“I was an ass once upon a time,” Simon admits. “What I did was wrong, and I did apologize before.”
“Did you?” I growl.
“I did, but I’m man enough to say it again. I’m sorry.”
“What did he do?”
“Simon and his buddies got drunk one day, and they decided to play truth or dare. They always picked dare, so they had to do something. One of the dares was to kiss the next person who came into the bar. Didn’t matter how old or young, male or female. If a kid, well, I hope they would’ve modified it—”
“How many people bring kids into bars?” Simon protests.
“You’d be surprised. Besides, it served food. Kids eat food. Anyhow, I was the person. Simon came up to me, was about to kiss me, and… Do you want to tell him?” I ask.
Simon grimaces. “Not really my best moment.”
“No, not at all.” I roll my eyes. “He did kiss me, on the cheek, rushed back to his friends, and wouldn’t shut up about how I smelled.”
“In my defense, you did smell,” Simon says.
“Yeah, of flowers. I spent all day doing some weeding and gardening to earn money to have a drink, and the entire time I was there, everyone walked past me holding their noses.”
“Did she smell like flowers?” Rix asks.
“I can’t remember,” Simon says. “I just remember that she smelled. Should I have said anything? No. I didn’t think I was being that loud, and I did offer to pay for your drink.”
Ava smirks.
"Yeah, don't forget that bit." Simon turns toward Rix. "She asks all innocent, but she got back at me. I apologized to her, like I said, and I offered to pay for her drink, so what does she do? She gets that drink and then pours it over my head."
“It was the best drink I ever had,” I say sweetly.
Rix bursts out laughing. “So now you two can be friends, right? That was a while ago, and Simon would never do that again.
“I haven’t played truth or dare since, if that’s any consolation,” he says to me.
“I don’t see how that’s a consolation prize, but fine, we can be friends, if you can identify her.”
I point to the footage, and Simon takes one glance before nodding.
“Yep. That’s Rebecca, all right. Rebecca Baker.”
“You don’t happen to know where she lives, do you?” Rix asks.
“Sure, I can take you to her place.” Simon stares at the footage some more. “Why do you need her?”
“She stole something of mine.”
“Shit. If someone kisses and teases you, you pour beer on them. What do you do if someone steals from you?”
I grin. “Chop off their hand.”
Simon blinks a few times. “Buddy, you sure know how to pick ‘em.” He pats Rix’s shoulder. “I think I like her.”
“You had your chance. You blew it.” I wink at Simon.
He claps his hands over his heart. “Damn. Out of sight, out of mind, huh?”
“Something like that. Let’s go.”
Simon drives us over to Rebecca’s place. It’s a tiny little house, one story, almost a cottage. The military man takes the lead, and he knocks on the door.
“Simon,” Rebecca says with a wide smile. “Do you want to come in? It’s a bit hot, and I was just thinking about taking off my—oh.”
I step around Simon to grin at her. At the same time, Rix slides to Simon’s other side.
"The more, the merrier," she chirps. "We can have some mixed drinks and a big old orgy and—"
“You can give me back what you stole, and then I’ll be merry,” I tell her with a smile that’s even wider than the one she gave me.
“Oh, I don’t know what you—”
“Can it, Rebecca. We have you on film.”
“On film? Simon, there must be—”
“I saw the film,” Simon says. “Who do you think ID’d you?”
Rebecca glances at Rix. “But I—”
“Why did you do it?” Rix asks.
“I…” Her nostrils flare.
“Is it really because of jealousy?” I ask.
Her face colors.
"Oh my God. You thought stealing it would what? Get Rix to leave me? Or did you want to be found out? I don't understand—"
“You’re nothing but trash,” Rebecca says hotly. “You don’t have a house or a job or anything. No money, no family, no friends. How haven’t you died yet in a gutter? You don’t deserve him, and you don’t deserve—”
“You better shut your mouth,” Rix starts.
“Give us the device now,” Simon says calmly.
“Or else what?” Rebecca snaps.
“Or else we’ll take you out with the trash,” I say politely.
Rebecca’s jaw tightens, and she flounces inside. We follow, and she gives us a bit of a runaround, but within an hour, she’s arrested and taken away, and Rix is dragging my wagon back to my place.
All's well that ends well. Now that I have my device back, we can start to move forward with both the future of the device and our hearts.
Somehow, that doesn’t terrify me as much as I would’ve thought it would. Simon’s not the only one who has changed. I have too, and I think I like the person I’m becoming with Rix’s help.
19
Rix
As much as I want to have some time to celebrate with Ava, I can’t ignore it any longer. My chip has been chirping for hours, and it’s starting to cause me pain.
Finally, I break down and turn to Ava. We've been at the scrapyard for a half-hour, and she's been doing a few tests to ensure that the device still works. It does, by the way.
“Ava, I have a call to take.”
She smiles even if she doesn’t turn away from the centuricmobile in the air. “Okay. Go ahead. I’ll be fine.”
I leave her to it and step away. “Hello.”
“You’re an ovian bastard, you know that, Rix? How dare you hang up on me and then not—”
“Overlord Nestrol, I had to deal with a situation—”
“You are going to be ovian killed—”
“The situation required my attention at the time,” I continue calmly.
“What ovian situation could have possibly—”
“The
