She sniffed the tears away and then sniffed some more, curling into a ball on the sofa and dozed off without making any decisions. Juliana dreamed of Diesel and the time they’d spent together. She wished her broken heart wasn’t as vocal and disparaging as her forgiving soul was with regard to this situation.
Juliana heard a phone ringing in her dream, but couldn’t find it. When her dream-self went to answer it, Diesel’s brother Cam was there with a cannon-sized megaphone ready to zap her until she forgot everything forever.
What is ringing?
She opened her eyes and sat up on the sofa. Sunshine was now streaming in through the living room window into her face. She must have fallen asleep trying to decide which article to turn in.What time is it?
Juliana glanced up at the clock and realized she had leave her apartment in less than ten minutes to get to Mr. Harriman’s office on time or forfeit the incredible offer and the money that went with it.
She spent four minutes in the shower, three minutes brushing her teeth and combing her hair into a loose, messy, damp ponytail, two minutes putting fresh clothes on even though she wasn’t completely dry from her speedy shower and was ready to leave her place with less than a minute to spare.
She hustled out to the living room, grabbed her purse and looked down at both articles on the table behind the sofa. She put her hand on one and read the first line. Moving her fingertips to rest on the other, she read that first line. She wavered about which she should choose. The flashing message light on her home phone caught her eye and she saw it was time to go right now.
Juliana pushed out a long breath and made her final decision. She picked one article up and flew out the door, knowing that if she spent one second longer deciding, she’d be too late to turn in either story.
Chapter Seventeen
Diesel was tired all the way to his marrow when he stepped inside his home Friday afternoon. The last time he’d been here, he’d kissed a sleep-rumpled Juliana goodbye and headed to work after the most amazing time off he’d ever spent. He was madly in love with an earthling. He couldn’t wait to see Juliana again, hold her in his arms, and especially kiss her silly.
Walking through his home to head upstairs, he saw his open home office door and paused. He always kept it closed. Now, it was ajar. He’d popped it open briefly when showing Juliana his home, but remembered distinctly closing the door until the latch clicked. There was no use tempting fate by allowing her close to his alien artifact-laden hidden room.
Had Juliana gone into his office? A panicked feeling dove deeply into his belly at the idea she’d found his hidden space, though he knew it was highly unlikely. He walked slowly to the door and looked in. The room appeared to be fine. Maxwell’s picture was perfectly straight and nothing seemed out of place. He pushed out a sigh of relief and closed the door, ensuring it latched this time.
Diesel went upstairs to clean up, intending to head straight to Juliana’s place in Doraydo. He needed to see her, needed to hug her tight, kiss her gently and hold her in his embrace until she understood what being madly in love meant to him.
She was very important to his future happiness. He might have to accept some rather large sacrifices in order to make her his bride, but he was ready to do it. He would hand over his career on Earth and go back to Alpha-Prime so they could be together forever, if that was his only option. He just hoped she was open-minded about space travel.
An hour later he was standing in front of Juliana’s door with flowers. He knocked hard, wanting to get her attention. Her front door popped wide open of its own volition. A thin line of panic streaked down his spine. “Juliana!” he called through the widening space. “Your door is open.” No response.
Diesel stepped across the threshold, closing the door behind him. He walked down the hallway to her bedroom. Her bed was made. The light was still on in the bathroom and girly stuff was scattered on the counter as if she’d gotten ready and left in a big hurry. He shut the light off and exited her bathroom. He stared at her undisturbed bed, feeling like something was off, but unable to see what. He left her bedroom, walking down the hallway until he stood behind the sofa. He wondered if she’d be upset if he waited for her.
Looking down, he noticed a stack of papers on the table. He read the title,You’ve Got Aliens, and smiled at the cleverness. He scanned down to read the first line and his entire body froze.Aliens do exist right in plain sight at the Big Bang Truck Stop in Alienn, Arkansas on Route 88 and I can prove it!Diesel picked the article up and read the entire thing.
It was clear from the article that not only had she found his secret office, she’d taken some of his personal pictures from there before leaving, including one that looked like a half octopus-half man alien that she’d personally witnessed.
Her tone throughout the entire story was hostile, angry and mean. The article was meant to enflame and incite anyone reading it. The Finder’s book people would probably love it.
She even mentioned the Defender with a warning to watch out, as it made memories seem like dreams, which was a big problem because how did she know the name of something that was supposed to have completely erased her mind for a defined time period? She had a few memories, but she’d written about things she could have only heard while she was unconscious. So she remembered everything and realized it wasn’t a dream.
If this article was published in a Finder’s special edition book, folks from all over the country would come to discover if aliens from Alpha-Prime had been fooling humans for decades. Diesel was in big trouble if this was the article she’d written for publication.
He took minor solace in the fact Finder’s wouldn’t simply take her word for it on a story this big. They’d send someone to verify her wild, crazy claims, which weren’t wild or crazy, but quite factual.
If the Finder’s representative garnered even a hint of truth in what she’d written, the publication would likely go with it. And if she gave them some pictures from his secret office, he was screwed.
Diesel might get a one-way trip back to Alpha-Prime, if he got lucky. If his luck had run out, he could also get a one-way trip to Galactic Gulag XkR-9, one of the worst gulags in the Andromeda Galaxy.
Diesel grabbed the copy of her article, planning to use it for reference as he raced home to do damage control and prepare for whatever Finder’s fact-checker showed up to verify or debunk Juliana’s claims.
Beneath the surface of his worry about possible discovery, he was quite heartbroken over what he considered Juliana’s unexpected betrayal.
Why hadn’t she called him? Why hadn’t she told him about her memories of the Defender? How could she remember being shot with Cam’s foolproof memory erasing weapon in the first place? Had this alien article been her intent all along? Had the bank robber notes only been a clever ruse to throw him off guard?
He read the part about being shot with an invisible ray gun that made her black out for a short time and upon waking her memories were gone, but over time they’d all come back.
Diesel had never had a chance to look up the circumstances during testing as to the understandable reason it had not worked as expected on one of the test subjects. And he didn’t have time to look it up when he pulled into the truck stop parking lot either.
He got out of his truck and realized it was too late to do anything except deflect and react. An older man in jeans and an untucked orange, button-up shirt was getting out of a car, notepad in hand. That in and of itself wouldn’t have been alarming except for the bumper sticker by his license plate that read:If it’s not in a Finder’s, it’s not a Keeper.
