“Never mind,” Josette said to the sales guy. “Where are you from?”
“Uh, where am I from?”
“You know, what country on this planet?”
The guy looked from Josette to Noc and Franka, got no help, so he looked back to Josette.
“America,” he answered.
Josette turned to Noc. “That’s where we are now, right?”
“Yeah, babe.” Noc’s voice was shaking, “That’s where we are now.”
Josette turned again to the sales guy and declared, “You’re very handsome. We don’t have many handsome men like you where I’m from.”
The guy’s eyes got huge then they dropped to Josette’s impressive rack.
At that, Noc had to take half a step back (taking Frannie with him) and bend at the waist a little to alleviate the pain in his side from controlling his laughter.
“Darling,” Frannie murmured but said no more, and he could hear in that one word she thought it was hilarious too.
“I’m uncertain what the etiquette is,” Josette went on. “Where I’m from, I’d just ask you, after you’re finished with your duties, if you’d like to meet me at a pub for an ale and then take me to your bed.” She again turned to Noc as he made a choking noise. “What do you do here?”
“Uh,” he pushed out, “not that…exactly.”
Josette took in Noc’s position, expression and tone, and not stupid, she interpreted all of them.
Which meant she returned her attention back to the guy, murmuring, “Pity.”
“Jesus, where are you from?” he whispered.
“Not here,” Josette gave him the understatement of the decade, looked to the display of stuff at her side and asked, “What’s that?”
“Same as the other band but it has a clock on it and monitors your heart rate,” the guy answered, sounding strangled.
“Now, why on earth would you need that?” Josette asked.
“Young fellow,” Franka called before he could respond, and Noc swallowed a bark of laughter at the words she chose.
Josette and the sales guy turned their attention to her and when they did, the sales guy again had big eyes, probably because he’d never been called “young fellow” in his life.
Franka went on, “We’re here for telephones. As illuminating as this is, perhaps we should move on to that part of our expedition.”
“Right this way,” he said quickly and moved even quicker. He started his spiel before they got to the phone section. “We have a wide selection, a number of plans, different data options, our coverage is the best in the country and—”
“I’ll take that one,” Franka declared, pointing at a rose-gold iPhone.
“Yes, pink!” Josette exclaimed. “I’ll take that one too.” She whirled to Franka. “We’ll have twin telephones, Franka! Won’t that be divine?”
“Indeed it will, my dear,” Franka murmured, again sounding amused.
The salesman stood in the midst of a sea of phones and looked to Noc.
“Let’s just go with that, yeah?” Noc suggested.
“Right,” the guy mumbled.
“To make this easy on you, they’re probably not gonna need more than three gigs on the plan,” he told him. “They’re also not gonna need the larger storage capacity on the phone.”
“Gotcha,” came the reply. “I’ll go get ’em now.”
And he took off.
Fast.
“Well, that’s somewhat rude,” Josette muttered, eyeing him as he went and looking put out.
“My assumption from his earlier reaction is,” Franka started and Noc looked to her, “regardless of the fact that the women wear far less clothing, as do the men on some occasions, the sexual mores here are more stringent than they are at home, am I correct?”
Since he still had her in his hold, Noc curled her into his front, enjoying watching that slim, gorgeous neck of hers arch further back to keep hold of his gaze as he answered, “Not sure I can answer that question accurately. Didn’t go on the prowl in your world, sugarlips.”
She nodded smartly, sharing, “Josette told no tales. In our world, it’s not unusual for a young woman, or man, to approach someone they find attractive and offer to share their bed. Flirting is sometimes utilized, but it’s also often abandoned. No use wasting time when you can discover quite quickly if both parties desire the same thing. Is this not done here?”
He fought a grin as he shook his head and added, “Nope.”
“Oh dear, was I rude?” Josette asked, sounding horrified.
Noc looked to her. “I figure he’s never gonna forget today, not in a bad way, and right about now he’s trying to decide if you saw his wedding band so he can take it off, come back out and take you up on your offer.”
“Wedding band?” Franka asked.
He looked down into her beautiful face, still unable to decide if it was more beautiful made up or not.
When he did he thought of seeing that face for the first time in months the night before.
He also thought of all the brilliance that came after.
Especially the brilliance of what she’d said right before she drifted to sleep in his arms.
He then forced himself to stop thinking about this because, if he didn’t, he’d drag Frannie to his Suburban, take her to his new place and not give a shit they were leaving Josette behind. And that would not only not be cool, Josette was not like a babe in the woods.
She was like a kid in a candy store.