Page 125 of I Think I’m in Love with an Alien

“Any sign of her?” Ravik’s faint shout reaches me, barely audible at this distance.

“Not yet!” I should warn them about the hunters, but I don’t even slow down.

The trees are thinning now, stars sparkling overhead. I scramble up the rocky promontory, unable to respirate for the fear clogging my senses. I cannot even call her name anymore. If she came this way, if she fell—

I hear the sound first, the scrape of shoes on stone. I turn inhumanly fast, switching the spectrum of my vision. And she is there, glowing in all her glorious hues. Relief crashes over me so fiercely it almost sends me tumbling onto my extensors. For a long, desperate moment, I only gaze at her and breathe.

She’s safe. She’s whole.

I could berate her for the wicked punishment I have endured while searching for her. But anger is not my chief emotion in this moment. Rather, I am grateful, and we are here to celebrate Thanksgiving. I whisper a word of thanks to any beings who may be inclined to bless us.

Thank you for keeping her from harm. Thank you for safeguarding my greatest joy.

“I do not wish to live in a world without you,” I say, unable to conceive how to articulate it more clearly. “You are the light in my pattern.”

I am not sure if that meaning will translate; it is part of the ritual and the vows we speak when formalizing relationships. But I think she understands when she reaches out, fingers tentatively brushing mine. It’s all the invitation I need to join her beneath the stars she has always loved. These selfsame stars that I passed through to find her.

“I’m not leaving. Not now, not ever.”

“But your family…” she whispers.

“This is where I belong. You asked me before…and I couldn’t answer.”

She’s still whispering, her eyes glowing with delight or starlight. “If you’d stay when you have a choice?”

“My decision is clear. I will not go anywhere without you, my sun and stars. I love you. More than freedom, more than my homeworld, more than life.”

45

Jennette

I guess weirdos do get happy endings after all.

It’s a struggle to keep from crying. He loves me. He fucking loves me. Jennette Hammond, the dork who refused to take her cousin to prom and then ended up not going at all. Tam’s eyes are deep and fathomless, shining with the swirl of countless stars.

“I love you too. So much. I’m not that great with words, but I can only think of one thing. If there are different universes, if there’s a me somewhere else, then I guarantee this. She’s got her eyes on the skies, watching and waiting for you.”

I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that no matter what life delivers, we are constant. We are eternal. In every universe, it’s us. I never thought I’d find love at all. A decent one, even, let alone a great one.

“Jen…” Tam aligns our bodies, and he feels cold, a hint at how long he was searching for me. “That reminds me of something. There is a sect, known as the Weavers. They hold that reality is woven from the threads of what must come to pass.”

I tilt my head, intrigued. It sounds like wizardry or religion or some amalgamation of the two. “Are you saying they can alter destiny?” I ask.

“Not quite. It’s more that they believe if something is meant to happen, it will find its way into being. They believe that energy has power, and thoughts are seeds planted in the ether of the cosmos.”

“Why are you telling me about them now, though?”

He smooths my back in a tender caress. “Because I want to believe that’s possible. If you didn’t exist, I would have imagined your essence until you did. Perhaps we were meant to be together, and the universe led me to you.”

“The idea of destiny is so romantic, but I prefer free will, I think.”

“We chose one another,” he agrees.

A hum of joy vibrates through my chest, and I lean closer, finding comfort in the way his body warms at close contact with mine. I sigh a little.

“The others must be waiting for us,” I say.

We return to the house with me feeling like a little kid who threw a fit to get attention. Poppy reaches me first, as soon as I step inside the door. She wraps me up in a tearful hug, and everyone else soon follows. Tad pats my back repeatedly, telling me silently that it’s okay.