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After the facial, I lose track of what’s happening around me. I float from one treatment to the next, drinking glasses of water as they’re passed to me. Maybe I will see Sur’lax, or God, whoever is real. At this point, someone could ask me for my right arm and I would say ‘sure thing!’ My eyes are droopy and I have to fight the urge to fall asleep standing up as I’m guided to the sauna.
“You are free to stay here until you’re ready to leave the spa. There are refreshments inside, and complimentary toiletries for you to shower afterwards.”
My skin is dry without a droplet of sweat and yet I melt into the wooden lounge at the back of the sauna. I’ve only got a pair of period panties on, but I don’t even care. Any concerns about modesty went out the door after the number of naked bodies I’ve seen today. Nobody gives a shit, and it’s great. I summon the strength to sit up when I can no longer resist the pull of dried fruit and nuts. I also down another glass of water because hydration is very important to everyone here.
Through the heat mirage, the sauna doors open and a couple of older humans walk in. They snag handfuls of trail mix and glasses of water before plopping down near me.
“You’re Mr. Ma’xon’s mate,” the man announces, stretching his hand out for me to take.
“Uh-huh.” I think I shake it like my dad taught me to, but my energy is completely sapped.
“Settle somethin’ for us,” the lady next to me says. “Is he retired?”
“He’s supposed to be,” I grumble. I miss him. What happened to spending the next twenty-five years of our life just being together? My lips turn down in a harsh frown as tears threaten to form.
“Yikes,” the man winces before changing the subject. “I’m Lawrence, and this is Betty, by the way. We both moved here at about the same time.”
“Odette,” I respond, swallowing up my hormones the best I can. “So are you both mated to Axilarians or…?”
“Axilarians,” they say at the same time.
I blink away the remaining water in my eyes and I see that both of them have a bite mark similar to mine. Around their shoulders there is just a line of skin that’s more shiny and dips around their bicep.
“Er’dex and I met at a happening in the Bronx, 1967. I thought I was on the worst trip of my life,” Betty laughs. “We were both young and stupid. They can still be stupid sometimes, but I love them.”
“Lor’fe stole my heart over an espresso,” Lawrence sighs wistfully, placing a hand on his chest. “I was on my gap year in Sorrento, Italy before I was supposed to be attending uni in London. Most beautiful woman I had ever seen.”
“So you’ve both been here for over fifty years?” I stare at the pair, neither of whom look a day over fifty themselves. “What do you do with your time?”
“I teach swimming, sometimes I volunteer at the local elementary school during their Earth unit,” Betty says, leaning back in her lounge chair.
“Lor’fe is a senator, so I spend a lot of time away from the colony doing silly politics now, but since the widespread use of the internet, I mostly just write fanfiction in my free time.”
“Ugh, don’t get me started on that last thing you sent me.”
“It wasn’tthatbad.” Lawrence stuffs a date like fruit into his mouth. “You just don’t like omegaverse.”
“I like omegaverse.” I perk up. “Can we get earth books here? ’Cause I have a list of ’em you have to read.”
“Hold all of these thoughts, before we leave I need your comm reg,” he says.
“Oh, fuck yeah.” Betty sits up a bit. “Always happy to have another spa buddy.”
They want my communication register, aka my phone number, and I suddenly realise that I have made zero effort to make friends since moving here. I can't even blame it on the obscene amount of sex Ma’xon and I have. When he’s not around to go into town, I just lounge by the pool like the housewife I dreamed of being. This is good. I need to make friends other than my mate and being spa buddies sounds great. Real house spouses of Axilaria, here we come!
Until a donut monster bursts into the dry sauna.
I scream. It’s only me screaming and then Lawrence and Betty cackling. My warm skin practically explodes with embarrassment when I see Pri’za standing just inside the sauna. She’s wearing some life vest with a pool ring float around her gills. No one working here was wearing that, so why is she?
“Are you all done?” she asks.
She crosses her arms, making the ring material squeak, and we burst into laughter. I think she mutters something about the heat going to our heads, but I’m not sure because Lawrence snorts and Betty starts wheezing. It’s all so infectious and stupid. Like when the teacher is trying to tell off the class, but it onlygets funnier the longer they stand there. It only stops when we are all grabbing our bellies and gasping for air.
“Have you seen Ma’xon today?”
“Not since he dropped me off this morning,” I answer, swiping a tear from my eye. “He had a meeting.”
A little growl comes out of Pri’za as she pinches the front base of her dorsal fin. So these meetings he’s going to are really for workworkand not just old man networking. My dad used to do a lot of that after he retired, going from Denny’s to the golf course to the Moose Lodge. I know my mate isn’t doing anything to avoid me because I have eyes. And I see the way he looks at me when he thinks I’m distracted. Plus, anyone within a mile of him can see how the stress weighs on him.
