“First date?” I search my memory for this word because I remember learning it. My translator provides two options: a dried fruit and a romantic outing.
I hiss through my teeth. “A date?”
“Yes. Shathar and I will visit the nature preserve today. Then, next weekend, Khesan, we can go on a date, too.”
I can’t believe it. Shathar has secured a romantic outing with Fiona on our first day, and I will have to wait a week?
“Can’t we go tomorrow?” I ask hoarsely, seeing my opportunity to get an early win evaporating like smoke.
“I work tomorrow, and we need to take you to get fitted. I guess we could go in the evening, if we did an evening activity.” She taps her chin. “We could go bowling after I’m done. I did schedule myself light this week.”
I nod rapidly. “Yes, let us do this bowling tomorrow.” As much as it pains me to let Shathar have the first “date.”
“Great! It’s settled, then. We’ll head home, and Shathar and I will go out. Then, tomorrow, bowling!”
I am not so pleased as we all get in the car and drive home.
Chapter Seven
Fiona
Shathar is just so charming, I couldn’t say no.
He had looked so downtrodden when Khesan paid for his own clothes, and I tried to cheer him up by asking what he’d like to do with the rest of his day.
“I’d like to go see your world,” he had said. “I want you to show me what you love about Earth.”
A girl can’t say no to that. I did tell them I would start dividing my time between them to minimize conflict, and this afternoon sounds like a perfect time to start.
Khesan did not look pleased, but he took it better than I expected. He promises to stay out of trouble while we’re gone, and I have the fire alarm hooked up to my phone so I know if anything goes wrong.
My husbands part ways to hang up their new shirts, and then we’ll have them fitted for custom pants. Their leggings hook over their tails with a strap and a button, and I hope it won’t be too costly to have something like that made for them here.
Not that it’s a problem—I have my small inheritance from Mom, too—but I don’t want to dip into it. I’ve always been very frugal, which I got from her, even if I have a decent job that pays well now.
Khesan stays up in his room, and I quickly change into some more comfortable jeans and a t-shirt, meeting Shathar in the kitchen. I’m getting used to how his smile exposes all of his sharp teeth.
“You look lovely,” he says, his gaze dipping down to my shoes and then back up to my eyes. “I’m a lucky male.”
I must be blushing all over. “Thank you. I am a lucky woman. I think you looked very good in the shirts you tried on today.”
It’s true. Both of them are fit, Shathar and Khesan, in different ways. Khesan has clearly worked out, training his body to be big and bulky. Shathar, on the other hand, has a natural strength to him, a grace that seems to come with his greater age.
The fans on the side of Shathar’s head rise. “Thank you as well, Fiona. I am excited to see this nature preserve.”
“It’s a bit of a drive, but I think you’ll like it.”
It will be a good chance for us to get to know each other better.
Once we’re both in the car, I navigate to the highway.
“Tell me about your life, Shathar,” I say. “Why did you decide to give up your grocery business and come to Earth?”
He sighs. “What good is a business, a whole life, if there is no one to share it with? It is hard on our world now to find a mate. The odds became smaller as I grew older and met no new females. I decided I would rather be happy with a mate than keep running my store and watching the world go past me.”
“That was a big gamble.” I worry about it now, how I’ll have to say goodbye to one of them at the end of all this, after they both sacrificed something to come here.
But Shathar only shrugs. “It was worthwhile to meet you at the space station. I know we are meant to be, and so I have no doubts in my mind it was the right choice to leave Arshur.”
