“Do you think Adam’s date is attractive?” Harry said. Adam was his friend (hopefully). Harry wanted him to be happy.
Samantha shrugged again. “He’s very good-looking. Though, in my opinion, your Adam is way out of his league.”
Harry smiled. He knew what that expression meant!
“You think so?” he said, trying to look at Adam objectively. But it was so difficult. Calluvian sexuality was very different from that of humans. The closest human sexuality he could think of was demisexuality, and that wasn’t entirely accurate, either. Until Harry’s childhood bond to his betrothed became a marriage bond when he turned twenty-five in two years, his sex drive would be non-existent, and even then he would be attracted only to his bondmate. Well, there were whispers that sometimes people had sex outside of a bond, but Harry thought it was preposterous. Everyone knew that your bondmate completed you, and that the telepathic link made sex perfect. Calluvians had been practicing marriage bonds for thousands of years. It was scientifically proven that a bond was superior to the way things had been done in the past. Every Calluvian child was bonded telepathically to another and grew up knowing their bondmate from a very early age. Harry thought it was very smart.
But now it presented a problem, since Harry couldn’t really see humans the way other humans did.
Harry could see that Adam, with his tall, athletic figure, dark hair and dark eyes was aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but he couldn’t properly judge his sexual appeal. Heck, Harry didn’t know what sex was, or rather, he knew only theoretically.
“Yeah, he’s a hottie,” Samantha said with a dreamy sigh. “That chiseled jaw... that stubble... that dark smolder... mmm…Yummy!”
Harry burst out laughing. At moments like this, he was so glad he couldn’t make a fool out of himself because of things like lust. It seemed so ridiculous to him.
His laughter made Adam turn his head. Adam nodded to him with a smile. Harry waved cheerfully. Adam’s smile widened, turning amused and... something else. He said something to his companion and made his way to the counter.
“Hey, Harry,” he said, leaning forward against the counter. Harry would worry for his immaculate suit, but he knew the counter was spotlessly clean. He had cleaned it himself.
“Hi there!” Harry said. “How is your date going?”
Adam snorted. “Jake isn’t a date. He’s my friend and colleague. Do you think I’m such a cheap date that I’d bring my date to this coffee shop?”
“Hey,” Harry drawled with a pout.
Adam smirked. “Just kidding, babe. This is a first-rate establishment. Anyone would be honored to be brought here on a date.”
Harry nodded importantly. “Exactly.” Babe. Adam had called him a babe. It was a little odd, because he wasn’t an infant, but Harry knew by now that humans often didn’t mean things in the literal sense. Babe. He decided he rather liked being called “babe.”
Remembering that he was supposed to be working, he said, “Did you want something?”
“Not really,” Adam said, glancing back to his friend, who was watching them with raised eyebrows. “Just came over to say hi.”
Harry beamed at him. “Hi yourself. I’ve been just thinking about you, actually—wondering if you’d come again. I liked you very much and hoped we could be friends.”
Adam stared at him for a moment. “You haven’t a coy bone in your body, do you?” he murmured, shaking his head, but his eyes were smiling. “Okay, give me your phone, I’ll give you my number.”
Harry deflated. “I don’t have a mobile phone,” he admitted in a small voice. Even he knew how unusual and strange the lack of a mobile phone was for a human.
Adam blinked. “Really?”
Harry nodded. He supposed he could lie and tell Adam that he’d lost his phone, but he hated lying and wasn’t very good at it. “I don’t really know many people in this country, so I never got around to buying one.” Harry shrugged with an embarrassed smile. “I don’t really have spare money for one, anyway.”
Adam’s brows drew together. “Are you an orphan?”
“No!” Harry said quickly, the mere thought of his parents’ death upsetting him greatly. “My parents are back home. They’re normally very supportive, it’s just...” He chewed on his lip. “I did something bad and they got angry with me. They said I should learn how to be a responsible adult, so they kind of cut me off. Don’t look at me that way. It’s just temporary. They’ll get over it. They love me. I’m their youngest—the baby of the family.”
Smiling, Adam pinched his cheek. “That I can believe.”
Unthinkingly, Harry touched his hand—
You’re the most endearing thing I’ve ever met.
Oh, no.
Harry really didn’t mean to. He didn’t! He’d just forgotten that humans, as non-telepathic species, were completely unprotected against touch-telepathy—the simplest form of telepathy that could be blocked by a basic mental shield that even kids mastered easily back home. But he wasn’t home. He had no right to violate humans’ privacy by eavesdropping on their thoughts. His parents would be so mad at him if they found out.