What I Expect

Halloween Prep

So I'll be starting oestrogen at the end of next month - and might be booked in for surgery by next year! I'm happy and have energy to write, so have a double chapter.

I sit up and crack my bones, stretching a bit off his lap. "Okay, if you aren't going to tell me about your background yet, can I ask some questions to get to know you?" I ask, still sitting on him. "As long as I stay away from that topic,"

"Fine," he sighs. "But I have the right to refuse to answer,"

"Okay. First question - are you single?" I already know he is, or at least I'm 99% sure. There's no evidence otherwise.

"Yeah," he shrugs, like he doesn't care. Bullshit Akefia, everyone cares. "And I know you have a crush on me, that's why you asked right?"

"Yeah," it isn't a crush, that sounds so trivial. Don't you know I really love you, Akefia? This isn't some schoolboy fantasy, I really think about us settling together. Not that I can tell you any of that. Akefia pulls his laptop over his knees and clicks onto Autodesk, messing around with the toolbar to go to a preliminary stage drawing page. "Why do you do architecture?"

"I took one of those career test things," he tells me. "It told me this was what I should do. I don't disagree,"

Wow. I've never heard of someone actually using one of those to decide on a career path or course. Maybe in Kimmy Schmidt but not real life. "What about you?"

"Oh, I've always liked people," I reasoned, the same way I did with myself when I was choosing courses. "And I want to change something. Make a positive change for people, and I'm not sciency and I can't create. This is how I make that change,"

"Hmph," Akefia chuckles, staring to his screen and typing keys. "Nobility is synonymous with idiocy,"

What I didn't tell him was that the physiologists who treated me after the cult were my inspiration and the nurses who helped me overcome what happened suggested it. I saw the important work they do with people like me and they drives me. It's why I'm here, and why I'm going back to Egypt to work with them when this is all over.

"Have you ever not been single?"  I ask again. I'm trying to drop hints, and he isn't picking them up. "I dated someone back at the hospital. Not for long, but he was long white hair I can't forget. Looking kinda like yours,"

"My hair is short and grey," he quirks an eyebrow. Yeah he's right, not really like the other's at all. "But yes, i haven't been celibate until 22. That's just insane,"

"Soo who was it?"

"Some asshole," he scoffs, a bitter edge to his voice now. "We weren't together for long. But it was back in Egypt and hhis family was powerful, so he broke it off. Atem cared more about his reputation and social standing than me. He was so selfish, he hid who he is like a coward,"

"Sounds difficult," I can't blame him, he doesn't understand how hard it is if you've been raised religious in Egypt, especially the legal condemnation along with the social.

"Hey, if you were together at the hospital that means you didn't fuck right?" he laughs at me, not with me. That snobby laugh like he's making fun of me. The arrogant, sadistic side of Akefia. "You're a virgin!"