Page 1 of Angel Captive

1

Riley

Aharsh acrid smell of burning copper choked me. I had seconds before the old computer was burnt too much to repair.

“Oh, shit.” I yanked the plug out. Fuck, I must have configured the ampage needed wrong and my homespun battery pack was too much voltage.

“Problems, Riley?” Jeryl smirked from the other side of the warehouse.

“Not at all.” I gave him my best fake smile, then went back to work. If I’d fried this computer I was going to scream, and my boss would probably dock my pay. So many extra-terrestrials were interested in old human tech. For me, it was nostalgic, and I liked tinkering with gadgets despite being the only woman in this shop. Which brought up memories of my mom and how she did whatever she could for me not to have to work at a young age, including whoring herself out. I shoved the pain back into the storage closet in my brain. Didn’t need to breakdown at work.

“How’s that new dating app going?” Jeryl teased.

“Fine.” Wasn’t going to admit that I’d been on eight dates with aliens and none of them had any chemistry with me like I’d read about in the old romance novels I had at home. Love was something elusive to me and I wanted it. Wanted to be swept off my feet and my heart pounding and all of that. But I was approaching thirty at warp speed and it didn’t look like it was going to happen.

“I need to reconfigure the voltage, that’s all.” Hopefully, it wasn’t more issues like the battery being too old and starting to swell. Didn’t need an explosion or fire. Carefully, I examined the damage. Not too bad, just have to replace the CTR and some other parts. First, I needed to make sure it wasn’t still pulling a charge because being electrocuted with a high voltage shock wasn’t my idea of a good time.

Jeryl tinkered on an old plasma TV, his spider-like arms, as a half-breed Minbari, were able to squeeze into small spaces, not to mention having six of them. I had to work three times as hard to keep up with him.

“Have you heard from Diana?” I asked, innocently. Jeryl prided himself as being a matchmaker on the side and set up our coworker on a space-cruise blind date. Why she agreed was beyond me. Who wants to be stuck in space with a stranger for a week?

“She sent a message this morning.” He beamed. “And is having a wonderful time. When you going to let me set you up next?”

“No thanks. I don’t like anyone enough to be around them 24/7 or for longer than a weekend.” I shuddered. And what if I hated the person, then what? “Only takes me about a minute in person to know if me and someone else clicks.”

“A minute, huh?” He rubbed his pointed chin thoughtfully, his multiple eyes blinking at me. “What about speed dating?”

“Never thought to try it.” I wasn’t going to admit to Jeryl that I was super curious now. Though, if I did meet someone special, Jeryl would gloat and add me to his growing roster of matches made. Then again, what did I have to lose? But I was going to check it out on my terms later.

“I needanother drink before I do this.” I poked at the ice in the bottom of my whiskey glass with my thin straw.

“Oh, come on.” Melody fluffed her blonde hair, looking around the room like she expected to see a movie star. “It wasn’t hard to convince you to do sexy alien speed-dating thing with me.”

“You’re right.” I waved to the bartender for another drink. My mouth as dry as my love life lately. “Not going to let what happened in the office with the near equipment fire bum my night. Besides, it’s the weekend and time to have fun.”

She patted me on the back. “Yes. Fuck James and that stupid company who can’t see your worth.”

“James is old news.” If I never heard his name again it would be too soon. “Guy had a wife, and I wasn’t the only girlfriend he collected. I dropped him faster than light speed.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” She gave me a sideways hug. “I’ve been swamped with trying to pay my bills after my company cut our pay that I didn’t even know.”

“No biggie.” I shrugged. “Have you tried to get another job?”

“Yeah, working on a side hustle to pay the difference.”

The bartender handed me my replacement drink and I nodded my thanks.

“Hey, I don’t want to talk about work, we’re here to have fun.” She lifted her glass. “Here’s to finding a gorgeous guy and having an amazing one-or-two-night stand.”

“Melody,” I blushed, but I clinked my glass to hers. My sex life had dried up more than the desserts on Zensuym. I gulped the liquor down and fire burned a path down my throat. This would all be worth it for getting my freak on. Tentacles, extra arms, or other body parts, I was so in.

“If the participants would line up,” a woman with a smoker’s voice said from the end of the bar, “we’ll start in the next room in a minute, please have your name tag and papers ready.”

“Oh God, I’m really doing this.” I squeezed Melody’s hand, then slurped out the last drop of whiskey from my glass before walking with her to the private meeting room.

“What if we get picked up in some alien’s personal harem? Like a filthy rich one?”

“If you’re into that, I guess.” Nope, not me. I only wanted a one-night stand or two-night to cherish forever. And hey, if the guy was sexy enough, I would consider finding my soulmate with an alien. Though no one who knew me would be surprised. While all the other geek girls were wigging out on the human actors in Sci-Fi movies, I was drooling over the alien ones like Spock from the old Star Trek shows or Drax from the Earth movie,Guardians from the Galaxy.

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