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Arkon grinned. “So are you going to get used to being dismissed?”

Morsek chuckled. “If she can cook anything else, I am sure he will be willing to put up with the dismissal.”

Hazor smiled. “I am not an overseer, I am not a prefect, I am not a mayor, I am a guardian. If she and I engage in a courtship, she will make her insistence known, and I believe it will involve her residing here. I can do that.”

The guys looked at him. “Really? Will your mother allow it?”

“If she is compatible, there is no reason that I can’t dispatch from Yematic City.”

Arkon looked at him. “But... your mother’s manor.”

“I don’t need it. Housekeeping bots can tidy things, and if I am lucky, Cloudy would make breakfast at five in the morning before work.”

Morsek shrugged. “Or you could fly her to work and get a hot meal here.”

Hazor smiled. “Perhaps. We will see how the testing works out.”

Arkon laughed. “You already know.”

“It has to be official for her to get benefits. My mother will insist on it. If Hazda were here, she could read the frequencies, but she isn’t, so we have to do it with scanners.”

They finished their hot meals and dove into the fruit ice.

Hazor blinked at the first flavour. It was as if summer had been frozen and was delivered to his spoon.

“Do you think she would shove my head in the ice shaver if I asked for another?”

There was a cheerful singsong voice from the stall. “Yeh-ess!”

They laughed, finished, cleared up, and put the containers in the recycler station. Hazor got a notice on his com and walked up to the door at the side of the stall. “Cloudy?”

“Yes, Guardian?”

He smiled. “Do you have time at seven this evening to go to the assessment centre?”

“Uh, I think I can make it.”

“Good. Then, you can get this over with.” He smiled as she blushed, and it darkened her skin to a burnished brown where the green had been added.

She huffed. “Fine. Do you have any details so I know who to ask for?”

“Give me your com code.”

She wrinkled her nose and stuck out her wrist, and he tapped his onto it. Her information bloomed on his wrist, and her eyes widened. “Hey, you have my address on there.”

He grinned. “Of course. I have an enhanced unit. Job requirement.”

“Don’t talk about having an enhanced unit. People will talk,” she muttered.

He laughed and inclined his head. “Thank you, Miss Cloudy Merryweather,” he said carefully.

“Oh, darn.” She sighed. Her com chirped, and she got the information for the assessment centre. She knew where it was. It was where her parents worked.

He looked at her and grinned. “But I can see you know where to go.”

“Uh, yeah. They are on day shift.”