feral had made
good coffee, and he had showed Stephen Thomas and Satoshi how to make it,
too.
"Don't take a shower," she said to Satoshi.
"Huh?" Satoshi sounded sleepy-not surprising, since he had been over at
the geography department till two o'clock in the morning. But he was
awake enough not to be grumpy.
"No clean towels."
"Again?"
"Yeah.,,
"He promised."
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"I know."
Satoshi sighed. "He promised to give the laundry to the housekeeper. No
housekeeper-"
"I'd split hairs for him, too. Usually. But he did promise. And the tub
was filthy."
"So much for learning quaint Japanese customs,"
METAPHASE 177
Satoshi said. "He forgot the one about showering first and soaking
afterwards." Stephen Thomas was studying the partnership's ethnic
background. Satoshi's mother was of mostly Japanese ancestry, though that
branch of his family had been in Hawaii almost as many generations as
Victoria's family had lived in Canada. The other side of Satoshi's family,
being Hawaiian, had been in Hawaii since people started living there.
Victoria could not help but chuckle. "He must have skipped that chapter."
Satoshi sipped his coffee and Victoria scalded the teapot and filled it
with loose tea and boiling water.
"Let's try not to fight with him," Satoshi said. "The last fight was kind
of hard on us all."
"It was," Victoria said. "I will try."
"You were up early this morning," Satoshi said.
"I went swimming with J.D. and Zev," Victoria said, grateful for the change
of subject. "And if I'd known how much fun it'd be, I'd've made you get up
and come with us."
"Swimming at dawn in this season doesn't sound fun to me. It sounds cold."
She brought her teapot over to the table and sat down to wait for the tea
to steep.
"We swam in the gulfstream, and the lagoon. Divers don't just swim. They
play." She rubbed her foot against his leg, stroking his calf with her
instep. "It isn't quite sex, it's too quick. But it's very sexy."
"Quick?" he said doubtfully.
"Quick touches, over a long time." She touched his shin with her toe, like
brushstrokes. He looked at her quizzically. "It'd be fun to go swimming
with you and Stephen Thomas and make love in the water."
"I don't know," he said doubtfully. "I tried that once, back home. Wasn't
very successful."
"Why not?"
"Salt water interferes with the natural lubrication. My partner . . . took
exception to continuing."
"Worked for me," she said with a grin.
He put his foot in her lap. She rubbed it, massaging
.178 VONDA N. McINTYRE
his sole and stroking her fingertips up the sharp strong tendons. She bent
down and nipped his toe gently. Satoshi yelped in surprise.
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"I'm starved!" Victoria said. "Is there anything to eat?"
"Not much," Satoshi said. "I made some rice."
Victoria had never warmed to the Hawaiian custom of having white rice
with practically every meal.
She jumped up and opened the refrigerator.
"Don't-"
"Wasn't there a tomato in here someplace?" Victoria said. "I could broil
it."
She picked it up. It collapsed in her hand.
She made a sound of disgust.
All the vegetables were wilted, the leftovers moldy. The housekeeper had
kept the kitchen clean, too, and before Feral came to stay with them they
had kept very few perishables around. They never had time to cook, and
none of them was very good at it. They had ordered most of their meals
from the central cafeteria.
"This is awful," Victoria said.
"I know."
"Why didn't you throw it out?"
"Because I don't know if the recycler's coming. There's a big empty hole
in Arachne where the schedule ought to be. I figured the stuff wouldn't
smell too bad if we kept it cold."
"Oh," Victoria said. She put the squishy tomato back in the refrigerator.
"We've got to do something with it. Do you know how to make a compost
heap?"
"In theory."
"Maybe we'd better try it. But I've got to have some breakfast. I'm going
over to the cafeteria, want to come?"
"Sure. Shall I get Stephen Thomas?"
"Do you know where he is? All I've seen of him since yesterday is his
muddy tracks in the bathtub."
Satoshi hesitated. "He's sleeping in Feral's room."
"In Feral's room? Is somebody with him? Why didn't he use his own room?"
METAPHASE 179
"He's alone."
Victoria stared at him in disbelief.
She strode down the hallway to the spare room. The guest room. The room
that should have been Merry's, but never was. She could not think of it as
Feral's. He had been a guest, an acquaintance, a passing fancy for Stephen
Thomas. Not a member of the family, not even a friend. Not yet.
I don't make friends in two weeks, Victoria thought. Even Stephen Thomas
doesn't make friends in two weeks.
She opened the door without knocking, went to the window and pulled the
curtains open, and in the flood of light sat on her heels at the edge of
the futon.
When she saw Stephen Thomas she drew away sharply, lost her balance, and
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sprawled backward. She caught herself and knelt beside him.
He lay with one hand over his face, his fingers spread, the translucent [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]