Page 42 of Holiday with the Aliens

He held up a small tablet. It was supposed to be able to disengage force fields. It wasn’t exactly legal. But it wasn’t illegal either. And given our experience, I wasn’t taking another chance.

“Knife? he asked.

“Oh yeah.”

“Shopping list?” I asked.

“All of the teachers are on a list. Plus the gifts you’re giving for your class. We can do this. No getting held hostage this year.”

“No getting held hostage,” I agreed. I leaned in and gave him a kiss. We laced our fingers together and headed for the entrance of the store.

It had been quite the year. From our first night together followed by that magnificent first day together. And every day since then. It wasn’t that we never fought, or never disagreed. It wasn’t perfect.

But it was pretty damn close.

I had never been so happy in my life. I didn’t know if I could be happier.

Aldyn and I fit like I had never known I could fit with another person. I no longer was wondering what could be. What kind of relationship I might one day be able to fool someone into embarking on with me.

Now I had a guy who saw me for who I was. Who wanted me for who I was. Who loved me for who I was.

Yes, sometimes he left his towels on the bathroom floor. And sometimes he didn’t fill up the dishwasher. But those were just minor issues. Something ultimately I didn’t care about too much. The dishes got cleaned eventually.

I didn’t know why we were heading back into the same store after everything that had happened last year. Maybe it was foolish. Maybe we were being nostalgic.

What we weren’t was taking any chances.

There had been an investigation into how Evil Santa had held us hostage and the technology he had used. But the police hadn’t managed to find out much. I guess that was what happened when your captor got sucked into a tentacle dimension.

The portal device was a piece of technology that we didn’t have on Earth. I didn’t know whose hands it ended up in.

I hope it didn’t get used for evil.

But most days we didn’t think about Evil Santa.

We went on with our lives. We figured out who we were together and what we wanted from the future.

And it was good.

And this holiday season, I was happy to be celebrating our first anniversary. The first of many to come.

“I love you,” I told Aldyn with a kiss.

He smiled as we pulled apart and then kissed my forehead. “You are my denya.”

The Alien’s Winter Gift

Kate Rudolph

Molly Janson is busy planning the winter party on Honora Station, but when she meets Tav, a sexy Detyen ship captain, sparks fly and all of her plans are thrown off balance. They’ll have to work together to make winter on Honora Station a reality, even as someone on the ship seems determined to ruin the new holiday.

Chapter One

“No, no,no, those go over there.” Molly waved her hands towards the inner wall of the planning space and tried not to show her frustration. They were one week away from Honora Station’s Inaugural Winter Party and everything was going to shit. “Please, consult with Dour’man before you do anything else.” She didn’t know the name of the bright pink alien in front of her, but she was pretty sure that the girl had been working for her for more than a week. A week in which she was pretty sure progress had actually moved backwards on the project.

It was supposed to be a simple job, something small enough for one person to plan, but big enough to boost Molly’s name recognition. This far out from any civilization, party planners—or event logistics specialists, as her business cards said—were few and far between. This Winter Party was Molly’s chance to prove herself and the thing she wanted to build a career on. But it was becoming more and more clear why so few people tried anything at outposts like Honora Station.

It wasimpossibleto keep people on board for more than a week at a time. The pink alien girl was one of Molly’s longestterm employees; everyone else was coming and going, seeking to earn a few credits during their layovers at Honora Station before going on their ways. The permanent staff couldn’t be spared for more than a few hours at a time, and Molly had already reserved who she could for the day of the party, and God forbid she approach any of the tourists and see if they wanted to spice up their vacations with a little manual labor.

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