If she’d still been there when Rod had done what he’d done…
I wouldn’t have been the one getting fired, that was for damn sure. She would have done something to help. I knew it instinctively.
But she’d left.
And, apparently, had come here.
Maybe had been here all along.
I dropped my bag. “I’d love a hug,” I admitted, my voice cracking
Oh, no. No tears! That was going to make any pain in my head a billion times worse. I hugged her with firmly shut eyes, willing them to stay dry.
I was mostly successful, and when I opened my eyes again, the man standing in front of me shocked away the last of my bout of sentimental teariness.
The man was massive. A big, purple wall of a male. Very obviously Zabrian. The little calendar on the narrow locker door hadn’t really given me a proper sense of the scale of these guys. He filled the shuttle’s open doorway, the top of his broad-brimmed hat almost brushing the frame above. His jaw looked like it could be used as an anvil to hammer ancient swords into shape. Despite the winter weather (the cold outside air had fully filled the shuttle now) he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and matching pants. He did have boots, but no jacket or winter accessories.
He would have been incredibly intimidating, if it weren’t for what looked to be a genuine smile on his lips, and a warmth that radiated from his eyes. Lovely colours, those eyes. Vermilion, with bright veins of orange branching out from the centre.
“This is Warden Tenn,” Tasha said, moving to his side. My eyebrows rose, unfortunately causing a spike of pain and sparkles of white and red to dance briefly across my vision, whenhe looped what appeared to be a rope-like purple tail around her waist.
“I’m also her husband,” he said, his smile taking on a proud, smirking quality.
“You…” God, this was too much for my brain right now. “You’re married? You’re in the program?”
“So, I’m actually the facilitator of the program. I’m the human-Zabrian liaison. I’m the one who put together that information packet you downloaded from the calendar’s code. I met this one during the course of my duties here and, well, the rest is history.”
She patted Warden Tenn on his barrel-like chest and beamed. “I am so excited the calendars are working! I thought it was a bit of a gamble, sending a few hard copies and digital download codes to the factory. I had a feeling the higher ups wouldn’t like it, since I was basically trying to lure good workers away. But the fact you’re here means it’s obviously working!”
“I…I guess you could say that,” I mumbled.
I mean, the fact I was here was really because of a dandy combination of capitalism and sexual harassment, two dirty twin boots kicking my butt right out of New Toronto.
But she was at least partly right. It was the calendar that had inspired me. That had given me an out.
That had shown me that sky.
“Was there one guy in particular who caught your eye? Obviously, you have to meet them all!” Tasha said. “This isn’t some meat market where we’re picking people out of a line up! But was there anyone in particular you hoped to meet?”
“Pardon?”
“Most of the men in the calendar were already married – they had those little tiny pictures at the bottom with their wives. But the other guys – Xennet and Dorn and Rivven – they’re all single. And they are all so excited about the program!”
“They…They are?”
I hadn’t even looked at the single men in the calendar photos. They’d been nothing more to me than a casual flip of pages through Bhavi and Mary’s fingers. The only one I really noticed or remembered was the golden man that Cherry had married, because that was the page that had been displayed the longest.
For the first time since I’d made my choice to come here, I felt the nauseating niggle of doubt. I had barely put any thought into the marriage aspect of things. For some reason, I’d assumed the men would be the same.
Why the hell had I assumed the men would be the same?
Was I using this world, this program?
Was I usingthem?
The thought that these Zabrian males were actually looking forward to meeting me, desperately hoping that I might choose one of them as a romantic partner, made me feel bad.
Mentally bad. Emotionally bad.
