Chapter 2
Knox
I was born on a planet with very few resources.
Water was scarce, and so fresh food was very hard to come by.
At fifteen, I joined the space corps. At sixteen, I was called up to join the crew of a military starship.
We had technology on board to grow plants for food, but that food had to feed one thousand people.
It went through so much processing and dehydrating that by the time the produce reached my kitchen, there wasn’t much I could do with my incredibly limited ingredients.
No matter what I tried, everything always ended up tasting like cardboard that had already been recycled a hundred times over.
That food kept us all alive for many years, and I’m thankful for that, but when we crashed here on Earth and I discovered fresh fruit and vegetables, I thought I may actually have died in the wreckage and gone to Earth heaven.
I learned everything I could about Earth cooking from TV and recipe books the guys brought me from Second Chance Books in Star Falls.
When we first got here, I went into town a couple of times to get supplies with the guys.
But after a spectacular panic attack in a Howling Ridge supermarket that scared the shit out of me, the guys and everyone in the place, we all decided it would be better for me to stay on the mountain and have the guys bring any supplies I needed.
Panic attacks aren’t a thing on Virrindar Four, and so the guys didn’t really know what to do.
Zeke, our starship medic, suggested it could be some kind of PTSD, Ezra, who I’m pretty sure actually does have PTSD, said it was because of the atmosphere here.
Thought maybe I just wasn’t used to breathing in clean air.
I manage my anxiety better now. Mostly because I never leave the mountain. Luckily, most of the construction work I do now takes place on the mountain or at least out of town. Most of the guys go into town after work if they need something. I go straight home.
The guys were happy to pick up whatever I needed, but after a while, I felt like such a burden to them and a total loser for not being able to do it on my own, that I somehow found the guts to call Star Falls Market and ask if I could have my groceries delivered.
Now, once a week, I make a call to the market, tell them what I need, and the next day I get a delivery of fresh produce and other groceries. It’s my favorite day of the week, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the beautiful Earth woman who delivers my orders.
I just really love fresh fruit and vegetables.
I sit on my couch, bare feet up on the coffee table as I flip through recipe books, trying to decide what I’ll make with my produce this week.
I’ve been going through a tomato phase, and while it may sound a little boring to most humans, the idea of a simple roasted tomato and garlic sauce with spaghetti is making me feel kind of warm and fuzzy.
That warm, fuzzy feeling has nothing to do with the fact that Clara will be here soon.
I frown out at the snow falling outside my window. Snow isn’t good. Snow means no Clara… I mean, no produce.
“Fuck,” I mumble, getting off the couch and stomping towards the window to get a better look.
I place a hand on the glass and stare out at the mountain road that’s getting whiter by the second.
Damn, I really wanted those tomatoes.
“You’re not going to die from a lack of tomatoes,” I mumble to myself. My chest tightens as I remember how hungry we all were back on Virrindar Four. How all our resources were used for war instead of to feed our people and how many Virrindarians died because of it.
I take a deep breath, bring myself back to the here and now, and then go check what I have in the kitchen to distract myself. I find some tinned tomatoes, and while they are a thousand times better than anything we had on the starship or on Virrindar Four, they aren’t fresh.
“Get over it,” I tell myself. “Tinned are fine. Better than fine.”
I slice some onion, crush some garlic and then throw them into a pan with a bit of oil. Then I stir mindlessly while I watch the snow fall and settle on the trees outside my kitchen window.
She’s not coming.
I sigh, open a tin of tomatoes and reluctantly throw them into the pan.
The tomatoes are just starting to sizzle when I hear a knock on my door. It must be one of the guys checking on me, seeing if I’m okay to weather the storm.
They’re always checking on me like this, and it makes me so pissed. Of course I’m okay. I’m an alien with super-strength and super-speed! A little blizzard isn’t going to be a problem for me. Apart from my lack of fresh produce, I’m more than fine out here on my own.
I open the door and there’s Clara — her long dark blonde hair dusted with snow, a carton of groceries in her hands. Wearing nothing but a pair of jeans and a rainbow-striped sweater, she’s not dressed for the weather. She’s shivering!
I grab the carton out of her hands, scowling at her. “What the hell are you thinking driving up here in a blizzard?”
“They said it wasn’t going to hit until tomorrow,” she says with a shivery shrug.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“If I hadn’t come, you would have been mad that I’d missed your delivery!”
“Not in a fucking blizzard I wouldn’t!”
Her pretty hazel eyes take me in, flitting across my shoulders and then taking in my biceps. Her lips twitch, and for a moment, I wonder — no. She’s not into me. I can’t look like much standing here barefoot in an old khaki t-shirt and my comfiest, well-worn jeans.
“I should get back before it gets worse,” she says, turning on her heel and rushing down the steps.
She’s nearly at her car before I dump the carton on my porch, super-speed after her and grab her by the arm.
She gasps and looks up at me. “What the—?”
“It’s too dangerous to drive back.”
She looks down at my hand on her arm, and for a second, we just stand like that — my hand on her. It’s the first time I’ve touched her — it’s the first time I’ve touched a human woman.
And fuck if it doesn’t feel really nice.
She pulls out of my grasp. “What? You think I’m just going to stay here until the snow is gone? That could be days, weeks! I have to go now, or I’ll get stuck up here!”
A wind whips up, sending a spiral of white thrashing around us.
“You can’t drive in this,” I growl. “You’ll stay here with me until the storm passes. Until they clear the road.”
I can tell from the look on her face that being stuck in my cabin with me is the last thing she wants. It’s the last place she wants to be.
I was an idiot to even think it. She’s not into me. It’s her worst nightmare to be trapped here with me, but her car sliding off the mountain is mine.
“You’re staying,” I tell her. “Until it’s safe.”
I reach out a hand to help her, but she just huffs and stomps through the snow back towards my cabin.