He just left.
And the way he sprinted out of there, she didn’t know if it was because he was late or because he was disgusted.
Naturally, her brain immediately went to “disgusted.”
Which brought on the tears. Her mind danced around everything—all those self-taught negative things that she and the therapist had tried to work on.
Self-loathing.
Doubt.
Feeling like she wasn’t good enough.
And now, she added into the mix, a feeling of utter aloneness. Because if she didn’t have Phares, then what would she do? She was on the other side of the galaxy. Even Polly and Tori were back on that space station they’d started on. She was now completely isolated.
And if Phares didn’t want her, then what would she do?
“Lay here and wallow. I’m going to lay here and wallow in my stupidity.” She put a pillow over her face. “He was probably thinking about some female he’d much rather have than an Earth Girl like me.”
She screamed into the pillow.
Threw it to the side and sat up.
“Okay, okay.” She wiped her tears away. “It sucks. In a very special way, this sucks. But I’ll figure it out. Re-lee said there was a thirty-day clause. Surely, I can take that up and go back. Do I really want to? Not particularly. But I’ll go back anyway. At least there, I have something of a life. Maybe I’ll move to Hawaii or Dubai or the city where Loch Ness is. Get away and find something amazing somewhere else.”
She nodded to herself and got up. She changed her clothing and started brushing her hair.
It took her a minute to get herself squared away, but she managed to calm back down.
“Okay, I can do this.” At least she hadn’t disposed of the bags her stuff was in. It should be easy to repack everything. Getting a ride back to Disguised Serenity might need a bit of working out, but she’d figure it out.
She had some resemblance of a plan.
That she could work with.
“I can handle this,” she said, running the brush through her hair one more time.
“What do you need to handle?” Phares asked.
She spun around, gasped, and hurled her hairbrush at him.
Naturally, he caught it. “Did I frighten you?”
“Didn’t think you were coming back, the way you stormed out of here.” She pulled her pile of clothes out of one of the drawers and crossed to put it in the bag she’d brought.
He took a few steps closer but maintained a distance between them. “Are you leaving?”
“It didn’t seem like you were interested in my staying,” she said.
“What gave you that idea?”
“The way you stormed out of here.” She continued packing her stuff as she spoke, not quite looking at him. Which was good because her eyes were watering again. “I figured you must not have been very impressed with that whole kissing thing, so I guess that sort of brings the answer for the whole mate thing. We must not be compatible. So, I’m leaving. I’ll go back to the Intergalactic Dating Agency. See if Re-lee will send me back early or if I need to wait and see if someone else wants me.”
“No,” Phares growled, and suddenly he was next to her. He put his hand on her arm and spun her around.
She started to pull away. “You don’t get to own me. I don’t need your permission—”
He didn’t let her argue more. He pulled her into a kiss.
