Alien in the Family

them were high priced, but most were. However, I had tons of Martini’s cash with me, and his charge cards, and by the time we’d wandered past about a third of the mall I was getting kind of excited.
    Reader spent most of this slow walk discussing body types and why he wanted me to look at either cocktail length or mermaid-style dresses that were more on the minimalist side than poofy and overly adorned. I couldn’t really argue. I wasn’t tall, so something with a long train would look ridiculous. Something with too much foof on it was going to make me look like a doll. I had my doubts about mermaid, but I was willing to try anything at this point.
    We finally reached the shop with the top in it. It was a really sexy top in a store full of really sexy clothing. “What were you doing in here?” I asked him while we looked for my size.
    “Browsing.” He grinned. “No, I don’t cross-dress, and neither does Paul.” He shrugged. “I like clothes. It’s how I spent most of my former life, in and around clothing. And it’s nice to see something else other than freaking black and white Armani all the damn time.” He sounded like I felt.
    “Yeah. You know it’s bad when I’m in jeans and an Aerosmith T-shirt and I feel exotically dressed.”
    “Exactly. You wouldn’t believe the whining I got from Paul when I bought what I’m wearing now.”
    “He’s not cheap, is he?”
    “Hardly. He just doesn’t understand why I’m not thrilled to be in the suit twenty-four/seven. I’m not joking, it’s cultural.”
    I found my size and thought about this. “James, do you think it’s just them, just ‘our’ A-Cs, or do you think all of them on the home world are that way, too?”
    “No idea. I’ve never given it any thought.” He was quiet for a few moments while we looked for a skirt to go with this top and something to go under it—he hadn’t been kidding, it was sexy, glittery, and extremely sheer. “You’re thinking we could spot the enemy agents by how they don’t alter what they wear?”
    “Something like that. I’m freaked by the idea that I could go back to the room and it wouldn’t really be Jeff up there.”
    “Yeah. This whole damn thing bothers me. I’m with you. The timing’s beyond strange. By the way, have you gotten your bridesmaids lined up?”
    “Um, no. Why?”
    Reader sighed. “I knew he hadn’t told you yet. Jeff’s already got his side asked.”
    “Who?”
    “Christopher’s best man.”
    “Naturally.”
    “Right. Jeff’s also asked Paul, me, Tim, and Jerry.”
    “You and Paul I expected. But Tim and Jerry, too?” Not that I minded. After all, if I figured out how to hide that I was marrying an alien from Amy, Sheila, and Caroline, I’d have five girls. If all of them could make it, which hadn’t been confirmed yet because I was so far behind.
    “I stopped him before he asked the rest of the flyboys.” I looked at Reader’s expression. He was serious.
    “Oh, my God. Is this normal for them?”
    “I don’t know. Paul and I aren’t really married. Same reasons no one else is. He offered me the Unity Necklace, by the way, but we discussed it, and it just seemed as though we’d be creating problems. Either it would’ve started a lockdown on A-C and human relationships, or we’d have been okayed by Richard because we weren’t going to have children, and that would have made things worse for everyone else. Jeff’s sisters were all married before I joined up, and Paul’s sisters are younger than Michael and, shocker alert, they want to marry humans. So I have no idea of what a typical A-C wedding looks like.”
    “No weddings have happened in the time you’ve been with Centaurion?” This seemed hard to swallow.
    “They have, but none that I’ve been invited to.”
    “I might not have five girls.” Wow, that made me sound like the most friendless soul in the universe. “I mean, I have five. I think.” I had plenty of friends, just not that many I wanted in my wedding.
    “Who besides Claudia and Lorraine?”
    “My friends Amy, Sheila, and Caroline. Only . . . Amy’s in Paris, Sheila’s got three kids, and Caroline’s in D.C.” And Caroline would ask why I wasn’t marrying Chuckie. Again. She apparently hadn’t liked the reason I’d given her already. “And none of them know I’m marrying an alien.”
    I started running through my other sorority sisters—I could ask them, but none of them had a clue what I did now, and none of them