Page 17 of What Makes an Alien a Dad?

“Hi Pooh Bear. I hope you’re faring well. It’s never easy to break up a ten-year-long relationship. It surely took a toll on me. I can’t stop thinking about it. I know it’s for the best, but I’m not sure I did it in the best way possible.”

Ha, you think?

“Rhea believes I should’ve explained better where I was coming from. You see, we’re in love, and we want to give our relationship the best chance without anything dragging us down.”

Wait... What?

Any idea of sleep blown away, Kear paced his living room once again as the drone kept reading out loud.

“Apparently, Rhea has loved me since the moment she met me. Remember the picnic where you introduced us, back in high school?”

So, that Rhea person was Maya’s friend from school?

It just went from bad to worse.

“About seven months ago, Rhea got a new job and moved to our neighborhood. We’ve been together ever since. You see, Pooh Bear, it was destiny.”

Destiny?

And Maya apparently stood in the way of it—“dragging it down”—that was why the asshole dumped her.

Good riddance, as far as Kear was concerned, but all these new revelations would surely devastate Maya.

And what kind of stupid nickname was that? Pooh Bear? Why would anyone refer to their loved one as “excrement of a large predator?” Or was it a “defecating predator?” Either way, it was disgusting. Unless the translator messed it up. Or maybe the boyfriend meant it as an insult? In which case, Kear’s blood boiled with anger and indignation for Maya.

He hadn’t been so enraged since... Well, never. Even when he had fought fescods during the war, he viewed them as a threat to be eliminated. He wasn’t enraged at every fescod he’d killed.

Now, he was seething with anger at a man he’d never even met.

Oh, how he wished to meet that guy so he could personally punch his hornless face and kick his tail-less ass.

How did that idiot even think that it was a good idea to keep writing to Maya after what he’d done to her yesterday? Now, he was just poking the wound he’d inflicted, with all the confessions that she hadn’t asked him for.

“I just want you to know I completely understand where you’re coming from, asking me to wait until you come back. But waiting wouldn’t be fair to you. It’d just prolong the inevitable. I feel that letting you know the truth is the right thing to do. I just want to be honest...”

Honest? After seeing this other woman behind Maya’s back for seven months, now he suddenly wished to be honest?

That was more than Kear could take.

“Reply,” he barked at the drone, his tail lashing wildly. “Listen here, you asshole!” he dictated. “You’re a disgusting, lying piece of shit. How dare you do this to Maya when you’re perfectly aware of her condition?”

Oh, it felt so good to let everything he thought about that asshole off his chest. Almost as good as punching him would’ve been. He kept dictating and by the time he finished, he felt winded, like after one of his morning sessions with the exercise robot.

“Send?” the drone inquired.

Sending this would feel even more satisfying. But if he sent his long, angry letter to Maya’s boyfriend, she’d learn about it too, which would probably upset her even more. It’d stir the drama and potentially prolong her heartache. Not to mention that he risked an interplanetary conflict if the boyfriend complained to the authorities. Which the whiny piece of shit probably would do after getting everything Kear thought about him put ever so eloquently in writing.

He heaved a breath and exhaled it slowly.

“No. Delete it. The whole thing.”

“Deleted,” the AI drone confirmed.

Kear had to do something, though. He couldn’t let the new message hurt Maya all over again in the morning. She’d probably check for it the moment she woke up, and it’d hurt her.

Fuck. It would hurt her badly.

Even as an emotionally secure person as Kear had made himself, he realized the potential damage it’d do to Maya to learn that her boyfriend of ten years had been cheating on her with her friend from school. The way that asshole wrote about “destiny” and them being in love would make the blow even more devastating.

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