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“Chris?” Cheryl’s honey sweet voice calls from the kitchen area. “That you?”
She emerges from one side of the house to find me, just as he wanders out of the bedroom. “Huh?”
Both of them observe me in shock. Then Cher tosses her kitchen towel away and screeches with joy. Before I know what to do, she’s tossing her arms around me and squeezing me.
“Kaye! Oh my God! I can’t believe it’s really you!”
I endure the hug. The most irritating thing about Cheryl has always been that she’s not actually bad at all. She’s very nice, and aside from the fact that she fucked my husband and has rocks for brains, I think I’d like her in another life. Cheryl is thin, blonde, and uncomplicated— everything I’m not. I pat her back while watching Chris cautiously approach us. He’s looking over our heads at Kalla, whose face I can only imagine is stoney with barely disguised hatred. Chris is different and yet exactly the same as the last time I saw him. He’s grown a beard that’s peppered with gray and the beginnings of a paunch, but otherwise, he’s the same mildly handsome dark-haired man that I once fell in love with.
“Hi Cher,” I sigh, finally extracting myself from her embrace.
“Who is this?” is the first thing that comes out of Chris’s mouth.
I glance at Kalla, whose top knot is dusting the ceiling. I half expect him to say ‘your worst nightmare’ or something mischievous like that, but he doesn’t answer, leaving me to explain. There’s certainly something murderous sparkling in his eyes, that much is clear.
“This is Koko,” I say. “He’s my mate. Uh, that’s alien for boyfriend.”
“Wow.” Cher ogles him shamelessly and thrusts out her hand. “Great to meet you, Koko. Kaye, you’ve got real giant here!
Kalla regards her hand, his upper lip curling.
“Shake it,” I hiss, elbowing him.
As he does so, Cher blinks up at him in amazement. “Is he giant everywhere?” she asks me behind her hand.
“Yes,” Kalla answers for me. He reveals his most evil grin.
My cheeks heat. “Look, we can chat later. Is anyone going to explain to me why you’re in my house?” I point at the picture on the wall that says,Happy wife, happy life.There used to be a photograph of my first classroom hanging there. “What did you do with all my stuff?”
Cher flinches and looks at Chris. “Well, didn’t you already know? That we moved in?”
“We didn’t think Kaye planned on coming home,” Chris says.
“Who’s ‘we’?” I demand.
“Reba and I talked it over and she suggested this as a good solution for your property being unoccupied. I mean, when we got here, the crops were fallow in the fields. This place needed round-the-clock attention for a while when we first arrived. It was in bad shape.”
My mother.
I could scream right about now. This was my mother’s idea?
“Yeah, that’ll happen when youget kidnapped by slaving pirates,” I say venomously. “I was a little preoccupied.”
Of course she would suggest that. After all, she always loved Chris. She wanted us to get back together, even when I was at my lowest low. My mother’s the one who used to tell me that if only I would give him more attention, my marriage wouldn’t end.All a man wants is a little extra affection, baby,she told me while we were in therapy.It’s really that simple.She stayed in touch with him after it ended, inviting him to family events even after I begged her not to. I think in her diabolical mind, she fantasized that we would see each other and fall in love again. Before he signed the papers, he begged me to take him back, even as he was dating Cheryl. Naturally, my mother suggested I do just that. When I put my foot down, our relationship deteriorated, especially after I said some nasty things to her in a fit of rage. She probably wishes she could replace me with Cher too.
I wonder what she’d think of Kalla. I don’t have to wonder what Kalla would think of her.
“We thought you were dead, Kaye!” He looks bereaved, as if he had any right to mourn me if I was. “It was a really difficult decision for Reba to offer it to us. The ownership reverted to her as your next of kin, and she… She was a mess being worried about you. I was helping her with all the finances and the idea came up that Cher and I could take it on.”
“Unfortunately for you, I’m still alive,” I mutter.
“That’s a low blow,” Chris says. “We were so relieved to hear you were okay, but then… you didn’t come back. So we just figured…”
“Figured what? You had free rein over my shit?” My anger rises as he tries to justify this. That’s what he always did anyway, justify why he’s such a good person despite fucking me over time and time again. At least when Kalla’s terrible, he admits it and embraces it. “I didn’t come back because my best friend is still in a coma! I’d be with her if I hadn’t agreed to take care of a friend of mine’s kid, who I was planning on moving in here with me. But I guess I’ll have to figure something else out. Did you even know that there’s still another colonist missing from the same attack? That matters to me, okay? So I’m sorry if I didn’t rush home after escaping a traumatic experience, galaxies away from here!”
Kalla’s hand finds mine, and I realize I was clenching my fist. The tremble in me fades as he holds on.
“We figured we’d work it out when you came home. But then you hadn’t shown for months!” Chris looks irritated, but I catch his eyes darting back to Kalla’s looming head behind me. I have a feeling there are unspoken criticisms in his mind that I would’ve had to endure if we weren’t in the presence of my intimidating alien mate.
