“Joyful that they no longer have to be in this contraption?” he offered.
“This month is not turning out at all like I’d expected,” she said, more to herself than to him. She turned the car off the highway toward the solitary light of the gas station. “I’m an unemployed car thief on the run with a wanted man.”
“I am a Sintazian trapped on an alien planet by the company hired to help us, and I can’t find my brothers,” Ice stated. “I am not sure I will ever see the ice tundras of home again.”
“You win,” Elle answered.
“What do I win?”
Instead of explaining the nuances of Earth language, she said, “You’ll need to put the jacket and hat on and try to stay out of sight while we’re here. The fewer people who see you, the better.”
Chapter Eight
Ice watched Elle insert a device into the side of the car. She held it there, waiting, not unlike the fuel dock worker refueling a spaceship. The distinct smell of a ship’s engine room combined with the stench of the vehicle. This was not the kind of place he wanted his woman to be in.
Girlfriend. That was the pairing word to boyfriend. Elle was his girlfriend.
The thought gave him pleasure. He had thought her behavior strange at the facility when she came to watch him, pressing herself to the glass and taunting him, had been designed to torture him. How wrong he had been. It must be an Earth woman dating custom. She had been trying to pair with him.
Earth women decided fast, and without any of the formal, traditional Sintazian fighting and hunting rituals. Though, there was that brief fight when he’d first landed. That must have been when she’d made up her mind. This was probably why Galaxy Brides had been so confident in their abilities to find wives on this world.
Concern over Frost and Snow kept him from suggesting that she stop driving so they could further the Earth dating custom that Galaxy Brides had explained to him of eating in a restaurant which led to kissing, which led to mating. But such things would have to wait. As soon as he found his brothers, they’d find a way to go home. He couldn’t wait to show Elle her new home.
The gas station was not busy. A car was parked by the wide glass doors. Another vehicle had been leaving as they’d pulled up. Elle disappeared from view and he got out of the car for a better angle. He still couldn’t see her.
Without much thought, he shut the door and walked toward the windows. A car pulled into the lot. The woman driver stared at him, her face pursed as if he had personally offended her. In the back seat, two small humans laughed. One waved his hand in the air. Instead of stopping, the woman looped around the lot and kept going.
Ice continued toward the building. The doors jingled when he pushed them open. The noise caused the man behind the counter to glance up from a small box. It took Ice a moment to think of the word—television.
Two women—one with dark hair, one blonde—paused, their hands resting on a container filled with brightly colored sticks. The distinct smell of the fueling ports didn’t continue into the building. Instead, there was the hint of cooking meat.
When the man and two women continued to stare, he said, “Costume party in the desert.”
The man nodded a few times and then turned his eyes back to the television. The women laughed and glanced at each other.
“Trick or Treat,” the blonde whispered.
“I wouldn’t mind a trick if the treat looked like that,” the other answered.
They again laughed. Ice didn’t bother addressing them further.
“Elle,” he stated. “Elle.”
“Ice?” She appeared from an aisle. “I told you to wait in the car. What are you doing in here?”
“I could not see you through the glass.” He glanced around, relieved that he could perceive no threat.
“Dude,” the guy behind the counter said. He was staring at the television, shaking his head.
“I managed to get cash from the ATM,” Elle said. “Pick out something to eat and we’ll get on the road. I don’t want to stay here too long.”
He looked around. “I do not know what is food.”
She gestured to the aisles. “All of this—chips, candy, nuts.”
“Meat?”
“You want a hot dog? All right.” She led the way down the aisle and stopped at a strange contraption that rolled meat tubes up and down a flat platform.
