Alien Tango

hit the ship, his worry was mechanical failure, and then they landed. Memory of landing fuzzy at best, a parade of people had come by who hadn’t spoken to him or the others.
    “Kitty, can you get us out of here? None of us are sick, and we’re all tired of being on display.”
    “I’ll do my best.” I had no idea if they were all having a mass hallucination or if there was a worse breach in Kennedy security than we’d already discovered.
    “You have to get them to let me out in time for the reunion.” He grinned. “I actually want to go. It’s nice to have accomplished something in ten years.”
    “You’re going to the reunion? Gosh, so are we.” Martini put his hand on my shoulder. “See you there.” Then he dragged me off.
    “Jeff, why did you do that?” I heard Gower making some kind of general promise to try to get them out of quarantine as we passed the other two astronauts, both of whom looked bored and desperate for us to stay.
    “Your boyfriend was bugging me.”
    “Jeff, he’s not my boyfriend, you are.” I stopped dead. “Oh, wow.”
    “What?”
    I pulled out of his hand and ran back to Brian’s cell. “Bri? Do you have an office here?”
    “Yeah, sort of. Why?”
    “By any chance, do you have a picture of me up in it?”
    He looked sheepish. “Yeah, I do.” He looked down. “I just haven’t. . . . ” He looked back at me. “I haven’t found anyone I cared about like you. So I keep your picture up, sort of as a reminder of what I’m looking for.”
    Sweet. On the stalker side of the house, but still sweet. Considering Martini had essentially proposed to me within thirty minutes of knowing me, also not a reason to go “ick.” Maybe I just attracted the overly committed, stalker types.
    “Have you mentioned the reunion to anyone?”
    “A few people, sure. I didn’t have the nerve to check to see if you were going, but I was hoping you were. Who is that guy?”
    “My boyfriend.”
    “Oh. Not engaged?”
    “No.” Not yet. Not ever, if the A-C elders had their way.
    “You know he’s . . . ”
    “An alien?” Brian nodded. “Yeah, the double heartbeats gave it away early on. Look, Brian, someone’s threatened to kill me if I don’t leave Florida. Do you have someone, male or female, who’s crushing on you a bit more than would be normal?” I managed not to make a comparison to how Brian was apparently crushing on me, but it took effort.
    He seemed to give this some thought. “Not really. I mean, I haven’t dated anyone I work with.”
    “Have you dated anyone in the Space Center?”
    “Sure, a few gals. But, they didn’t work out.”
    “Who dumped who?”
    He laughed. “Most of them dumped me. I think they didn’t like my doing Kitty comparisons.”
    “Wow, who could see that one coming? Did you dump any of them?”
    “Sure, but the ones I did are all in relationships now.”
    “How about someone you wouldn’t think of dating but who might like you?”
    “Maybe. I don’t know. I just want out of this cell. You’re sure someone threatened to kill you?”
    “Yeah, me and my boyfriend.”
    “He looks like he could handle a fight.”
    “He can. But I don’t think they’re threatening him. I think they’re threatening you.”

CHAPTER 31
    BRIAN’S JAW DROPPED . “But ... I’m not your boyfriend. Anymore.” I heard the regret but chose to ignore it.
    “Right, but, you know, people who threaten other people’s lives are not always the most stable Weeble in the playhouse. It’s not like there’s no precedent for it, either.”
    “True.” He closed his eyes. “I just want to get out of here.” He opened his eyes, and I saw them widen. “Look behind you.”
    I did. Nothing. “Nothing.” I looked down the hall—Gower, Christopher, and Martini were still there, all looking various stages of annoyed through to furious.
    “They’re here again,” Brian said in a low voice. “Can’t you see all the people?”
    I looked around again and tossed what I hoped was an emotional clue to Martini. Considering he was next to me before I could blink, I figured he’d caught it. “What’s wrong?” He put his arm around me and pulled me close to him. Brian’s eyes narrowed. Great, now wasn’t the time for the stag fight.
    “Brian sees the people. Can you see if Daniel and Michael do, too?”
    Martini looked around. “Sure.” He moved off, and I heard him talking to the others. Gower and Christopher joined him.
    “There’s no one here