“Well, you can’t get to your ship, so looks like you have to.”
“Don’t you have a place I could crash for one night? I’d pay you extra tomorrow.”
Oh, shit. Never thought of that. If I was a local I would have a place, wouldn’t I?
“I… I have roommates. And actually, I’m late on rent. That’s why I was taking on extra work. So… sorry.”
We both look back at the ambassador and find her waving and smiling. “My Mighty Interface is telling me there are rooms available at the Lava Mountain Spa. Would you like me to make you a reservation for the night?’”
“No,” Jimmy says.
Just as I say, “Yes, please.”
“Can I have your pass?” the smiling minion asks.
Jimmy gives her his pass, she passes it over her wristband, and then hands it back. “There you go. All set. You can check in at the Flame Demon’s head. Enjoy your stay!”
She walks off and Jimmy just stares at me. “So you’re staying with me?”
“Oh, thanks,” I say, playing it off. “I was hoping to get this job done tonight so the roomies would let me back in. But if you’re offering, that’s great. I really appreciate it.”
He furrows his brow at me. Maybe taking a second look at me as well. Shit. He’s suspicious all right.
“Do something,” Flicka buzzes in my ear. “Quick, before he starts asking questions.”
“Uh… so you know my name but I don’t know yours. We should probably get that little formality over with if we’re going to spend the night together.”
“Jimmy,” he growls in a low, deep Akeelian alpha-male voice that kinda gets my lady bits tingling.
“Jimmy,” I say. “Nice. That’s a nice name. Unusual, for sure. But very catchy.”
“Is it?” he asks. “That’s funny.”
“What’s funny?”
“Almost no one can pronounce it but it seems to roll off your tongue just fine.”
“No one can pronounce it?” I exclaim. Truth. It is a very strange name and my lips needed a lot of practice to say that J sound correctly. But the Loathsome One got tired of my mispronunciation and threatened me with death if I didn’t get it right before I left. “That’s weird,” I say. “It’s so simple. Jim-meeeeeee.”
I’m praying to the sun gods that he lets this go.
But he just stares at me, questions written all over his face.
“Shall we?” I ask, panning my hand towards the resort. “We wouldn’t want to keep the Flame Demon’s head waiting.”
He grumbles something under his breath but, to my relief, he just walks past me and out into the crowds.
CHAPTER SEVEN – JIMMY
I try to think back to the last time someone has gotten my name right the first try. Maybe Crux. But he doesn’t count. We’ve been friends since we were kids. I’m not even sure Luck, Tray, and Valor got my name right at first. And hell, it took Serpint and Draden months after we came to ALCOR to say it right. It’s just a hard name to say. I get it. I’m used to it.
But this Delphi gets it right the first try.
How?
Dicker pings my wristband as I follow Delphi over to the Flame Demon’s head. “Yeah,” I say.
She sighs. “How much longer? I’m sick of this place. Bunch of maintenance people just came by and said I have to shut down all my exterior lights until morning.”
“Well,” I say, “I have bad news. We can’t even get out of the resort until tomorrow. I’m stuck spending the night in a freaking hotel that’s probably gonna cost several more thousand credits. No wonder these assholes gave us priority clearance to dock. They knew they could squeeze all this money out of us. We’ve been here less than one day!”
“Calm down,” Dicker says. “At least you have a room.”
“I don’t need a room. I have a perfectly good ship on the other side of the station that I’m not even allowed to board.”
“Their station, their rules. No sense worrying about it. Just get up early and grab that water generator before this Queenie ship bails with my winnings. I don’t trust her.”
“Yeah. Can you imagine how much it would cost to buy a Mighty Demon water generator from this place? I’d kill someone.”
“Just… try to relax a little. Ride one of the rollercoasters or check out that new zipline. Might as well make the most of your Mighty Pass.”
She chuckles like this is all good fun, but I’m not in the mood to joke about it just yet. I’m too annoyed. I should be snug inside my medical pod getting my DNA scramble booster right now. Tomorrow morning I’d be on my way… somewhere that is not here. And now I’m a full day behind.
“Oh, that’s us,” Delphi says.
“Who’s that?” Dicker asks.
“Our engineer. Long story I’ll explain tomorrow. Bye.” I end the connection before Dicker can ask any more questions because I’m not in the mood to be teased about how I’m the only guy she knows who can stop at a kids’ vacation station and end up fucking a girl a few hours later.