Brides of the Kindred(33)
That thought conjured an image of Baird in a frilly apron helping to make chocolate chip cookies. Yeah, right, Liv told herself. He’s probably just like Mitch when it comes to anything to do with cooking. Her ex-fiancé wouldn’t have known a spatula from a whisk and burned water when he attempted to cook anything. He also had what Liv had privately termed ‘hysterical kitchen blindness’ meaning that he would stand in the middle of the kitchen and say, “Hon, where did you put the ketchup?” while staring straight at the Heinz bottle. It was like he honestly couldn’t see anything in the kitchen, even if it was right in front of him. Even a huge pile of dirty dishes. Especially a huge pile of dirty dishes, Liv amended to herself.
She wondered if Baird was the same way. If he thought he’d brought her up here for a month’s worth of free maid service, he had another think coming. Just because she had to eat at his table and sleep in his bed didn’t mean she was going to wash his dirty socks and make him steak and potatoes every night or whatever it was that the Kindred ate.
Speaking of what they ate, she turned back to the source of the light and realized the chilly panel had slid back to reveal what appeared to be some kind of refrigerator. At least it was cold like a refrigerator, she noted, shivering in a blast of frigid air. She was still wearing the ridiculous black lace nighty she’d slept in the night before which seemed a million years ago now. She really hoped that her clothes and the things she’d asked Sophie and Kat to send her got to the Kindred ship soon—like before she had to sleep in Baird’s bed that night.
Pushing that scary thought out of her head, Liv turned her attention back to the sort-of fridge in front of her. It was cold and rectangular and that was where the resemblance to any kind of refrigerator she was used to ended.
Inside the Kindred fridge, instead of shelves there were hooks attached to the top and sides with all kinds of strange things hanging from them. What appeared to be pieces of meat dangled from some—but the meat was blue with a greenish tinge and it had a funny smell that made Liv wrinkle her nose.
Moving on she saw various round and oblong containers hanging from some of the other hooks. They didn’t seem to be plastic but then again they didn’t seem to be glass either—maybe something in between? Anyway, it was what was inside them that interested Liv. Some were opaque white with printing in a language she couldn’t read on their sides but some were clear with different colored liquids inside them.
Suddenly Liv realized she hadn’t had anything to drink since her ill fated glass of orange juice hours ago. Since then she’d yelled and kissed and cried, all of which were occupations guaranteed to work up a thirst. All of a sudden her throat felt parched and she wanted something to drink in the worst way. But what should she try? The blue liquid in the bulbous container on her right looked a little too much like dish detergent for comfort. The bright purple liquid in the long triangular tube hanging from a hook on the left side of the alien fridge looked weirdly chunky—not what Liv usually looked for in a refreshing beverage. Finally she settled on the white liquid in a rectangular container hanging from a hook in the rear of the fridge, mostly because it looked like milk.
Carefully she disengaged the container’s handle from the hook and screwed off the round red top. She sniffed carefully but it didn’t smell like much of anything—then again neither did skim milk so maybe that was all right. It sloshed reassuringly inside its clear container and there didn’t appear to be any chunks so Liv decided to give it a try. It wasn’t ladylike to drink straight from the carton but since she had no idea where Baird kept his glasses or even if he had glasses, she decided to go for it. Putting the round mouth of the container to her lips she took a tiny sip, ready to spit the alien liquid out if it tasted funny or wrong.
It didn’t taste a bit like milk but it wasn’t bad either, she decided after the first sip. There was a mild sweetness like honey with a faint aftertaste that reminded her of vanilla, lavender, and blueberries. Bizarrely, the mixture was really quite nice and Liv took another, longer drink from the rectangular container, quenching her thirst and enjoying the strange new flavor very much.
The second drink led to another and another until she realized that she’d finished about half of the white milk-looking liquid. After it hit her stomach the coolness of the alien beverage seemed to expand into a delicious heat that penetrated her bones and made her fingers and toes tingle. Soon she was no longer shivering in the cool air that was coming from the refrigerator. Despite being dressed in the thin, skimpy nighty she felt perfectly warm and contented.