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What now will she do with this lone flower?
I watch curiously as she crosses the street and enters another building. Is this her dwelling? I look around and then spy a ladder up high on the wall of the flower shop. It is easy to leap up and catch it. I climb quickly and pull myself up onto the roof of the shop.
Fortune is on my side after all because moments later, through one of the windows on the second floor of the building across the street, I see Juliet as she pushes through her front door and sets her purse on a table.
I breathe out in relief.
I have not lost her. She is still safe.
I sit down on the roof, only my eyes and the top of my head visible over the ledge as I observe her. I watch her smile as she inhales the flower she bought and place it in a slim vase. I watch as she begins to bustle around the kitchen, pulling things from a large rectangular box—some piece of furniture they went over in training but I cannot remember the name of.
Then I see steam begin to waft from the pot she places on another appliance, a heat source of some kind. My Juliet is adept at survival. I wish I could scent the food she is cooking.
I have not eaten for many hours and I imagine it will be many hours still before I am able to eat again. Because how can I give up my vigil now that I found her? What if she disappears?
The thought makes me shudder.
Juliet is mine. I cannot lose her.
Unlike the ideal DNA candidate female, we know nothing about Juliet. The ship technicians were tracking the other female’s technology. That was how they knew where to direct me earlier.
But Juliet? I can only suspect that this is her domicile. What if I am wrong? What if I leave to find food and then she disappears and I have lost her forever? No, food is not important.
After a short while, the sun begins to drop in the sky and the planet that I initially found so ugly and foul…well I suppose a sunset is hard to ruin.
The colors are different than back on Draki. Oranges, reds, and purples fill the sky instead of turquoise and greens. But still, a sunset is a sunset. We have all been on the ship so long, I had almost forgotten how beautiful they could be…
I’m so lost in contemplation that it takes me a moment to register movement in Juliet’s dwelling. When I do, I snap to attention.
A man has come through her front door. I leap to my feet as he snakes his arms around her waist from behind as she stands at the stove.
A growl thunders from my chest. I will kill this intruder!
But before I can drop to scale back down the building, Juliet turns in the man’s arms and puts her mouth against his mouth.
I am not familiar with the action, it is an act of mating.
The female my soul longs to mate…already has a mate.
I collapse where I stand.
Chapter Three
Juliet
Robbie kisses me hard as soon as he comes in the door, tasting like cigarettes and… Is that a hint of perfume I smell?
I back away from him and frown.
He pulls flowers from behind his back. “Ta-da.”
He looks very pleased with himself and the wilted carnations he holds out to me. “So you forgive me.” It’s not quite a question.
I take the flowers and turn away. “Let me get these in some water,” I murmur.
“Babe.” He grabs my forearm. “You forgive me, yeah?”
I sigh. “Yeah, Robbie. I forgive you.”
Same story, different day.
“Whatcha cooking?”
“Stir-fry.”
“Aw man. I hate that vegetable shit,” he whines.
I grit my teeth. “There’s still some pork in the fridge I could fry up for you.”
“That’s my baby.” He slaps my ass and then flops on my couch, turning on Sports Center.
I sigh again. How long? How long am I gonna put up with this shit?
I look towards the window and space out as I cook.
I met Robbie three years ago when I’d just dropped out of college and was reckless enough to think going to a biker bar was a great idea. Robbie was good-looking and charming in an unreformed bad boy kind of way. I was flattered by the attention he paid me. We hooked up and I thought that would be it. But he called me the next week and the next until he was crashing at my place whenever he was in town.
Now we basically live together and I don’t see it changing anytime in the future.
I can just see the flower shop across the street from my vantage point here at the stove. That’s me. Always gazing longingly out windows, dreaming of what’s beyond that horizon. Dreaming but never doing anything about it. Never leaving.
