“Don’t be a stranger, Cora,” Brynna said as I drew Cora away. “We’ll have to get together sometime. I’m sure Thrin has a resort wherever you’re going. I’ll come and visit.”
Thrin paled, his jaw clenching.
“Yes, Nacara,” I said, “You and your bride will be welcomeguestsin Eissoi anytime.”
Cora waved to her friend and kept pace with my stride. “Why did that not sound very friendly?” she asked.
“Didn’t it?”
“Not even a little. How do you know him?”
“Thrin Nacara is a hospitality mogul,” I said. “He wanted to build one of his tasteless brothels in Eissoi last year, but some of the locals objected.”
“You?”
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, either way. The construction ran into one disaster after another, and he finally withdrew and sold the property to my uncle.”
“One disaster after another, huh?” She squinted up at me as we reached the social contract officer’s door.
“Unfortunate for Nacara,” I said. “He lost a lot of money. I did try to warn him.”
“Uh huh.”
“Mr. Ahlon!” the officer greeted us at the door. “And this must be Cora. Come in. I have the documents ready and waiting.”
CHAPTER 20
CORA
The officialwho married us was not daernir. They were on the shorter side with pale orange skin and a snout that reminded me of an anteater. I didn’t catch their name because they wasted no time drawing us over to a large floating frame that had two documents on display.
“Stand here, Miss Keaton,” the official said, indicating a red dot on the floor. As soon as I stepped onto it, lasers did a lightning-fast sweep of my body. “Excellent. Now touch here to consent to the marriage.”
“Excuse me?” I blinked at them.
“Right here, my dear,” they said, showing me a spot on the screen. The document was written in characters I didn’t recognize, but the translation readI, Cora Keaton, consent to wed Yiri Ahlon.
“Um… Okay.” I tapped the screen, jumping at the cool glass feel of it when it thrummed with energy and light. I’d expected it to be warm.
“Congratulations, you are married. Now touch here to consent to be mated.”
“Oh. Um…” I touched where they indicated, and then stepped aside for Yiri to follow the same routine. We were married and mated in less than one minute.
“The files have already been uploaded to your nexus core, Mr. Ahlon. Best wishes to the happy couple. Send in the next set, please.”
“Holy crap,” I said as we walked out. “That was quicker than a Vegas drive-through.”
“You were expecting it to take longer?” Yiri asked.
I laughed. “Well, yeah. On Earth, it takes people all day to host a wedding.”
“All day?” Yiri’s brows rose. “It’s a long ritual, then?”
“Sometimes,” I said, waving at Brynna again as we passed by on our way out. “There’s the ceremony, and then there’s dancing, and dinner, and drinks, and the cake, and the bouquet toss, and the garter toss, and some people do stuff like breaking plates. It’s kind of a lot.”
“Sounds like it,” Yiri muttered. “Do you want that? We can do it again.”
“No,” I said. “I’m actually relieved. I wouldn’t know what to do if I had to be the center of attention like that all day. And… I don’t know. I kind of always knew my parents weren’t going to be at my wedding, but if I did a big one, I’d be thinking about it all day.”
