comfortable clothing when we got home. He had cooked a lot the morning before and frozen the leftovers, so we ended up finishing them off for lunch.
As we sat at the table, I couldn't stop thinking about the marriage office, keenly aware of the new weight on my finger.
"Patrian marriages," I said, chewing slowly, "do they all take place in an office like that? Are there no proper ceremonies, like we have in Matrus?" Are they all so perfunctory? was what I was curious to know.
"No," Lee said, dabbing the sides of his mouth with a napkin. "There are traditional ceremonies here, too. Some men opt for lavish arrangements, while others prefer to keep it low-key. It just depends on the man… and how much he takes into consideration the preferences of his bride."
"I see," I muttered. Whatever weddings took place in Matrus were almost always accompanied by ceremonies. Even if they weren't grand or lavish, efforts were made to hold a small gathering at least.
"Well," Lee said, finishing his meal and standing, "I'm going to take Samuel out for a walk and then we can head off. In the meantime, feel free to do whatever you want around the house. Make yourself at home and maybe freshen up for this evening. I suspect we'll end up going to a restaurant for dinner, so we could be out fairly late."
My eyes followed him as he moved across the room to drop his plate in the sink and then headed out of the kitchen. He called for Samuel and led him to the door.
Finishing my food, I rose from the table and moved to the window, peering through the blinds as they left.
I glanced furtively at my ring again before walking to the sink to wash up the few dirty dishes.
Make myself at home . That was something I'd had to try to do a lot over the last decade, though I hadn't had a true home since my mother died.
I headed to the bathroom and after splashing cool water on my face, I decided to wander around the house a bit. I found myself roaming the stories of the triangular building, gaining a better understanding of Lee in the process. He really didn't like clutter, we were alike in that sense, and there were hardly any ornaments or decorations, except for the odd abstract painting on the wall. His own bedroom—bigger than mine but hardly containing more—also held a single bed.
There was an exercise room on the second floor, containing dumbbells and several large pieces of equipment, and next to it I discovered a library. Its walls were lined with tall glass bookcases, and I noticed he had an awful lot of books on guns, explosives and other weaponry, a lot more than he had about biology, which was supposed to be his primary occupation—this kind of unnerved me. Then there was a whole shelf dedicated to psychology.
I picked a book up—one about the history of arms development in Patrus, which listed every single gun invented by Patrian natives—and sat down with it in an armchair. A few of them were familiar to me from my training with Ms. Dale. Although I was sure the weapons I'd trained with had been produced in Matrus (it would be rather hypocritical for Matrus to import goods as destructive as guns from Patrus) the design was practically identical.
I paged through the dusty pages until Lee and Samuel returned, both panting as they moved inside. Apparently their walk had turned into a jog.
Lee headed to his room to take a shower and get ready for the evening—something for which he only needed fifteen minutes. Then he was downstairs again, looking crisp and fresh as ever, wearing a new suit—deep burgundy in color.
Leaving the house, we rode back down the mountain to the city, while the sky darkened overhead. On arrival at the lab—a seven-story building whose walls consisted entirely of shiny, dark-tinted glass—Lee punched a code into a number pad and the gates drew open, allowing us inside. After parking and removing our helmets, Lee took my right hand and planted it firmly around his arm before leading me through the
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