by Black, Tasha
“Thank you, Estrella,” Olivia said. “Please continue.”
“There are seventy-eight cards,” Estrella said. “And each one will show you a part of yourself. If you heed the cards, you can find great happiness. And if you ignore their wisdom, you may find yourself in grave danger.”
“Wow,” Ruby said, sounding solemn.
Wayne was intrigued. How had he not known that humans had this power?
“The price is forty dollars per reading,” Estrella said. “Cash.”
“What do we do?” Olivia asked, ever practical.
“Well, that depends,” Estrella said. “How many readings am I doing?”
“Oh, just one for all of us as a group, I think,” Olivia said. “We need to get moving pretty soon.”
“Then tell me what it is you want to know for all of you,” Estrella said. “And I will consult the cards.”
“We are here to celebrate my friends’ honeymoons,” Olivia said. “Did you watch So You Think You Can Marry An Alien or My Big Fat Alien Wedding?”
“I’m afraid not,” Estrella said quickly.
“Oh,” Olivia said. “Well, my friend here and our other friend outside just got married and the whole thing was televised. Now we’re here in Costa Rica for their shared honeymoon. We would love to know how you think things will go for us while we are here.”
“Ah,” Estrella said. “Newlyweds, how nice. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Ruby and Parker said at once.
“He’s an alien?” Estrella asked, gesturing to Parker.
“Yes, he and Wayne are both from Aerie,” Olivia explained. “And so is their brother, Kent.”
“Well, don’t ask me to do astrology for them,” Estrella said. “Their birth calculations would be too difficult. I would have to charge extra for that.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Olivia said. “We’d just like a card reading.”
“Very well,” Estrella said.
She closed her eyes and began to wave her hands over the cards that were stacked on the table before her.
After a few passes in the air, Estrella selected the top card and flipped it over.
She hissed her breath in.
“What is wrong?” Wayne asked.
“This is the five of pentacles,” Estrella said. “It is a symbol of poverty.”
Wayne looked at the picture on the card. It showed a man and woman in rags, walking barefoot through the snow.
“Don’t worry,” Olivia laughed. “We have a very generous budget.”
“Olivia,” their driver called from the back door of the station. “The card won’t work.”
“What are you talking about?” she called back.
“The corporate credit card,” he said miserably. “It keeps getting rejected when I try to pay for the gas.”
Estrella’s eyes grew wide.
“Use petty cash,” Olivia said. “We’ll figure it out when we get to the resort.”
She turned back to Estrella who was staring at her suspiciously.
“Don’t worry. We have cash,” she told her. “That was just a coincidence - probably something about using the card abroad. Here.”
Wayne watched as Olivia slid two bills from her pocket and handed them over.
Estrella looked pleased. “Very well,” she said. “Let us look at our next card.”
They all leaned closer.
Estrella revealed a card with a picture of a moon. Near the bottom, a black wolf with ruby eyes lifted its head in a mournful howl.
“Ah,” she said. “Very interesting.”
“What does this one mean?” Wayne asked.
“This is the moon card,” Estrella replied. “It represents fear and confusion.”
“Some honeymoon,” Ruby said with a nervous laugh.
Estrella was already flipping over the third card.
“Oh dear,” Olivia said.
“The hanged man,” Estrella announced.
Wayne looked down at the picture of a man hanging from a tree by one leg.
“As you can see, this man is being sacrificed for the greater good,” Estrella said.
“It looks painful,” Ruby said doubtfully.
Olivia was frowning.
She showed them another, with figures jumping from a flaming tower, and explained how it symbolized the danger of ambition, especially if built on a faulty premise.
“And here is your final card,” Estrella said, turning it over with a flourish.
On the card, a man with a funny hat was walking toward the edge of a cliff overlooking a river with an alligator in it. The man was looking up in the air, as if he didn’t notice that he was about to step off a cliff. A small dog at his feet appeared to be trying to get his attention.
“The Fool,” Estrella breathed.
“You don’t have to tell us what that means,” Ruby said darkly.
“The unknown,” Estrella said. “You are stepping into uncharted territory. Beware.”
A breeze rippled the leaves of the tree above them at just that moment, sending the wind chimes over the back of the station jangling.
“These are terrible cards,” Olivia said.
“There is no such thing as a bad or a good card,” Estrella said. “The cards simply guide you. But if you want more, it’s another forty dollars. Cash only.”
“Oh, we’ve had enough,” Olivia told her. “Thank you for your time.”
She stood and marched around the side of the station.
Wayne trotted to catch up.
“Olivia,” he said. “What should we do?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, turning back to him.
“What should we do about the cards?” he asked. “If our present course of action will result in so much unhappiness, we should change our plans.”
She tilted her head at him, then smiled. “Oh Wayne, tarot cards aren’t real.”
“They aren’t?” he asked.
“Of course not,” she said. “No one can predict the future.”
Wayne thought of the gifts he and his brothers possessed. Maybe humans couldn’t really see the future, but he wasn’t entirely convinced.
“Then why did you pay forty dollars to that woman?” he asked.
“Because it’s fun,” Olivia said. “At least it’s supposed to be.”
“How can it be fun if it’s not true?” Wayne asked.
Ruby and Parker appeared from around the corner.
“What’s not true?” Ruby asked as she and Parker caught up.
“I was just explaining to Wayne that tarot readings aren’t real,” Olivia said.
“Maybe,” Ruby said. “Maybe not.”
“Seriously, Ruby?” Olivia asked.
“It can’t hurt for us to watch our backs,” Ruby said a little defensively. “That’s all I’m saying.”
“So it is real,” Wayne said.
“Maybe,” Ruby said.
“No,” Olivia said at the same time.
“What about the corporate credit card?” Parker asked.
“Yes,” Wayne said. “The moment we got the card that said we would be poor, we found out we could not pay for fuel.”
“That was a silly coincidence,” Olivia said lightly.
Before any of them could argue, she was marching back to the van.
Wayne and the others followed.
He couldn’t help but wish that Kent and Margot had been with them. His brother Kent could sense lies. If Estrella had been lying, his brother surely could have told them.
It was too bad they had been called off for their reshoots.
3
Wayne
Wayne enjoyed the remainder of the trip up the mountain, even though Olivia did not go to sleep on his shoulder again.
The surrounding trees grew even more thick and lush, but every once in a while there would be a break in their growth, and a startlingly beautiful view over the valley below would open up.
In comparison to Aerie, all
of Earth was lush and green. But Wayne was learning that there were key differences between Costa Rica and Stargazer, Pennsylvania.
In Stargazer, he had grown used to an orderly placement of elements. Grass was at his feet, buildings above that, and then the sky, hanging like a movie screen above with stars or storms seemingly projected upon it.
But in this place, the greenery asserted itself in larger formations, with leaves as large as his head. The land lifted up into the sky and the clouds hung low so that it all appeared to be one thing - a salad of land and sky instead of a layered parfait.
His stomach grumbled again, and he hoped they were nearly there. These tiny women didn’t require the fuel his large body demanded.
“Okaaaay,” the driver said as the van suddenly bumped off the main road and onto a muddy path between the trees. “Here we go.”
Olivia glanced over at him, a look of slight alarm on her lovely face.
The path led through a shallow stream and the van followed. Then they were bumping up a hill toward the light.
Suddenly, the trees broke, revealing a sunny clearing.
A large wooden house with a green metal roof stood on the left. Smaller versions of this house flanked what could have been a small pond or a large swimming pool at the center.
All around the cluster of pretty houses, the jungle showed off its brightly colored flowers and foliage.
“Whoa,” Ruby said. “It’s fancy.”
“I thought we were roughing it in the jungle,” Margot said.
“This does not look rough,” Kent said.
“I’m going to call the production company about the corporate card,” Olivia said, hopping out as soon as the van came to a stop.
Wayne followed her, mystified as she held the phone in the air, far above her head. He had thought phone calls required talking into the device.
“Shoot,” she said. “I can’t get a signal.”
She looked around, then approached the young man placing their luggage on a cart.
“Yes, señorita?” he replied.
“Where can I get a good signal for my phone?” she asked, pointing at the device.
The man began to explain, gesturing toward a break in the trees.
“Wayne,” Parker said from behind him. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, brother, of course,” Wayne told him. “This is beautiful.”
Olivia wandered off with her phone, and the man with the cart resumed his progress. They followed him past the larger building toward the little cottages.
“Your rooms will be prepared for you in about fifteen minutes,” the man explained. “Please feel free to enjoy some fruit and look around the grounds while you wait.”
He gestured to a table where a large bowl of fruit sat, practically overflowing.
“Parker,” Ruby called out from the water’s edge.
Parker winked at Wayne and jogged over toward his wife.
Wayne went to the fruit, glad for a chance to appease his stomach.
There were fruits in shapes he had never seen before. There was also something that looked like a large banana.
He grabbed it and looked around the clearing as he peeled his snack, spotting movement in the trees to the left.
He went to it, hoping to see some local animals. He had been told that Costa Rica had wonderful animals that lived in no other place.
A small, brilliantly colored bird peered back at him, then flew deeper into the trees.
Wayne followed it with his eyes, wondering that such a tiny thing could be alive.
Something cried out overhead, almost like a person.
Wayne looked up and saw the creatures, swinging and jumping through the trees, like furry little men with long arms and tails.
Monkeys - just what he’d been hoping for.
They seemed very excited.
Where could they be going in such a hurry?
“Slower, wait for me, please,” Wayne murmured.
One of the creatures stopped mid-swing and hung from its thick vine, blinking down at him with shimmering black eyes.
Wayne crashed into the jungle after the monkey and it moved along, just slowly enough that he could follow.
There was a cacophony of chattering just up ahead where the sunlight showed through the trees.
The little fellow swung on and Wayne burst out of the trees to find the gang of mammals at the edge of the clearing.
One of them had something shiny in his paw and the others were squawking for a look at his prize.
“Hey,” Olivia’s voice said. “Give that back.”
Wayne made his way forward and saw her at the edge of the trees.
“Olivia,” he said.
“Hi Wayne,” she sighed. “I was holding up my phone looking for a signal, and that monkey just snatched it.”
Wayne looked up.
Sure enough, the monkey had Olivia’s cell phone. He was examining it as if it might contain intergalactic secrets.
Wayne remembered how Olivia had been waving the phone over her head as she’d walked away. From the monkey’s point of view, it must have seemed as if Olivia were offering the phone up to him.
“Monkey,” Wayne murmured. “Give back my friend’s phone. She did not mean to hand it to you. It is very rude to take something without being offered.”
The monkey looked down at him and then back at the phone, chittering madly and waving it around, sending the other monkeys scrambling for a better view of it.
Wayne looked around, stumped.
Then he remembered the fruit in his hand.
“Monkey,” he tried again. “I will trade you the phone for this delicious fruit.”
The monkey looked down at him again. He had just nibbled on the edge of the phone and drawn his face back from it quickly.
Wayne hoped he had discovered it was not for eating.
“Who are you going to call?” Wayne asked him. “None of your monkey friends have phones.”
The monkeys looked around at each other.
Wayne held up the banana-like fruit. It looked delicious. He hated to trade it. But Olivia needed her phone. He knew she would be like a lost child without it.
Suddenly the monkey was swinging down to his level.
It reached out a paw.
“Phone first,” Wayne told it. “You are trickier than I am.”
The monkey barked out a laughing sound of agreement and offered him the phone.
Wayne took it and handed over his fruit.
The monkey took an enormous bite and then disappeared into the trees, cheeks bulging with his snack as the other monkeys followed.
“Thank you, little brother,” Wayne told his retreating tail.
4
Olivia
Olivia stared at Wayne, unable to believe her eyes.
He smiled down at her, looking pleased.
“Holy crap,” she managed. “What did I just see?”
“I traded with him,” Wayne said. “To get your phone back.”
Well, that was what she thought she’d seen.
At least she wasn’t going crazy.
“But how did you get him to listen to you?” she asked.
“Oh, I like animals,” he said.
The echo of a smile tugged up the corners of his mouth, like he had a secret.
“They seem to like you,” she said. “But I guess everyone does.”
“Do you like me, Olivia?” Wayne asked.
Olivia felt her cheeks grow warm.
“I like you,” he continued. “I like you very much. And I would feel that way even if there weren’t a mate bond between us.”
“Uh-a what?” she stammered.
“Surely you feel it too,” he said, a serious expression on his face. “But for me it is more than the bond. I would choose you for your own qualities. You are fierce yet compassionate. You are swift and smart. You are the epitome of a perfect mate.”
“Th-thank you,” Olivia said. It came out almost sounding lik
e a question.
Her heart was pounding.
She had both dreaded and secretly longed for this conversation.
Yet it wasn’t going quite the way she had expected.
Margot and Ruby had made it sound like the men from Aerie were apologetic about their sudden choosing, as if they had waited until they felt the time was right to bring it up, until they could bear the suspense no longer.
Olivia had never really been alone with Wayne before.
He had just finished negotiating with a monkey for her phone. The banana peel was still in his hand.
He wasn’t wasting any time.
“This is all happening so fast,” she heard herself murmur.
“I’ve known it since the moment we met,” Wayne said. “It’s just that it’s hard to get you alone. I had to pay that monkey to steal your phone just to buy myself this moment.”
“What?” Olivia asked, flabbergasted.
“I’m kidding,” he said quickly. “That was a joke. Or at least it was meant to be. Was it funny?”
Suddenly she couldn’t help but laugh - the trickle of a giggle at first, that soon gave way to a full torrent of laughter.
Maybe it was the day of back-to-back plane flights and the bumpy trip up the mountain. Maybe it was the stress about her phone and the incredible conversation Wayne had just had with a monkey. Whatever it was, the dam had burst, and she couldn’t stop laughing.
“It was not that funny,” he said, sounding uncertain.
It only made her laugh harder. She snorted a little.
Wayne’s laughter rang out at that, joining hers.
She recovered herself enough to look up into his twinkling eyes.
“Wayne,” she said, meaning to follow it up with a speech about how busy she was.
But somehow she found herself hypnotized by his dark eyes, the shadow on his jaw, the way he leaned in, closing the distance between them, ratcheting up her pulse and sending her blood sizzling with lust.
“Wayne,” she tried again, helpless as he caressed her cheek, sending a shiver of sensation all over her body.
“Olivia,” he said, the vowels like a low moan. “Will you accept me for your mate?”
“I-I can’t,” she said, tearing her gaze from his and pulling away.