“This is so weird,” she said. “So we can agree to a thirty-day trial, and if it doesn’t work, we can walk away, free. As long as we don’t get married on Earth or do whatever his mating promise is.”
“Right. My husband, Erzo and I, agreed to be together for the thirty days. I was his pretend mate to help get out of a forced marriage on his world. It was an agreement we made.”
“But you’re still together.”
“We fell in love through the trial.” She shrugged. “He gave me a bat.”
Jenny raised her eyebrow. “A bat? Like the animal or the sports equipment?”
“Sports equipment. I used to play when I was a kid.”
“Huh,” Jenny said.
“There was a lot going on. He wanted me to have something I could swing if someone came at me.”
Jenny blinked. She’d not heard any of that part of Polly’s mating with Erzo. “Someday, you may have to tell the whole story of that one.”
“It was quite a thing. But it also showed me just how much I could trust him. So the thirty days was a formality, when it was all said and done.”
“Is that what you expect here?” Karuk asked.
“It is what we hope for,” Re-lee said.
“But we can’t expect everything to work out perfectly,” Polly added.
He nodded. “When do you need to know?”
“As soon as possible,” Re-lee said. “We can give you an hour.”
Jenny shook her head. “An hour? We have an hour to decide the rest of our lives?” That sounded like one of those impossible tasks.
An hour to decide her future, one that was an about-face from the future she’d seen for herself just a few days ago.
“Hey, she’s giving you an hour,” Polly said. “I didn’t get that. Come to think of it, I don’t think I got any time to decide. I was told, hey, here’s your mate.”
“I wouldn’t put it so crass,” Re-lee said.
“Okay, you made it sound pretty and eloquent, but yeah, that’s what you did,” Polly said. “Come on, I’m hungry. And so is baby Erzo. Let’s go get a bite and let them talk.” She rubbed her belly as she spoke.
Re-lee nodded, and the two of them walked out of the meeting room, leaving Jenny and Karuk alone.
And the room felt smaller, now that it was just the two of them.
“This is not why I came here,” Karuk said.
“Me either. The last thing on my mind was to find a new man. I just got rid of the last one. At least I tried. Boys are not my thing right now, and now I’m thrown into this? Not what?—”
“I wasn’t finished.”
She stopped. “Sorry. I didn’t realize.” She looked down and back up. “What were you going to say?”
“I did not come here for a mate, but I am open to the opportunity.”
Jenny froze. “Pardon?”
“If you do not wish it, I understand. All of this is a great deal to take in, especially for you Earthlings, who are only just learning about the galaxy and how large it is.”
“It’s not that,” she said. “I don’t want to be told what to do and where I can go.”
