by Lisa Lace
“I don’t want to talk about her.” I forced myself to swallow the impatience with my old friend. He had always like been this. Why did I expect him to be any different?
“Oh.” He looked taken aback. “What do you want to talk about then?”
“You asked me how I was, and you said you wanted a truthful answer.”
“Right. So...How are you?”
“The truth?” I said, knowing I had his attention now. He nodded. “I’m...” I hesitated.
“What?”
“I don’t want to tell you,” I confessed. “It’s going to sound ungrateful...like I don’t appreciate what I have.”
“Just tell me. Come on. Lay it on me. I can take it,” he said, making a come-hither motion with both hands.
I smiled. Good old Pandenn. I could count on him to understand. I knew that. “I’m bored.”
The server came at that moment and took his drink order. “Well, that’s not what I was expecting.”
“I know. It sounds stupid. I have more than enough money. A lovely house. People who take care of my every need…”
“...hot women who are willing to do just about anything in your bed. I cannot believe she agreed to that position,” he said, getting a far-off look in his eyes again. “Why don’t you get a job? You’re too young to be retired.”
“I thought of that, but I’m not sure what I would do. Nothing seems right.”
“Pretend I’m a shrink. Tell me exactly how you feel and I’ll fix you up.”
Pandenn had done his minor in psychology, and he considered himself an amateur psychologist. I sighed. The server returned and placed a purple drink in front of Pan.
“I’m not interested in anything. I get bored with my books and my training lately. And...”
“And?” He was always interested in what was typically left unsaid.
“I guess I wish I had someone to hang around with at home, in the evening, instead of going out with friends. Not like you coming over and playing holographic games. Just...oh, I don’t know...”
He thought for a moment and gazed at me appraisingly. “I know what you need. You need a proper woman. A wife!”
“What?” I started laughing.
“Jalla is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“But you dated her. You love her. I don’t have anyone like that.”
“Sometimes you have to get married anyway.” He had a smirk on his face.
I made a dismissive gesture. “You’re just fucking with me. You want to order anything or are you only having a drink?” I picked up my menu. I didn’t know why I tried to talk about meaningful things with Pandenn. He just wasn’t the serious type.
“No.” He put out his hand, and the tone of his voice made me look up. “I mean it.”
“Pan, shut up. I’m not going to walk up to a stranger and say, “Hey there, sweetie. You look fine. Let’s get married.”
“I'm not talking about any stranger. Have you considered a mail-order bride?”
I stared at him, not bothering to say anything. This guy had lost it. “What are you talking about?”
“Jal and I just watched a documentary on a company from Earth called TerraMates. They’re very reputable. They monitor everything to make sure both parties are satisfied with the arrangement. You can get divorced after a year if things aren’t working.”
“Are you shitting me?”
“I’m not. I swear,” he said, holding up his hands. “Call Jalla right now. She’ll back me up.”
I shook my head. “You’re crazy. I’m not getting a mail order bride.”
“Look, consider it, Ven. You’ve never been good at dating or choosing your women. Why not give someone else a shot? If you want company or someone to be there for you, there’s nothing like a wife.”
“You’re saying that because you have a wife that loves you, buddy. I'm sure there’s a big difference between Jalla and a mail-order bride.”
“Here’s the thing,” he said, leaning in. “It’s hard to believe, but if they’re telling the truth, they say that only two percent of their marriages end in divorce.”
I looked at him skeptically. “It sounds impossible.”
“You’ll never know until you try it, Ven. You can grow to love someone.”
I frowned, shaking my head.
“Don’t be stupid, Ven.” I felt my temper flare at his innocent use of the word stupid. I couldn’t stand being called dumb. “Let TerraMates take care of your bride. If you don’t like her, divorce her after a year.”
He leaned back and smiled. I stared at him blankly.
“Arranged marriages are a time-honored tradition on many planets, you know,” he said, folding his arms over his chest as if that clinched his argument.
“You’re nuts,” I repeated. “Are we going to order something? We’re supposed to be eating lunch. By the time I get my food, it’s going to be time for dinner.”
He laughed. “You can make fun of it all you want, Ven, but I’m sending you the link to the documentary. You can watch it while you sit at home by yourself tonight.”
“Bastard,” I said, trying to look at the menu.
“You're right. I am a bastard.” He tapped the computer unit on his forearm.
A moment later, my arm lit up with his message and I looked into his eyes. “I’m never going to marry a stranger from some mail-order bride agency, Pandenn.”
He grinned at me. “Never say never.”
I walked into my den and looked around at my belongings. I liked things to be neat. It dated back to my time in the military — a desire for tidiness, which bordered on obsession. Usually, the staff kept everything in perfect order. But once in a while, I would find that someone had left a task undone or been a little sloppy. I didn’t blame them. It wasn’t their house. But I noticed everything.
Today, for instance, I saw when I walked through the door that the housekeeper had dusted and bumped my favorite painting. It wasn’t straight anymore. I couldn’t stand having a crooked picture frame. I walked over and adjusted the image. There. Perfectly straight...no. I shifted it back the other way. After a minute of adjusting, I was satisfied.
Since I didn’t have anything else to do that evening, I watched the documentary. I wasn’t interested, of course, but I was alone and bored. All the staff had gone home or to their apartments.
I watched as a happy couple on a sailing ship told their story. I rolled my eyes. Why were they on a sailing ship? We had fucking space travel. They hadn’t meant to stay married and had only gone to TerraMates for personal reasons. She had needed the money to pay for her brother’s gambling debts, and he had needed a wife to stay out of jail. In the end, they stayed married because they had fallen in love.
There was story after story about happy couples. For a minute, I was convinced that some people could find love that way. But I wasn’t the kind of guy who would sign up and have someone else pick my wife for me. Besides, when I looked them up, the man had to pay an exorbitantly high fee. They went through your life with a fine-toothed comb. I could afford the credits, and I certainly didn’t have anything to hide…but I liked my privacy. I didn’t want anyone poking around in my business.
I turned off the documentary and stood up. It was time for bed. I looked around at the empty room in the lonely, echoing house.
Hollow. That was exactly the word to describe it.
Maybe Pan was right. Maybe I did need a woman for more than eleven days. I had to admit it would be nice. But I couldn’t think of a single woman who I would ever consider marrying.
Even if I did need a wife, I wasn’t going to let anyone else pick the woman for me. I was in charge.
Chapter Three
VEN
I wasn’t in charge of anything.
The sobering thought occurred to me as I sat in my lawyer’s office, listening to him telling me I had to get married. I realized I needed to use TerraMates after all. After my postulating and swearing up and down that I would
never have a mail-order bride, I was going to have them ship one out to me.
Fuck. Pan was going to make fun of me forever.
I didn’t want to have to resort to these measures, but I didn’t see any way out of it. Without a wife, I was going to lose everything.
It started when my uncle’s representatives called me and asked to speak with my wife. I didn’t have one. The snarky lawyer explained that if I didn’t have a wife by the time I turned thirty, my inheritance, Uncle Mastoh’s entire fortune, would be given to charity.
I knew I wouldn’t gain control over all the money until I was thirty. I had been living off the interest from the investments. I vaguely remembered hearing something about having to get married. But I had been young and hung over during the reading of the will. Thirty had seemed like a long way away. Before I left the military, I banked all the interest. I didn't start spending it until I retired.
I needed a wife to keep the money. It couldn’t be that onerous. And didn’t I want to be married in the abstract, theoretical sense? The inheritance was giving me a push in the right direction. More like a shove, I suppose. I could always take the divorce at the end of the year, and I would be able to keep my standard of living.
I winced, as I realized how shallow my thoughts were. I consoled myself with a single thought. By hanging on to my uncle’s money, I was fulfilling the vow I made to myself as a teenager in my family’s small, dingy apartment. At the time, I swore I would get out of that life, earn money, and become wealthy. I would never treat my family like my father had, taking us close to homelessness multiple times.
I wasn’t going to let my uncle’s money go. I needed it for my future children. They would have everything they needed, and they would never live a life like mine.
Everything would work out in the end. Pandenn would say it was the universe working in mysterious ways. But he would never find out about my decision or that he was right about TerraMates.
I needed to start now before I lost my courage. I pulled up the documentary again and started the application process.
Two weeks later, I had jumped through all the hoops, gone through the interviews, paid the ridiculously high fees, and received a birth control shot, which lasted a year. I was ready to find a mate.
I swung back and forth on my porch swing, feeling impatient. When one of my servants approached me, I felt a twinge of apprehension. I had asked to be left alone for the rest of the day unless it was important. What could be so important that he would disturb me?
“Sir?” Elon looked nervous. “I know you said not to...”
“Disturb me unless it was important,” I finished for him. “I know. Well, you've disturbed me. What is it?”
“A package came for you. I thought you were waiting for it.”
He held out a small square box that I recognized immediately as an old-fashioned hologram message. There were far more sophisticated technologies available, but TerraMates was an Earth-based company. Even though they had plenty of lovely human woman dying to get off their backward little world, they lacked many of the refinements possessed by civilized planets, such as up-to-date messaging technology.
I thanked Elon and held the box in my hand. It had been a long time since I had felt this nervous. I was a decorated war veteran who had risked his life many times in the military. I had no reason to fear this trinket.
I activated it, and a full-sized hologram appeared. Not everyone went to the trouble of setting up a hologram profile. In fact, this was the first out of ten I had seen. I placed the box on the floor and stepped back to look at her assets. There was only one word for the image of the woman in front of me, and that was...
Wow.
I sat back on the swing, pushing the ground with my feet to get it rocking again.
She was tall, with long shining blonde hair that hung to her ass. Her eyes were pale blue, a rare color on my planet. Her body was thin and her skin was pale. As she turned to me, I could see that her legs were just the way I liked them — long and thin, perfect for wrapping around my waist.
TerraMates had matched the physical profile I requested. I wondered about her personality.
“Hi, Montana.”
“Hello, there, Ven.” Her voice was sultry. Could this woman be any more perfect?
“What do you do for a living, Montana?” I asked, rocking a little faster in the swing.
“I’m a systems analyst. I have two years of college training and a certification.”
Good. She was smart, but not too smart.
Anyone could be a systems analyst. It might seem insecure, but I didn’t like brilliant women. They intimidated me. I didn’t like them stupid, either. Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t into bimbos. But middle-of-the-road was just right.
“You sound smart. What do you like to do in your spare time?”
“Well, Ven, I enjoy dancing and horseback riding.”
Horseback riding? What the hell was that?
“Oh, that’s interesting.”
That was enough talking to a hologram for me. I leaned over and slapped the box, turning it off. I reclined on the swing and steepled my fingers, smiling to myself. She was the woman. The woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with — or at the very least, the next year. They had matched me with the perfect woman.
I couldn’t wait to meet her.
On the day Montana was supposed to arrive at the space station, I arrived an hour early. I thought I might have looked too eager, but I couldn’t wait to meet her. We were going to be perfect for each other. Thank goodness her flight had arrived on time. It was going to be down to the wire, but as long as we got married today, it would be okay. Everything would work out with Uncle Mastoh’s will.
I tapped my foot, thinking about Montana Willoughby, soon to be Montana Dofalar if she took my name. I pictured us going out dancing. Maybe she would show me some holograms of horseback riding, whatever that was.
And I definitely had some sexual fantasies featuring the leggy blonde. I couldn’t wait to meet my fiancé and make her my wife. Everything was going to be different.
I wouldn’t have an empty feeling inside anymore. I would have someone with whom I could spend time. Not only would she be around for me, but I could also keep my way of life and everything that had become important over the past three years.
I strolled back and forth in the spaceport, ignoring the other travelers. Finally, they announced her flight. I waited patiently as each person came off the ship, went through the scanners, and emerged from security.
I scanned each face to see if it was her. The last stragglers appeared, but none of them was Montana.
“Excuse me, aren’t there any more passengers on board?”
The attendant frowned. “I’m not sure. Who are you looking for?”
“A human named Montana Willoughby. She’s tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes.”
The woman checked her console. “None of the ticket holders have that name,” she said. “Is it possible she goes by something else?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never met her.” It felt weird to have to say that I was meeting someone I had never met, though I suppose spaceport employees heard these kinds of stories all the time. The attendant couldn’t care less.
“I’ll check for you.” She disappeared through the gate. Five minutes later, I saw her again.
“There’s only one woman left. She’s taking a while to get packed up. Come and see if she’s the one you’re looking for.”
I followed the attendant onto the shuttle. Something didn’t feel right. If there was one thing I had learned in the military, it was that following my gut was the best policy. I touched a blaster which I always carried in my pocket. It was small but got the job done.
When I walked onto the shuttle, my eyebrows drew together as I caught sight of the only woman remaining on the ship. She wasn’t Montana. I could tell right away.
She was small, with a sturdy frame that looked like she wou
ld be good at physical tasks, like climbing or carrying cargo. Her figure was shapely, with full round breasts and hips that encouraged men to rest their hands on her side when they danced...if you liked that sort of a woman. She appeared to be busy packing up her bag. Why had she taken everything out of it? My uneasy feeling intensified.
Then she turned around, and I saw her eyes.
The moment our eyes met, I thought something drew all the air from my lungs. I couldn’t get a breath. And my stomach felt peculiar. I found myself staring into her mesmerizing brown eyes.
I felt like the whole universe had just tilted and nothing was ever going to be the same again.
“Sir?” the attendant said, and I knew from the way she said it, she had already spoken to me before. “Is she the one?”
I waited only a moment more before speaking the words I knew would change my life.
“Yes, she’s the one.”
The woman looked troubled but didn’t say anything. She played along, following me off the shuttle without saying a word.
I didn’t know who she was. I didn’t know why she was here instead of Montana. All I knew was that she was the one.
Whatever that meant.
“Wait, wait, wait.” We stood on the outskirts of the arrival area. I was explaining my behavior for the fourth time. The first couple times didn’t seem to be effective. “Are you telling me you want to marry me?”
“Yes,” I said. “I mean, no. The woman whose ticket you came her on...she was supposed to marry me.” I felt myself beginning to blush. Again. “She was my mail-order bride.”
“Are you kidding me?” Emmy said, looking incredulous. “Nobody does that anymore.”
“I’m completely serious. If you’re willing, I don’t care that you’re not Montana. I’ll marry you. I need to marry someone today.”
She wasn’t going to fall into my arms after that enticing proposition.
“I don’t even know your name.” She looked amazed that I would dare to suggest such a thing.
“It’s Ven. If you don’t want to, I don’t blame you, but why were you on the shuttle in the first place? I needed to marry her today.”