Nanny for the Alien Lord by Tammy Walsh

Belle

Since when did studying become sodifficult?

You leave your home university in Phoenix for a few years and they up and change everything!

I squinted at the tiny text and attempted to make notes but my eyes were already growing blurry and finding it difficult to focus.

I remembered when I could study for days without feeling this tired.

Now, I needed a cup of coffee before I could even read a book’s title!

I stumbled over to the kitchenette tucked away in the corner.

I had checked out the newly-built halls of residence, only to discover they’d been built to a much higher standard than the cramped studio I’d opted for.

It’s not about comfort, I told myself sagely. It’s about having my own space.

I didn’t want to take part in the younger students’ party lifestyle—as if they would even invite me!

I filled the kettle from the faucet and flicked it on.

The pipes rattled behind the wall, and I froze, watching in horror, fully expecting it to explode inward and drown me and my meager few possessions the way it had done back on Zev.

When I’d lived with Abbie and worked for Tauas—

I shook my head, wiping the memory from my mind.

I didn’t need to remember that, I told myself.

My mind liked to take every opportunity it could to remind me of Tauas and Elken and the life I’d left behind.

I fell on my bed, the springs screeching beneath me.

I’d meant to buy a new mattress but I didn’t yet have the funds.

Between the cost of the room, the bills, the food, and of course, tuition, I could barely manage to squeak by as it was.

I might have changed planets but my lifestyle was still the same.

Has it really only been three weeks since I left?

It already felt like a lifetime ago.

The farewell with Abbie had been a tearful one, but underneath it, a flood of happiness that we were both now finally getting to live our lives and strive to achieve our dreams.

Already, I saw my sister’s designs in the more upscale and fashionable boutiques on Main Street, not that I could afford them.

To think, I had entire wardrobes of those clothes at my disposal, could have worn them exclusively any time I wanted, only I didn’t!

Madness.

My computer terminal flashed and a holo-image of Abbie appeared on my desk.

She was calling me.

She called me most days.

I took a moment to just look at the image of her on the other end of the line.

She couldn’t see me until I answered it.

I stroked a hand over her cheek.

Boy, do I miss her.

I missed our late-night chats, missed talking about her designs, celebrity news she updated me on.

I often only pretended to listen.

I would give anything to be there in person with her now.

But Abbie had moved on.

She was now a successful designer and her career was going from strength to strength.

I should have been happy for her—and I was.

It was just…

I don’t know.

I missed my life with her so much…

And with Tauas and Elken.

I shook my head again of the distracting thoughts.

“Accept call.”

The holo-image shunted to one side as Abbie turned toward me.

“There you are! I was beginning to think you were still suffering from your latest hangover!”

“It’s the afternoon,” I said, motioning to the sunlight streaming through the window behind me. “Besides, I’m an old lady now. I doubt I could put up with much partying.”

“You’ve always been an old lady. Even in your pram!”

I snorted and would have slapped her good-naturedly if I could have crossed the millions of miles.

“How’s work going?” I said.

Abbie shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh, you know how it is. Showbiz parties. Students hanging on my every word. Same old, same old.”

“And you hate every minute of it, I bet.”

Abbie grinned at me.

“Iatell’s thinking about putting some of my designs in the autumn catalog. How cool is that? Usually, her designers have to wait three or four years before they’re given that opportunity!”

“I always said you were talented.”

“Talent has got nothing to do with it. It was pure brutal strength of character!”

She leaned in close to the holo-camera, her face morphing into a giant.

Even though it consisted entirely of light and couldn’t make contact with me, I leaned away from it.

“You look tired,” she said. “Are you getting enough sleep?”

“More than enough,” I said, waving away her concerns.

In truth, I had struggled every day since returning to Earth to find peace in my dreams.

I couldn’t decide if it was due to being on another planet—even though it was my home planet, it felt nothing like it and more alien than Zev ever did.

It seemed darker, dingier somehow.

It was probably to do with the lower technological level, the overpopulated cities, the high crime rates…

It was likely all three!

In my dreams, there was no landscape, no city silhouette, only faces, tiny young faces, and masculine gorgeous ones…

The thought of never seeing them again morphed them into dark and sinister nightmares.

But Abbie didn’t need to know that.

I found the holo-camera useful for smudging Abbie’s mind-reading ability and made it much easier for me to conceal how I really felt.

Still, it didn’t prevent her from peering closely at me and grunting under her breath.

She leaned back in her wheelchair.

“If you say so. Just make sure to turn down a party and a date now and then!”

No problem there, I thought. There were none to turn down!

The men on Phoenix campus—boys, really—were as interested in me as I was in them.

Not at all.

It was the way I wanted it.

I wanted to focus on schoolwork, not boys or dating or anything else.

Yes, it was a simple life for me!

Abbie cleared her throat and didn’t glance at the holo-camera.

“I bumped into Tauas the other day.”

I blinked in surprise.

My ham-fisted attempts to pry information out of Abbie about him always met with failure.

Abbie was usually far too busy fostering her career to worry about him or what he was up to.

Now, she was offering up information like bread to a flock of raving pigeons.

I was hungry for the information but shrugged my shoulders in an effort to appear as if I wasn’t bothered.

“Oh? How is he?”

“Busy, as usual. His launch is coming up soon.”

I knew that already.

His service bots were being released on Earth.

More advanced alien races weren’t usually allowed to exchange technology or information with lower lifeforms—in this case, humans being the evolutionary equivalent of slugs—but Tauas had managed to wrangle a deal by scaling back the robots’ abilities to the level where they wouldn’t put humans at risk.

Many a species had backward-engineered futuristic technology to leapfrog into the big leagues only to be met with dire consequences.

“I suspect he must be very busy,” I said.

“He’s traveling all over the Galaxy,” Abbie said. “Zari-A, Qoim…”

Her eyes flicked to the camera.

“Earth.”

I spat my coffee out over the wall, my textbooks, and computer terminal.

Abbie’s image shuddered and turned blurry.

But none of that bothered me right now.

“Gesundheit,” Abbie said around a toothy grin.

“Earth?” I blurted. “Why on Earth would he be coming… to Earth?”

Not the most eloquent question I’d ever asked but one I was desperate to know the answer to.

“Apparently, this trade deal is breaking new ground,” Abbie said. “He’s going there to open the door for future deals.”

“But… he’s the CEO! Why does he need to come here?”

Abbie shrugged her shoulders once again.

“I guess he must have some kind of… attachment to Earth,” she said, choosing her words carefully.

My heart thudded so loudly I could hear it in my ears.

Any second now, the neighbors would bang on the walls for me to turn down the base.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

Tauas.

Coming here.

To Earth.

But Earth was a big place, I told myself.

The chances of him coming anywhere near me were remote to say the least.

He would be halfway across the country—halfway across the planet for all I knew!

No, the reason he came to Earth was purely for business.

He wouldn’t come all this way just for me.

Would he?

“Are you feeling all right?” Abbie said, an evil glint in her eye. “You look a little pale.”

“Peachy,” I said blankly.

“Listen,” Abbie said, leaning in close to the microphone as if somehow closing the distance between us. “I think we both know why he’s really going to Earth. But that doesn’t mean you have to go meet him. If you want to draw a line under whatever happened between you two, there’s no better message you can send him than to not go. He’ll hear that loud and clear. You aren’t interested in a relationship with him anymore, and he’ll leave you alone.”

She leaned back.

“That is, if you’re sure you don’t want a relationship with him anymore.”

She let the meaning hang open.

Are you sure?

I nodded thoughtfully.

“Yes, of course, I’m sure. He’s just here for business.”

It had to be the truth, no matter how much I wished it wasn’t.

“You’re probably right,” Abbie said sadly. “Well, I thought you should know. It’s getting late here, so I’m going to turn in for the night. Love you.”

“Love you too,” I said distractedly.

As I reached over to switch the terminal off, Abbie suddenly wheeled back into view.

“Oh! I almost forgot!”

“What?”

“I forgot to tell you who’s hosting the launch event!”

“Who?”

Another glint of light shone in my sister’s eye.

“Would you believe it?”

“What?” I snapped.

“It’s being hosted at Phoenix University! What are the odds?”

Yeah…

What are the odds?