I flash him my teeth. “None appealed to me. But when I heard of the Matching Program, I knew it was because I was intended for something else.” I turn to Fiona. “Someone else.”
Her face turns even redder. “That’s sweet.” She looks up into the mirror again. “What about you, Shathar?”
I am growing ever more annoyed that I will have to share all of her time with him. I hope I can end their courtship quickly and send Shathar home.
“On Arshur, I owned a grocery,” he says calmly, in that low voice of his. “It was a humble living, but I brought people the things they needed.”
“What’s going to happen to it now that you’re gone?” Fiona asks, and I am wondering the same thing.
“I sold the business to a friend. He will do well.”
So he did all that, gambling on the Matching Program? It is too bad he will have to go back and start over when Fiona makes her decision.
“Perhaps you can be an employee at your own business when you return home,” I quip.
There’s a snarl in the back seat.
“All right, no fighting in the car,” Fiona snaps. “I need to focus on the road. Khesan, that was a low blow.”
I grit my teeth and sit back in my seat, chastised.
“Why did you come to Earth if you were giving up so much, Shathar?” Fiona asks.
“Because I knew you were here.”
The answer startles even me. I squint at Shathar in the mirror that peers into the back seat. He looks composed and sincere.
“I knew that the answer to my prayers did not exist on Arshur,” he goes on. “When the Frahma came talking about his program, I was certain that was my destiny. Where I would find my one, my only, if I went to Earth.” He shrugs. “Perhaps it was a path set by the gods, and I heard them.”
Fiona covers a cheek with her hand and exhales a breath as we approach a human house, and she pulls onto the concrete pad in front of it. This must be where she lives.
“That’s lovely, Shathar,” she says, and I hold in a hiss.
Here, the houses all appear to be some sort of manufactured wood, with sloped shingle roofs, which is inefficient but understandable in the climate. In the desert, we use brick and clay to build, and tile for roofing.
Fiona still hasn’t spoken as she gets out of the car, then opens the rear door so we can retrieve our belongings. I brought all the clothes I should need, which filled two rucksacks. Shathar only has one, which makes me wonder if he packed light on purpose, intending to buy new things, or if he had little to begin with.
Gah, Shathar. A useless thing to think about when I’m here to woo my mate.
Chapter Four
Fiona
It’s only been an hour and they’re already at each other’s throats. This is a bad sign.
I think I’ve gotten a decent read on them, though. Shathar is a little more worldly than Khesan, the former soldier. Khesan, though, has a youthful earnestness about him. I wonder how Khesan will feel about life on Earth after giving up his family’s name and wealth. Though Shathar did say he sold his business, too.
Both of them are so serious about this, how could I possibly send one of them home at the end? I haven’t taken a moment to really consider what Gazargo was proposing: that I should live with both aliens, as if they’re my husbands, and then pick one?
What was I thinking when I agreed to this?
I’ve been mulling over in my head what to do with two alien husbands, since I’d only prepared the one room. I do have another, but it’s downstairs, where my mom lived when she was still alive. That apartment is the reason I bought this house, so we could each have our own space.
Since she died, I’ve kept it locked up and closed off. But now I have nowhere else to put my extra husband.
When we all reach the front door, Khesan and Shathar carrying their belongings in their clawed hands, their long tails looped around their feet, I turn to each of them.
“So which room do you want?” I ask. “There’s a queen bed upstairs, down the hall from me. There’s another one in the basement.”
