Page 5 of My New and Improved Alien Lovers

I try to recall any events from last night that I might be missing, but aside from my strange dreams, I'm not coming up with much. “Any chance you could uh, enlighten me, maybe? Out of the kindness of your heart?”

He slides to the bed in a fluid motion, shoulder length dark hair wrapped around equally black horns with a ribbed design going halfway back on his head. If I was less hungover, I might have been alarmed by the fact that his skin is a purplish magenta color, and that his eyes are nearly glowing. Instead, I'm focused on the ring on his septum, on the long pointy ears that I'm just itching to drag my thumbs over.

Without saying a word, he hovers over me, making me inch back to the bed until I'm staring up at him from my back. His hair becomes a sort of curtain around us, and the odd texture of the blanket over my hips is further confirmation that I'm definitely not in my room.

“Your ours, love. You signed a contract last night with our people, binding yourself to us.”

I would laugh if he didn't look so damn serious about the words he's saying.

Other parts of the night come back and I feel myself flush from them; remarks my server at dinner made about the boxes in the park, the exasperation with dating as I interviewed people on my way home, deciding, quite spontaneously I might add, to stop by the communication box between the restaurant and my home and check it out.

I bring my hands to cover my face up, mortified. But not for the fact that you’d think. I’m not horrified or regretful that I apparently got engaged to an alien, but I'm pretty sure I tried to show off my non-existent baton skills. “I embarrassed the fuck out of myself, didn't I?”

I can feel his strange glowy eyes staring at me, even through my hands, and if I look at him, I'll have to face up to all the stupid shit I decided to do last night. I'd rather put that off for a moment, if possible.

“Embarrass yourself? No, I wouldn't say that.” He’s totally smirking at me.

“Uh-huh. Not buying it.”

“Lucky for us, it does not matter if you buy it. You were charming.”

A strange sound escapes my throat, halfway between a laugh and a snort. “Nobody's ever called me charming before. In fact, I believe my date last night told me I was the least charming woman he's ever met. And that wasafterhe basically admitted to not eating— you know what? We don't need to talk about that. You're totally laughing at me right now, aren't you?”

“Won’t you look at me then, love?”

“I'm good here, thanks.”

I can feel the air between us diminish, and then his nose is skimming the sides of my neck as he inhales.

“Old gods, you smell divine.”

“She's awake?”

“Of course. There was more than one of you last night speaking through the screen, wasn't there? Alright then, might as well get this over with.” I drop my hands away from my face and look around, my blood heating instantly at the look of absolute adoration painted on not one, not two, butthreedifferent aliens’ faces.

Fuck.

“Before you panic, may we introduce ourselves to you? Maybe we can… how do you put this, assuage your fears about us?”

I really put my foot in it this time. On the bright side, this is going to make last year's Christmas fiasco look pretty damn good.

I sit up in the bed, take time to rub the sleep out of my eyes and comb my hair at least a little bit, and then blindly reach out for the glasses I'm really hoping are nearby.

“You are looking for your spectacles? They’re here,” the man that's still mostly on top of me says.

Man? No, no, no.Alien.

Yep, there's an alien on top of me.

“Thank you.”

“You were inebriated last night, weren't you? You didn't truly mean to choose us?”

The crestfallen look on his face, on all of theirs, when I make myself gaze upon their beauty once more, is painful to witness. “I—"

“You don't have to tell us,” the one with the darker skin says. His voice is gruff, and he storms out, making me feel like I'm the worst person to ever exist.

“Part of me clearly knew what was happening,” I start to explain to the two still in the room, but they’re looking out to the hallway where the other alien disappeared to, clearly worried about him. “But I remember, now that I’m awake, most of what happened. I remember going to the box, I remember contacting you. Remember talking to you, and hearing your voices...” I look around at them, trying to line up what I heard last night with what's in front of me now.

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