Ch 2 Anywhere (8)

"Dinner, sorry I couldn't get away for lunch." The door slid closed behind Goliath. He had a plate in each hand this time instead of on a tray. I blinked at the food.

"How can you have real meat?" The plates had grilled chicken on a bed of rice with mixed veggies. The chicken breast wasn't overly large but it looked like real chicken.

"The farmers work with us. The lab grown stuff is putting them out of business unless the one percenters buy their goods. So they want us to win." Goliath put the plates on the desk. Then turned to face me.

He wasn't really looking at me though it was clear he was trying to decide what he wanted to say and how. "Do I have to work for my dinner? If you talked with Red more he probably would suggest something like that." I stood up and stepped so that I was within easy reach.

Goliath who had been doing a pretty good job at not showing what he was feeling looked like I had punched him. "No!" He said it just a little too quickly and I couldn't help but smile at him. Goliath looked down first. "Well yes he did say something like that but I wouldn't do that. I wanted to know why you tried to get in the closet."

"I couldn't remember if there was a mirror in there."

Goliath looked at me again and blushed just a bit, at this angle he had to look down to see my face and he should have an interesting angle. Guess he did like the outfit on me. Confidence is key, you can get away with almost anything as long as you pretend to be confident about it. Truth is no one is ever actually confident, unless they are stupid. I would think stupid people are confident.

Goliath took a step back from me hitting the desk. He was enough taller than me that it didn't help change his view, not that being across this small room would change the view much either. "There is, but it would be bad if you go in there without me around."

"I figured, since it is locked. How old are you anyway?"

Goliath's face went blank again. "Why?"

"Because it matters to me, if you are like 30 or more you are just pervy, I am only 16 but you should know that from my school record."

"18."

"See that wasn't so hard." I reached around him and picked up one of the plates. It smelled great, I prefer real food to the lab grown healthy food served at school. The AIs picked most of what we ate and food related health problems were a thing of the past, but food just lost something when it so analyzed.

I sat back down on the foot locker with the plate, picking up the fork that had been left on the side. Two meals not a table, my grandmother would be having a fit right now. You eat at a table, not a desk, not in front of electronics and not in bed, useless you were too sick to get up. When Goliath seemed more sure I wasn't going to attack him, he hopped up and sat on the desk.

We ate in silence, he finished before I did but that made sense, he was a soldier, I was not. It was good food. When he finished he kicked the bottom drawer with the back of his booted heal. It popped open with a scraping sound. "It gets stuck sometimes. Right now only the weapons are off limits, She-u."

I felt myself smiling at him while I finished my food. When I finished I stood and put my plate on the one he had emptied. He offered me a canteen he had brought with him and I took it. With a quick sniff as I tilted it up I made sure it was water before I took a big swallow. It was instinct to check it but I really wasn't worried about Goliath. If he had wanted to do anything all he had needed to do was keep me tied down.

Then again he had been watching me, at least some, to know I had not been able to open the stuck door. I wondered just how many sensors were in this room, as I handed the canteen back. The water had been chilled and had the added minerals I was used to so it tasted fresh.

Goliath turned to set the canteen back on the desk but he froze as I touched his jacket. My hand ran along the inside up to his shoulder, careful to avoid the hand gun holster and knife that the jacket had covered. So he carried weapons even in base. After the moment of surprise his hand moved like a snake snatching mine to a stop before it moved behind his shoulder. His grip was carefully measured even if he had moved quickly. "What are you doing?"

"Deciding what I want. Even if it might be a little spurred by what I don't want."

Goliath pushed me gently but firmly by the hand he had caught until I took a step back. He didn't let go of it. "What do you mean?"

"I don't want my first kiss, or anything else to be from a machine. Especially a machine that is open to anyone that can pay for it."

His expression didn't change but I could feel something dark behind his eyes. "So I beat a machine. You could wait, if I have more time I could probably get you a different connection."

"Probably isn't reliable enough, and you beat more than a machine. I only said that spurred my choice, it doesn't make it." I considered freeing my wrist, I had no doubt he would let go if I pulled but I decided against it.

Goliath watched me from where he sat on the desk. I wished I could read his mind, he was big but I think that made him more careful about how much power he was using. It was hard to wait him out, "You don't know me."