Page 224 of Interion

“But you don't even know if the relationship would actually work out, Aish. Maybe it would end in a month or two.”

“Zoozi, no. I don't want to hear it. I like my life the way it is—I like going out to parties and kissing as many people as I can. I like waking up in a different person's bed every week. I don't want to change that.”

“Is Hiro really that horrible?”

For the first time, her expression turned sad and the scowl crumbled.

“On the contrary,” she replied, deflated. “He's one of the best men I've ever met. And he's a damn good kisser.” She looked at me and smiled without a hint of shame. “Well, you know that, don't you?”

I felt my cheeks burn. Of course I knew—Hiro wasn't bad at all—but I had a partner, and no man, no matter how gorgeous and incredible, would ever come close to Zion. I cleared my throat and changed the subject.

“If he's all that, then what's the problem?” I really didn't understand Aish's reasons. “Is it because he's... poor?”

Her eyes went wide as she shook her head vehemently, waving her hands, then her whole body, as if the thought disgusted her.

“No! Absolutely not. I admire him even more for that—for working hard and taking care of his grandparents. Money is definitely not a problem for me. In fact, in my nation, women are the ones who pay the bills.” She started putting away her clothes while venting. “The problem is that you Interions don't understand our culture. In Ampér, marriages are rare because we're free to be with as many people as we want. We can get married, but we'll always have relationships with other people, and that's normal—we're used to sexual freedom and polyamory. But here...” She shifted her weight from one leg to the other and put her hands on her narrow waist. “Here you get married and stay trapped in that relationship. You think you should love only one person for the rest of your life, have sex with only one person. I could never get used to that. And Hiro? He smells like home, like children and a stable life. He smells like a home, zoozi. And I'm a daughter of Ampér—my father is the second-in-command to Ampér's general. We're nomads, warriors, and proud. We weren't made for marriage.”

Her eyes shone as she spoke of her nation and the life she imagined for herself. I raised my hands in surrender.

“If you don't want any of that, then why are you so worked up about him? Why did you storm off the mat?”

“Because he's the devil,” she fumed, gesturing indignantly with her hands. “Remember what I told you earlier about sleeping with six guys? Well, guess what?”

I stared at her, confused, as her hands kept moving.

“He said that if I needed six men to satisfy me, it's because I've been looking in the wrong places. He said if I gave him a chance, I'd never need to look for anyone else again. Then, when he pinned me on the mat, he got hard against my ass, Kyller.” Aish ran her hands through her hair, reliving the scene. “He got hard and said he was winning the fight to prove he's worthy of an Amperian woman, but he wasn't going to claim any rights over me—he'd wait for me to want him on my own. Hiro didn't ask me to date him, or marry him, or any of that bullshit Interions like. He asked me to fuck him, Kyller.”

I started laughing, and Aish shot me an even more agitated look.

“Sorry. It's just that I can't stop picturing Hiro coming up with this whole plan.” I held back my laughter. “The man is absolutely unbelievable.”

“And he did it while beating me in a fight, zoozi.” She paced back and forth. “And he won the damn fight. Do you know what that means in Ampér?”

“No.”

“In Ampér, that means he's worthy of me. Normally, women test their men before marrying them. If the man wins the fight, it means he can protect the family. If he loses, he's considered too weak for that wife. When a woman likes her man, she goes easy on him, but I didn't go easy, and he still won.”

I shook my head, tired of watching the drama between the two of them.

“Aish, if you really don't want anything with him, then just spell it out and be crystal clear. Hiro will understand.” I used a soothing tone, because she was on the verge of a meltdown. Aish took a deep breath.

“The thing is, I do want him,” she confessed, stopping her pacing and looking me in the eyes. “I got turned on. He pinned me to the floor and all I could think about was taking him to bed and riding that big damn cock.” She ran her hand over her face, looking disturbed, and I settled on the bench, eager to hear her confession. “Hiro's flaw is that he has no flaws. I'm trying to find one, but it's impossible. He's a good man, and if he gets involved with me, he'll have problems with my culture, my family, and with me. I don't know if I could commit to just one person.”

Aish's eyes shone like a child spotting an expensive toy she desperately wanted to get her hands on.

“Then talk to him and explain everything. He deserves that,” I said, standing up as she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder, heading us toward the door.

“I’ll talk to him after the test. I don’t have the headspace for anything else right now, and my hormones are totally unreliable.”

“And when have they ever been reliable?” I asked, laughing.

She shot me a wry look, then threw an arm over my shoulders and messed up my hair, nearly sending us tumbling onto the campus lawn. I let out a playful shriek and went for her braids, and suddenly we were chasing each other around like little kids.

Amperian culture was the most distinct of all, with its own rules and nuances when it came to love. They were staunchly feminist, and women were typically the heads of their families. Men simply accompanied them—or tried to—since they were only needed for having children, and even that was becoming a thing of the past as more women decided they didn’t want kids.

I thought of Adele and all the women of the north. Ampér and Yonser were polar opposites, both geographically and culturally. I wished the biggest problem for Yonserian women was choosing between one man or many, but the reality there was far worse.

When we finally tired of our game and were disheveled enough to give Ambrose—with his razor-sharp aesthetic sense—a heart attack from sheer disgust, we walked cheerfully toward the exit gate. The campus thermometer read five degrees, and in the silence of the street, the sound of our teeth chattering was incredibly annoying. Aish told me her father was trying to land her a lieutenant position in the Amperian squadron. She was excited about the news but still wasn’t sure if that was really what she wanted. For now, she’d go wherever the pay was better, and Ampér didn’t pay that well. The best salaries came from Interion and Vinturis. I told her I wanted to stay at the hospital, and she rolled her eyes, saying being a doctor was so boring, but it suited me. We laughed, then looked at each other with shining eyes.