Or perhaps the stack had been left there because he hadn’t finished reading it, perhaps planning to look at it later. She might have ignored it further, only noticing it at all because she saw Diesel’s name at the top in an intimate greeting. Her heart almost seized in her chest.
The first letter was dated three months ago and began:
My darling, wonderful Diesel,
Juliana picked the letter up and read the whole thing. Twice. She then folded her arms in front of her, dropped her head down and cried her eyes out.
The second letter opened with,Dear Diesel, and contained a confused-sounding single-page message that wondered why the writer hadn’t heard anything from him. It was signed,still madly in love with you, but please contact me.
The third letter was dated last month. It was terse and angry.
Diesel,
It’s clear you never intended to fall madly in love with me. Nor did you obviously ever care for me. I’ve left message after message, and you’ve ignored every one of them. No one is this busy. Therefore, I can only assume that you lied to me about every single thing you said. I’m not special. You only took what you wanted and threw me aside. You’re a vile, reprehensible person, and also I’mnotmadly in love with you anymore. Adele
Once Juliana finished reading all three letters and her impromptu crying jag, she stood up and walked around the desk, deciding to take a closer look at the memorabilia placed in the secret office. She noticed what looked like an old-fashioned photo album, filled with page after page of illuminating pictures.
She thumbed through it until she found a picture of the half octopus-half man she’d dreamed about. On the back it said Resident of Moogally. Whatever that was. She slipped it out of the sleeve and put it in her purse along with a picture of Diesel with his family and the handwritten caption, “Away from Earth, vacationing on Alpha-Prime.”
She should be elated she’d found a treasure trove of possible facts that pointed to the notion aliens from another planet did indeed live and work in plain sight. She should be elated she had something to write for her coming article. Unfortunately, it came at the cost of her heart.
After spending this intimate weekend with Diesel, she’d been about to write some idiot fiction piece about a pair of infamous bank robbers from early in the last century whomayhave robbed the Alienn Bank, but her broken heart wouldn’t let her forget the letters on the desk from a recent, apparently short-lived relationship Diesel shared with someone who’d signed the letter, “Madly in love with you, too. Always and forever, Adele.” That woman had summarily gotten her heart stomped on when Diesel apparently had gotten all he wanted from the poor girl and ditched her. Was that about to be Juliana’s fate?
Juliana read the first love letter from Adele again as more tears streamed down her face. All the supposedly special and magical things they’d done together—the fortune from Maxwell the Martian saying, “Our Fearless Leader thinks you’re pretty, too”; the ride through town on his four-wheeler; spending that first night at his parents’ house—were noted in the letter.
No special moment was left out. The mugs of coffee drank while seated at his parents’ kitchen island were referenced. He’d made this Adele person pancakes the next morning, too. The special ham dinner with sweet yummy cornbread had all been used on another girl, a human girl, just like herself.
According to the letter, Adele had come to the truck stop asking if there were really aliens in Alienn, Arkansas, and Diesel had promptly swung into action. He’d deflected the truth about aliens living in Alienn in the exact same way he had with Juliana, all the way down to telling her he’d be busy for the next few days when the sexy weekend was over, but that he’d call her.
But he hadn’t called Adele, or taken her calls, or called her back or remembered she existed at all after he got what he wanted, also according to subsequent letters months later.
Adele had apparently been trying to get hold of him for quite a while, if the dates on the letters were any indication, gushing about how she had fallen madly in love with him. Mentioning how romantic it had been that after only knowing each other a short time, he planned to fall madly in love with her.
That was the single most hurtful sentence in the entire set of letters.
The line she’d thought was so very romantic when he said it to her in his office. Juliana had believed all of the other things he’d said to her and done with her had been special and unique to their day together.
However, Adele’s first letter detailed many of the exact same special things that she and Diesel hadalsodone together.
These must have all been simply his typical moves in order to sleep with human girls and keep them from believing there were aliens roaming around here. Adele had been duped. Juliana had been duped. She’d been so amazingly foolish.
Juliana shook off the hurt and the humiliation and leapt into action. She grabbed her bag, headed to her car, and drove straight back to Doraydo. She’d been a complete fool to expect a gorgeous man—or gorgeous alien—like Diesel would ever be interested in a nobody like her.
She needed to get home on familiar turf, think through everything and then make a plan for what she’d do next.
Diesel didn’t have to worry about giving her the brush off or about ever seeing her again. She wouldn’t look for a call from him and she also wouldn’t bother writing him any heartfelt lovelorn letters like Adele had, beseeching him to come back or even to call and explain.
Apparently, once he was done with a girl, he never called or saw her again. That was just fine. It would make it much easier.
Juliana was done. She’d write her article and let the chips—or rather her astonishing discovery of aliens living on planet Earth—fall where they may.
Chapter Sixteen
Friday morning
Diesel had been so busy with all the crazy things going on in the basement complex, he hadn’t realized so many days had gone by since he’d left Juliana warm in his bed. It was Friday, but he hadn’t been home all week, sleeping instead in the quarters provided to spacecraft passengers.
He hadn’t heard from Juliana all week, and he likely wouldn’t have had time to even say hello even if she’d called. He’d have to check with Nova and see if Juliana had left any messages that hadn’t filtered downstairs to him just yet. He’d tried to warn her his week was going to be busy, but even he hadn’t realized what was in store for him. His Monday had started out with his brothers Jack and Wheeler. He’d set them on a secret project to possibly thwart a problem he wasn’t certain he’d ever have, but better safe than sorry.
