Touched by an Alien

BLUR . Christopher and the top imageers had to spend inordinate amounts of time altering footage, including showing Ronald Yates’ plane crashing in the Nevada desert. There was a lot of mourning for his passing around the world that, strangely enough, wasn’t shared by anyone connected with our group.
    My appointment as the head of the Airborne Division was confirmed. I couldn’t tell who was trying harder not to laugh—Reader, my parents, Christopher, or Martini—but I decided not to care. I’d been given the rank of Commander, and that made me equal to the heads of Field and Imageer Divisions. They could snicker all they wanted to—they’d had to work years for it, and it had taken me less than a week. I decided to save that tidbit for when I was angry with them. It would be more satisfying that way.
    I brought my resignation in to work, and Reader went with me to clear out my office. We caused quite a stir, to the point where people I’d never met from the neighboring office buildings came by to say good-bye to me, just to get a look at him.
    He made sure to let drop that he’d left male modeling because of me and was thrilled I’d finally consented to stop working and run off with him to the Mediterranean so we could make love on the beach every day. Reader was right—if he’d been straight, Martini would’ve really had something to worry about.
    My parents offered to let me move back home, at least until I could find a new apartment. But I didn’t want to for a variety of reasons, all of them related to Martini.
    I had my pick of rooms at the Science Center, and while moving next to Claudia and Lorraine sounded kind of fun, I still didn’t have a lot of faith in the soundproofing.
    “I need to figure out where I’m sleeping,” I said to Martini as we left the dining room on the first quiet night since we’d taken out Mephistopheles a week prior.
    “What’s wrong with where you’ve been sleeping?”
    “Nothing, other than the damned morning alarm system. And the fact that I really think everyone can hear me, more so from your room than the one I was in before.”
    “Awww, you’re shy. Who knew?”
    “Not my personal empath, apparently. Besides, that’s the transient floor, and pretty soon someone’s going to suggest you go back to your own place.” I didn’t want to dwell on that.
    “So? Come back to my own place with me.”
    I took his hand. “Jeff, I love you, but I need time to love you before I live with you. Do you understand?”
    He stopped walking and pulled me into his arms. “Yeah. I’m not wild about it, but I understand it.” He kissed me, and I stopped thinking about anything else for as long as that lasted.
    Martini had a funny look on his face as he pulled away from me.
    “What?”
    “You know … I have an idea.” He took my hand again and led me to the elevators.
    “Love this idea.”
    He laughed. “Not right now.”
    I felt his forehead. “Who are you and what have you done with Jeff?”
    He swung me up into his arms as the elevator doors opened. He hit a button and we went down. Sadly, only in the literal, in-an-elevator sense. My disappointment was somewhat appeased by him kissing me the whole way.
    We got off on the fifteenth floor. Martini put me down and led me into his human lair. But we didn’t stop at the couch. Instead, he walked us through the room to something I hadn’t noticed before—a door.
    He opened it, and we walked into a full bedroom suite. But it was a real, human bedroom, not a hotel room. “This was where she stayed when we were here. Christopher and I were usually with other kids, but we stayed here sometimes, too.”
    I looked around. “I love it.”
    “No alarm down here. She hated that too.” He pointed to the clock on the nightstand. “The lighting, though, has to function here like everywhere else, or you’d be wandering around in the pitch black.”
    “Lighting I can ignore with a pillow over my head.”
    “I’ll be sure to get you up in a timely manner.”
    I leaned against him. “It’s a king-sized bed.”
    “Yeah. Comfy, too, as I recall.”
    We tested it out. Yep, it was very comfy.
    “I’ll have your things brought down here,” he said as we were lying together in the happy afterglow.
    “Bring some of your things down here, too. You trotting back to your room when we were on the same floor was one thing. This is another.”
    He kissed my forehead. “Yes, ma’am, some of my things will be brought down