“. . . But not enough to respect his wishes,” the Djin supplied carelessly.
That brought me to a dead stop, ignoring the crush and jostling of the other pedestrians.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? This guy Aahz obviously wants to be left alone or he wouldn’t have walked out on you, but you’re determined to drag him back. To me that doesn’t sound like you really care much about what’s important to him.”
That hit uncomfortably close to home. As near as I could tell Aahz had left because I had been rather inconsiderate in my dealings with him. Still, I wasn’t going to turn back now. At the very least I wanted a face-to-face talk before I let him disappear from my life.
“He was a bit upset and throwing a snit-fit at the time,” I muttered, avoiding the question of my motives completely. “I just want him to know that he’s welcome if he wants to come back.”
With that I resumed my progress down the street. Half a dozen steps later, however, I realized the Djin was laughing ruefully.
“Now what?”
“Skeeve, you’re really something, you know?” Kalvin said, shaking his head. “Perverts . . . excuse me, Pervects . . . are feared throughout the dimension for their terrible, violent tempers. But you, you not only describe it as a snit-fit, you’re willing to show up on Perv itself just to make a point. You’re either very good or an endangered species.”
It suddenly occurred to me that I wasn’t making as much use of my Djin as I might. I mean, he had said that one of the things he was good at was advice, hadn’t he? “I don’t know, Kalvin. I’ve never had much trouble with them. In fact, one of the things Aahz told me was that Pervects manufacture and spread a lot of the bad rumors about themselves just to discourage visitors.”