Sneaking our purchases into the house without anyone noticing was a coordinated effort of distraction and giggles. As much as Fara claimed to not see the point in the jewelry or the ceremony altogether, she’d had a lot of fun helping me pick out a lovely set of delicate, iridescent bracelets. IGoHA was not strict about jewelry or body modifications, but we’d gone with something subtle that could easily disappear under a sleeve cuff. You never knew who or what you’d encounter on another planet.
Nate was my last target, and I knew he had some inkling of what was going on before I even stepped out into the garden with him the next morning. Like Fara had said, Josh was walking around with his head in the clouds. He was not a subtle man. It didn’t take a master of observation to see he was exc
