“An—Cora.” His face appeared on my screen, scowling as his eyes shifted to something outside my field of view. “I’m working. Do you need me now?”
“Yes,” I said, because, well… he made it seem like it was an option, and I wanted to see what he would do.
“Nerus, handle this,“ he said with a jerk of his chin. “And keep it quiet. I have someone important on my frame.”
There was rustling in the background, and then Yiri was walking, the light and ambient noise changing.
“Are you alright,Aneah?” he asked.
“You didn’t want to call me that at work?” I asked, my brows raised.
“Not until you give me permission,” he said. “Are you alright?”
“No,” I said. “I have a question.” He dipped his chin, so I forged on. “If we had kids. A daughter, for example. What would you say to her if she wanted to be with someone you didn’t like?”
He frowned. “How much do I dislike them?”
“Think of whoever you hate the most,” I said. “It’s them. What are you going to say to your daughter?”
“I’m going to say… if they hurt you, I’ll kill them with my bare hands,” he said.
That knot in my stomach loosened a little more. “You would still love her?”
Yiri looked taken aback. “Of course. She’s my daughter. I would love her more than my life.”
I pressed my lips together, nodding as the late-arriving tears filled my eyes. “Okay.”
“Aneah,” he said, his voice rising. “What’s wrong? I can see you’re not at home. Are you safe?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m safe. It’s fine. So. Um… How do we do this? Do I need to go somewhere? Sign something?”
“Are you saying yes?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Nothing is holding me here. I’m not afraid to leave it behind anymore.”
“Update your status,” he said. “I’ll make all the arrangements.”
It was shockingly easy to agree to be an alien’s mail-order bride. A few taps on the app and I had changed my status tomatched, which I realized a second too late wiped out all my other contacts.Oh no! Qhev.But he would know what happened, I was sure.
“Good,” Yiri said. “I’ll let you know when everything is set. It’s just you and the cat?”
“Yes,” I said. “But, I’ll be sleeping through it, right?”
“Yes,” he said. “It’s safer for high-speed travel.”
“What about Mr. Darcy? They’re not going to leave him awake without me for all that time, are they?”
“I’ll find out what’s best for him,” Yiri said seriously. “We’ll talk about your things tonight. There’s not much room on the transport vessels, but we can have anything that doesn’t fit sent separately. Do you have any debt that needs to be settled?”
“I… I have a credit card,” I said. “The balance is low.”
“I’ll send you credits to take care of it,” he said. “You’ll have that in a few minutes. If you need more, just let me know.”
“Um. Okay.” I chewed at my lip. He was so… efficient. “Yiri… Are you… um. Are you excited about this?”
His eyes flashed. “Excited, pissed off, working, amused. It all looks the same on me, doesn’t it,Aneah? Don’t worry. I’ll show you how excited I am when I get my hands on you.”
“So that’s a yes?” I asked, just to be sure. “Because if you’re not, I could probably talk Qhev into?—”
