Page 34 of My Christmas Alien Mate

I gigged nervously. Absolutely normal date. Boyfriend picking me up to meet his family—in a spaceship.

"It'll be alright."

I nodded and righted the peppermint bark in one of the gift baskets we were takingup therewith us.

I fretted over what to wear for what seemed an eternity. In the meantime, Galexor picked up all my shoes and righted them on a shoe rack by the door—who would have thought I had three pairs of black boots? I could only ever find one.

Next, we picked up all my laundry strewn over the bedroom floor, my bed—which wasn't entirely my fault—and the bathroom. Again, who would have thought I had two red sweaters? We even found my long-lost charm bracelet inside one of my shoes underneath my desk.

Finally, I settled on a green Christmas sweater, black pants, and boots. I fretted some more over my makeup until Galexor took the eyeliner from my fingers. "You look beautiful, Amber. They will love you no matter what."

Darkness fell early in the wintertime in the mountains. Come four thirty, it was pitch black, and I waited on the pier for Galexor to bring his spaceship out of the water.

Just like the first night I met him, the sky was crystal clear, filled with a myriad of stars. Only the moon looked a bit paler and thinner than last time.

I nervously stepped from one foot to the other, keeping my gaze on the lake's still surface.

Bubbles rose first, then the smooth surface began to wave slightly, and soon bigger waves lapped at the lakeshore.

I wasn't sure what I had expected, well probably something round, the typical UFO disk, but what came out of the water reminded me more of a boat than a spaceship. A sealed off boat, without a deck.

It was shaped like an arrow at the front, with tiny wings at the back. It was black and the size of a yacht, of which many floated up and down the river not far from here in the summer, because it had access to the ocean.

Like a boat, it floated silently to the pier. Barely touching it, it came to a standstill, and a door opened like a hatch.

"Hey," Galexor appeared.

I handed him the obscene number of baskets neighbors had brought and some of ours first, while I giggled nervously at the thought of Mrs. Pruitt never knowing aliens would devour her famous Mooseheads this year.

Then it was my turn. This time, Galexor's hand extended toward me. "Don't be afraid, I've got you."

I held on to his hand with a death grip, while my right foot searched for purchase on his ship's hull.

He didn't rush me, he stood there patiently, holding my hand, ready to catch me should I slip.

A tremor moved through me when my foot rested on his spaceship, and then I pulled the other over.Holy cow, I'm standing on a freaking spaceship.

"Come on in." He gently pulled me toward the hatch, which was bigger up close than it had been standing on the pier.

A stairway led inside a well-lit corridor, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find one single light source. The illumination never faded in any spot, it was perfectly balanced.

The corridor was filled with three doors on each side, of which one stood open, and I made out all our baskets on the floor.

Galexor led me past it, straight for one single door right ahead of us. "The bridge," he announced and allowed me to enter first.

Two large, slanted windows greeted me, giving me a view of my pier and house. That's when I remembered that we were still on the lake, but the ship didn't move with the small waves at all, it stood perfectly still, as if I were standing on solid ground.

The bridge wasn't very large, but everything you would expect from an alien spaceship. Two captain chairs stood next to each other, facing the inverted, slanted windows, surrounded by blinking readouts in a triangular formation.

"Here, have a seat," he directed me into one of the chairs before he took the other one me.

A console rose from the floor between my legs, wedging me into the chair more securely while keeping me comfortable. I watched the same thing happening to Galexor, only a hologram sprang up from his console, similar to his data processor screen, just larger and filled with readouts.

His fingers began to dance over the hologram, and it was surreal to watch the tips of his fingers basically vanishing into thin air.

A slight humming sound and vibration moved through the ship, but I suspected I only heard and felt it because all my senses were utterly attuned to what was happening around me. Similar to when the ship lifted, and I was only aware of it because the view in the windows changed.

We lifted straight up, like a helicopter only without all the noise and rumbling. We went higher and higher, and soon, no matter how much I stretched my neck, I couldn't see my little lake house any longer. Not much longer after that, even the lake itself was swallowed up in darkness.

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