by Cara Bristol
Sitting with my knee brushing Anthony’s leg, I could feel the energy flow from Alar into Anthony, who gave a little jump. “Yes…I feel the problem,” Alar murmured. The air around us shimmered.
After about ten seconds, Alar opened his eyes, withdrew his hands, and stepped back. “That ought to fix it.”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore!” Anthony widened his eyes and then extended and flexed his left arm. “It’s all better!”
I examined the limb; the swelling was gone, too. “You fixed his arm?”
“Yes. He should be fine now,” Alar said.
“Thank you!” I surveyed the crowd of sick and injured. “Can you heal all these people?”
“Yes and no. To heal them all at once would deplete my energy stores, and there would be no one to heal me. With enough time to recharge, I could do it, but that would raise questions. News would spread, and I am of the certainty Earth’s government would get involved, and that never ends well, does it? My purpose is to observe and to study. It is not my mission to interfere in the futures or even daily lives of the locals.” He glanced at Anthony. “Although I make quiet exceptions for special cases.”
We spoke for a few minutes more then Alar took his leave to observe humans in a medical milieu. He’d just vanished down a corridor when Margery returned.
“Look! I’m all better!” Anthony held out his arm.
Rather roughly, she grabbed his wrist. Instead of being pleased, her face darkened and scrunched into a scowl. “You mean you were faking? Do you think I have time to spend all night sitting in the ER?”
“I wasn’t faking. An alien fixed it.”
“Him?” She glanced at me.
“No, another alien with veins in his eyeballs and suckers on his fingers.”
“What did I tell you about telling stories?”
Anthony’s face fell, and he shrank back into his chair.
I struggled to contain my temper. Alar had implied he wished to keep his ability secret, but I had to support Anthony. “He’s telling the truth,” I said quietly.
“He’s a liar,” she said. “You can’t believe a word he says.”
“I was here,” I insisted.
She snorted in disgust and motioned at Anthony. “Come on, let’s go. At least I won’t have to call Tyra.”
Shoulders slumping, he slid off the chair.
I hated to send him back with Margery when she was so displeased with him. What had happened wasn’t his fault. I hated to leave him period. But what could I do? I had no authority. I knelt and hugged him. The way he wrapped his little arms around my neck and clung to me tore me up. “I’ll call you, and we’ll get together. Okay?” I wished I had more to offer him.
He nodded against my shoulder. “Be strong,” I whispered in his ear, but my words of comfort struck me as ineffectual and wrong. A little kit shouldn’t have to be strong. He shouldn’t have a care in the world.
“I will,” he said.
Margery stalked toward the exit with Anthony following. My heart laden with worry, I watched them leave.
Only after they’d departed did I remember I had no working phone and no way to get home.
Chapter Seventeen
Holly
My stomach knotted as I pulled into the parking lot of Braxx’s apartment building. What kind of reception would I get? Would he refuse to open the door the way he’d refused to answer his phone all night?
Three times I’d called him; three times it shot straight to voicemail. My text went unanswered. I shouldn’t even be here—it was near midnight. Given what had happened, I doubted he’d waited up for me. We’d arranged to meet after my shift, but that was before he’d learned the truth.
I should go home.
But I couldn’t. I had to see him. I feared our relationship was over, but I clung to a futile hope I could save it. Maybe he hadn’t rejected me, maybe another reason accounted for why he ignored my calls. Except I couldn’t think of any.
Now or never. I forced myself out of my car.
My phone rang out with the tune identifying a caller not in my address book. I jabbed at the end button and disconnected the call.
Outside the entrance, I hesitated, letting my finger hover over the intercom. Braxx had already shown himself averse to confrontation. Rather than speak to me, he’d cut out. A little spark of anger burned off some of the hurt. After all his declarations of us being together forever, this was how he treated me? Wouldn’t give me a chance to explain?
I had a few choice words for Mr. Fated Mate! I figured it would be much harder to reject me face-to-face, so rather than buzz his apartment, I punched in the PIN he’d given me and let myself into the building.
Three floors of apartments rose up to overlook a courtyard containing a large swimming pool and deck dotted with colorful umbrellas and loungers. During the day, the quad could be quite noisy with kids splashing and yelling, but now it was quiet. I rode the glass elevator to the third floor and marched to his unit.
No lights seeped through the cracks of the drawn blinds. Obviously he was asleep. Had he been home all night avoiding my calls? What could I say that could change anything? I’m sorry I can’t be the woman you need?
He desired children more than anything; I couldn’t have them. He’d been acting under a misunderstanding when he asked me to be his mate. I’d operated under a misunderstanding when I’d accepted. But I could clear one thing up—I hadn’t intentionally misled him. I couldn’t let a night pass with him believing I’d lied to him.
Steeling my courage, I pressed the buzzer. I could hear it ring inside the apartment. I waited. Nothing.
Okay, I should go.
My feet refused to move. Walking away meant conceding defeat.
I rang again.
Waited.
Nothing.
Either he’d heard the bell and refused to answer, or he wasn’t home. Either way, the silence spoke volumes. Mostly likely he was hiding out at Kord and Barb’s. It was too late to call—not that I would. The little flame of fury at his dismissive treatment had fanned into a bonfire. I refused to beg for his attention.
I’d done nothing wrong. If he couldn’t man up and talk to me, then the hell with him. Someday, somewhere I would meet a man who would love me for me, who would appreciate me for what I was rather than what I wasn’t. Plenty of people lived long, happy lives without children. A person didn’t need a spouse to be happy, and they didn’t need children to be happy, either. Happiness came from within. I would be happy with or without Braxx!
I glared at his dark, silent apartment. “Your loss, asshole!” I dashed away an irate, hurtful tear with the back of my hand and stomped for the elevator. I exited the building and drove through deserted streets.
Arriving at my own building, I quickened my step, hoping maybe he’d been at my apartment all along. But no figure stood outside my door, and my apartment was as dark and shuttered as his.
I let myself in, threw myself on the bed, and cried.
* * * *
I awakened with a breakup hangover, my stomach knotted, my head aching. I cracked open swollen eyelids to squint at the light sneaking through the gaps in the blinds to stab at my eyeballs.
I scrambled out of bed and lunged for my phone. Had Braxx called me? Had I slept through it?
Nothing. Zippo. Just half a dozen calls from unfamiliar numbers and area codes. With a few taps to my call blocker app, I zapped the numbers into no-man’s-land.
I sank onto the edge of my mattress and stared at my phone. None of my three calls, nor my text, from yesterday had been returned. The ball was in his court. I’d made all the overtures—any more and my calls could be considered harassment.
The crazy bitch phoned me fifteen times. Couldn’t she get it through her head it was over?
I blinked and pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth to hold back the tears. If I cried again, my lids would be so swollen, I wouldn’t be able to se
e. How could it be over? Maybe after a night to think, he had cooled down and would be receptive to an explanation.
Then wouldn’t he have called me by now? He’d said we were mates. He’d dogged me, courted me in his own quirky Dakonian way for a year! He asked me to marry him. Those things had to count for something.
They hadn’t with Addison. When he’d found out I couldn’t have kids, he’d dumped me a month before the wedding. Invitations had been mailed; wedding gifts had started to arrive. The ceremony and reception had been planned. Our honeymoon had been booked.
Braxx isn’t like Addison.
Or is he?
I rubbed my eyes. As bad as this was, it could have been much worse if we’d gotten married, and then a year, two years down the road, he started to wonder why I failed to get pregnant.
But maybe by then, he’d love me enough to stand by me…
Call him or don’t call him? Wait and wonder or take matters into my own hands? I never expected this kind of treatment. It opened my eyes. Was this his usual behavior for dealing with problems? Total avoidance? A freeze-out?
He professed to love me, and this was how he acted?
I dialed his number. Rang once. Twice. Three times. Four…
Anxiety, fear, and hurt, simmering since yesterday evening, cranked to high, and my emotions boiled over into fury. So, Mr. Fated Mate didn’t want me now that he knew of my infertility? He couldn’t be bothered to answer a simple phone call or text? Screw him. I deserved better! He’d hauled ass out of the restaurant instead of facing me. Without so much as a goodbye, he abandoned me. At least with Addison I’d received a letter written personally by his attorney’s paralegal. Well, fuck Braxx and the spaceship he’d flown in on. I didn’t need him. One day I’d meet a man for whom children weren’t important or who had kids who needed a stepmom. Or not. Maybe I’d let the entire male population go screw themselves.
Braxx’s voicemail picked up. “Hi. Leave me a message, and I’ll return your call as soon as I can.” The sound of his smooth, accented voice sent my anger spiraling higher. My hand shook as I clutched the phone. I was infertile, but I was a decent person with feelings. When I said I loved him, I’d meant it with every cell of my being. I would never have dumped him for something out of his control.
I would be the better person; I wouldn’t leave him wondering. I’d make it easy on him by saving him the trouble of dodging my calls.
Beep!
“You don’t need to bother to call me. We’re done. Consider yourself released from any and all obligation. I won’t be contacting you again. In fact, I never want to see you again. Stay away from the restaurant.”
I disconnected the call and blocked him, just like I would a robocaller. Because that’s how he rated.
Chapter Eighteen
Braxx
“I have to see Holly face-to-face,” I pleaded with Barb. I couldn’t believe things could end this way. Three days had passed since Addison Smythe had revealed my mate couldn’t have kits, and now she wouldn’t speak to me. Had blocked me on her phone. When I’d arrived at the restaurant, instead of showing me to my table, the hostess had asked me to leave. I’d been barred from the building where she lived; the manager had threatened to have me arrested. With no other recourse, I’d gone to beg Barb to intervene on my behalf.
Kord was out pushing Clemmy in the stroller while Barb and I talked. “You have to let me come back to Barbie Q’s,” I said.
She twisted her mouth ruefully. “I’m sorry. I’ve talked to her until I’m blue in the face, but she won’t budge. Now that I have Clemmy, I can’t run the business without her, and she says if you set foot in the restaurant, she’ll quit.”
“Just give me a chance to talk to her.”
“She never said why she broke up with you?”
I shook my head. I’d gotten a replacement phone the day after mine broke. When I’d checked my messages, there’d been several from Holly asking me to call her, and the final one that said she never wanted to see me again.
“She wouldn’t break up with me because I couldn’t call her right away, would she? I left her a message about what had happened with Anthony.” It had taken time to catch a ride from the hospital, so it was almost morning before I got home. I’d slept for a while then gone out and replaced my phone and tried Holly again.
I squeezed my hand into a fist. “If only I knew what the problem was. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what it is.”
“I’m sorry. If she doesn’t want to see you, if she broke it off, there’s nothing to fix. You have to let it go—”
“No. There’s no letting go. She’s my Fated mate. We’re meant to be together. I don’t understand why this is happening.”
Barb sighed. “Tell me everything that happened the night at the restaurant. Don’t leave anything out.”
“I went to see Holly as usual. She agreed to be my mate. I was so happy! I asked her to marry me. She said yes. Then there was some sort of a reviewer who ordered tofurkey—”
“Wait. Stop. I didn’t hear anything about a reviewer. What reviewer?”
I shrugged. “From Barbecue Today. Holly went to talk to her.”
“Barbecue Today came to the restaurant? And nobody told me?”
“Please, I need help.”
Barb pressed her lips together. “All right. Go on.”
“When she went to talk to the reviewer, Addison Smythe came to speak to me, and then I got the call from Anthony at the hospital—”
“Whoa, whoa. Stop the horse. Back up. Addison Smythe? Her ex? When did he come into the picture?”
“He was at the restaurant having dinner with his female. He saw us get engaged and came to congratulate me. He said marriage was a big step, I needed to be aware of the facts, and then he told me she couldn’t have kits.”
“You already knew, right? I mean, she said she told you.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t know until Addison told me. Holly had tried to tell me, but I misunderstood.”
Barb covered her mouth with her hand and exhaled through her fingers. “That has to be it. She asked me to banish Addison from the restaurant, too. If she discovered you didn’t know she couldn’t get pregnant, this is a case of her rejecting you before you reject her.”
“I would never reject my mate!”
Barb narrowed her eyes. “Not even if she can’t have kids?”
“No. I don’t care. I mean, I do care. I hurt for her because she would have been a wonderful mother, but she’s my mate. With or without kits, I love her.”
“That’s what you need to tell her, then.”
“Which brings me back to the start. I have to be able to see her. You have to let me in the restaurant.”
“I would if I could, but Holly isn’t bluffing. She will quit, and then she’ll stop taking my calls, and neither one of us will be able to contact her. Listen, let me work on this. I’ll set something up so you can see her.”
“Thank you,” I said, relieved. At least I had some recourse, some hope things would work out.
I still had no idea what to do about Anthony. I’d spoken to Tyra, but she refused to move him from Margery’s home, “for no good reason.” He was so unhappy there, and I worried how the other kits and his foster mother would treat him.
Barb folded her hands on the table. “Now,” she said, “tell me about this reviewer who came the other night.”
Chapter Nineteen
Holly
Stellar Dust Bin?
I cupped my hand over the screen to minimize the glare and squinted at the address Barb had texted me. I’d expected a coffee shop, not a bar.
I’d been manning the restaurant on Barb’s day off when she’d called me. “Can you please give me a lift? I think Clemmy has an ear infection. Her pediatrician was able to squeeze us in, but the damn car broke down.”
“I’m on my way!” I got Dixie to keep an eye on the floor, and I flew out the exit. H
alfway to the address, I wondered why Barb hadn’t called an Uber. Or Kord, for that matter. He drove now. They had two cars.
If this was some sort of a setup…
Barb had been badgering me to talk to Braxx. The car breaking down, Clemmy sick—it all seemed suspicious now, but on the chance Clemmy was ill, I’d had to follow through.
I stomped into the Stellar Dust Bin. It took a moment to adjust to the dimness before I spotted Barb waving to me from the bar. No Clemmy. My ire shot from zero to sixty. If she’d concocted a ruse to get us back together, I would follow through on my threat to quit. I scanned the floor. No sign of him, but I widened my eyes as I took in the patrons. Green men, blue women. Multiple appendages. Multiple heads! A three-headed alien with four arms clutched four mugs of beer. Which head would get the extra, I wondered.
I tore my gaze away and marched to the bar.
“There’s no Clemmy, is there?” I slid onto a stool between Barb and an extraterrestrial, trying not to stare. He had some kind of weird transparent, invisible skin, allowing me to see his internal organs. Blue-green blood flowed through his veins, pumped by two hearts.
“Of course there’s a Clemmy. She’s just not here,” Barb quipped.
I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. “Is he here?”
“Who?” She widened her eyes with faux innocence.
“You know who.”
“No. Just me.”
I calmed a little with the reassurance Braxx wouldn’t pop in. Funny running into you here.
With a swizzle stick, Barb stirred her drink. “I wanted to talk to you.”
She meant well, but she had to accept the relationship had ended. “You lured me here under false pretenses—what are you drinking?” The vapor billowing from her glass distracted me.
“A virgin Starflight. I can’t drink because I’m nursing Clemmy. And now we’re even.”