A Seeker Betrayed

29. Nightlife

"The local nightlife?" Satza Etchik asked. "Depends on what you want to do. I can show you... We can get food and then what? Gaming? Clubbing? Or find someone to take back to bed for the evening?"

Gamman heard Lord Durban chuckle and he ignored it, responding with the question, "When you say clubbing, what are the local clubs like? I'm not looking to take someone back to my room... I'm looking to have some fun out in the open. If I said I'm full of energy and looking for a guy who doesn't mind being watched, do you have that here?"

Satza Etchik's discomfort with the question was palpable. Gamman had marked him as someone that liked men, but that was apparently as far as he went. However, he gamely replied, "I know what you're talking about. I think I can get what you want, just... let's go get something to eat and I'll work it out for you."

At around the time they sat down to eat - again, at a raised table, kind of like the place that Gamman liked to hang out with his friends before a night of play at Kiyiya back home - Gamman thought he could hear A'Gahtay's voice. That's weird, he thought. The impression that A'Gahtay was trying to reach him came through clearly, even though he was nowhere in range of a rignode. Maybe it was a lingering effect from the other night.

When Etchik started to pepper Gamman with questions about himself, he decided to push back. He answered the one about his work, but then, when asked if he had anyone "special," he replied, "You mean, like a mate? That's not my thing. What about you, are you mated?"

The man pursed his dark lips and made an annoyed face. "Me? No. I had someone but he lives in Cal'Ria now."

"Have you thought of moving out there?" Gamman asked. Cal'Ria was the region to the northeast. The farmland that stretched across Et'Ria spread through half of Cal'Ria and was then consumed by rich forests full of valuable timber, clear to the eastern coast.

"I'm not leaving my family for - excuse me - a lame-ass dick that's willing to trade love for money."

Gamman cocked his head, asking, "He left you for someone else?"

"That's the impression I got. He said he was leaving for a job, but...." The Satza looked off to the side. "I dunno. It became clear to me that he had his employers dick so far up his ass that there was no room for me anymore."

The others in Gamman's party all laughed, and Gamman was only just barely able to keep a straight face. "I apologize, that must be a local expression." Quickly, he went on, "You just let him leave? Did you try to get him back?"

"What's the point," Etchik said, looking irritated. "Back when he left, we talked it through and I thought he was just going there to try out the work. But it looks like he was cheating on me, so-"

"Cheating?" Gamman asked. "You were exclusive then?"

"Yes. I was, anyway."

Gamman tilted his head back and settled back in his chair. "Well...." How to phrase it? "Well, I don't think of it as cheating, it's more like, a bad decision. I take care of my lovers, and if they don't like it they can go somewhere else." As soon as he said it, A'Gahtay's visage came to mind, looking sweet with his wet eyes and smooth, pink lips. "Of course, if they go to someone else, that does pretty much end my interest...." His voice trailed off. He remembered about the voice he had heard earlier. It would be morning there, in the Jitae. How had A'Gahtay spent his night?

He felt irritable. Tension rose in his chest and his stomach tightened. He didn't like feeling that way and he looked at the man sitting across from him. "You don't do sex clubs here?"

Etchik hesitated before shaking his head.

"What do you do for fun then?"

"Gaming. I smoke a bit, go hang out and drink. Sometimes we go dancing or go see what festivals there are."