Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 66222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Harry chuckled, pressing his hands against his flushed cheeks. “Good thing I have you to tell me when I’m being a dumb foreigner.”
“Well, you did tell me you were an alien. For an alien, your grasp of English is excellent.”
“Thank you,” Harry said with an expression Adam couldn’t quite read.
“So where’s your place?” Adam asked.
Harry gave him the address and Adam entered it into the navigation system.
The drive didn’t take long. Twenty minutes later, Harry was letting him into his flat.
Adam’s first impression was the tiny size of the place. The flat consisted of a tiny kitchen and a tiny room that was barely big enough to accommodate an old brown couch, a small coffee table, and a TV. There was no bed. Adam looked at the short, hard couch and suppressed a grimace as he imagined Harry sleeping on it. It looked more than a little uncomfortable.
“It’s not much,” Harry said, looking a little self-conscious.
“You should have seen my first flat in London,” Adam said with a chuckle, sitting down on the couch. It was as uncomfortable as it looked. “It was bigger, but I had three flatmates.”
“I’ll get popcorn. Pick something to watch?”
Adam hummed in agreement and Harry left the room, disappearing into the kitchen. Adam looked around, a little unsettled. The flat was downright claustrophobic.
But he said nothing when Harry returned with a bowl of popcorn and two Diet Cokes. Harry looked so excited and pleased. Adam didn’t want to ruin his mood by making him feel embarrassed. The rent was expensive in London. It was admirable that Harry managed to get by on his own.
Harry plopped next to Adam and spread a blanket over their laps, placing the bowl with popcorn between them.
Adam closed his eyes for a moment. It was a struggle to keep his body relaxed. The couch was too fucking small.
“Why didn’t you pick a movie?” Harry said.
“I wanted you to.”
“Okay, but no complaining if you don’t like it!”
Adam watched Harry browse Netflix, trying to suppress the urge to put an arm around Harry’s shoulders and pull him even closer.
In an attempt to distract himself, he picked up the stack of DVDs from the coffee table and raised his eyebrows when he saw the titles. “You’re interested in sci-fi?”
Was Harry blushing?
“Samantha is a big science fiction fan,” Harry said. “She loaned me a couple of movies that weren’t on Netflix. They looked interesting.”
“I didn’t think War of the Worlds was the kind of movie you would enjoy. It’s pretty violent and gross.” Harry had mentioned he didn’t like violence in movies.
Harry scowled at the DVD in Adam’s hand. “I didn’t like it very much. The plot didn’t make sense to me. It’s ridiculous that aliens would want to invade Earth. What for? There are millions of planets without sentient life!”
Adam stared at him in mild surprise. “I didn’t know you felt so passionately about it,” he said, a little amused. “Do you really believe in aliens, Haz?”
Harry looked at him. “You don’t?”
Adam shrugged. “Never really thought about it.” He smoothed the wrinkle between Harry’s brows with his thumb. “But who knows. I think it’s statistically impossible that intelligent life could develop only on Earth when there are billions of stars out there. It would be pretty arrogant of us to think so.”
Harry nodded. “Intelligent life is pretty rare in the universe—” He paused. “I mean, I believe it’s pretty rare,” he corrected himself, dropping his gaze. “But it can’t be that rare, right? There are a hundred billion stars in this galaxy alone. Sure, not all stars have planets, and not all of them are habitable, but the odds are still very good that there are thousands of intelligent civilizations only in this galaxy.”
“But how many of them would be around long enough to develop interstellar travel?” Adam murmured, fascinated by the fire in Harry’s eyes. For some reason, Harry really felt strongly about the subject.
“True,” Harry said, nodding. “The truth is, many civilizations would destroy themselves if their technological level becomes high enough.” Harry popped a piece of popcorn into his mouth. “Anyway, enough about it!” he said, grabbing another DVD. “What about this one? I think it’s a sequel to the movie I watched yesterday. I liked it very much.”
“Hmm, I have seen the first movie, but not the sequel,” Adam said.
That was how they ended up watching Star Trek into Darkness.
The movie was okay, but then again, Adam spent most of the movie watching Harry and listening to his commentary, so he couldn’t be all that sure.
“This Prime Directive thing makes so much sense,” Harry said at some point. “Interfering into another civilization’s natural development is a really bad idea. It can have really unfortunate consequences. I don’t understand why Spock would even go along with that mad plan in the first place.”