Ah, so you have reached the third summary. Congrats, I guess? 🙂
Like with the last one, I’ll put special bits with their little marker **.
On with the show!
If you’ll recall, Sama had done all the work at the pub when Asa and she had first arrived at The Watch. That meant he owed her one. Later, when Macie showed up at the other pub, he offered to escort her to The Watch, giving Sama a break from her. Macie drives her nuts.
It doesn’t take long for Asa to figure out why. Macie. Doesn’t. Stop. Talking! He tries to tune her out until she mentions ‘the goddess.’ That gets Asa’s attention. She tells him how Yadira had healed her that day. She wants to go to The Watch to thank the ladies who managed to stop her from hurting anyone else, got her to calm down so that the guards could take her away.
When they reach The Watch, Asa tries to ditch her. He wants to visit Maren. Macie won’t be reasoned with and practically begs him, with her doe eyes, to come with her because she’s nervous. He reluctantly agrees.
Upon happening upon a member of the Order of the Lily, the woman kind of freezes up, staring at Asa with wide eyes. She barely acknowledges Macie.
Asa’s like, Is there something on my shirt?
Isolde invites them inside for tea. Asa tries to get out of it, but Macie gives him a panicked look. He goes inside.
** If I give the character a name, they either ARE important or I have some kind of plan in place for them to BE important. This is Isolde. She was one of the two nuns who were there to greet Lars and Yadira when they arrived. She’s the one who did the ironic ‘destiny’ line.
Freaking out, Isolde drops her tin of tea on the floor. Asa cracks up at her saying ‘bollocks’ because it’s the last thing he ever expected to come out of a ‘nun’s mouth. Then he feels bad for laughing because Isolde looks to be almost in tears.
Macie invites both ‘nuns’ to the picnic she has prepared. (There’s another one off screen who ‘all of a sudden’ had to go do something on the other side of the house.) The one in the above pic, Isolde, wants to make sure Asa’s going before she agrees. Again, Asa is kept from doing what he really wants to be doing, and he says he will.
At the picnic, Macie won’t shut up, but Asa and Isolde manage to convince her to go back and talk to Erin, the ‘nun’ who didn’t come with them. Macie agrees, and Isolde’s like, “finally!” Then she pounces on Asa.
Asa’s like, “whoa!” We learn that Isolde has prophetic dreams, and she’s been dreaming about Asa for about a month now. (hmmm… it took him about a month to get here, so the dreams started once the decision for him to make the journey happened.)
Then Isolde remembers herself and gets off him. She’s kinda embarrassed now, but Asa is really curious what she meant when she said the dreams were ‘involved.’ She’s backed off, but he keeps getting closer, asking her what he’d do in the dreams. She tells him, so he decides he needs to act it out.
There’s a kind of funny bit when he’s been pulling out her hairpins.
Woo! Get it, Asa!
Well, it’s a little fast for Isolde, even though she’s been dreaming about him and it’s like she’s ‘known’ him for a month. Dream her and real her are two different people.
Asa kinda freaks out when he remembers she’s a ‘nun.’ She almost laughs and tells him ‘not that kind of nun.’ Then she wants her hairpins back.
She’s fussing at him that she needs to put her hair up. He likes it down better, and he asks her if she likes being a ‘nun.’ She says it’s what she’s always known. “Then why the dreams?” He doesn’t really get a straight answer, but they agree to meet again another day.
Maren who? Yep. Now he doesn’t know what he was thinking. (Maren was the prostitute in the pub when he’d first arrived.)
Next, we see Sama at the beach.
That’s where Vik’s been hanging out.
The two of them get it on, and after, while they’re talking and worrying about Orion, she sees a large group of people arrive at the beach. Vik looks and recognizes Orion… and Reck.
To him, it looks like an execution, and he’s not about to sit by and let it happen. He aims for Reck. Sama begs him to put the gun down because they’re outnumbered. He’s telling her to beat it, to run, because, yes, they’re outnumbered and he doesn’t know how long he’ll last after he kills Reck. Then Sama tells him she thinks she’s pregnant. That stops him. So, they wait.
They can’t believe their eyes. Reck appears to be letting Orion go, even though he’s still tied up, they throw a waterskin at him along with a small bag (the seeds). Orion easily brings his hands under his feet to get them in front of himself, and after yelling at Reck’s back, he gathers his things up, looks around, and makes a beeline for Vik and Sama.
** Mkay, it bugs me that I didn’t think of this: Why didn’t Reck have someone hiding to follow him? Idk. I guess that would make too much sense. Suffice to say I learned from my ‘mistake’ there. Hint. (rather obscure, but still)
After everything, even big, strong dudes cry.
Knowing that they gotta go or risk getting caught or worse, Sama dashes over to The Watch to find Asa. She tells him what’s happened, but he doesn’t want to leave yet.
He’s thinking that he can’t leave without at least ASKING Isolde if she’ll go with him, so he dashes away, Sama chasing after him. Then he barges into Isolde’s room –just like from her dreams– and asks her to go away with him.
And I get this song in my head every time I read this bit (that whole ‘sail away with me, to another world’) :
She’s going. 🙂
The kicker was when Asa mentioned she may even know people there. She mentions Zuri, hoping she and her baby are okay. This hug is the result of him just mentioning Amina’s name.
** Isolde was there with Zuri when Amina was born, even though Zuri’d been ‘excommunicated’ from The Trags. She and Zuri are dear friends. (Yeah, that’s not awkward at all! lol)
Erin, the other ‘nun,’ figures out what’s going on, and she asks Isolde if she’s crazy, but Isolde tells her to tell The Mother that she knows this is her path.
Outside on their front porch, Macie has figured out what’s going on, too, and she wants to go.
Sama is just ready to leave immediately, and she cannot think of a good enough reason to tell Macie no. They all have to go now, and other than the bag that Isolde hastily threw together, they have no time to pack. Macie goes as-is.
Off they go!
So, the island of Haven’s population lost one woman–but gained two. Hm.
We’ll get back to them later. Now, it’s time for Reck. (BTW, this is chapter 42: The Answer… geddit?)
After dumping Orion on the beach, Reck has a full day of work ahead of him. He has meetings with all his what he calls ‘department heads.’ This is Rien, the only department head who’s named (so far). He acts as a kind of ‘casting agent’ for Victoria. He has the final say over who goes where, in charge of all the entrance interviewers. He’s the kind of guy who knows people and gets to know people, and he’s found Reck an electrical engineer, someone in his sixties who survived the plague, Carter. (named!)
We see other department heads: financial advisor who tells him there’s money for new schools and agricultural who reports the satellite settlement to the south is about to start oranges.
Meanwhile, during his full day, Reck’s mind is never far from the search that Niel is heading up in order to make sure that Orion doesn’t come back into the city. Plus, he has anyone in law enforcement looking for anyone with a westerner accent, just guessing that Sama and Asa might’ve come. Naturally, the guards don’t find them.
It’s the end of the day, and Reck goes back to his chambers to find a very aggravated Yadira waiting for him.
Why is she still here? Her room is fixed. After she throws the book she’s holding right at his head, he remembers that he’d ordered her in there since Niel and Angie, etc were busy, and he never sent an order to have her removed. He apologizes, and as he works at remedying the situation, her stomach growls. She hadn’t eaten anything all day.
Yikes.
So he himself takes her down to the kitchens.
More of Reck being human, proving he’s not a posh, spoiled do-nothing and that he knows his way around a stove–and a campfire at one time. Of course, Yadira doesn’t see this. All she knows is she’s had a shite twenty-four hours.
They chat while she eats, and Reck, trying to think of anything to get on her good side, says that he could start bringing people by her chambers so that she can start healing the population. She’s like ‘duh!’ (my words not hers) Then she tests him to see what he’d say to her moving into her own place. He debates back that she can’t afford it. She could take donations. He’s like well, yes, but why when you have protection here? (He’s not saying it, but he still has a nagging fear that she’ll run off the first chance she gets.)
So Yadira finally starts her work of healing the hearts of the people of Victoria.
Fast-forward a few weeks. (The Haven crew are sailing back–will arrive soon.)
Yadira’s losing her mind. Reck still won’t allow her to leave to go do her own work. She just knows there are people out there who need more help than the ones she’s actually meeting with, but she’s not allowed to get to them.
Meanwhile, Reck has a very disturbing nightmare.
He dashes into her room to make sure she’s okay. She tells him she’s ‘fine.’
He’s like ‘yeah, right.’
Then Yadira finally looks up at him, and she has to hide the little jump she does when she sees him.
They talk, and she lets out that she doesn’t understand why he won’t let her go amongst the people herself. He finally admits that he’s afraid she’ll run off.
Of course, why he has to do this on his knees in front of her is a mystery. Well, other than he wanted to be sure and read her face. Yadira’s thinking like ‘damn, he smells good.’
Reck tries to explain his reasoning why she can’t leave. Everyone has left him. She’s like ‘I know I’m supposed to be here.’ He agrees. She recommends they try test runs, he can go with her or send Niel with her, etc, just let her do what she needs to do. He gets quiet, so she lets him think.
“Did you just SMELL my HAIR?”
He doesn’t try to deny it. She says he can go; they can talk later. He’ll be busy later; they can talk about this now. They keep debating back and forth on whether or not she can go out.
He keeps scooting forward while their conversation/debate just goes in circles. She mentions how the people need her. He says HE needs her, for himself. So they debate that, her saying that’s not part of the deal.
He’s like, “Think about it: the king and his goddess.” That brings her up short, and she turns it on him. “What if it’s the goddess and her king, huh?” She means to imply she outranks him, but it backfires.
He’s like, “Sure, if that’s what you want.” More talking.
He closes in, and she’s like, “Reck, don’t you dare kiss me.”
“Sweet goddess, Yadira, you would deny your truest worshiper a taste of your lips?”
Ugh! Really, Reck?
It works… kinda. She tells him he hasn’t earned it, so he mentions he’ll just have to earn her forgiveness instead.
He kisses her anyway.
Thing is, Yadira isn’t totally against it. She’s just upset at how he’s going about it, but even though she’s mentally duking it out with herself, she kisses him back.
Of course, Reck is thrilled. Though, the hand pushing against him needs to go. Gotta fix that.
So he starts kissing her face while she chews him out and he agrees with everything she says, kind of a trademark tactic of his. After all, why argue? Not arguing gets better results. Yadira kind of calls him out on it.
He admits that all of what just happened wasn’t planned, at least not like how it happened. She catches what that means being he’d planned it anyway. He’s like, ‘of course.’
More talking. More of him agreeing with her.
Then he pushes her hips forward, and she’s like maybe we should fight. He doesn’t want to fight her; he’d rather love her instead.
Then his hips get moving, and she’s like this has gone far enough. She stops him. He ain’t happy. Then she starts crying. He’s like dammit.
So he tries to hold her and apologize while she tries to beat him up. Eventually, in trying to grab both her hands, he has to let go of her back. She slams her head against the arm of the loveseat, hurting herself.
More talking while he does what he can to prevent her from hitting him more. Then, exhausted, she falls asleep.
Worried that she’d hit her head and now appears passed out, he decides to stay to… keep an eye on her. /facepalm.
Dude knows he’s in trouble… even if he’s not exactly acting conciliatory right now. He meant it when he said he didn’t mean for all that to happen like it did. That nightmare, that he can no longer really remember, freaked him out. He just remembers something was hurting her and that he couldn’t make it stop. He couldn’t get back to sleep when he woke up, so he thought if he could just see for himself that she was okay, he’d be fine. Then everything happened.
For all his faults, it’s real.
And here’s the point when it hits him over the head like a 2×4 that he’s in love with her.
To him, that wasn’t supposed to happen. Attraction? Sure, that’s okay. Love? Nope, guard thyself. After all, guy’s been hurt by Zuri like twenty times. He doesn’t really trust his judgment in that department, but a little voice in his head says that he didn’t love Zuri. He was just obsessed with her.
** been a while since a little note:
‘When it looks like this with the single quotation’ it’s kind of an implanted thought… like it comes from somewhere else. Hm… I wonder who in this can communicate thoughts directly into someone’s mind?
** Remember when I said they have more than one “trick”? It’s not as if he’s controlling the thoughts, more like he’s speaking to them. However, to them, it almost feels like it should be their own mind saying it. Just a misinterpretation on their part, though.
Still, freaking out, Reck fights the very idea.
He carries her to the bed, now determined to leave the room and have whoever is on duty tonight go in and check on her every so often, but he stares at her for a beat too long.
He doesn’t really want to leave anyway. Although, her saying, “No, Orion” to him touching her face isn’t the best thing for him to hear.
She wakes up and is wondering why he’s here. He tells her because she hit her head. She tells him off and goes back to sleep.
He really can’t string two thoughts together right now. Mostly, he wants to figure out how to get her to stop hating him, but he gets distracted.
He wakes her up again, and she asks him to stop it. Then there’s the “is this okay?” over and over again stuff to which she replies, “it’s not and you know it.” (not exact quotes) He’s wondering if she wants him to stop because she doesn’t like it or does she like it a little too much? She says she doesn’t have to answer that.
He’s not actually touching her. Still, though, too close. After he tells her she’s really quite lovely, she tells him to either sleep on the little sofa or stay to his side of the bed. He chooses the later. Then leaves before she wakes up–but not without leaving a little gift and a couple of notes.
The ‘gift’ is some aspirin (which, yes, can be made). The note says ‘for your headache’ with him figuring she has one. It’s kinda funny how Yadira refuses to take them. ‘I’m no dummy. I’ve read about drugs.’ The second note is ‘dress warmly’ attached to her chest of drawers. She shrugs and does as it says.
Then she sits and contemplates life, deciding that falling for a really good kiss is a very bad weakness to have. No more, she tells herself.
Then Reck walks in and tells her that they’re going out for her to find people. She says it’s a good idea then charges for the door. Of course, he’s read her face.
He tries to get her to tell him what’s wrong. All he can tell is that it has everything to do with him. He switches from ‘poppet’ to ‘darling,’ which doesn’t help her with her wariness of him, and she lashes out, demanding he let her go. He does.
I mean, honestly, what was he thinking? She tells him not to kiss her and he does. Then all that other stuff, and he thought she’d be Miss Warm, Lovely-Dovey come the morning? smh.
He hasn’t a clue why she’s acting like this. Though, he’s not stupid. I’d say it’s more accurate that he doesn’t want to consider why.
They go to a tea shop as a kind of ‘let’s get our bearings’ first stop. More on that later.
Let’s jump to Corrine!
She’s seen the ship, and she ran to tell the others. The kiddos are sleeping upstairs, and Zuri and Rohan are waiting on the beach. Corrine figures that her being alone when Orion sees her for the first time would make it easier for him. Still, she’s a nervous wreck.
It takes Orion forever to show up, and when she hears him, he’s yelling. He and Rohan got into a fist fight. Well, more that he let Rohan beat on his face for a while since he came back without Yadira. Orion comes in ranting and raving about how angry Rohan is with him. Then he pauses.
“Who’re you?” She tells him, but he’s thinking that couldn’t be. It’s more believable that she’s a changeling–just not a good one because she got it wrong. Then, sputtering, Corrine tells him that Zuri’s man, Yadira’s brother can change things, and he changed her. “Is he gonna change ya back?”
That wasn’t exactly the scenario she had her heart set on. She dashes out of the house and, when far enough away, starts yelling for Peter. Peter tells her not to base her decision to change back to Corin on Orion’s initial reaction, to give it time. That ticks her off, and she cries her eyes out somewhere in the woods.
Then she hears pounding footsteps. Orion.
He tries to get her to talk to him, but she won’t. What he DOESN’T do a good job of doing is telling her that when he asked if Peter was gonna change her back, he said it because he was assuming that it’d been done against his/her wishes. He’d had no idea that Corin wanted that kind of a change, and he’s a little hurt he was never told. Of course, he wants to know why. She won’t tell him. She just says, “I’m still me, you know.” Then she glances at him and KNOWS he’s about to ask ‘are ye sure?’
This is how she proves it.
There’s just one teensy weensy problem here: Corrine did that expecting the same kind of upper body strength that Corin had. Unfortunately, this new form didn’t come that way. She breaks her hand. Orion sees blood and bruising showing up and tries to get a closer look. Corrine tries to stop him, but he eventually grabs her wrist.
He tells her they need to get to Sama so she can wrap it up.
** I kind of feel sorry for Orion here. That is, until it occurs to me he’s a bit sexist. Okay, maybe more than a bit. If it were Corin saying he wasn’t worried about his hand, he’d just strongly suggest he rethink it, but he’s not going to let Corrine get out of going to see Sama. That, AND he really has no idea how to act here–that’s the bit I feel sorry about. In his shock, he almost goes into a kind of flirt auto-pilot because all of a sudden there’s a pretty girl next to him. His brain keeps trying to tell him it’s also Corin, but the two aren’t meshing well in his head.
This is how he handles the situation:
She has to threaten to literally kill him in his sleep if he doesn’t let her down. He does, grinning. Then she stomps herself up to Sama’s place.
Back to Reck and Yadira!
This is Reck trying to be friendly to the tea shop lady who’s kinda freaking out that the king is in her shop.
Yadira has never been in any kind of shop, food or otherwise. She’s never ordered from a menu.
When the lady brings them their tea, Yadira grabs her arm. Turns out the lady’s holding a huge grudge at the people who bombed the dam near her home that caused a huge flood and killed most of her town. Yadira helps her start to recover from that memory, saying her loved ones didn’t suffer; they were knocked out by debris.
Then Yadira goes out and starts finding random people, and word spreads that she’s in the streets. A kind of mob begins to form, and Reck starts worrying over their safety.
Plus, she’s exhausted.
They get inside, and she breaks down into tears, saying she can’t do it.
Reck does what he can to calm her fears. Internally, he’s happy she’s letting him hold her when all day she’d been very standoffish. He says she needs food, and he instructs someone to make a place setting for her at his table: something he should’ve done ages ago.
Yeah, she ain’t so hot on that idea. She tells him where he can shove it and goes upstairs.
Reck assigns Ali as her personal assistant, letting her help as people schedule appointments with Yadira now.
But this means he never gets to see her!
Knock, knock!
Now let’s go see how Rohan’s doing.
Not great. In fact, really, really bad. The worst.
He steps off the edge.
All of a sudden, he’s an owl, flying instead of falling.
Ye-ah, Peter wasn’t about to let him kill himself.
** btw, Peter (and Yadira later) really start ticking off the angel of death. Guess they’re a couple of meddlesome brats. 🙂
Rohan starts acting like an owl, even mentally. He’s happier, and he’s about to fly away to catch a rodent. Then the branch he sits on snaps.
“Didn’t want you flying off after that mouse.”
Rohan is utterly disoriented. It happens. It takes him a moment to remember who he even is and even longer to remember how he got there.
Then Peter has to vanish for a minute.
** It isn’t mentioned, but I’ll say it here, he hops over to tell Reck he was only obsessed with Zuri, not in love with her. Then he pops back. 🙂
So… yes… physical distance means nothing to him. Neat trick, huh?
Rohan is angry with the gods, with the universe, with everyone and everything, saying he got a raw deal. Why did he have to fall in love with Yadira only for her to be destined over to Victoria anyway? Why not have her grow up in Victoria?
We officially discover there is a plan. It’s implied that it’s his mother who’s calling the shots, but it’s never actually said. (and I will neither confirm nor deny 😛 )
Peter tells Rohan that she was meant to grow up here in Haven. It gave her no sense of hatred towards any one group. The Goddess picked Sama to raise her daughter.
Why not have her grow up in The Land of Weird then? ** Empathy is crucial to Yadira’s ability, and Peter struggles with it. There’s kind of a clue there. Peter lacks empathy–and that’s not good. Yadira feels human; Peter never has. He kind of wishes he could empathize with humanity, but he can’t figure it out.
(Also, we kind of hear about how Rohan was probably bullied by the other members of the Skeeves. He was the youngest and the shortest and always the butt of jokes. It make him, as Peter puts it, kind of scrappy. More insight as to why Rohan was much less than thrilled when his old ‘mate’ Orion showed up on the island that first time.)
So, Rohan bemoans that, great, now he gets to go around with a big, gaping hole in his chest.
“You’d be surprised what can FILL a big, gaping hole in your chest.”
(See, Rohan? I’m not done with you. Yes, I’m sorry you got such a raw deal, but hang in there, buddy.)
Now for Sama! (and mini-Rohan)
** The game really DID give Zane that appearance.
OH YEAH, and in the first summary, I mention that I found a toddler I’d had no idea about. I never got back to y’all on that. It’s Sama’s son… from Orion. I did it that way because I didn’t want to screw up Rohan and Yadira’s relationship yet, even though I knew I’d need to in order to get the genetics right. At least, I think that’s how it happened. It could be that it’s Jovan (the other toddler) that’s the baby in the pics that are supposed to be Zane and that I made Zane in CAS with that as his first appearance, startling me as I expected him to look like Sama. Memory is a funny thing, and it’s been 2 1/2 years since. I have no idea, but it’s one of those two.
Anyway, Sama is getting Macie and Isolde settled. Zane has stranger anxiety and at first is scared of his own mother. It doesn’t last long, though.
Sama tells Macie that since Rohan isn’t using his house, she can live there. Isolde is living with Zuri for now (she and Asa aren’t at the move-in stage yet).
Sama goes upstairs but then sees Orion and some redheaded woman heading up to her house. Corrine walks in, and listening to her talk, she figures out who she is, shocked.
Orion is still mentally and emotionally wobbling, still trying to come to terms with what Corin did to himself by becoming herself. He mentions how the scars are gone, which makes the person seem even less like themselves. He knew the story behind each scar because he was there when they happened. Now, they’re wiped away.
Hand wrapped up, they head back home.
He really doesn’t know what to do with himself. Here’s where more of that sexist stuff comes in. He doesn’t feel like he can talk to Corrine the way he would talk to Corin, thinking that right now, he’d be regaling Corin with stories of everything that happened, but he’s not sure what he feels comfortable telling Corrine. (smh)
Of course, he still wants to know why it happened in the first place.
She doesn’t want to tell him, at least not yet, so he knows there IS a reason.
Back to Rohan!
Rohan is still miffed he’s alive.
He doesn’t want to move back into his house, so he decides he’ll fix up the one dilapidated structure left on the island. Perhaps a project is just what he needs. He heads up to the main settlement to talk to Vik about perhaps getting some kind of metal support beam. He wants to keep the upper floor.
His old house sits and stares at him accusingly. Then someone walks out of it!
Who the feck is this? Where did SHE come from? WHY was she in his house?
She explains to him that Sama said she could stay there but that she’d move out if he wanted the place. He doesn’t, but he’s upset that SAMA said what could be done with HIS house.
Sama comes out to see what all the fuss is about.
They argue with Macie pouting in the background.
Rohan gets around to saying he needs Vik’s help with something, but Sama tells him he’s planning on making Corrine a wrist brace. He finds out why, that Corrine broke her hand punching Orion in the jaw. This cracks him up, putting him in a better mood. Well, have Vik come down when he’s finished with that.
Macie starts bouncing up and down, realizing a way she can thank Rohan for the use of the house: she can help him build the new one. He doesn’t really want the help, but Sama acts like she REALLY LIKES that idea. (gets Macie out of her hair)
So Macie follows him down there, talking incessantly. He’s ‘thrilled.’
He finally asks her to be quiet, but then he feels bad when he sees he hurt her feelings. He apologizes. She says it’s okay, that she’d heard about his story. He starts complaining about his life.
She tells him about hers in a kind of way to let him know he’s not alone in thinking life sucks. Only… her story is MUCH WORSE that what he’d experienced.
He starts wondering ‘how does she do it? How is she better at life than I am?’ He finally gets some decent advice: ya just gotta keep going. It’s not easy, and it doesn’t get ‘better,’ but you find happy moments and hang onto them with everything you have.
We find out a little of why Macie was obsessed with Sama at first. She just knew her path lay with following Sama, not even realizing at first that she was the leader of a place far away. Now, she’s here, and it’s like magic.
“Do you believe in magic, Rohan?”
He thinks about Corrine and how he flew as an owl. “Not as such, but something definitely akin to it.”
“Then that.”
Back to Orion!
After a quick bit where we learn Corrine is bored, Orion remembers the small bag of seeds that Yadira had arranged for them to have. He hadn’t told Sama about it on the voyage home in case they didn’t survive the journey. Most of them did, and he shows her. She starts crying. He basically figures out from stuff she says that she might be pregnant. She says she doesn’t want everyone to know, and he promises they won’t tell.
That’s when he finds out that Corrine has gone off into her own little world while they’d been talking.
Sama mentions how Vik is making the brace. Corrine heads outside. After she leaves, Sama asks Orion how he’s doing. He replies that he’ll tell her as soon as he can figure it out for himself.
Outside, he stops and stares, thinking. He’s reminded of when people would paint portraits but leave out all the imperfections to make the person look better than they actually are. All the old imperfections were erased from Corrine. He guesses that perhaps this ‘Yadira’s brother’ guy must’ve been like ‘why not get rid of all the bad stuff?’ Then he compares her to a Barbie doll, more perfection stuff, and it kind of makes him angry. Still, he doesn’t want to be an ass, so he keeps his thoughts to himself.
Remember this bit?
I’d really, really wanted to keep things matchy-matchy chronologically, but it all started making me want to pull my hair out. It was getting to where I was going to have to organize some kind of chart or something to keep it all straight, so I gave up. It’ll all match up later. Promise. *wink*
Anyway, Reck has been missing Yadira. He’d not been seeing her because they’ve both been busy, so he decides to visit one evening, hoping to convince her to dine with him in the evenings.
He tries to be charming and stuff, but Yadira doesn’t trust him at all, telling him no, she’d rather relax in the evenings instead. Being around him puts her on her guard. He still (smh) doesn’t understand the sudden increase in hostility.
“Do I have to spell it out for you?”
“Because I kissed you?”
“I asked you not to.”
“Yeah, but then, you kissed me back.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
She chews him out, saying him kissing her anyway like that tells her he had no interest in how she felt in the matter. She may as well have slapped him for the effect her words have.
He tries, belatedly, to apologize, but she says she’ll only consider accepting it. Then, he reverts back to his old self for a little bit and says that either she eats with him in the evenings or she doesn’t eat supper at all. Then he storms out of the room.
When he gets back to his room, he’s devastated.
He allows himself to have a pity party for a few minutes before going and having a seat on the sofa.
He tells himself that if he wants her to stop hating him then first of all, he needs to stop acting like how he was just acting. He tries to come up with different things he could do but then shoots down each one with its likely outcome not being what he wants. Eventually, aggravated, he gets up and gets ready for bed. Then there’s a knock at his door.
It’s Yadira, at first furious then startled. Reading her face, accurately like he can do, he realizes she thinks he’s hot. WELL, that’s something he can work with!
Once she’s gathered herself, she demands he retract his proclamation that she only dine with him in the evenings. He immediately says he was in the wrong. (That strategy thing of his again: agree with whatever she says, even though he’d already decided that was what was going to happen.)
He starts wondering why he’d stopped the flirt thing back when she’d started unraveling him. Well, he’s ‘unraveled.’ That part of him didn’t change.
Trying to hide how just the sight of him disturbs her, she darts for the door.
Now, instead of devastated, he’s looking forward to the next steps.
Now onto Orion!
He and Corrine are back home from visiting Sama and Vik, Vik having given Corrine the hand brace. Neither of them have eaten a thing all day.
** I almost taught myself how to make CC with this. I could not find the kind of hand brace I needed for these chapters, so in the pics, she’s wearing the same wrap she was before. (Yes, believe me, I looked, but I think what I had in mind doesn’t even exist in real life. After all, it’s not her wrist that’s the problem; it’s the bones in her hand.)
Orion wonders if maybe they should’ve gotten more aspirin bark. Corrine has a better idea.
She’d previously found a bottle of Cuervo from a trip to the mainland. That’ll be a good painkiller. Orion’s like ‘it’s the middle of the day.’ Corrine’s like, ‘I don’t think Jose Cuervo would be bothered.’
So, Orion pulls down two huge mugs and pours way too much into each of them.
** Some of my own feelings about tequila get put into this. I’m more of a whiskey person. With my stupid sinuses, the burn is almost a blessing (medicinal! lol). And, knock on wood, I tend not to get bad hangovers if at all–but I sure as fuck do when I drink tequila.
Corrine giggles at Orion’s reaction as he thinks it goes down like water… until it doesn’t. She finishes hers off and wants more, but he’s like ‘ye’ve had like six shots already.’ He won’t let her, constantly moving the bottle farther away. She stands up to get it from on the floor beside the sofa next to him and trips over her own feet.
He catches her. It was an automatic thing. Yeah.
Everyone together now: Awwwwwww. /facepalm.
So he realizes he’s probably had too much because he just consciously thought that his best mate is actually quite lovely. Kinda freaked out about that, he places her on the floor and sits next to her, saying ‘no mas, mi amigo.’ That makes Corrine giggle, and she goes about trying (and horrifically failing) to count to ten in Spanish, claiming she can.
Well… Ono, dus, threes, quatre… no wait.
Oh yeah, she gets ONE correct: cinco.
The whole thing has them laughing. They don’t make it past eight (which Orion incorrectly says octo) before she’s passing out.
Orion, also plastered, sits and stares at her, deciding she’s like Corin’s more attractive sister or something. He still wants to know why, so he leans in and asks, ‘Why did ye want… ta be… a lass?’ She mumbles, ‘So you would like me.’ Well, that confuses the heck out of him, and he starts wondering why the hell Corin thought he didn’t like him.
Then he realizes she meant the other kind of ‘like.’
** Yeah, ‘fancy’ would’ve made more sense here, but I kinda like that even almost unconscious, Corrine still wouldn’t be plainly obvious. In fact, in the next chapter, she’s glad she didn’t use ‘fancy,’ even though it looks like he’s figured it out.
And that’s that!
To go to chapter 50, click HERE.
Currently, this is the last summary since 50 is the latest chapter (51 tomorrow).
Thank you for reading! As always, leave a like or comment or both. 🙂
After the End 