Page 126 of I Think I’m in Love with an Alien

I really have found my people.

“You can’t run off like that,” Poppy says.

“I didn’t mean to be gone for so long, but I dropped my phone somewhere and started looking for it. Then I got distracted when I found that path up the rise and the view was incredible. Sorry to worry you.” I glance around, offering the apology to everyone.

“I understand why you are experiencing an adverse emotional response,” Ravik says. “However—”

“I’m not going,” Tam cuts in. “I won’t attend the rendezvous.”

Everyone grasps the implications. How could they not?

Jaz speaks first. “Are you certain of your decision? It is likely that they will not be able to return anytime soon, as it seems they had difficulty orchestrating your retrieval.”

“I have no doubts,” he replies.

Unexpectedly, Ravik asks, “Then…may I take your place?”

The question hangs, stark and startling, like heat lightning in a clear night sky. Electrical anomalies have been reported in areas prior to UFO sightings, and that’s rather how I feel now, as if something unprecedented is about to happen. I thought I was losing Tam, not another of my friends.

“Are you unhappy?” Poppy wants to know. “You’ve been here the longest, right?”

Ravik gazes around the house that looks as if they bought it, furnished, from the last human family. They even have old black-and-white photos of strangers on the walls. While it lends the place a lived-in air, there’s also something uncanny about it, considering that they don’t interact with anyone but us. They said that they’ve never had guests before.

“It has, indeed, been a long exile. It has been long enough that they may have forgotten that I survived. And at home, there are matters only I can settle.”

Home. That word still doesn’t apply to this place. Not for Ravik.

“Of course.” Tam provides the meeting time and the coordinates, adding, “It is atop a mountain, quite far from civilization. There is a lookout site; I recall the milepost. You will need to walk from there.”

“I will need your aid,” Ravik says in an unusually humble tone.

I’m about to volunteer to drive when Tad speaks. “I’ll take you.” He taps away on his phone. “We should leave in first thing in the morning to make sure you have plenty of time to hike up to the top.”

Ravik gazes around the place that sheltered them, then says, “This place is yours now. I ask only that you look after Kevin and Frances. I will miss them.”

“What about us?” Poppy demands.

“You as well,” they say gently.

Her eyes are really red and overbright. She swipes at them angrily, and I know how she feels. I’m fighting tears too at this unexpected farewell. But I can’t lie; it would be a thousand times worse if Tam was prepping to fly away from me forever.

“Ravik—” I begin.

They silence me with a gesture. “Please do not make this more difficult.”

“I have a favor to ask,” Tam says.

“You are providing me with recourse I had judged impossible and unfeasible. Ask,” Ravik replies.

“I have recorded a message for my family. I will transmit it to your device, along with a private communication code. Please transmit my greeting and explanation at your earliest convenience.”

Ravik holds out their phone, though that’s not necessary since Tam is already sending the message to our group chat. One last message for the Aliens Among Us group; after tonight, the chat simply won’t be the same.

“That is easily accomplished. Rest assured, I will assuage their fears.” Ravik checks the message to be sure it plays correctly.

And I hear Tam saying, “‘Oona. Arlan. Betau. Tivani and Morv. You must have despaired of me, wondering whether I have ventured to the spirit lands. Yet I am well. I have found my heart’s match where I least expected. I will not be returning, and it is difficult to send messages from here. But I am safe. I am happy. At long last, I am home.’”

I’m crying again. Everyone is. Well, all the humans are.