Galactic Gambit

Chapter 13

The next morning, well into the next morning, Neo woke up with a throbbing headache. The shirt she wore swallowed her and smelled like the earthy dust from Ran'am with a hint of soap and mint. She was reminded of the man who shared her room last night and looked over to find him gone from the sofa this morning.

That was fine though, she was glad to save herself from the embarrassment of what happened. Not like she wasn't going to have to face him sooner or later. Sooner given the size of the ship. Neo changed out of Asa's shirt and carried it to the bathroom with her as she brushed her teeth and hair.

By the time she made it to the kitchen, breakfast had already been served and everyone was seated at the table with their plates. Reiyna flashed Neo a smile with a mouth full of chewed up food, looking like a little kid with her bangs cut straight across and the rest of her black hair pulled into pigtails. Neo rolled her eyes and suppressed a laugh as she walked to the counter, Asa's shirt still in hand.

The only seat left open at the table was between Asa and Reiyna, so Neo sat with her plate, leaving the shirt in her lap. She wanted to give it to him but was too uncomfortable to do so around Pax since what happened between them last night with the kiss. She figured he would likely jump to conclusions about why she was returning his shirt, and she didn't care to hear it. Though it seemed Asa had no such qualms about being subtle for his benefit.

Asa reached over and grabbed his shirt from her lap and said, "This mine?"

"Yeah, thanks," Neo returned as she kept her eyes focused on the plate of food in front of her. A chair screeched across the floor as Pax stood and walked out. Neo sighed and cut her eyes to Asa.

"What?" he shrugged with a hopelessly careless smile on his face. Intentional indeed. Neo got up and went after Pax. The engine room was empty, so she followed the hall to the stairs, taking them two at a time.

"Pax, open up," she said as she knocked twice with the side of her fist. The door slid open, and Pax turned away and sat in the chair without a word.

"The whole shirt thing . . . it's not how you think, I swear," she said taking a few steps inside. Pax looked up, anger and hurt swirling in his brown eyes.

"Tell me then, what should I think? Because from here, it looked like I poured my heart out and kissed you and you ran off. Then the next morning, you're giving him his shirt back. And before you make any more excuses, the walls up here are thin. I heard him leave his room last night and never come back." Pax crossed his arms and looked at her expectantly.

Neo was already growing agitated. It wasn't as if she even owed him an explanation, they weren't together. In fact, she distinctly remembered having turned him down.

"Since you know everything, did you know about the bottle of Oblivion in the cabinet? Because I had no idea what it was and drank a glass of it. Asa found me in the bathroom puking my guts up and gave me his shirt since mine was a mess. And the reason he didn't come back last night, was because he stayed on the sofa in my room to make sure I didn't get sick again." Neo pace the small space with one hand on her hip. "This crap right here is exactly why I didn't want to get involved with you. You're already throwing out accusations and we're not even together. And if you think that I just sleep with anyone, especially people I have just met, you obviously don't know me well enough any way."

"You can't say that that wasn't what it looked like, though," Pax said as he moved to stand, his anger already slipping away, while Neo's had only been fueled.

"I don't care what it looked like because that was the farthest thing from what happened," she retorted as she moved toward the door to leave.