I slid into the small space in the circle, then stepped inside of it as I cut into the conversation by physically intersecting the words. One of the women let out a small hiss of disapproval, but I ignored her as I held out a small alien device to Voknar. This was the easy part, the piece of the puzzle I was comfortable with.
"Look at this," I said.
He took it from me, tapping his thumb against the side to activate the projector. The contract floated up in the air between us. I had spent the last two weeks working on it. I had used Lamia's as the baseline, but made sure to include additional provisions for my specific needs and desires. Her contract didn't include child-rearing expectations, but mine did. I liked having things understood from the start: that the commitment to child-raising and household maintenance would be balanced. I didn't believe in relying on the assumption that my partner would take into consideration the massive physical expenditure that was gestating and birthing a child.
"Excuuuuuuse me," said one of the women in the circle. "We were talking."
I didn't take my eyes off of him as he quickly read through the beginning of the contract, his eyes widening, his sharp intake of breath letting me know that he understood exactly what it was that I was proposing. Normally, it would be considerate to let the other person read through the entire thing before pressing them to sign, but I didn't believe in consideration.
I believed in winning.
I couldn't stop to think about it. I had to just do it.
I reached down and unsnapped the small leather strap that held my knife in its sheath, my heart pounding in my ears as the sheer audacity of what I was about to do clawed at me, adrenaline spikes coursing through me. I gripped the handle and pulled it free, lifting it.
In one decisive motion, I stabbed him in the chest.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" one of the women screamed as the entire group recoiled backward away from us.
Voknar didn't move at all.
He glanced down at the dagger sticking out of the thick meat of his chest, cutting a hole in the tight-fitting black silk shirt he had on. The fabric darkened slightly around the blade, and I left it there, embedded in his muscle. It was a small, sharp blade, explicitly chosen to cause only superficial damage. I had done my research. I knew what kind of weapons offered his kind a genuine threat, and those were few and far between on Earth. That said, I could have chosen a bigger knife or gone for a deeper cut, but I wasn't ready to make that kind of commitment after only two weeks.
It was essential to start by just expressing interest and see where things went.
He looked up from the dagger, his eyes so full of fire that it felt like I was standing in front of a furnace.
My mouth went dry as the space between my legs became even more inflamed, my adrenaline mixing with a heady awareness of exactly where this was going to go if he accepted my flirtation.
He didn't take his eyes off of me as he scrolled down to the bottom of the contract without reading the rest, and signed it.
A thrill ran through me, the familiar thrill of closing a deal combined with the anticipation of what would come next. I knew what courtship with a member of his species entailed. I had readevery word of Lamia's contract, heard about her courtship in detail, and taken the time to write my own contract.
I heard Lamia behind me, gathering the upset women and speaking to them in a low voice, doing damage control. She knew what I intended. She was prepared to be my wingman and make sure no one called the cops. I wasn't going to make a move on her mate's brother without talking it over with her, especially when that move meant activity that didn't line up with human ideas of courtship.
Voknar pulled the dagger free, wiped it clean on his shirt, flipped it in his hand to hold the blade, and offered the handle back to me, watching me like he thought I would bolt at any moment.
I took the dagger, then reached out and scrolled back up in the contract to one particular clause.
"Read that one," I said.
He read it. Even though I had stabbed him to get him riled up on purpose, I wanted to make sure he read that particular section.
It was the clause that included my safe words and gestures.
"Understood," he said, his voice holding a heated promise.
Now I could run away.
I turned and headed across the room, my high heels making a satisfied tapping sound against the worn wooden floor as I headed away from the main room that held the stage, down the small hallway that wove between cubicles turned into bedrooms, over to the large window that was propped open. The back of my neck prickled with the awareness of the eyes of the predator on me. I knew he would come after me. What I didn't realize was how far I would get.
I climbed out the window onto the black metal fire escape, being careful that my heels didn't slip down in between the slats.I put all my weight into the balls of my feet to keep from risking my heels on the spaces in the metal as I climbed up the stairs.
I felt the slight shudder of the metal railing under my hand as he climbed out onto the fire escape after me.
I made it only halfway to the roof when he caught me. I thought I would make it all the way up there, where it was more private, not here, still on the fire escape, with the entire street down below us and the open window to the party just a short distance away.
But I knew what I had signed up for when I gave him that contract, my own signature already on it.
