Unexpected

Chapter Thirteen

"I'm not really a messy person," she said.

"Where are all your tools? I thought you'd have some sort of workbench or something."

She rolled her eyes. "Do you bring all your work home with you?"

"Actually, yes," Kai admitted. "It's kind of a problem."

"Well, some of us don't want to mix personal and professional. Though with a step-dad who was in the racing business, that wasn't always possible."

"Who are all the people in the pictures?" Kai asked as he walked toward the living room area. He felt more comfortable calling it that in his head than admitting again that it was the bedroom area.

Cinder joined him and pointed at a few. "That's my cousin, Winter. She's the one I was telling you about. And that's her husband Jacin."

"Husband?" Kai asked. "They look rather young."

"They got married when they were like, 21, I think. They've been best friends since as long as I can remember. Once they finally admitted to each other that they were in love, it didn't take too long for him to pop the question."

"But they don't live here."

"No, but they come maybe once every two months?" She scrunched her face, calculating. "Maybe you'll meet them sometime."

"I'd like that," he said. "Now who are all these kids?"

"Oh, just kids I've met or worked with. I volunteer at the hospital sometimes."

"Which one?"

"Farafrah. The one on 8th and 36?"

"Yeah, I know that one. Rikan Corp sometimes donates there."

"I know," she said, "I've seen your wing there in the past. It's wonderful that you're involved with something like that."

Kai thought that it was much more wonderful that Cinder volunteered with children at a hospital, rather than just give money. But, admittedly, they both had their place.

"You have a lot of books too."

"You're just a regular Sherlock Holmes today, aren't you?"

Kai smirked as he walked to the nearest bookcase. "Just enjoying getting to know a little more about you." He perused the spines and eventually pulled a book off of the shelf. "The Lunar Chronicles, huh?"

Cinder suddenly became very excited. "It's my new favorite series! There's this girl and she meets this Prince—"

"—and let me guess, they live happily ever after?"

Cinder crossed her arms, but began to speak with even more enthusiasm. "No, not really, well—at least not yet—I'm hoping they will, but that's beside the point. It's set in the future and it's like a cross between Cinderella and Star Wars and The Terminator. And the main character is a cyborg. With an android best friend."

Kai raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but grin at how excited she was over this book. She was so cute right now. "I guess that's one I'll have to read."

"Would you seriously?" she said with just a little too much eagerness.

"Sure," said Kai. "If you like it that much, I bet it's good. I don't usually get the chance to do too much reading outside of work normally, but with such a high recommendation, how could I not?" He opened the book and began rifling through. "Cyborgs, huh?"

Cinder suddenly ripped the book out of his hands. "Kai, no! You cannot just open up a book and skim through it. What if you landed on a spoiler?"