by Jae
“You okay?” Nyla asked.
“Oh, sure. I’m great.” She led Nyla to her Toyota and opened the passenger door for her. “So your grandmother lives with you?” Shelby asked after she got in on the driver’s side.
Nyla nodded. “When my grandfather died three years ago, she fell into a depression. Cooking and keeping house for me gave her a new purpose.”
Why hadn’t Nyla’s parents taken in her grandmother? Shelby didn’t want to appear too nosy, so she didn’t ask. She started the car and weaved through the slow-moving traffic. “Which movie do you want to see?”
“How about ‘Just One Day’? Have you heard of it?”
Shelby shook her head. Like many Wrasa, she considered movies and television a strange invention whose attraction she had never fully understood.
“It’s about the daughter of a millionaire. She falls in love with her father’s chauffeur, but of course her parents don’t want her to get involved with a guy who doesn’t have a cent to his name.”
Of course. It’s always the same. Parents had very specific expectations of the person their children should or shouldn’t end up with. That was one thing that Wrasa and humans had in common. Shelby sighed again.
Hesitantly, Nyla laid her hand on Shelby’s knee. “Are you really okay?”
The hand on her knee made Shelby flinch. Her knee hit the steering wheel.
Nyla withdrew her hand.
Shelby bit her lip. Get yourself together. You just get this one date with her, so enjoy it while it lasts. She wanted to reach for Nyla’s hand and put it back on her knee, but she didn’t dare. “Really, everything’s great. I’m just ...” She combed a strand of hair behind her ear and peeked over at Nyla, who tilted her head and listened. “... well, a little ... out of practice. This is my first date in five years.”
“Wow. Five years?”
“Almost six.”
For a few moments, Nyla said nothing. Then she shook her head. “But ... but why didn’t you date for so long? I mean ... you’ve got a great sense of humor, you’re good-looking and more down-to-earth than any other doctor I know.”
Shelby laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should.”
When they stopped at a red light, Shelby looked over at Nyla.
Their gazes met. Nyla’s dark eyes revealed her feelings more clearly than Shelby was used to from Wrasa women. Did Nyla already feel more for her than affection between colleagues?
The drivers behind them started a chorus of horns.
“Yeah, yeah. Chill out.” Shaking her head, Shelby drove through the intersection. It was a mystery to her how other Wrasa managed not to freak out and shift in the crazy New York traffic.
“So why haven’t you dated in over five years?” Nyla asked. With a fleeting touch to Shelby’s knee, she added, “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Shelby couldn’t tell her the whole truth, but she didn’t want to answer Nyla’s sincere question with silence. “It’s okay. I guess I just gave up looking for the perfect woman or starting relationships that were doomed from the beginning.” Then what are you doing going out on a date with a human? Shelby shoved the thought away. She didn’t want to think about tomorrow. Today belonged to Nyla and her.
“I know what you mean,” Nyla said. “My ex-girlfriend was a vegetarian who hated dogs and couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t just leave behind my family to move to France with her.”
But at least the dog hater and Nyla had belonged to the same species. Shelby suppressed another sigh and focused on finding a parking space within a few blocks of the movie theater.
* * *
“Oooh, popcorn!” Nyla jumped up and down like a little girl. “Do you want some?”
Unlike lamb meat, buttery pieces of corn weren’t on Shelby’s list of favorite dishes, but she had to laugh at Nyla’s childlike enthusiasm. “No, thanks. Why don’t you get the popcorn while I go to ...” At the last second, she stopped herself from saying “to the little coyotes’ room.” “To the little psychiatrists’ room,” she said hurriedly and waved in the direction of the restrooms. At least in the ladies’ room, she could keep away from the crowd in the theater lobby.
“Okay.” Nyla walked away with a smile.
Shelby watched her until she disappeared in the crowd in front of the concession stand. She turned and shook herself. Now that Nyla’s presence no longer distracted her, she realized how uncomfortable it was for her to be stuck among so many humans. The stink of burned butter, sweat, and spilled soda hung in the air. At least she wouldn’t run into other Wrasa here. No Wrasa would go to the movies on his or her own free will.
No Wrasa?
Her nose said something else. The scent of pines, mandarins, cream, and fresh air drifted over ... and the cold sweat of a Wrasa fighting against the urge to shift.
She knew those smells. Isn’t that ...? Shelby turned.
On the other side of the hall, in a quiet corner, stood her neighbors, an elderly couple of fox-shifters. Lennard’s nostrils flared as if he was struggling not to breathe through his nose. He repeatedly scratched first his left forearm, then the right one. His gaze darted back and forth and finally zeroed in on the emergency exit. When a human searching for a movie guide came too close, Lennard whirled around and growled.
Great Hunter, why is he doing this to himself?
“Oh, Shelby, hi!” Clara, Lennard’s wife, waved excitedly. “Lennard, look who’s here!” She patted his arm and turned toward Shelby. “Are you here to see the movie? It’s supposed to be very romantic. Right, Lennard?”
Lennard nodded with a pained, but lenient smile.
After avoiding two human teenagers who nearly crashed into her, Shelby joined her neighbors in the corner. As always when she met the couple, she had to smile about their mate scent. Clara’s scent of cream mixed with Lennard’s mandarin and created something that smelled of cheesecake. Even as a pup, Shelby had been fascinated by the body chemistry of the Wrasa that joined two people’s individual scents into a more complex mate scent when they started a lifelong relationship.
“I didn’t know you also like movies,” Clara said.
“Um, I ...” As inconspicuously as possible, Shelby peeked over her shoulder. She hoped Nyla wouldn’t be back before Clara and Lennard had left. If her neighbors saw her with a human, they would ask questions that Shelby couldn’t answer. “No, I don’t really like movies, I just ...”
Before she could come up with an excuse, Nyla appeared next to her. “Ah, there you are. I also got us some nachos. I didn’t know what you … Oh, hi.” Only now did she seem to realize that Shelby wasn’t alone and two strangers were staring at her. She sent Shelby a questioning gaze.
Sweat trickled down Shelby’s forehead. Her forearms tingled. If things continued like this, she would soon join Lennard in fighting the urge to shift. “Um, this is Lennard and Clara, my neighbors. And this is Nyla, a colleague of mine.” She emphasized the “colleague,” hoping to make her neighbors think that Nyla was nothing more than an acquaintance.
Nyla’s normally warm, sensuous scent changed abruptly.
For a moment, the image of a jasmine shrub shaking in the wind appeared before Shelby’s mental eye. She bit her lip. Her remark had hurt Nyla. She promised herself she would make up for it during the rest of the evening. As soon as Lennard and Clara were out of sight.
Clara’s smile disappeared, and Lennard fixed Nyla with a narrow-eyed stare.
“Hi.” Apparently, Nyla had gotten over her hurt feelings. She beamed at the couple as if she had been introduced to the president and the first lady. “Are you also going to see ‘Just One Day’?”
Clara nodded but didn’t seem eager to start a conversation with a human.
“I hear the movie runs over two hours,” Nyla said.
“Two hours?” Lennard’s eyes widened. He ducked his head, looking like a fox that had been snared by a hunter’s trap and knew there w
as no escape. “I better go and get us some snacks, then.”
“There’s no time,” Clara said and patted his arm. “They’ll open the doors in a minute.”
Lennard’s shoulders drooped.
“Why don’t you take the nachos?” Nyla offered him the plastic tray.
Clara and Lennard stared at her. “No,” Clara said. “You got them for yourself.”
“It seems I bit off more than I can chew. Shelby and I won’t be able to eat all of this.” Nyla held out the nacho tray again.
“Hey, if he doesn’t want the damn nachos, I’ll take them,” a teenager shouted.
Growling, Lennard wrenched the nachos out of Nyla’s hand. “Thanks. How much do we owe you?”
“Nothing.” Nyla grinned, undeterred by his bad manners. “Just don’t call for a nurse if the nachos give you heartburn.”
Wrasa didn’t get heartburn, but Nyla couldn’t know that.
Lennard shoved the first nacho into his mouth and already looked a bit less grumpy. “Don’t worry. We won’t.”
Before the doors to the movie theater opened, Nyla had pulled Clara into a conversation about the best movies of all times. Lennard had stopped observing Nyla as if she were his mortal enemy and directed his attention toward the nachos.
Shelby watched Nyla with a smile. In the hospital, she had often seen Nyla chatting up a scared patient. She had a talent for making them forget about their sterile surroundings within a few seconds. It seemed Nyla’s charm had a similar effect on Wrasa. Oh, yes. Just look at yourself.
Too bad that their noses would constantly remind Wrasa that Nyla was human and not someone they would ever trust.
The heavy doors opened.
A pack of teenagers shoved past them to get into the movie theater.
“Let’s go in,” Nyla said.
Shelby was in no hurry to enter the stuffy room, but she followed Nyla without hesitation.
As they climbed the stairs, Nyla stumbled.
Shelby hurried to catch up with her and reached for her hand to guide her safely to her seat. Then she realized that Lennard and Clara could see them. Quickly, she let go of Nyla’s hand.
“It’s okay,” Nyla said and reached for her hand.
Shelby closed her trembling fingers more tightly around Nyla’s. Her neck itched as if she could sense Lennard’s and Clara’s gazes on her. She dropped into a seat next to Nyla and slid down a little so that her neighbors, who sat behind them, couldn’t see her so well. Only now did she realize that Nyla had chosen seats for couples. Their seats weren’t separated by armrests. She grimaced. Shelby Carson, this date really wasn’t the most brilliant idea you ever had.
Under the pretense of scratching her shoulder, she turned her head and peeked at the row behind them.
Lennard’s fox eyes gleamed in the semi-darkness while Clara’s eyes were hidden behind special glasses that allowed Wrasa to watch movies produced for human eyesight.
Quickly, she turned back around.
Nyla leaned toward her. “You okay?”
Shelby nodded.
“Are you uncomfortable with this?” Nyla indicated their seats.
What should she answer? If she said yes, Nyla would think Shelby didn’t want her close. But if she said no, Nyla might cuddle up to her during the romantic scenes and she would no longer be able to make Lennard and Clara believe that Nyla was just an acquaintance. “Um, well ...”
Nyla moved back and put some space between them. “You’re not out, are you?”
“Yes, I am. It’s just ...”
“Sssh,” someone hissed.
Oh, come on. They were just showing commercials right now. Humans. They don’t really want to see commercials, do they? She turned back toward Nyla. “I’m as out as anyone can be,” she whispered. “But it’s complicated.”
Two humans turned toward her. “Sssh!”
Shelby looked at Nyla and rolled her eyes.
Nyla answered with a smile that seemed a little sad and didn’t dimple her cheeks. Almost inaudibly, she whispered, “Later.”
Glad that her attempts to explain had been postponed, Shelby glanced at the movie screen.
After a few more commercials, they showed a movie trailer and then the opening credits started to roll. The bright, constantly changing lights hurt Shelby’s eyes, and she couldn’t perceive colors the same way humans did. But Shelby didn’t mind. She wasn’t here to see the movie anyway. Instead, she leaned back and watched Nyla.
If the giant cup had been filled with meat instead of popcorn, a Wrasa would have emptied it within a minute. But Nyla took her time. During every interesting verbal exchange on the screen, her hand lingered over the cup. Only when the next scene started did she reach for a handful of the sticky treat and eat it slowly, one kernel after the other.
Nyla seemed to sense Shelby’s gaze on her. She turned her head and gave Shelby a questioning gaze.
Shelby smiled at her.
Nyla’s teeth glowed in the dark as she returned the smile and held out the popcorn cup.
Shelby’s ears started to burn. To accept food from Nyla’s plate—or popcorn from her cup—practically meant getting engaged for a Wrasa. Of course Nyla couldn’t know that. She was just offering popcorn, not her eternal love. Lennard was still watching them with his sharp fox eyes, so Shelby shook her head. “No, thanks. I’m not a big fan of popcorn.”
Half an hour later, Nyla set the empty cup on the floor and licked a bit of butter from her index finger.
Reflexively, Shelby licked her lips. Then she wrenched her gaze away from Nyla’s hands and watched the hazy figures on the big screen.
Dramatic music, much too loud for Shelby’s ears, boomed through the loudspeakers as a misunderstanding seemingly separated the two lovers forever and the movie’s heroine was about to marry another man.
“No, no, no, don’t do that, you fool,” Nyla whispered. “Have some trust in your relationship.”
Shelby turned her head and looked at her.
As if spellbound, Nyla stared at the movie screen.
Would Nyla still think like that and try to trust her if she told her who and what she really was?
Instantly, Shelby called herself to order. Are you out of your mind? How can you even consider breaking the First Law by revealing our existence? Pull yourself together!
Even though the chauffeur and the millionaire’s daughter finally ended up together, going to the movies was a depressing experience for Shelby. The evening had made one thing clear: for her and Nyla, there would be no happy ending.
When the final credits started, Shelby jumped up from her seat and tugged Nyla along by the hand. If they hurried, they would make it out of the movie theater before Lennard and Clara caught up with them.
“What’s the rush?” Nyla asked with a startled laugh as Shelby rushed down the stairs.
“Um, no, I just want to get rid of the trash before we leave.” Shelby held up the empty popcorn cup. When they reached the door, she glanced back over her shoulder and suppressed a triumphant smile.
Lennard had to remain in his seat because Clara apparently wanted to watch the closing credits.
Shelby steered them toward the nearest exit.
“Can you hold this for a minute?” Nyla handed over her purse. “I have to go to the ladies’ room before we head back. I won’t be long.”
With the purse in her hands, Shelby stood and stared at Nyla’s retreating back. Oh, shit. Now she had lost her head start and might run into Clara and Lennard again. She tried to hide behind a column with movie posters. Hurry up, Nyla.
The scent of cheesecake drifted over.
She hunched her shoulders and turned.
Lennard and Clara were standing in front of her. “You are such a nice girl,” Clara said with a disapproving frown. “I really don’t understand why you associate with humans.”
Shelby started to sweat. A lump formed in her throat, and she nearly couldn’t get out her answer. “I don’t. Nyla is just
...”
The grim expression on Lennard’s face made her shut up. “Have you lived among humans for so long that you’ve forgotten we Wrasa can smell a lie?”
Shelby snapped her mouth shut. She threw a glance over her shoulder, hoping Nyla would take her time. “Please don’t call the Saru.” She reached for Clara’s hand. “Please. I haven’t told Nyla what I really am. She thinks I’m just a nice colleague.”
Lennard fixed his watchful fox gaze on her. “A colleague with whom she shared her popcorn and held hands with?”
Cold sweat broke out all over Shelby’s body. What could she say to that?
Clara squeezed her hand. “In movies, I find forbidden love so romantic, but in true life ... You are a promising young woman. Don’t destroy your life by getting involved with a human.”
“Nyla and I ... we’re not together,” Shelby stammered. It was the only thing she could say without lying.
“Then make sure it stays that way,” Lennard said.
The door to the ladies’ room opened and Nyla joined them. “Hi again. How did you like the movie? The ending was great, wasn’t it?”
For a few moments, Clara and Lennard kept their gazes fixed on Shelby. Then they turned toward Nyla.
“Bah, Hollywood kitsch,” Lennard mumbled. “Some couples are not meant to get together. They’ve got to accept that.” He looked directly into Shelby’s eyes.
Shelby gnashed her teeth but nodded obediently. She had no choice. Dejected, she left the movie theater and led Nyla back to the car.
* * *
“Here we are,” Shelby said as she stopped the car in Nyla’s driveway and turned off the engine.
“Yes.”
They looked at each other and then stared through windshield into the darkness beyond.
“The movie was really good,” Nyla said.
“Yes, it was.” Since she hadn’t paid attention to the movie, Shelby didn’t know what else to say. One problem solved. Nyla won’t ask for a second date. That’s for sure. You bored her to death, acted really squirrely all night, and made her think you’re deeply closeted.