Chapter Sixteen

Lisbet wouldn’t let Beck wait outside during her bath. Once he had finished preparing the bath for her, she’d taken the fresh bandages from him and told him to get lost. She was less woozy and once she was in a quiet place, she felt like she could get her head on straight.

He went upstairs.

She washed her hair thoroughly. She hadn’t had a wash that deep since she got to Mars. She got out of the water, dried off, put on her bandages, got dressed in something soft, and went upstairs to talk to Beck. She had to thank him for disabling her bracelet. If she’d gotten all the shocks that were coming to her with all the unnecessary touching, it would have been worse than the drive-by-shooting.

She carefully made her way to the escalator and went up touching her bare shoulders and wishing she’d brought a sweater with her. She hadn’t realized it was so much cooler outside her bedroom.

Beck wasn’t in the workshop. She stood outside the door that led to his bedroom door for a solid minute before she tapped on it.

Waiting for him to answer was agony.

When he finally cracked the door open, he was shirtless and sweaty.

“What’s going on?” he asked, pushing his wet hair off his forehead. He’s obviously been working out.

“I just wanted to thank you for everything you did to help me today, especially for canceling the shocks. It was… pretty scary and knowing that you were coming to get me really helped. Thank you.”

“Okay.” The word escaped his mouth like every other expression of boredom he made.

Lisbet cocked her head. “Do those things you smoke make you a little dull like that? Like what I’m saying is boring because everything is boring when you’re smoking?”

“Maybe,” he said, narrowing his eyes at her. “Did you want something else?”

“Can I come in?” she asked.

He stepped out of her way.

The room ahead of her was nothing like the one she had downstairs. For one thing, it was way smaller. For another, it was almost empty. It was just his bed, another VR cage, and a line of his clothes on a rack. His bed was unmade as the comforter was crumpled at the end of the bed. Otherwise, the place was very tidy.

He put out his hand and took her hand in his. To her surprise, he gently kissed her knuckles. The sight of him doing such a thing took her off guard. What was weirdest about it was that a man Beck’s age should have been clumsy kissing a woman’s knuckles. When Beck did it, he was unusually suave like he kissed the back of a woman’s hand every damn day.

“I tried to call you, but my bracelet didn’t work,” she lied.

“Oh, right. I disabled it,” he dropped her hand. That was when she noticed that he wasn’t wearing the line of screens on his arm. There was only one bracelet left, the one that controlled her. He pressed a few buttons on it and the tiny screen on her bracelet rebooted.

Realizing that she wasn’t in his room because she had any romantic intention dropped his spirits. Tired and deadpan, he turned back to her, “Well, is there anything else I can help you with?”

Lisbet fumbled to ask for anything. “I want you to come down to my room and read me one of your fairytales.”

“Oh?” His face lit up.

***

Lisbet waited while Beck put on a white long-sleeved crewneck T-shirt and then buckled all of his screens back on his forearm. Then she led him down to her room.

When they passed through the doors, Lisbet was reminded of what Charcoal had said about the layout of Martian homes. There was no need to bring anyone home. She felt a strange sensation reverberating through her. She was taking her first step to getting closer to Beck and it scared her. What if they hated each other and she had no one else on Mars? What if they liked each other? Both ideas bothered Lisbet.

She led him into her bedroom all the same.

“How do you want to do this?” he asked, holding a tablet in one hand and holding his other hand to his mouth like he had a cigarette between his fingers. Except, he didn’t. His hand was empty. He had forgotten to smoke.

“Let’s get a warm drink first,” she said, heading toward the food dispensers.

“Uh… wait… I can’t eat,” Beck admitted timidly.

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“Why?”

“I have an eight-pack. I don’t want to ruin it. Surely you noticed it when I opened the door earlier.”

She didn’t. She only noticed that he was shirtless and averted her gaze like a lady, but she knew that she’d hurt his feelings badly if she said that. “It was very impressive.”

“You didn’t seem impressed,” he commented dryly.

“I’m a lady. I can’t let my eyes bug out every time I see something sexy.”

He nodded at that. Thankfully, it was enough of an explanation for him.

“Is that why you refused to have lunch with me? You don’t eat because you don’t want to spoil your body?” Lisbet asked, turning.

“Yeah. Whenever I’m online, all the women say that they need to be able to lick caramel off their lovers’ abs or they’re not interested.”

Lisbet refrained from chuckling. “That’s not true. Besides, I’m sure we can find you a zero-calorie tea if you want.”

“I hate tea,” he spat softly. “I have fake flavor in my mouth all the time anyway.”

“We’ll get you a water then,” Lisbet insisted. “You can drink it between sentences so your throat doesn’t get dry.”

That did it. He agreed and came along after her. He lazily took a water bottle from her clear refrigerator in the dining room.

She ordered a hot chocolate for herself. The liquid splashed into a mug from a dispenser. She took it and Beck back to her bed. She set her drink on the nightstand and pulled up a chair for him to occupy.

“This way, you can read to me and if I fall asleep, you can get up without disturbing the bed,” she said as she peeled back the bedspread. She knocked off her slippers and got inside.

Lisbet did not have high expectations for Beck’s fairy tale. She was allowing him to read to her because it seemed like the only foothold he’d offered her. She knew why he’d asked for it. It was because it put him in a place of maturity over her. If he was like a daddy reading a story to a little girl, the fact that she was older than him no longer mattered. He was hoping he’d sweep her away with the majesty of his tale, except Lisbet didn’t think that was possible. Not only was she a physics major with numbers running through her head, but she was just too grown up to be a little girl. She was of the age where she should have had a little girl of her own.

She pushed away the thought. If she wanted to be a mother, she’d clearly conducted her life all wrong. She grasped the handle of her hot chocolate mug and pulled it toward her.

“I hope it’s a nice long story,” she whispered encouragingly.

“I thought I’d start with a short one. Most fairy tales are short,” he said, taking the chair she offered and clicking on his tablet. “Once upon a time, there was a prince who had everything his heart desired. He lived in a palace with marble floors and feather beds. He had everything he wanted, but something was missing. Noticing his discontent, his guardian sent for a magician to look at the boy to see what was wrong. He looked in the boy’s open hands, in his eyes, down his throat, and even opened his chest to peer into his heart.”

Beck was better at reading than Lisbet had expected. He had a wonderful tone and the way he spoke suggested that was the only way he communicated with anyone. That his voice was his key to the minds and hearts of others. If he had a gift like that, why was he so lonely? Why did he work for Vantz? Why was he even there?

Beck said the words, carefully chosen words, that cast a spell on the room and threatened to turn Lisbet into a little girl again. “When the magician was finished with his examination, he said that the only thing that would help the boy would be time and something to distract him until the key to his distress was known. With that, he gave the prince a crystal ball. It was not like the crystal balls used to read the future. It was a crystal ball like a bubble that had been frozen in time. The prince bade the magician farewell and took the crystal to his room. The light caught and spun in the ball and mystified him. It was his most prized possession… until it broke.”

The way Beck said ‘broke’ made it sound like the worst thing that could possibly happen had happened. Lisbet felt something inside her crack.

“It was shattered by a girl. She was the daughter of a jewel merchant visiting the palace. She wore a jade dress and aquamarine shoes with a topaz flower in her hair. The prince was more intoxicated by her than he had ever been by the bubble of glass and spangled light. He had to have her! Confused, unsure of how to attain his heart’s desire, he did the only thing that he ever did when he wanted something. He asked his guardian to give her to him. In turn, his guardian did the only thing that was ever done when something was acquired. An offer to buy was made. The offer was met with rejection but accepted when it was amended. The jewel merchant’s daughter would marry the prince when she grew up, on condition that she lived in the castle immediately.”

Lisbet finished her hot chocolate. She thought she’d be drowsy by the time she finished it, but she still hadn’t placed her head on the pillow. Instead, she sat upright, listening intently.

“Once the girl was in the palace, and her parents were firmly outside the gate, the young prince took the jewel merchant’s daughter to his room. She told him she was unwell without her parents and needed to join them, but he did not listen. She had been bought to be his playmate and he wanted to play with her.”

Lisbet felt a shiver run up her spine.

“She warned him not to touch her. She said she wasn’t well. He tried to choose games that were quiet with electricity moving through circuits, but she wasn’t well no matter what quiet game he chose. In the end, he tucked her into his bed with him and read her stories about crystals and gems. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she said one last time that she needed to be with her parents. Except, he was the prince and he wanted to hold her in his private universe.”

Lisbet held her breath.

“Then she broke. Like a bubble that popped, like glass that shattered, she broke, right in the middle of his bed. A broken bubble leaves a residue of soap. A broken girl leaves a residue of blood. She was removed from his chamber with a rush and a series of sharp instructions. The red mark changed the prince. He didn’t understand why a girl should suddenly gush blood and disappear like a bubble. How could someone break? And he was never the same ever after.” Beck finished and stood up. “Do you feel like sleeping?”

“No,” Lisbet said honestly. “I feel like talking about what your fairy tale means.”

Beck cocked his head. “It isn’t an Earth fairy tale. It’s a Mars fairy tale. There are no forests as settings. There are no mermaids swimming in pools, no snow storms to wander through, no flowers, no forests, or any of those other things. There is mining. There are jewels. I wrote the fairy tale with what we have here.”

“Do you have more?” Lisbet asked.

“I have three.”

“What do you call the one you just read to me?”

“Number One,” he said plainly.

He left without another word.