CHAPTER 39 #2
I had had similar thoughts. I knew my parents would be devastated by my disappearance. And my friends, too. “I know what you mean. I wish we could at least send them a message that we’re ok,” I said.
“Yeah, me too,” he said softly. We held each other for a while.
“Tell me about Coromonn. I know you’re going back there in a month. Can I visit you?” I asked.
“Fuck, no,” he said, vehemently.
“What? Why not?”
“Listen, like I said, Coromonn has been great for me. They’ve treated me well.
But it’s a shitshow for their females. They treat women as property.
The women have no rights at all. The women all live in a harem separated from the males at birth, where they are trained to be nothing more than sex slaves and future mothers.
It is seriously messed up. No way would I bring you into that world. ”
“Holy shit, that’s awful,” I said.
“It is. I had no idea at first. I’m bi, so I like men and women.
After I’d been on Coromonn a while, I realized I had never seen a Charonu female, so I asked Fintak if they had females.
He said they did, but that they lived in the women’s quarters.
I didn’t think anything of it, but that evening he brought a Charonu woman to my quarters and introduced her as ‘Kina’ to me.
I appreciated the opportunity to talk with one of their women; I thought that’s why he brought her to me.
So I made her tea and tried chatting with her.
She was barely responsive. I thought maybe she was afraid of me.
She wouldn’t even meet my eyes. So I assured her I wouldn’t hurt her and asked if she wanted to go out somewhere more public.
She just looked confused and said she would come back to my quarters whenever I requested her.
It was odd, but I figured it was a cultural or language issue, so I asked if she’d like to come back the next day, and I’d make her a human meal for dinner. She said yes.
She came back the next day, and she seemed a little more relaxed.
We talked, and I got a little more out of her, but I found that a lot of my questions just confused her.
Like, when I asked Kina about what she studied or if she had a job, she had no answer and didn’t seem to understand how to answer.
But we got along, and I made her laugh, and over time I grew to like her.
She came over every day for dinner. Eventually, I asked her if I could kiss her, and she didn’t know what that was, but said yes, and well, one thing led to another and, you know.
After the first time, I asked Kina how to make her come, and she didn’t even know what I was talking about.
I’m a pretty creative lover, and I tried a lot of different things, but something felt ‘off’.
I mean, I felt like we were in a relationship, and she seemed happy to have sex whenever I asked, but she never initiated it.
Again, I thought it was odd, but I chalked it up to different cultural norms.
Then one day, Kina didn’t show up for dinner at our usual time.
I asked her why she was late, and she told me another male had requested her.
And I asked her what she meant by that, and she told me.
I was pissed, but I figured we’d never really established exclusivity, so maybe I needed to spell that out to her.
I told her that I wanted us to be exclusive, and she had no clue what I meant.
She had no concept of two partners pairing off and not sleeping with anyone else.
I asked her to leave and went to see Fintak.
He explained how things worked. Andie, the women are communal property.
Any male can have sex with any of the women, no questions asked.
Consent isn’t even a question. The women never say no, but they don’t even know they can say no.
They think their only purpose is to get pregnant and raise the kids.
At the age of 5, the kids are separated from their mothers to basically go to a boarding school, and the mothers go back into the harem.
And the men don’t get attached to them at all.
Males will form attachments with other males.
I have two male partners, and we’ve lived together for the past four years.
We are exclusive within our threesome. But it’s not considered cheating if they have sex with any of the women from the harem.
After all, women aren’t partners; they’re property.
They know I’m here, and if I slept with you, they wouldn’t consider it cheating at all.
I like a lot of things about Coromonn, but the way women are viewed and treated is seriously fucked up.
So no, you can’t come visit. God, that would be a disaster. You’re much better off here.”
I was stunned to hear how women were treated on his planet.
God, that was just awful. He was right - I definitely wouldn’t be visiting.
That solidified something I hadn’t been sure about, though.
Leo was going back home to his planet - to his partners.
There wasn’t a romantic future for us. I admit that I was a tiny bit disappointed.
He was smart, funny, easygoing. He even played the piano.
And he was the only human male I was likely to ever see again.
But we were only going to be friends. He didn’t want to leave his partners, or his job and the home he had made for himself on Coromonn.
I couldn’t blame him for that. Especially not for a girl he’d just met yesterday.
“So visits are definitely out of the question,” I said. “What about messaging? You’re the only human I know in this whole sector of space. Are there interplanetary pen pals? Is that a thing?”
“I will absolutely be your pen pal,” he said, laughing.
“Messages between our planets take a couple of days to get through, so it’s not like we can have a phone call or facetime like we did on Earth.
But you can send text or video messages every couple of days.
We’ll do that. And who knows, I may be able to swing a visit back here in a year or two, especially if my rich, royal BFF can help me out with the travel costs. ”
“100%,” I said. “I got you.”
“Perfect. So what do you think about a friends with benefits situation?” he asked. “I mean, in all honesty, you’re super hot, and I would absolutely be down if you wanted to explore that.”
I considered it, but I knew I couldn’t. I’d only had sex (well, consensually) in my two committed relationships.
I’d lost my virginity to my high school boyfriend at prom - cliche, I know.
We broke up during freshman year of college.
We went to different universities, and we were committed to staying together long distance.
Or so I thought. We visited each other a few times that first semester, but when we went home for winter break, he confessed that he started seeing someone else. I was devastated.
It took me almost a full year before I started seriously dating again.
My last boyfriend, I met at the end of my sophomore year and dated for two years.
It was great at first, but things started falling apart our senior year.
As graduation loomed, it became obvious that we didn’t have the same life goals.
He was a finance major and wanted to become a CPA, get married, and pop out 2.
5 kids right after college. I wanted to pursue my dreams on Broadway.
I wasn’t even sure if I wanted kids at all.
Looking back, I held onto that relationship for too long, hoping we could work things out.
We’d broken up just a couple of months before I was abducted.
Sex brought me closer to a partner. It wasn’t casual for me. I couldn’t sleep with Leo knowing it was temporary. I knew I would fall for him, and then he would leave. It was just setting myself up for heartbreak.
I sighed. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. You’re very attractive, but I’ve never had casual sex, and I don’t think I’m built for it. I like the security of being in a committed relationship. However, I will take all the friendship cuddles I can get while you’re here.”
“I got you, brighteyes,” he said, smiling at me, pulling me into a hug. “I miss friendly touches, too. Nobody hugs like humans.”
“We are expert huggers,” I agreed.
We embraced for a moment longer, and then I pulled back. “Well, friend, after the best lunch I’ve had in ages, we need to burn a few calories. Come on, I’ll show you my backyard projects and then take you on a tour of the village.
“Lead on, huera,” he said.
I showed him the garden, ovina coop and shed for M’Pak, which he admired. M’Pak accompanied us as we walked through the village, and I pointed out things along the way. Camavel’s house, the Bowl, the fountain in market square, and then we took a tour of some of the market shops.
“Andie, who is this?” Miravel asked as we approached her jewelry stand. I introduced Leo to her, and she inspected him closely. “You are both Lumanelas?” she asked, “But he is so brown! Is that usual?”
I laughed. “We are both human. Leo is from a different…tribe. Humans come in a variety of colors,” I explained.
“That is strange. It is a striking contrast,” she said.
“Ptexari males all have different colored crests,” I pointed out.
“I suppose that is true. We all have the same skin tone, however.”
“My skin tone is an evolutionary adaptation to sun exposure,” Leo explained.
“My people grew up in a climate with many hours of sun exposure per day, so our skin has a substance called melanin in it that darkens our skin and protects us from sunburn. Andie’s people descend from northern climates with less sun exposure, so their skin does not contain this coloring.
That means her skin is more likely to burn from ultraviolet rays. ”
“Yes, I have seen her skin change to pink or red when she has been in the sun too long. You do not change color?” she asked.