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His deceased wife.
I wasn’t angry. It didn’t bother me he was thinking about another woman—it was only natural it would be her. She had been his wife after all. But I felt instinctively he needed to get over her. He needed to move on with his life.
Right now.
With me.
“I, uh, think we should be getting back to the party,” Kal said.
“You’re doing it again,” I said.
“Doing what?”
“Wearing your mask. Every time we get close, your mask slips back into place and you turn away from me.”
He couldn’t meet my eyes.
“Why?” I said.
I knew perfectly well why. After seeing the portrait of his wife in his office and Emana’s warning that she didn’t want him to get hurt, I had enough pieces of the puzzle to put everything together.
Because I looked like his wife. I looked like her, and it both drew him to me and repelled him at the same time.
It could drive any man insane.
His mouth moved but he couldn’t form the words he needed to say.
But I wanted to hear them.
“Why did you bring me to your home, Kal-i?” I said. “Why did you want me here?”
“I… thought you could help improve the music we have in town,” he said, still unable to meet my eyes.
He was a terrible liar. It was a good thing.
“And yet, you could have asked me to sing at your party today but you didn’t,” I said. “If I was going to educate your guests on Earth music, tonight would have been the perfect time.”
“I… I forgot,” he said.
I pressed him again.
“Why did you bring me here?” I said. “Don’t you like me?”
“What? No. Of course, I like you.”
“Then why don’t you kiss me?”
I felt it was important for him to say the words, for him to mean them.
“My wife…” he managed to say, but he couldn’t say anymore.
He took a step back.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done this to you. You deserve to be treated better than as a memory of a ghost.”
He moved to step aside but I blocked him.
He moved to go the other way and I tracked him again.
