Chapter 26 - Information

“You don’t need to take care of me,” Kerri told Carter once she realised that Arik was gone and that she’d have to wait a while before she could kill him.

Carter grinned. “Come on, it’ll be fun. Besides, we haven’t had the chance to spend some time together alone.” He held up his hands when he saw Kerri narrowing her eyes. “No, no, no,” he rushed to explain. “I meant you and Drake spent some quality time together, and so did you and Joshua, so it’s our turn now.”

Kerri crossed her arms. “Fine, then. So what are we going to do today?”

“Oh, I don’t know, but I think we should call it Carter and Kerrien’s Day of Fun.”

Kerri shot him a look. “One, never, and I mean never, call me that again. Two, what on earth are you on about?”

Carter sighed. “It’s a Friends thing. Don’t you watch Friends?”

Kerri looked at him disdainfully. “I’m a lawyer. I don’t have time for this kind of thing.” Then she added thoughtfully. “Though I do enjoy watching Law and Order.”

Carter rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” He winked at a couple of girls as they walked past him and they giggled.

Kerri raised an eyebrow. “Your future conquests?”

“Nope. My past conquests.”

“Wow, you maintain a very…friendly relationship with them.”

Carter smirked. “You want to know how?”

Kerri smiled despite herself. “I think I’ll pass.”

For the next few hours, Carter showed her around the trainee’s building—she didn’t even know that the trainers, trainees and humans had their own residency buildings. Well, she knew the humans did, but that didn’t really count.

***

Carter handed Kerri a sandwich. “Lunch. Enjoy.”

Kerri held the soggy sandwich gingerly at an arm’s length and wrinkled her nose. “Really?”

“Stop fussing.” He sat down on the grass. “We only have to eat these for a few days.”

Kerri’s eyes widened. “A few days?” she complained as she sat down, still holding the sandwich as if it were a skunk.

“Just eat the damn sandwich, woman.”

She tried not to gag as she peeled off the plastic wrap from the sandwich. Using her index finger, she gently pulled down a corner of the bottom piece of bread and peered inside. Damn. She hated ham and egg sandwiches. Especially when the egg looked like it was a month old.

“You want to trade?” Carter asked her, looking at her with an eyebrow raised. “You don’t look very pleased with yours.”

“I’m not,” she replied, still eyeing her sandwich with distaste. “What do you have?”

“Tuna and mayonnaise.”

She pursed her lips. “Hm, ham and month old egg sandwich or tuna and expired mayonnaise. Decisions, decisions.”

Carter laughed she traded her sandwich with his. “I guess I can see why Arik’s attracted to you,” he said afterwards. “Although I normally kind of go for the girls that are your exact opposite.”

“You mean the girls Arik have been dating for the past few years?”

“Yep.”

She shook her head. “There can’t possibly be that many dumb blondes to go around.”

He smirked. “Oh, you’d be surprised,” he said as Kerri swatted him on the arm. “Although I don’t really care what colour their hair is. Brunettes, blondes, redheads…”

Kerri bit her lip. “Carter?”

“Yeah?”

“When…when you said you could see why Arik was attracted to me, well, what are the reasons? I mean, is he actually attracted to me?”

Carter cocked his head to one side and looked at her. “To answer your first question, you’re stunningly beautiful, you’re funny and you’re smart. To answer your second question, yes, he is. Very. Isn’t it kind of obvious?”

Kerri shrugged, trying to seem casual. “I don’t know.”

Carter raised an eyebrow. “Kerri, I think you do know. Deep down, you both know. You’re just in denial. Both of you.” He shook his head. “It’s kind of obvious that you two were meant for each other.”

Kerri blushed but after a moment she frowned. “How about Sitara? Wasn’t she and Arik kind of ‘meant to be’ as well?”

“She was…good with him. But compared to you, she’s nothing.” He looked away. “Besides, she wasn’t Arik’s true love.”

Kerri narrowed her eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?” she asked, trying to catch his gaze.

He toyed with his sandwich with his long fingers. “Nothing.”

She reached out and cupped his chin with her hand and forced him to look into her eyes. “Tell me who it is. Tell me what you saw,” she pleaded.

Carter removed himself gently from her grasp and mumbled a name.

Joshua.

Kerri’s eyes widened in alarm. She grabbed his arm. “Tell me you didn’t tell anyone—especially Arik—about this,” she hissed.

He whipped his head around. “Of course I didn’t,” he hissed back. Then he straightened up. “What’s it to you anyway?”

She shrugged.

He narrowed his eyes. “You knew, didn’t you?”

She sighed. “Kind of.”

“What do you mean ‘kind of’? You either know, or you don’t.”

She shot him a look. “Don’t give me that shoot. Tell me what you know. Now.”

“No!”

She looked at him in a way that usually drove men crazy. “Tell me,” she demanded.

He looked away. “Don’t look at me like that. Look away. Look away.”

“Please?”

He sighed and looked at her warily. “I saw them together. In the garden.”

“Kissing?”

He grimaced. “And other things.”

She made a face. “Oh, no.”

“Well, not exactly, but the train was definitely heading towards that station.”

She held up one hand. “Stop. That’s all I need to know. Actually, that’s more than I need to know.”

He shrugged. “You wanted to know. Now tell me what you know.”

She looked at him as if he was crazy. “What? No!”

His mouth dropped open in surprise. “But I told you what I saw.”

“So?”

“It’s only fair.”

“Honey, life isn’t fair.” She leaned in to kiss him on the cheek and patted his head before leaving for the toilet.

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