Ramliel by A.M. Griffin
Chapter Eighteen
Ping.
The noise pulled Mia from her sleep. She didn’t try to hold on to the dream she was having or force herself back into a slumber. She just laid there. Existing. Or semi-existing.
It’d been a week since Ram had last tried to contact her. This was what she wanted right? To be left alone and to figure things out for herself?
Ping.
She hadn’t gone on another date with Hamir. After running into a very drunk Ram, he’d stopped calling and hadn’t been by her office since. She didn’t blame Hamir for distancing himself from her. Who in their right mind would want to be involved with a woman with a crazed ex-husband?
Correction: Who would want to deal with a woman with a crazed husband.
Because that’s what he still was, like it or not. Ram hadn’t completed the paperwork releasing her from their bond. She was sure that was the only reason government officials hadn’t beat at her door yet, demanding she find a new mate.
Mia had heard of a woman whose mate had died unexpectantly and she was on the clock to find a new mate or they would find one for her. At least Mia didn’t have to go through that. For the time being.
But that didn’t stop her from being anxious of the day when she would receive the notification that she was a single lady. While she knew that day was coming, she wasn’t happy or excited about it. She was hurt. Sad. Angry. Pissed. But not happy.
Ping.
She blinked open her eyes. Whoever was trying to reach her wasn’t going to stop apparently.
She rolled over and hit the lights and instantly regretted it when brightness burned her retinas.
She shielded her eyes. “For the love of all things holy!”
Ping.
“Okay. Okay,” she grumbled as she used her free hand to blindly reach for her comlink on her nightstand.
She lifted her arm only enough to peer under it and open the incoming message on her comlink.
Message Twenty-Four
Mia frowned. Message Twenty-Four? What does that even mean? She accepted the holovid and a young Ram projected over her comlink. He was in the room across from hers and in the chair that he’d been in when he’d recorded the other messages. He had on a shirt and his hair was slicked to one side. He didn’t seem happy at all. A scowl was on his little face and his lips were pouty. The date on this message was a few months from the date of the last one that she’d received.
“Father says that I must continue to message you because we are to be mated.” He crossed his arms. “I just want you to know that I like someone else who’s prettier than you. I want her to be my mate and I can’t because you’re coming all the way from your horrible, little planet.”
Ah. So that was it. He had a girlfriend.
Ram glanced away from the camera. “I’ll continue but I want you to know that I love Nadi and always will.”
The message blinked off.
Message complete. Do you wish to receive the next?
Did she want to see the rest? Would it just get worse and worse? She chewed her bottom lip as she re-read the words over and over again. Then she selected “Yes.”
* * *
“Cohn is getting bigger than me and I don’t like it at all,” Ram said. “He pushes me, but I don’t fall down. I always stand my ground.”
Mia chuckled as she made dinner. She’d gone from telling herself that the next message would be the last she would look at today, to selecting, “Yes” every time she was asked if she wanted to continue. Watching the holovids was addictive.
She’d learned his passing fancy with Nadi had ended. She’d started liking Cohn then went on to like someone else. He’d been heartbroken but had quickly recovered. He’d stopped pining over her. He was still upset that Mia was coming to mate with him. He’d said that he was only mating with her because of his duty to his father. He’d also told her that he hadn’t planned to send her any of the holovids. He was only recording because his father was making him.
Mia didn’t know why he’d decided to send them now and she didn’t care.
Well, maybe she did care. Just a little bit.
“I told Cohn that as soon as I get bigger than him I’m going to knock him down and see how he likes that!”
* * *
Ram was bigger now. The date on the top right corner put him at somewhere around thirteen years old. “I think when I grow up that I will have four children.” He stared directly at the camera. “But not by you.”
Mia burst out into a laugh. Someone passing her open office door gave her a confused glance and she waved them off. “Sorry! I was looking at something.”
They continued to walk by quickly. She’d spent the past few days being tickled to no end. Since he’d decided at that time that he wasn’t going to push send on the messages he was being open and candid about everything.
Most of the messages were the ramblings of a child, but they were cute ramblings. He talked about wanting to learn how to cook but his father never bought any fresh foods to do so. He talked about how he wanted to travel to different planets and meet new people. He also talked about Cohn and various girls he was enamored with. None of the girls would date him because he was already mated. He didn’t find that fair and he was rightly upset about that.
Mia didn’t know when it happened but she wasn’t upset with him for telling her that he didn’t want her. She was still upset about the whole Varona thing. Kind of. Maybe? But not about the holovid she’d received on the transport ship on the way to Teague.
Ram had been a little boy who’d wanted to mate with a girl that he liked and had just realized that the woman he thought was a friend coming to stay with him was actually his mate.
A mostly hairless woman at that! As he’d proudly exclaimed in one of his videos.
His fit had nothing to do with her directly. She understood that now. He just didn’t want to be told that a grown woman was on her way to him. He didn’t get to date girls as his friends did and didn’t get to experience any of the kissing and handholding that he’d wanted to.
In essence, his childhood had been robbed from him. If the roles had been reversed and she’d been told something like when she was just a kid, she might’ve had the same reaction. She couldn’t imagine being told that an alien was coming to mate with her at such a young age then having to live her childhood acting like a married woman.
All the things she might’ve done and the ways she would’ve rebelled ran through her head and in the end of the fictional reality she realized she wouldn’t come out looking so rosy. Hell, she’d only been given one day’s notice and her reaction hadn’t been good. Who knows what would’ve happened if she’d been given thirty years to plan.
She would’ve found a way to escape and never looked back, that’s what. Thirty years is a long time and within that time she would’ve been prepared to live in the wilds of the Amazon by herself.
She was torn between knowing exactly how Ram had felt and agreeing with his point of view and being hurt because she’d had to bear the brunt of his rejection. Mia sighed and buried her face in her hands.
Knock, Knock.
Mia glanced up to find Ivo standing in her doorway. “I’m headed to lunch. Do you want to join me?”
Mia glanced at the holovid. There were only five more videos left. She looked at Ivo. “No, thank you. I’ll eat at my desk. I have an appointment with a new client.” She’d received a message from Hinduru about the meeting which was odd because all of her appointments came through the scheduling system at the facility. She didn’t press him about it. She would find out soon enough what all the secrecy was about.
Ivo glanced at the holovid and at noticing Ram, asked, “What year is that?”
She squinted at the screen. Her eyes were tired and dry from watching the holovids day and night, almost non-stop. “He’s fifteen years old.”
Sadness passed across Ivo’s eyes. “Tomorrow then?”
After a moment’s confusion, Mia nodded. “Tomorrow.”
* * *
Mia yawned as she unlocked her door and entered her house. It hadn’t been a long day at work, but it’d been a taxing one. She’d found out what the secrecy was about regarding her new client and the reason for it. Also, staying up all night and watching holovids was getting to her. She only had two more left then she was done. She could go on about her days and live the rest of her life without Ram in it.
A pang spread across her chest. No more holovids and no more Ram. She found that she looked forward to watching them and watching him. It was like he was right here with her. What would she do with her time now? Maybe she would travel to all the places that he’d mentioned going to in his holovids? Maybe she could learn how to cook some of the dishes that he’d raved about?
But what good would come of doing those things without Ram by her side?
The pain deepened.
She missed him. She missed him so much that she didn’t know how she would ever get over him.
Maybe she shouldn’t view the last two? Maybe she should stop where she was, knowing that she’d been strong enough to sever ties completely.
She glanced at her comlink.
Message complete. Do you wish to receive the next?
She kicked off her shoes and selected, “Yes.”