by Cara Bristol
Toni stood up. “I’m sorry about your leg injury.”
Angie rolled her eyes as if my mate had said something stupid. “My arm was broken, not my leg.”
“Oh, my apologies. I noticed you were limping when you approached the witness stand. So your leg is fine?”
“Uh…yeah. I guess so.”
If her leg was fine, why had she been limping?
“Do you go to Shop-Mart often, Miss Brett?”
“Objection!” The silver-haired man interrupted the conversation. “Confusing.”
I didn’t see anything confusing about the question.
“Overruled,” the tribe leader said. “Answer the question, Miss Brett.”
“I don’t know. How often is often?”
“Once a month? Once a week?” my mate continued.
Angie shrugged her good shoulder. “Once a week.”
“And do you shop alone?”
“Objection!” The man popped up out of his seat. “Irrelevant.”
“I will show that it’s directly relevant, Your Honor,” she said.
“Overruled.”
“I usually shop alone,” Angie answered.
My mate arched her eyebrows. “Who cares for your son while you’re shopping?”
“Objection!” the man called out. “Irrelevant.”
How would he know it was irrelevant until he heard what she had to say? The man seemed to be trying to rattle my mate, to interfere with her work. She’d been very polite in letting him speak, but now that it was her turn, he didn’t afford the same courtesy. He was rude, argumentative, and I didn’t like him.
“Overruled, Mr. Markham,” the tribe leader said, and made a face of annoyance. I wasn’t the only one irritated by the man’s behavior. My mate, however, appeared cool, calm, and unflappable. “You may answer the question, Miss Brett,” the tribe leader said.
“I thought you were asking if I shopped with another adult. I take my son shopping with me.”
“Did you take him with you to Shop-Mart—”
“Objection! Asked and answered.”
I leaped to my feet.
“Stop interrupting my mate! Let her speak.”
The dozen people sitting in a wooden pen off to the side snapped their heads in my direction. The tribe leader pounded on a wooden block with a hammer. “Observers will refrain from making comments or interrupting the proceedings, or they will be removed from the courtroom.”
Toni motioned for me to sit down.
I sat, but I glowered at Markham. His eyes narrowed with calculation as he shifted his gaze between my mate and me.
“The objection is overruled. Let’s get on with it,” the tribe leader said.
Toni fiddled with some papers before lifting her head. “On March 8, did you bring your son with you to Shop-Mart?”
“Yes.”
“How old is your son?”
“Three.”
“You said earlier that the aisles were scarcely wide enough to push a shopping cart through. Did you put your son in the shopping cart seat?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“He likes to walk with his mommy like a big boy.” She smiled at the twelve people penned off to the side.
“With you, you mean?”
“Yes.” Angie twisted her mouth so derisively, my sympathy began to evaporate.
“And did he walk with you?”
“Yes.” Angie frowned.
“Right by your side down every aisle?”
“Objection!” Markham stood up. “Fail to the see the relevance.”
“Overruled.”
“Mostly,” Angie said.
“Isn’t it true that before the shelf collapsed, your son was running up and down the store aisles?”
“Objection! Immat—”
“Overruled. Answer the question.”
“I don’t remember,” Angie said.
“Your Honor, I would like enter into evidence the Shop-Mart security surveillance vid—”
Markham objected. My mate objected to his objection, and then the tribe leader motioned them forward, and they huddled in front of her dais. Words and gestures were exchanged, but I couldn’t hear. When the huddle broke apart, my mate’s lips curled with satisfaction, but Markham glowered.
“May I direct the jury’s attention to the monitor.” A large screen descended from the ceiling, and then a moving picture appeared on it.
“Do you recognize this place, Miss Brett?” Toni asked.
“It looks like Shop-Mart.”
It reminded me of the trading post on Dakon, only the shelves were stocked with way more items.
Angie appeared on the screen wheeling a cart full of boxes and cans down a row between tall shelves. She shuffled along, her head bent as she peered at her handheld device. Did everyone on Earth have one of those? A little kit careened around the corner. She didn’t seem to notice.
“Is that your son?” Toni asked.
“Yeah.” Angie pressed her lips together and folded her good arm over her injured one.
Still peering at her device, Angie moved from behind her cart and headed for one of the shelves. From the other end of the aisle, the kit raced toward her. Still focused on her device, she rose up on tiptoe as she reached for a box on a high shelf, and the kit plowed into her. She pitched forward into the shelves. Boxes went flying, and the shelf collapsed.
Seconds later, several people came running.
The screen went blank.
“Isn’t it true, Miss Brett, that your own son, whom you let wander unsupervised, tripped you and caused you to fall into the shelf?”
“Objection—argumentative!” Markham said.
“I’ll rephrase, Your Honor.” My mate paused. “Did your son trip you?”
Angie glanced at Markham.
“Answer the question, Miss Brett,” the tribe leader said.
“Yeah.” She scowled.
“Did you fall into the shelves after your son tripped you?”
“I suppose.”
“Yes or no?”
“Yes.”
“Is it possible that the shelves collapsed after you knocked them down?”
“Objection!” Markham cried. “Calls for speculation.”
“I withdraw the question, Your Honor.”
* * * *
“What are you doing here?” Gripping my biceps, Toni hustled me to a less crowded place along the corridor. After my mate had finished questioning Angie, the tribe leader had called for a recess, and then Toni had motioned for me to follow her out of the courtroom.
“I wanted to see you work,” I said. I’d traveled three months on a spaceship; of course, I wanted to spend every possible moment with her.
“You almost got me in trouble with the judge. Observers aren’t allowed to speak. The only reason she didn’t expel you was because she recognized you were an alien and probably weren’t familiar with our laws and procedures.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to get you in trouble, but I didn’t like the way that man kept interrupting you and preventing you from doing your job.”
“He was doing his job.”
“His job is to stop you from doing your job?” That seemed inefficient and counterproductive. How could anyone get anything accomplished?
A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “More or less—sometimes more. He represented his client’s case; I argued for mine. That’s how we play the game.”
First, she’d called it work, now, it was a game? Earth terminology baffled me, but I was certain about one thing. “He has a grudge against you.”
Toni lifted one slender shoulder. “It’s no big deal. He’ll get over it—eventually.”
“Why were you arguing about the injured female anyway?”
“We were determining who’s at fault for her injury.” Toni dropped her voice. “She’s Phillip’s client. I represent
the store. She let her son run around unsupervised, tripped over him, fell into the shelving, and broke her arm. She’s claiming the store is responsible for her injury.”
That made no sense. “How is the store responsible when her own son is the one who tripped her?”
“If the store is deemed responsible, she’ll get a lot of money. If she’s responsible, she gets nothing,” my mate said. She started to say something else, but stopped, and her expression hardened as she peered around me.
“Good job in there, counselor,” said the silver-haired man who’d given her such a hard time. His smooth, wide smile seemed friendly, until I noticed the calculating gleam in his eyes.
I didn’t trust him; this was a man waiting for an opportunity to strike. I stifled a growl and stepped closer to my female to protect her.
“I don’t believe we’ve met.” His gaze bounced off my horns. “I’m Phillip Markham.”
“Aton.” I shook the hand he offered to better size him up.
“New in town?” he asked.
“I just arrived from Dakon.”
“Dakon, is it?”
“Yes.”
“What do you want, Phillip?” she said.
“I came to introduce myself to your friend.”
“We’re not friends. We’re mates,” I said.
His jerked his head, but then a smile even colder than the one he’d greeted us with appeared on his face. “You replaced me with an extraterrestrial? What did you do, join one of those dating services like your sister?”
Toni jutted out her chin, and her gaze turned frosty. “My personal life is none of your business. And, by the way, you’re not doing your client any favors by badgering me in court. Even Judge Richter started to get annoyed.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Antoinette.” He stalked off.
“Asshole,” she muttered.
“What does he mean, you replaced him?” I asked quietly.
She sighed. “Phillip and I were engaged…to be married. We used to work for the same law firm—the company he founded. He was my boss. We started dating. He asked me to marry him. Then I, uh, left him at the altar. It got awkward around the office so I quit and opened my own law firm. Now he carries his bitterness into court.”
“You were going to become his mate?” I disliked the idea of her with him.
“Only until I came to my senses.”
“He was not the right man for you. I am.” The Fates had chosen her for me, but even if that hadn’t been the case, Phillip did not deserve her. I could tell he didn’t like her. I sensed no fondness in him, no softness.
“About that.” She touched my forearm, igniting a sizzle clear to my horns. “Listen, Aton. I waited a long time for you to arrive. I’m thrilled you’re finally here.” She peered up at me. “We should date a little before you start announcing to everyone we’re mates. That implies a deep level of intimacy, and we’ve just met.”
“I want to be intimate with you.”
Her cheeks colored pink. “Uh, well…yeah, but you don’t need to announce it. That’s kind of personal.”
“Then what should I tell people? What should I call you?”
“How about Toni? Or friend. Or date.”
“You don’t want to be my mate?” Was she disavowing me? Had I displeased her? The instant I’d laid eyes on her, I’d known she was the only female for me. But, she didn’t feel the same?
“It’s not that at all.” She gave my forearm a squeeze. “I do want to be your, uh, mate.”
My heart soared. Our bonding had been sealed! While Earth customs were very complex, on my planet we preferred the easy way. For a couple to become mates, a male only had to ask a female. If she accepted, they were bonded.
“We need to learn about each other before we start sharing our news with others.”
“I understand.” I nodded. Nothing could separate us now. Although I wanted to shout out my happiness to the world, for her, I could hold back until such time as Earth customs deemed it appropriate.
“I’m glad. Are we good?” she asked.
“We’re very good,” I replied.
She glanced at her handheld device. “The recess is almost over. I have to get back to work. You have my address, right?”
“Yes, you gave it to me. You don’t want me to watch you work, do you?”
“There will be more testimony by other witnesses in the Brett v. Shop-Mart case. Phillip and I aren’t done presenting evidence. I can’t have you making outbursts in court.”
“I don’t like the way he speaks to you.”
“It’s only talk. It doesn’t mean anything. This shows why you and I need to spend time together, get to know each other, and you need to become more familiar with Earth ways. So…I’ll see you, tonight, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Promise me you’ll leave?”
I didn’t like it. I should stay to protect her, but she hadn’t appeared to be in any physical danger from Phillip. I had no choice but to respect her wishes. “I promise.”
Chapter Five
Toni
Music blasted from speakers, carnival lights strobed the night, and the smell of fish, fried food, and saltwater filled the air as Aton and I walked hand in hand along the pier. I felt sixteen again, and Aton had the wide-eyed look of a child as he gawked at the whirling lights, the colorful people, the food booths, the squawking seagulls.
He’d laughed through the roller-coaster and Ferris wheel rides and had been eager to try the Tilt-a-Whirl, but before we’d come to it, he’d eaten two hot dogs, a bag of kettle corn, an order of chili fries, an ice cream cone, and a funnel cake, so I suggested he let the food settle for a while.
“What’s that?” He pointed to a vendor’s pink confection.
“Cotton candy.”
“You make candy out of cloth?”
I laughed. “No. Out of sugar. It’s called cotton candy because the sugar is spun until it turns fluffy.”
“I would like to try some fluffy food.”
“One,” I told the vendor.
“You’re not having any?” Aton asked.
“I can’t eat the way you do. You must have a hollow leg.”
He glanced down. “My legs are filled with bones, muscles, tendons, and blood.”
I laughed. He was so darn cute. His lack of familiarity with Earth made him appear guileless and unsophisticated, except I’d seen evidence of his quick, keen mind and his resourcefulness. It astounded and impressed me that he’d landed on an unfamiliar planet in one of the largest cities in the country, and with nothing but my name, had tracked me down.
The vendor handed him the cotton candy, and Aton stared at it.
“You eat it like this.” I pinched off a bit and slipped it into my mouth.
Aton did the same, and he widened his eyes. “It melts away to nothing! Much Earth food is very sweet. I like it.”
We moved away from the cotton-candy stand and continued our stroll along the dock. I’d rushed home from the office to get ready for our date and plan what to do. I’d considered taking him to Griffith Park Observatory to see the stars, but then realized he’d traveled across the solar system in a spaceship—he’d seen plenty of stars. Had it been daytime, we could have gone on a horseback ride, or strolled through the Exposition Rose Garden. Where did one go on a date with an extraterrestrial? Gondola ride? Ordinary dinner and dancing?
In the end, I’d chosen the pier because the lively atmosphere and colorful people provided the perfect cover. Aton would blend in, his alienness would attract no attention, and we could be alone in our anonymity, an ordinary couple on a normal date. At the pier, you saw all kinds of people, many of them into extreme body modification. Who would notice a seven-foot-tall dude with itty-bitty horns wearing buckskins when lizard girl darted around and human cat man prowled the pier?
“You would like my sister’s bakery. Your Just Desserts bakes the best cupcakes. L
exi added a new flavor—oh, shoot! I should have taken you there. She has—macha muffins. Macha is from your planet, right?”
“Yes. But I’m happy to see anything you wish to show me.” He waved the cotton candy. “I’ve eaten a lot of macha, but until now, I’ve never had cotton candy, or funnel cakes, or ice cream. Earth cuisine is delicious.”
I hated to think I’d gotten him hooked on junk food. Maybe I should have introduced him to broccoli and kale.
He moved closer. “I just want to be with you, Toni.” His voice deepened, and those cute little horns swelled and pulsed. I stared at his full, velvety lips. Kiss me. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your work or get you into trouble with your tribe leader.”
“You didn’t. I’m sorry if I seemed abrupt.” I’d brushed him off and had regretted it—especially after the way he’d growled at Phillip. I hadn’t needed his intervention, but I appreciated him rushing to my side. It was like he was trying to protect me, and it gave me the warm fuzzies.
Philip hadn’t ever made me feel protected or loved. In our best days, our interactions were lukewarm and cordial. After we’d broken up and I analyzed the immensity of my relief, I realized I’d never trusted him. Though he’d never threatened me in any way during our courtship or engagement, I’d been a little afraid of him, which partly accounted for why I’d waited until the actual wedding day to break it off. Safety in numbers.
“Did you finish your work?” Aton asked.
“I did,” I replied, grinning. I’d won. “The jury found in favor of Shop-Mart!”
Winning tasted sweet, but beating my ex put a cherry on the cake. I’d hoped we could be civil, but the gloves had come off the day I’d returned to the firm after the aborted wedding. Then I saw the side of him I’d always secretly feared. He skipped no opportunity to belittle me or disparage my work, embarrassing me in front of colleagues and clients, creating a hostile environment.
“Did you see how she limped to the witness stand to generate sympathy? She tried to milk Shop-Mart for as much money as she could get. The jury saw through—” I gave a rueful smile. “Sorry for rattling on. My work isn’t as interesting to others as it is to me.”
“Everything about you interests me.” His husky voice felt like a caress.
