Selected Assistant

by Robin Roseau

  “I know. I’m going to give you a brush in a few minutes.”

  “Am I staying the night?”

  “Yes. I will return you to your home early tomorrow.”

  “Good.”

  I moved my hand higher and began stroking her ear. She relaxed into it, but then said, “I’m going to get a brush.”

  She was gone just a moment, but when she returned, she was no longer wearing clothing. That meant less with her than it would with me, but I stood. “I’d like to do this in the bedroom, and I think you should undress me.”

  “I’m glad you agree with my plan.” She took my hand.

  In the bedroom, she undressed me, including the visor, setting everything aside. We sat on the bed together, holding hands, the brush nearby. “Whatever you do is good,” she said. “Brush. Hands.”

  “Mouth,” I added. “Tongue.”

  “You don’t have to do that part.”

  “Are you expressing a preference?”

  “Definitely not.”

  “Well then. If you did this with someone who knew what she was doing, would you sit?”

  “Yes, facing away. You should brush the oil as far as you can. You’ll be able to tell.”

  “Feet?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you produce so much?”

  “The glands produce it as needed, so yes, but that would be a long grooming.” She squeezed my hands. “If you use your mouth, we won’t get that far, but I can finish tomorrow.”

  “I may do this my way?”

  “Yes.”

  “Turn around. If I am doing it wrong, tell me.”

  She turned around on the bed. I moved closer, sitting cross legged. I began by brushing her for a minute, but then I set the brush aside and began paying attention to her ears, the way she had taught me, and the area behind her ears.

  I could tell when I began taking the oil into my mouth. I found I could taste it, now that I was more aware, and I also felt it starting to go to work on me.

  I did a little licking, but it was awkward from this direction, and so I used my hands and the brush.

  I became quite lost to grooming her, and I think she did, too.

  And then grooming turned into other sorts of touches, and that was absolutely perfect with me.

  Swim

  I wasn’t as drugged in the morning as I had been the first time Aventurine and I had made love, although I was definitely in a blissful mood. We dressed, and then she took me back to Beginnings. “I’d like to go to breakfast with you, but you should prepare for your day,” she said.

  Felicia was still there; so much happened in just the first week of our vacation, and we still had most of the second week remaining. She smiled at me on my way to the shower. When finally I emerged, dressed for a day on the beach, she and Aventurine were deep in conversation.

  “Finally!” Felicia said. “I’m starving.” But she hooked arms with the Kitsune, and I followed them to Beginnings, and then out onto the terrace.

  “Change of plans!” Yvette announced as we approached. She stood up and hugged me. When finally she released me, Felicia was still staring at us.

  “Oh, don’t fangirl all over her,” I said.

  “I love your movies!” Felicia declared.

  “Felicia Tucker,” I said. “Yvette D’altrea.”

  The two greeted, and then Felicia turned her gaze. “How long have you known Yvette D’altrea?”

  I turned to the woman in question. “Hmm. Not quite 24 hours.”

  “About that,” she agreed.

  “And you’re in a hugging relationship already?”

  “A lot can happen in 24 hours around here,” Yvette said. “Thank you for helping Muriel.”

  “Taisha did the scary parts,” Felicia said. “Is that why she gets hugs?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “So. Change of plans. Carolina called me yesterday while you were getting it on with the Kitsune.” Yvette changed her gaze. “You are gorgeous, by the way, and if you ever decide you would like a part in a movie, I know people.”

  “Thank you,” said Aventurine. “I may contact you.”

  “Good. Anyway. Carolina called me. And we decided to make it a party today. I hope you don’t mind, because you don’t get a vote.”

  I laughed. “I don’t mind at all.”

  “She’d be here, but she’s preparing. But you need to say Hello to everyone else. I love this game of Pass the Human.” And then she pushed me into Audra.

  I got hugs. Audra, even Skye, and each of the four Catseye. I was in heaven. But when I looked, Felicia was getting her own hugs.

  I found myself seated between Yvette and Aventurine. I turned to the Kitsune. “You’re coming, too, right?”

  “Yes,” she said. “We’re actually making it a large party, but Carolina is in charge today. After breakfast, she and Yvette are sharing you.”

  “Did Amaryllis leave?”

  “No. She and Azalea have been burning up the phone lines, so to speak,” Jasmine said. “Bluebell is going to join us, and they may make it by lunch.”

  The waiter stepped over. Yvette scanned then turned to Aventurine. “Do you eat human food?”

  “Yes.”

  Yvette turned to the waiter. “We’d like to eat family style. You don’t mind, do you, Taisha?”

  “Do you steal from the plates around you like the Catseye do?”

  “Yes.”

  I laughed. “I don’t mind.”

  Yvette ordered for us: basic American breakfast. Pancakes, waffles, breakfast sausage, and fruit, lots of fruit. “Aventurine, am I covering your needs?”

  “Yes. I will eat more of the fruit and sausage, but I would like to try the other things, too.”

  “No one here is a glutton,” Yvette said. “So, don’t heap us with a mountain.”

  “We’ll bring out a modest amount and then can bring more if it’s disappearing,” said the waiter. “May I say? I loved the movie.”

  “If you bring a phone, you can get a photo with Foxglove and me,” Yvette said.

  “Thank you, Ms. D’altrea.” And then he hurried away.

  “Do you get that constantly?” Felicia asked.

  “I am perfectly able to go out in public, entirely unrecognized,” Yvette replied. “So, I know what happened to Bluebell and Chervil last night, but how did our event end yesterday?”

  * * * *

  “Is she always like this?” I asked Audra.

  “Didn’t you ask that yesterday?” Yvette asked. “I’m just in a really, really good mood, and that turns me vivacious. Am I bothering you?”

  “No.”

  “Felicia and Taisha are engineers,” Jasmine said, as if that explained everything. Perhaps it did.

  “Ah, of course.” And then, right in front of us, her entire demeanor changed. It took a minute. She became less animated, drawing into herself. She picked up her water, and there was even something about that. We’d been touching, but she withdrew, and I thought she did from Audra on the other side. I wondered if I’d offended her.

  “Felicia,” she said, a little timidly. “Do you use Linux in your robots, or is proprietary?”

  And then, for the next minute or two, she had a perfectly reasonable conversation with Felicia, and she even sounded like she knew what she was talking about. I stared at her. Then she shook herself. “Okay,” she said, brightening. “That’s hard without a script and a little more time.” Then she bumped me with her shoulder, and I felt her leg against mine again. She took Audra’s hand and squeezed it.

  “You’re a marvel, Yvette,” Violet said. “That was perfect.”

  “Were you doing someone in particular?” Audra asked.

  “No. Just a stereotype. How did I do, Taisha?”

  “Am I like that?” I asked.

  “I was intentionally not doing you,” she said. “People are complicated. I haven’t seen you in a work setting, but you might be.”

  “Quite a lot, actually,” Fe
licia said. “Less so as you’ve grown more comfortable, but it still comes out.”

  “Is this a different act?”

  “That’s hard to say. To some extent, I decide how I want to be. Sometimes it’s decided for me. It’s really hard for me to be around my dearest friends and not be, I don’t know.”

  “You fill more space than you do in other settings,” Foxglove said. “It’s tied to the people with whom you are most physically comfortable.”

  “You, Audra and her Catseye family, and a few more of your friends?” Yvette asked.

  “Yes. She’s never like this around her family.”

  “Oh, I don’t want to put that version of Yvette on today.” She looked at me. “I’m sorry, but I’m not offering to show you.”

  “Not a good story?”

  “There is stress,” Foxglove said. “But limited respect, except with her grandfather.”

  “But I have old habits with him as well,” Yvette added.

  “I like seeing you like this,” Foxglove told her wife. “I think it’s the tickle rack that does it.”

  “It’s not the tickle rack!”

  “I don’t know,” Foxglove replied. “We got here, and you were a little reserved, and then Violet and Posey grabbed you, and you’ve been laughing ever since.”

  There were snuffles, a chitter from my right, and a few smiles.

  “It’s not the rack,” Yvette said. “Although that is representative of the way I feel here.” She turned to me. “Not an act, but just a really good mood. Do you find me tiring?”

  “No. Delightful.” And then I reached over and stroked her arm. “And you don’t seem to mind when I do that.”

  “Oh, please,” she said. Under the table, she rubbed our legs for a moment. “I’m a terrible flirt. My wife finds it funny. But enough about me. Let’s talk about my movies.” After the laugh, she asked Aventurine a question and moved the focus off of herself.

  * * * *

  We had our breakfast. It was perfect. I grew quite quiet, but I couldn’t have been more pleased. During the walk to the jumpers, Yvette hooked my arm and laid her head on my shoulder for a minute, then she walked us more slowly than the others, letting them pull ahead. “I’m guessing you wanted to say something.”

  “Yes, but now I’m not quite sure what. Well, I do. I’m not sure how to say it.” She pulled me to a stop, and we faced each other. “I tend to burn hot. It puts some people off. Others get the wrong impression.”

  “Ah. Well, let me review the situation. Yes, you’re a little overwhelming, and I’m still star struck, but there’s no way I’m complaining. As for wrong impressions… You’re married and hopelessly in love. I am, in effect, a mating candidate here, but with three different suitors who don’t seem to be sure how to trim it down to one. You’ve been flirting with me, and I enjoy it, but it’s just flirting. I’m only sorry I’m not very good at flirting back.”

  She smiled. “I don’t have to stop?”

  “No.”

  “Are you going to get upset when I flirt more widely?”

  “No.”

  “Good. The flirting is just in fun. Foxglove finds it terribly funny. Do you mind that she’s laughing at the star struck robotics geek?”

  “No.”

  “Good. The flirting is in fun. The friendship is serious. You?”

  “It’s hard to believe, but yes.”

  “Good,” she said a third time.

  “Could I ask you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “When you are acting like a cliché starlet?”

  “That’s me making fun of myself,” she said. “I can be as vain as anyone, and I think I have a lot to be vain about. A lot of it is superficial.” She gestured to herself. “This is largely good luck, but it’s also a lot of work.”

  “I imagine.”

  “But I work hard on my movies. It’s grueling, and I demand the most of myself and my costars. And I think I help to make really good movies.”

  “You do, but every time, in interviews, or yesterday when people mentioned the movie, you went out of your way to compliment the others involved.”

  “It’s not like I made it alone. I’m just a pretty face reading lines someone else wrote.” She paused. “A lot of people forget that. I go out of my way to remind myself.”

  I looked into her eyes. “You’re a real person.”

  “Hard to believe, huh?” She hooked my arm, and then she began skipping to help us catch up. I giggled and skipped along with her.

  “You goof.”

  * * * *

  We landed at the cove. Yvette grabbed my arm one more time and whispered, “Are you sure about the flirting?”

  “Yes, both parts.”

  “Good. Because the Kitsune is really cute.”

  I laughed. “Think you can get her as flustered as I’ve been?”

  “Probably not.” She gestured. “There’s your Komodo. I’m going to play with the furry one for a while.”

  “Have fun.”

  She dropped my arm. Carolina was watching us. I smiled and walked to her. Her colors brightened appreciably, and then I drew her into my arms. “I want to kiss you,” I whispered. “Some people don’t like public displays.”

  She lifted her hand to my head and brought us together. It wasn’t a long tongue-battle, but it was fun, and we hugged when it was done. “You and Yvette seem friendly.”

  “She’s very sweet, but she’s spreading her sweet self more widely.”

  Then we separated, and I looked around. Carolina wasn’t alone. Some of the others from the linguistics department were there, and they had transformed the beach. The pavilion from yesterday was still in place, but there were several large umbrellas spread along the beach, with chairs and low tables under them, and more tables under the pavilion. And there were two tents set up, just past the pavilion.

  She gestured. “We have refreshments for everyone in the cases there. They’ll stay cool. Some of the cases are marked for a particular species. Don’t touch those. The others are human-friendly, but most of us can safely consume them.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  “I have your wetsuit. The tents are for changing clothes, but you’re ready.”

  “I’ll need help with sunscreen.”

  “That is probably first priority,” she said. She clapped her hands. “Good morning,” she said loudly. “Priority number one: sunscreen for the humans.”

  “Yes, please!” Yvette said. “It’s the good stuff, right?”

  “Nothing but the best for you, Yvette,” Audra said. “Do you think we’d use the cheap crap humans make?”

  “All right, ladies,” Yvette declared. “The Catseye are willing to help with this, but they don’t actually like doing it and would rather watch us help each other. Where is it, Carolina?”

  Carolina pointed to a table under the pavilion, and we trooped over. Yvette insisted we climb out of our dresses. We all had suits on underneath, and then she turned into a mother hen, making sure everyone was covered, head to toe. Then she ordered me into a chair and knelt down on the sand before me, doing the bottoms of my feet. I stared at her. She looked up and flashed a smile. “I know you could have done this yourself, but now you feel obligated to do mine.”

  I laughed, and when she was done and had replaced my sandals, we swapped, and I found myself kneeling before the world-famous star.

  “You look good down there,” Audra said from the next seat over. “You may do mine next.” Then she held her hand out for the lotion, but Yvette intercepted it from me and wouldn’t give it to her. I finished with Yvette then shifted over, and she gave me the tube.

  “I was kidding!” Audra said, laughing.

  “Not really you weren’t,” Yvette said. “Taisha, she missed spots on her ankles.”

  “I think you’re right,” I said. I moved up the legs, and then a little higher.

  “Hey!” Audra complained. I wasn’t being remotely inappropriate, so I didn’t t
hink she was really upset. “Yvette, are you teaching her to be as naughty as you are?”

  “Yes,” Yvette said. “She’s an avid student. Did you see that kiss? Ooh-la-la. Carolina, I couldn’t quite tell, but that didn’t look entirely like a human style of kiss.”

  “It’s not,” I said. I looked up at Audra. “Who did your legs?”

  “I did.”

  “Well, either I’m doing them again, or you can tell me someone else is. Don’t make me invoke Mama Yvette’s authority.” I put her sandals back on her. “Stand up.”

  I did her legs properly as high as I thought was appropriate, then gave her the tube. “I’d do the rest, but it’s straying a little high. But you didn’t do that good a job.”

  “I was distracted, watching Yvette on her knees.”

  The woman in question chortled. “Excuses. Give me that.” She made a grab for the lotion, but Audra twisted away. “I can do it.”

  “Posey, make her do it right,” Yvette said.

  “Oh, let Yvette do it,” Posey said with a snuffle.

  But Audra went to work on the tops of her legs. “Well, pooh,” Yvette said. “Carolina, we were talking about Komodo kisses.”

  “Are you just teasing, or is this honest curiosity?” Carolina asked.

  “I’m curious about everything,” Yvette said. “I don’t always recognize when I’m being intrusive, however, and you aren’t under any obligation to humor me.”

  “What Taisha and I do is a fusion, to use the word she has chosen,” Carolina said. Then she stuck her tongue out.

  “Whoa!” Yvette said. “Oh, you lucky dog, Taisha.”

  “Don’t be crude,” Audra said. “You get tentacles.”

  “Still.”

  Carolina waved the tips, then pulled it back in. “Between Komodo, we tangle tongues. There may not actually be contact of our mouths. With Taisha, we have found something that works.”

  Yvette fanned herself then turned to me.

  “Yep,” I said. “That’s an appropriate reaction.”

  “Audra, check me, please,” she said. “Carolina, do you control your colors?”

  “Only by controlling my emotional state,” she replied. “Evolution has been kind, however. When I am hunting, my colors match my surroundings. Oh, not entirely, but I do not stand out like I do right now.”