CHAPTER 12 #2
“I mean. It was rare I even saw my parents, as they were busy doing research, or visiting Earth, but they love me deeply.”
She swallows her bite of what looks to be some sort of apple-based carbohydrate-heavy treat I don’t recognize. “Ah, so you’re not all perfect. Even Terilia has latchkey kids.”
Ellie’s phone rings, and when she picks up, her deep brown eyes widen outside the glass of her frames. “Get up. We have to go. Now.”
Ellie grabs her satchel and darts out of the restaurant, and I follow swiftly behind, hoping we make it out of whatever emergent issue that has risen.
“Is everything okay?” I ask, seeking clarification on what we’re running to…or from.
She lifts her hand to hail a car, and by some small miracle, there is actually one with a green taxi light lit just a few blocks down. We enter the vehicle, and she and the driver have a quick exchange in French, before he pushes hard on the accelerator, the car lurching forward.
Initially, I assumed there was a fire, or maybe a robbery happening, but I trusted Ellie’s judgment. Now I have not a singular idea regarding what’s wrong.
“Where are we going?”
Ellie’s muscles are tense, her face red and hair disheveled from running. “Back to Limoges. I got a notification that the train was fixed, and they’re departing in a few hours.”
I glance over at the time on the dashboard, which reads 8:07.
“And when is that?”
“Eleven. Or maybe it was noon? It was in French. They’re leaving soon. We need to get back,” she says with a wild kind of distraught I’ve never really seen from Ellie. “We should not have gone so far.”
“But you wanted to see the caves, and we are only an hour away. We will get back in time,” I assure her.
It does not seem to assure her of anything, her leg bouncing with nervous energy as we speed toward our destination.
Is this why she doesn’t like me as more than a friend? Because I can improve. I can learn how to comfort her if she’ll give me the opportunity.
I just need more time.
The car ride back to Limoges continues in silence, the driver choosing not to turn on the radio, and I’m left with only the sound of my racing thoughts.
Thoughts that branch out like the limbs of an old oak tree, to versions of the future I hope become possible.
Me, taking Ellie around Terilia, showing her my favorite establishments.
The two of us at Ellie’s university, having a picnic in a botanical garden while Ellie tells me about her latest dig.
Desperately, I want all of those things, and I cannot seem to figure out why. I mean, Ellie is sexy and intelligent, yet I can’t help but wonder if what I’m feeling is normal.
Do humans ever feel so strongly for other humans after just a few days? Or a few dates? Or am I pathetic?
The car comes to a halt and we quickly scuffle out. Ellie takes off as though she’s a professional sprinter. My legs are longer, thankfully, so I am able to almost instantly catch up, and run beside her as we make our way up to the Limoges train station.
I open the door for Ellie and other patrons, everyone saying merci and thank you as they pass. Someone says grazie, and I wonder where they think I’m from.
I guess it doesn’t matter, so long as they don’t find out I am a sapphiro.
There are people still entering the doorway as Ellie crosses back toward me. She grabs me by the wrist, pulling me inside the station.
“Derek, we’re on a bit of a time crunch,” she says, her face turning pinkish-red. I can’t tell if it’s from the running, or the frustration.
“Apologies, I was just trying to be polite.”
“There is no time,” she huffs out as we sprint toward our train, bags and backpack in tow.
Definitely from frustration.
Ellie shows the woman at the front of the train our boarding passes, and we get back into our train car, which is a slightly cleaner version of how we left it.
“We made it,” I say as Ellie takes a seat in one of the chairs, her body visibly relaxing. “Are you…alright?”
“Yeah, just glad to be back on the train.”
There are a lot of things I want to say to her.
I’d love to continue our conversation from earlier about our childhoods, or inquire about this one famous cave painting, or even bring up the whole just friends thing, but I cannot when something more glaring is bothering me right now.
“Are you eager to get this trip over with?”
Ellie’s head cocks to the side, her face morphing into a look of genuine confusion. “No?”
I take a seat across from her, and awkwardly scratch the back of my neck. “Why were you so worried about getting back here then?”
“I didn’t want to miss the train. They predicted the issue to persist for a few days, but then it was fixed sooner, and it kinda freaked me out.
I felt…I don’t know…anxious, I guess. A little out of control.
I just needed to get back here,” she shares, but it sounds more like a confession than anything.
“So…you’re not looking forward to this trip ending?”
She shakes her head. “No, not at all. I’m actually having a lot of fun, which I didn’t really expect.”
“Me too,” I say, a genuine bout of relief flooding my chest. When this trip started, I figured I could tolerate Ellie enough to get to the French Alps, but that would be it, simply tolerating her.
I truly thought she was going to be unempathetic and careless.
I could not have been more wrong about Ellie.
About humanity in general, honestly.
This gives me hope I might not be alone with my feelings after all.
“Our next stop is Agen, but it’s kind of a boring one. Should we open up the DIRC?” she asks, pulling it out of her bag.
“It’s still daylight, are you not worried someone will see?”
“I think it’s safe until everyone starts loading, then we should probably put it away until it gets dark,” she says, and I nod.
“Works for me. I need to look into something anyway.”
Ellie might truly only see me as a friend, and if that ends up being the case, I will respect her wishes.
It would not be the first time my affection goes unrequited.
But as I open the DIRC and power it on, I’m determined to try.
I refuse to let my own ignorance, or obliviousness, prevent me from obtaining the thing I most desire.
Which might actually be Ellie, now that I think about it. I might want her even more than I want the edelweiss, and I fucking love plants.
Ellie sits across from me, eagerly waiting as the device boots up. Before I show her anything, I quickly connect to the train’s free wireless network and open up one of the search engines from Earth.
I type how to court a human and click on one of the first three results, which takes me to Reddit, a website I vaguely recognize. Ellie must have mentioned this place to me once.
r/dating.
There are tons of comments asking for advice, and I click on one titled Dating 101. Users say things that range from always hold the door open, to buy her flowers, to never let her be cold.
“Is something wrong?” Ellie asks, eyeing me suspiciously.
I look up from the screen. “No, just completing some work tasks.”
“For your job in…Utah? That you never showed for?”
“Yep,” I say, not wanting her to know what I’m up to. “They are still unaware of my current location.”
I continue reading, skimming through other comments and forums, absorbing as much information as possible about human courting customs. On Terilia, our marriages are mostly arranged.
Sapphiro’s rarely have sexual preferences the same way humans do, so we are placed with partners based on the desire to reproduce and our inherited careers.
I am not interested in having children, and I inherited a job that requires interplanetary travel, so the government chose not to match me.
At least, not unless they find someone suited to that preference and lifestyle.
It’s upsetting, because I don’t want to spend my life alone, but I don’t have much of a choice.
Not unless a human decides to spend their life with me. And I’m only interested in one very particular human, anyway. So, here I am, reading advice written by human strangers from the earth year two-thousand-and-fourteen.
There’s a thread titled How To Please Your Partner, and I immediately click to open it. The woman goes on to share her best tips on ‘eating a girl out.’
“Can I see what you’re working on?” Ellie asks, and places a hand onto the DIRC so she can peer at it.
I have never closed out of a tab so quickly in my entire lifetime.
“No need. I just completed my work. Here,” I say, and push the DIRC over to her, my face feeling flushed. “Let’s search for what you’re looking for.”