Page 14 of Unfinished

“It doesn’t look like you’re going to wait.” Sienna moved backwards and extended her arm. “Come in then, but tell me why you’re here. I was in the middle of something.”

He gave her a haughty raise of his chin and a slight smile. “Clearly.” His melodious voice had no trouble conveying his disbelief. It was hard to believe that voice had once been one of the things she’d loved about him most. “I was out in this area of town and thought I should check on you. I’m glad I did.” He gave her one of those appraising looks again.

“Well, it was nice of you to think about stopping by, but maybe comm me first next time. I would’ve told you it was a bad time.” Sienna set one hand on her kitchen counter and waited, hoping Edgar would take the hint and excuse himself.

“So you said,” he murmured, walking past her into the living room.

Sienna hurried after, ready now to escort him back to the door. Edgar had always been quick with his hands. She saw the moment his gaze fixed on her active viewscreen, and it didn’t take a mindreader to figure out what he intended.

“No!” she cried as he snatched it up with his nimble fingers.

He held it high enough that she couldn’t reach it as his eyes scanned the screen, and his expression hardened. He tucked the viewscreen beneath his arm and glared. “Explain,” he commanded.

Sienna held out a hand. “Give me my property back. You have no right to barge in here like this and touch my things.”

Edgar forced out a bitter laugh. “No right? If you say so, but obviously someone has to watch after you. A few months on your own and you’re what—writing some alien now? That’s never going to happen. You’re going to delete this…program,” he said with distaste, “and we’ll resume our relationship. No one needs to know about your little lapse. My God, your mother would be appalled. I know she’s eager to see us together again. She mentioned it to me the other day at the club. I know for a fact she doesn’t know aboutthis,” he added, dangling the viewscreen between two fingers like it was contaminated. “Forget this nonsense, and I won’t mention it to her.”

Sienna was fuming. She grabbed the viewscreen and looked from Edgar to the door. “It’s time for you to leave. Now,” she added when he remained still, just watching her with an infuriating little smirk on his face. Sienna held up her wrist. “Do I need to call security? Because I will.”

Edgar let out a long-suffering sigh, but he finally started to move. “Fine. I’ll leave, but everyone will learn about your new hobby. See how it feels showing your face around town once people know you’re infatuated with one of those snakes.”

He walked entirely too slowly. Sienna was shaking by the time he reached the door, keeping her free hand clenched tightly at her side to stop herself from doing something rash. She’d never been the kind of person who was prone to physical violence, but she was sorely tempted to indulge.

Unfortunately, Edgar made good on his promise. She had two hours of peace before her comm device began to flood with alerts. She pulled up Edgar’s comm info and watched as a quick vid popped up above her wrist. It was some anti-Xithilene skit with a bunch of men dressed up in Halloween masks and painted on scales acting like animals. As it ended, Edgar’s smooth voice rose over the onscreen action. “Is it temporary insanity when your ex thinks she’s falling for a snake? If you know Sienna Prescott, you might want to check in on her.”

Sienna jabbed the screen on her wrist comm, her finger slipping as his laughter rang in her ears. Finally, she shut down the vid. She was able to ignore most of the alerts on her device, especially the continued calls coming in from her mother, but she knew she’d be in trouble if she didn’t respond to the message that popped up from Tasha.

“Is Edgar for real? You’ve seriously still been writing to the alien guy? Is it the same one? What’s going on?”

Sienna read the latest message from her friend. She’d stopped updating Tasha on R’kash after the first few letters. It’d been clear that Tasha found it amusing to scan Sienna’s possible matches and ogle the photos, but that she didn’t think it’d lead to anything serious. Her friend had still been offering to set her up with any halfway appealing male acquaintance every other week.

She opened up Tasha’s contact info and placed a visual comm request. As soon as Tasha’s hologram materialized in front of her, she started talking.

“He barged in here and grabbed my viewscreen before I could stop him. He was still talking about getting back together, and then he saw a letter from R’kash.”

Tasha hissed through her clenched teeth. “Wow. The way he’s been acting since you two broke up, you’d think that he was the one who’d been dumped. I thought you’d revoked his access to your building?”

“I did. I accidentally hit the approval button when he called up demanding to come in, and he was through the door before I could hit cancel. I messed up thinking we could talk civilly. I won’t make that mistake twice.”

Her friend swallowed and pressed her lips together and looked down before she glanced up again. “Okay, so forget about Edgar. You’re still writing to the Xithilene? Is it the guy with the kid?”

There was no point in lying about it any longer. Edgar’s attempt at crushing her with embarrassment said more about him than it did Sienna.

“Yes, R’kash is the same man I’ve been writing to since the beginning. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I knew you didn’t really approve, and I just wanted to enjoy what’s been growing between us. I know it seems old-fashioned, but I feel like I really know him. I’d love to be able to do this all in person, but that’s just not an option. He’s an incredible man.”

Tasha frowned again. “You never have to lie to me. I can’t say I support you one hundred percent, because it feels like this is just a way to avoid starting any real relationships again, but please don’t stop talking to me. You aren’t really considering moving to an alien planet for this guy, are you? You need to think everything through before you make any rash decisions. I’m your friend—don’t forget that.”

“I won’t.” Sienna made sure she met Tasha’s eye before she continued. “I’m not writing to R’kash to avoid anything. I’ll admit I wasn’t certain signing up for the Mate Portal would lead to anything real when I first did it, but it’s not make-believe just because he’s not here in the same city. I really think I’m going to go there when our six months are up.”

Tasha’s face went a bit ashen, and her voice was missing its usual brash confidence when she replied. “You’re really serious, aren’t you?” She looked away from Sienna as she waved her hand. “Don’t mind me. Just having a little moment here. Look—I believe what you feel for this man is real, but you still need to take your time and think it all through. We’re lucky. There’s a reason this city has walls—everyone else wants to get in. Are you sure you want to give it all up to go live on a whole different planet?”

“I’m not one hundred percent sure yet, but I’m strongly considering it.” Sienna shook her head. “I know I’m privileged. My family, my education—my comfortable job—I know that the majority of people don’t have those advantages, but does that mean I have to settle? Edgar ending our relationship was the best thing that ever happened to me. It was a real wake-up call. I’m grateful for what I have, but I know now that it’s not what I need.”

Tasha didn’t look convinced. “Okay, that’s fine, but don’t make any decisions today. That’s why they give you six months to decide, isn’t it? Don’t let Edgar push you into anything rash. I know how stubborn you can be.”

“Do you think anyone really cares about Edgar’s little stunt? Besides my mother, of course. I didn’t know he was anti-Xithilene on top of everything else, although maybe I should’ve guessed it when he called R’kash a snake earlier. That vid was vile.”

“It was in poor taste, sure, but it sounds like he’s still just hurt.” Tasha’s eyes widened and she put her hands out in a placating gesture. “Not that it excuses his behavior! I don’t mean that at all, but I do think he assumed you’d fight to stay together. I don’t think he ever meant for you two to actually break up for real.”

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