Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Good question.
“Probably.” Yep, we were deer in the headlights in a lot of situations. “You weren’t rude, though.”
He was just unexpected in a lot of ways.
“Mike wants dino nuggets?” The woman whose brain had started to come back online turned and frowned at her wide-eyed husband or boyfriend, maybe. I couldn’t see a ring but that didn’t mean anything lately. “I thought we bought these for your sister’s kids.”
Oh.
Blink.
Blink.
“We do?”
Oh, classic mistake.
It’d come out as a question and he hadn’t caught it in time.
He tried to stand straighter and look bored, but it didn’t work. “I mean, we do.”
She didn’t believe it for a second, but instead of arguing with him, which was what I thought she’d do, she turned back to Jerker. “He wants the dino ones?”
Somehow, the situation just kept getting more and more interesting.
“Yes.” There was no doubt in his voice and the fact that he opened the freezer case to give her a package of the fun ones showed how confident he was. “He desires these. His physical reactions were unmistakable.”
Trading her for the organic ones she’d grabbed, Jerker put the healthy ones back.
“From what I have learned of human eating habits, if a human desires special-shaped nuggets, they must come with sauces for dipping.” Jerker’s gaze bounced between the two humans. “Do you have sauce?”
She blinked.
He shook his head.
“Human preferences vary between the one titled ranch and sweet-based sauces such as barbecue. What is your desire?” Jerker didn’t get stressed when they both started blinking at him. “Your physical reactions suggest a preference for barbecue. That is not unexpected, given the statistics.”
I wasn’t even going to look at the bottle of barbecue sauce that was in our cart, but I did start mentally planning what vegetables we should get. Clearly I had the eating habits of a little and we were going to fix that.
“Do you need help picking out a variation? Decisions can be hard for humans.” Jerker did great and didn’t mention anything about submission. “I do not find decision-making to be difficult.”
Understatement of the year right there.
“No.” She blinked, something about his tone or comments finally snapping her back to reality. “We can handle that. I know what brand he likes. I just…I don’t think about buying it.”
Hmm.
She glanced over at her still wide-eyed partner and stood straighter. “I’ll make sure we have it on hand in the future.”
Asking what she was thinking would’ve definitely crossed us into rude territory—sailed into it probably—but I was so curious it was hard to hold the question back.
“That pleases your human male.” Jerker either wasn’t as nosy as I was or he’d already figured out what their issues were. “Communication is very important.”
She nodded, but it seemed automatic because her brain was obviously focused on something else entirely. “Thank you. Yes.”
“You are welcome.” Jerker seemed content with her vague head bob as they walked away.
He just looked pleased as punch and turned back to me. “Being helpful is polite. Is it not?”
Adorable.
“Yes.” Technically, he was right. “I think you just gave them a lot to think about.”
Nodding, he ran a tentacle over my head. “Communication. Humans struggle with it for a variety of reasons.”
Oh yeah.
“We’re doing pretty good, though.” Letting him start pushing the cart further down the frozen food aisle, I raised one eyebrow and gave him a side glance I knew he couldn’t miss. “But I think you might’ve forgotten to mention how often you’ve been at the grocery store lately.”
Yeah, communication worked both ways.
Ugh, that was probably the reason all the employees kept nodding at him like they were buds. They were.
Jerker made a thinking sound but couldn’t distract me with cuddles or an orgasm, so he actually answered. “There are many things about human food I do not understand. Education is best learned by doing.”
He’d needed a hands-on education about food and that meant lots of grocery trips?
“Okay.” It made sense, but as I grabbed some frozen broccoli, I still had some questions. “But why did you hide it?”
That was the part I was missing.
“I did not want to look like I was lacking in education in something as simple as food.” He tried to say it casually but something about it felt off.
“I think you’re very smart.” Stepping closer to the cart so he could wrap a tentacle around my waist, I leaned into him. “This is just new. That doesn’t make you uneducated. If one of us isn’t educated, it’s me. I barely passed high school.”
He’d been running a spaceship and was learning about a whole new species faster than I could learn Spanish.
“You are not lacking in education. You perform complex tasks of caretaking and management. Those are very important.” Jerker was either shocked or offended as his limbs twitched. “The human mate Nicholas made it clear you are the only one he trusts to help him. He defines you as meticulously careful. That is a very impressive word, my Theo.”