Alien in the House

tables and apparently having a great time.
    Lorraine and Claudia were Dazzlers, which was what I called the female A-Cs, at least to myself. They were also both Captains in Centaurion Division and as such, I’d have thought they’d have been closer to the head table. That they weren’t was disappointing for me—they were my best A-C girlfriends and some days it felt like I never saw them any more.
    “You look guilty about something,” Lorraine said quietly when I gave her a hug.
    “Do not.”
    “Well, not to regular people. But I know you and I want the scoop the minute we can be alone.”
    “Will do.” Guiltily scurried off to Claudia’s table.
    “What are you up to?” Claudia whispered as we hugged. “You look like you’re ready for something to happen. Do we need to take a bathroom break?”
    “Yes, but not right now.” I extracted myself as fast as possible. Dazzlers really had it all in terms of beauty and brains, Lorraine and Claudia especially. I knew I could trust them completely with everything that was going on. And the idea of telling them what and who I’d seen today was appealing. Only I couldn’t do so here and now.
    Tim and his wife, Alicia, had a lot of Top Brass types, including Colonel Franklin from Andrews Air Force Base and his wife, sitting with them. The three single flyboys and their Dazzler dates were also running really fun tables. None of them asked me what I was hiding or feeling guilty about, either. I was willing to hang out in this section of the room for hours.
    Sadly, Raj wasn’t having any of that, and moved us on to our next stops. And our next ones. And on and on.
    Interestingly enough, the Cabal of Evil was spread out at different tables, which I guess meant the evil was somewhat contained. Chuckie and Naomi had scored sitting with Joker Jaws and Abner, Monsieur Love and Vance, and some normal people I knew from our neighborhood. Lifelong friendship or not, wasn’t sure if Chuckie was going to forgive me for this setup, even though I’d had nothing to do with the seating plan.
    “How’s things going?” I asked Naomi quietly as I gave her a hug.
    “Okay. Do I have to invite these people to my wedding?”
    “Probably.”
    She grimaced as I moved toward Chuckie. “You owe me,” he whispered in my ear as I bent to give him a hug. “Big time.” Yep, not forgiving me for this one.
    “Blah, blah, blah. Duty calls.” I raced off to catch up with Raj—who was moving us on to the next stop—before Chuckie could note my looking guilty or something.
    We were closing in on the head table. It had only taken what seemed like forever.
    Doreen and Irving were at a table sort of in front of the head table loaded with presidential Cabinet members and their significant others, including Marion Villanova, who was the chief aide to the secretary of state, and Langston Whitmore, who was the secretary of transportation.
    Villanova and Whitmore, who were both closeted, had been duped into having romantic relationships with two of Antony Marling’s best androids. They’d made the best of the loss of their creepy significant others and were now “dating” each other. In Washington, this was considered a brilliant strategic move and they were the new Power Couple. I figured they might even get married.
    While neither one had ever been my favorite person, for the most part, we’d gotten along in that Smile and Bob Heads from a Distance way. And Villanova still seemed content with this.
    Whitmore, however, gave me a dirty look. Had no idea why, unless maybe he was hungry. “I’m sorry about the delay, Secretary Whitmore,” I offered, in the hopes that he’d stop glaring. He wasn’t up to Christopher’s standards at all. “We just want to be sure everything’s great.”
    “That’s the line you people like to use all the time, isn’t it?” he replied.
    “Yes,” Raj said, as he took my elbow. “We at American Centaurion like to do the best we possibly can.” He shot the table a beaming troubadour smile and headed us off quickly. Tabled concerns about what Whitmore’s damage was for later.
    Christopher and Amy were at the table on one side of the head table, along with White and Nurse Magdalena Carter, aka White’s main squeeze and our Embassy staff nurse. Tito being at the back table now made a little more sense—with Lorraine and Claudia in the room, we had medical personnel spread throughout the floor. Always a wise choice for us.
    Christopher’s table