by Tammy Walsh
She was so close, I could practically taste her already. I leaned forward a little further…
And a little further still…
And…
She pulled back.
“No hanky panky, remember?” she said.
Our lips were less than four inches apart even now.
“A kiss is hanky panky?” I said.
“A kiss leads to hanky panky,” she said.
“Always?”
“Always.”
She drew back further and took a sip from her glass.
“I’m glad to see that even with all your money and all your power, you’re not infallible,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I said.
“You’re a partier, right? That’s why your mom is threatening to cut you off?”
I blinked in surprise.
“I didn’t say I was a partier,” I said.
“No. But the rings on your antique furniture and the empty bottles you missed when you quickly cleaned up this morning tell me you are. And if you’re a partier, it’s not much of a leap to think you might be a womanizer too.”
I felt sick to my stomach. This girl was sharp.
Too sharp.
“I’m not a womanizer,” I said.
“How many women do you see at any one time?” she said.
“One. At a time.”
“But the next day, it might be another woman, correct?”
I pressed my lips together and downed the last of my wine.
I didn’t like playing this game.
“I’m here for our agreement,” Vicky said. “I’m here to do one thing, and that’s to help you make your mom believe you’re ready to change and accept the responsibilities she’s got lined up for you.”
I hadn’t told her that either. Was this woman a witch?
“Don’t look so surprised,” she said. “It’s easy to figure certain things out. You’re an open book.”
“I’ve never been an open book to anyone.”
“So maybe they can’t speak your language. I can assure you, I do.”
She downed the last of her wine and got to her feet. She wavered and braced herself on the tabletop. She shook her head.
“Wow,” she said. “That stuff sure has got some kick to it, huh?”
“It’s brewed specially for Titans… maybe I should have watered it down to take into account your… diminutive size,” I said.
“There’s nothing Dominican… dominant… dom… diminu… small about humans,” she said.
She’d lost control of her tongue. Or else it had swollen to twice its regular size. Such side effects were common when it came to drinking Titan wine.
When her eyes rolled back into her head, I knew what was going to happen next.
I bent down and scooped her up as she flopped over. I braced her in my arms and, careful I wouldn’t accidentally bang her head or legs against the table or doorway, I carried her through the apartment toward the bedrooms.
I chose the bedroom next to mine. There was a door that joined the two rooms and she could come see me if there were any problems. We would need to make sure there was no evidence she was sleeping separately from me if Mom dropped by.
I laid her down on the silk sheets harvested from the woven cocoons of the famous sand serpent.
The wine was so strong it’d knocked her out completely.
I brushed her hair back from her face. Her skin was smooth and her lips plump.
If I kissed her, would she ever know?
No, she wouldn’t.
But I would.
If I was going to get a kiss from her, I wanted it to be a kiss she wanted to give me, not one I took from her when she couldn’t fight back.
And chances were good she would fight back.
I couldn’t help but smile at this little woman.
I let my eyes run over her and considered undressing her so she would sleep better…
Then I thought better of it.
In the morning, she would realize what’d happened. She might think I took advantage of her.
There would be no getting her trust back after that.
And of all things, I needed her trust.
“Sleep well, little human,” I said.
I shut the light off and headed to my own bedroom. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and prepared for another day.
Tomorrow was when the plan began in earnest.
Tomorrow was when everything would change.
I had a very peaceful night of sleep and dreamed of her.
She was with me every moment. We danced and made love and I explored every inch of her delicious body. She was warm and tight and firm.
Everything I knew she would be.
When I awoke, it was with a distant sadness I hadn’t had the same opportunity the night before.
I moved into the kitchen and prepared breakfast. It was going to be a long day—especially for her—and she needed to start the day with a bang.
I began by cooking my favorite breakfast—simple ple’atch eggs over toast—before realizing she might not like this food. I decided to eat the meal myself and cook her whatever she wanted when she woke up. Maybe she was a single cup of coffee kind of gal.
I finished breakfast and she still hadn’t gotten up. I turned on the news and caught up on what was happening across the empire.
There’d been another Changeling attack, this time to farm production facilities. Farmers and their children were abducted.
The Changelings were getting more brazen. It wouldn’t be long before they attacked the inner rim planets. Maybe then the Titan Council of Elders might actually do something to combat these people.
It was thirty minutes before Vicky showed her face.
And what a face.
She was groggy. She’d made a cursory effort to tie her hair back but it did little to prevent the severe case of bed head she was suffering from.
She yawned and wiped a hand over her eyes.
“Sleep well?” I said.
“Very,” she said. “What happened to me last night?”
“You succumbed to the powerful influence of Titan wine, I’m afraid.”
“Wow. I’m usually pretty good when it comes to alcohol. It must be some strong stuff.”
“Would you like something to eat? You must be hungry.”
“Yes, please,” Vicky said, pulling up a chair at the kitchen counter.
“What would you like?”
“Do you have eggs? They’re my favorite.”
I grinned. We had something in common already.
“Sure thing,” I said. “Drink?”
“A cup of coffee.”
I poured her a cup from the machine and handed it over.
She raised it to her lips but it didn’t come out the way she expected.
“I think there’s something wrong with it,” she said. “It’s thick… like sludge.”
“That’s how we drink it,” I said.
“Can you water it down, make it more liquid-like?”
She handed the cup back.
“Sure,” I said. “Is that how you have coffee back home?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll have to order some. I like trying out new flavors.”
I altered the settings and poured another cup for her. This time, it came out closer to water than sludge. I slid the cup over to her.
She cupped her hands around it and sniffed it before tasting it.
“Better?” I said.
“Much,” she said with a big grin.
She liked holding it between her hands.
I made a note to make it watery like this for next time I made her coffee.
“Do you like bacon?” I said.
“Yes!” Vicky said.
She started at her own outburst.
“They only had alien food back at Star Cross’d Lovers,” she said. “I can’t eat anything that’s wriggling and still alive.”
“How about sausages?”
I said. “And toast?”
She nodded excitedly.
I searched for the ingredients in the fridge. I had everything she asked for—even if it was with a slight Titan twist. I fried her what she wanted. I also cooked her a bunch of Titan delicacies that she’d never tried before. I cooked them in a separate pan so they wouldn’t affect the flavor of the things she knew she liked.
“What’s this?” she said, nodding to the larger pan heaped with food items I’d specially curated for her.
“Things Titans usually eat in the morning,” I said. “It’s not an exhaustive list but as you seem to like fried food, I figured you might like to try some.”
“Crispy food,” Vicky said.
“What?”
“I like crispy food, not fried food. It just so happens that the best crispy food is also the fried stuff.”
She finished her bacon and eggs and toast before picking through the Titan traditional meals.
“What’s this?” she said.
“Those are cut colds of meat from various animals in the empire,” I said. “This one is called a hexadodron. It makes milk.”
“A cow!” Vicky said. “We have something similar back home.”
“But do your cows produce a dozen different flavors?”
“No. Do they all taste good?”
“No. They’re… a required taste. Some you will hate, others you will like, and maybe one or two, you will love. We feed them to Titan children to see what kind of personality and life they might have later. It’s a silly tradition but it’s part of our culture.”
“That’s interesting. I know in some Asian cultures, they do something similar. On the baby’s first birthday, they present them with a bunch of different items. The baby will choose one and whatever it chooses, it represents the kind of life they will have later. Money means they will be rich. A diploma means they will be a professor. Things like that.”
“Do the parents cheat and try to get the child to choose what they want them to?”
“Of course. They make the baby keep choosing until it picks the thing they want. Usually the money.”
I laughed.
“Parents here are the same,” I said. “No matter what, they always want what they think is best for the child, even if it turns out it’s not what the child wants.”
Vicky looked up and cocked her head to one side. It took me a moment to realize why she looked at me like that.
She thinks I’m referring to my own parents!
But I wasn’t.
Was I?
I quickly changed the subject.
“You’ll need to eat up,” I said. “You’ve got a long day ahead of you.”
“More studying your culture?” Vicky said.
“Some. But as you’re an alien from another world, you don’t need to worry about that—too much. Although, you will learn some things to make sure you don’t embarrass yourself.”
Or me.
“What will I be doing? Not eating all day, I hope. I’ll get fat.”
“I’ve arranged for teachers to come and educate you.”
The fork paused halfway to her mouth.
“Educate me?” she said.
“Make you more like the kind of woman my mom would appreciate,” I said.
She put the fork down.
“Like what?” she said.
“You’ll see when they arrive,” I said.
The doorbell rang.
“Here’s the first one now!” I said. “I’ll let them in.”
I met the stylist at the front door. He was famous and worked on all the big names. His hair was perfectly primped and his makeup was brash and loud.
For a moment, I doubted Zyod’s choice in stylist—I definitely didn’t want Vicky to look anything like this guy. He wore a turquoise suit with purple highlights.
If this was high fashion, I dreaded to think what low fashion looked like.
“You’re the stylist?” I said uncertainly.
“The one and only,” the stylist said. “Me’ell. Pleasure to meet you.”
He ran an eye over me.
“I can see I have my work cut out with you,” he said. “The first thing I want to do is tear all these clothes off and start from scratch.”
“Actually, you’re not here for me,” I said.
Me’ell looked me over.
“Are you sure?” he said.
Trust Zyod not to share the details with him.
“Your victim is in the kitchen,” I said.
“Then let me at them!” Me’ell said, taking off and leaving his cases with me.
Did he expect me to carry his things?
For the amount I was paying him, he should carry his own bags!
I sighed and picked them up. I struggled beneath the weight. Me’ell must be stronger than he looked. I bent my knees and carried it with both hands into the apartment. I met Me’ell at the entrance to the kitchen.
“Oh!” he said, pressing his hands to his cheeks. “Please tell me you are the ice from which I must carve my genius! Please tell me this is so!”
Vicky glanced at me uncertainly.
“Uh, it is so,” she said.
Me’ell pressed his hands to his face and let out a high-pitched scream. It made Vicky start.
“I have always dreamed of working on such a fine beautiful specimen of the feminine form!” he said. “Tell me, from which cloud did you descend?”
Vicky hesitated before she answered.
“Earth?” she said.
“Earth!” Me’ell said. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it. But I shall! And I will turn you into the most beautiful Earthling the galaxy has ever seen! You have wonderful bone structure. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“No.”
“And your hair! It’s so thick and bouncy!”
“I’ve got a bad case of bed head.”
Me’ell waved away her concerns with a flamboyant flutter of his hand.
“Nonsense!” he said. “The very best hair is that which has a mind of its own. Not flimsy and flat and boring. We want to tame the hair! We want to bend it to our will! And we shall!”
Me’ell clicked his fingers at me and motioned to his bag without looking.
What was I supposed to do? Wrestle with it?
“My bag! My bag!” Me’ell said. “I require my tools!”
I had no idea how to open the damn thing. It wasn’t like it was my job. I moved into the kitchen, deciding to give myself a job before he gave me one.
“Coffee?” I said.
“Black,” Me’ell said. “And thick.”
I readjusted the settings on the machine. Me’ell dug in the front pocket and came out with a pair of combs. He never ran them through Vicky’s hair. Instead, he framed her face with them.
“Yes,” he said. “Yes, I see you. My girl, you are going to be the most beautiful thing to have ever graced any room anywhere!”
“The event will be a high-class affair,” I said, a little concerned at Me’ell’s flamboyant nature.
If he turned Vicky into someone who looked like him…
Mom would think I was dating a clown.
“All Me’ell does is high-class affairs!” Me’ell said.
He extended his elbow to Vicky.
“Come, my girl,” he said. “Let us discover the beauty that lies within and bring it out into the light!”
Vicky grinned around a mouthful of teeth. She looked both excited and terrified at the same time.
I knew exactly how she felt.
One thing about Me’ell was this:
He.
Never.
Stopped.
Talking.
Vicky did well to accommodate him but he came out with so many questions and his own answers that it soon became apparent he never expected his conversation partner to actually answer the questions.
He placed Vicky on a chair in the front room and snipped at her hair without paying much attention. I pretended to read a bo
ok to keep myself firmly out of any of his “conversations.”
Three hours passed and I hadn’t read a single word.
I spent my time gazing at Vicky’s reflection in the mirror, watching her beam as Me’ell talked at her.
It made me nervous he wasn’t following a design from an image. It would have been good if he could have shown us what he was aiming for.
Vicky didn’t seem concerned. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying herself.
It was the first time I’d seen her really smile. Ever since I met her, she’d been under some stress or strain.
Either because she’d been abducted or sold to me.
She glowed with magnetic beauty when she flashed that incredible smile.
Wow.
Me’ell added some makeup to her face. He showed Vicky how he was applying it and in what order. After he was done, he washed it off her face and then got her to repeat the process back to him. She did it without error.
She didn’t need much makeup. Only a little to enhance the beauty that was already there.
“My work here is done,” Me’ell said, tucking his tools back in his case.
Vicky got out of the chair and turned to me. Her face glowed brightly. The hairstyle was simple but gorgeous. It was piled on top of her head, wearing it up, like a work of art.
“You look…” I said, stumbling for the right word to describe her.
There was none.
Me’ell patted me on the arm.
“The look on your face is more than enough description,” he said.
Vicky looked at me, and then, unable to meet my eyes, looked away.
She was suddenly shy?
The mix of her being so headstrong and powerful before and now being coy was an intoxicating mix.
Me’ell hefted the case with a single arm and didn’t waver when he stood up. The guy had the strength of ten Titans.
“I’ll see you to the door,” I said.
I took him to the entrance. Looking back, I noticed Vicky checking out her new hairdo in the mirror.
“If you need me the night you have this high-class event of yours, I’m available on call,” Me’ell said, handing over his card.
“Thank you,” I said.
Me’ell followed my eyes to Vicky and lowered his voice—I was surprised he was capable of such a thing.
“Take good care of her,” he said. “All I did was reveal the beauty that was already there. If you can’t see it, you’re a fool, and you don’t look like a fool to me. She’s gorgeous the way she is. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”