Page 26 of Close Encounters of the Hot Kind

The bus lurches and my thighs press together, sending another wave of need through my body. Damn Charles and his talented fingers. The feel of his touch burns fresh in my mind, making it impossible to focus.

"Your stop, miss."

"Thanks." I stumble off the bus on shaky legs.

The autumn wind whips my hair around as I walk the familiar route to Papa Marella's. My phone buzzes with a text from Charles.

"Counting the minutes until tonight, little delicacy."

Heat floods my cheeks. No. Focus. I have to get answers about what I saw in that limo. The scales. The ridges. The golden eyes that haunted my dreams.

"Not this time, mister. You're not distracting me with your... everything."

The red brick of our restaurant comes into view. I pause at the corner, straightening my clothes and willing my heart to slow down. I need to work my afternoon shift with a clear head.

"Tonight, Charles Varakian, you're going to tell me exactly what you are. No tricks. No teasing. No touching."

But even as I say the words, my body betrays me with a shiver of anticipation. Those hands of his should be illegal. Maybe they are, on whatever planet he's from.

I push open the heavy wooden door, the familiar scent of garlic and tomatoes filling my nose. Focus on work. Focus on anything except the way Charles looked at me in his office, like he wanted to devour me whole.

"Get it together, Aileen," I mutter, grabbing my apron off the hook. "You're getting answers tonight. Period."

Dad tosses another pizza into the brick oven while I wipe down the counter. The dinner rush keeps us moving, but my mind drifts to Charles. His face looks perfect - too perfect. But when my fingers traced his jaw in the limo, the texture felt different. Ridged. Scaled.

"Hey Dad, remember that episode of Star Trek with the shape-shifting aliens?"

"Which series? Original, Next Gen, Deep Space Nine?" Dad's eyes light up like they always do when talking sci-fi.

"The one where they had technology to look human."

"Oh, the holographic disguise episodes! Classic stuff. Though personally, I prefer the organic shapeshifters from DS9." He pulls a bubbling pizza from the oven. "Why'd you ask?"

"Just wondering how that would work in real life. Like, would you be able to touch someone using a hologram?"

"Depends on the tech. Could be force fields, could be some kind of projection-matter interface." Dad waves the pizza paddle for emphasis. "The real question is power consumption. Maintaining that kind of field would drain batteries fast."

That explains the flicker in the limo. My heart skips.

"What if someone had really advanced alien tech?"

"Then anything's possible, sweetheart." Dad grins. "Been watching sci-fi shows yourself?"

"Something like that."

Mom swoops by with a stack of plates. "Less Star Trek, more customers please!"

But my mind races with possibilities. Force fields. Projection interfaces. Power drainage. It all fits. Now I just need to get Charles to admit it.

"Order up!" Dad calls, and I snap back to reality. For now, there are pizzas to serve and tables to bus. But tonight? Tonight I'm getting answers from my mysterious maybe-alien boyfriend.

The last customer waves goodbye and I flip the sign to "Closed." Time to get some real answers about alien tech. And who better to ask than my resident sci-fi expert?

"Hey Dad, about those hologram disguises we talked about earlier..."

Dad's face lights up brighter than our pizza oven. "Finally! My daughter wants to talk Trek!"

"What would it take to, you know, disable one?"

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