stuff, she checked the time on her wristcon.
Eighteen hundred standard shift hours. She had thirty more minutes to waste before she had to meet up with Pigeon and Raul at Termite, a bar Pigeon insisted they all go to for a drink. She didn’t want to go and had no intention of getting a drink, but anywhere was better than being on the ship.
She grabbed a couple of packs of medium shirts, pants, and a sweater for something to wear when she needed to pretend to be cold. And socks. She couldn’t forget socks. Alexa paid for her clothes and ducked out.
For the past two hours, she’d been in and out of stores. She thought—when everyone disembarked to leave the Questor—that she’d just follow one of the other crewmates and join them on their errands. Raul at least would be free, right? But when her boots hit the terminal, they’d all vanished into the crowd, leaving her without a place to go.
That’s fine. Alexa chewed on the inside of her cheek. I shouldn’t have expected company anyway. She was used to it.
It was her fault for getting attached.
Libra wasn’t anything new. The port didn’t have the tri-suns of Elyria, the history of Earth, or the vastness of Titan. It was just a hunk of metal floating through space. Though she was swept away by the noise and Libra's buzzing crowds. Humans from all over the universe swarmed around her. Watching them was surprisingly interesting.
She gave them backstories and wished she was among them, that she was a captain of one of the many ships docked. It would never be, but she liked to pretend.
Alexa glanced at her wristcon again.
She had fifteen minutes until she needed to be at Termite. The bar was at the end of the dock and up the rafters, where people could drink and watch the bustle below at the same time.
She stopped at the last store on her list. The one Alexa had avoided. A lingerie shop. Stringy, lacy garments hung off androids in the front in colors of red, black, and gold. Some had chains, others were made of leather, and still, there was an entire corner where there wasn’t any color at all—only bridal white.
Like anyone’s coming here to buy wedding night undergarments.
Alexa shifted on her feet. Maybe people here are into roleplay. She glanced around uneasily.
She pretended to look at the store beside this one, selling textiles and bolts of cloth. But her eyes kept shifting back to the lingerie.
Damn it, just walk in.
She gritted her teeth and entered the shop. Glitter, sweet-scented perfume, and soft music met her upon the first step through the archway. She swept her gaze over the room. There, in the center of the store, clearly in view of the entrance, was a table with piles of underwear upon it in every material and color. Her fingers stretched out for the cotton underwear but stopped midway.
They fell upon silky black panties instead.
They would barely cover her, and there was a slit in them down the middle. So you can wear them while having sex? She rubbed the material between her finger and thumb. Alexa flushed, imagining what that would be like.
What Hysterian would do if he saw her in them…
Her callouses snagged in the material.
“Those are a favorite with the men here,” a woman said from behind her.
Alexa pivoted, clutching the underwear to her chest. “I’m only looking.”
It was an android. A beautiful, older-looking one. She wore a silky red robe, open in the front, to reveal perfect breasts wrapped up in ruby satin. Auburn hair fell over her shoulders in thick waves, ending on a curl down her back.
Alexa gripped the panties harder.
The lady smiled. “They’d look good on you.”
“What would?”
The android’s eyes twinkled. “Those panties, of course.”
Alexa dropped her eyes. “Oh, right.”
“I know just the thing to wear them with,” the shopkeeper said, turning on her heel and stepping toward a rack exploding with black lingerie and lace. She yanked something out, and then another thing, and returned before Alexa could tell her not to. “This. This would match those panties and make you a goddess. Men will fall on their knees to worship you.”
A black robe fell between them like a waterfall, and with it, a lacy garter belt with a matching bra. The back of the bra had a large, black bow.
A gift.
More than anything, Alexa wanted to touch the fabric. “You think so?” she whispered.
She imagined what Hysterian would do if he saw