Pixie soon had Poppy laughing with what she now referred toas Brenda’s Blunders. “Pixie, why don’t you fire her already?” Poppy felt itwas a fair question considering Pixie had obviously given the woman multiplechances.
“I’m thinking I may have to.” Making a face that showed thiswas going to be an issue, Pixie huffed. “She’s making more work for me andmessing up orders left and right. I just feel bad. She was my friend before Ihired her but now I can’t stand to see her after-hours and she seems to behonestly trying. When I have her do things in front of me, she followsinstructions perfectly. It’s when I leave that mayhem ensues.”
Poppy and Pixie both grew quiet as the news flashed to thepresidential news conference. The president was now not alone at the podium;four men stood to his side. Almost spitting out her cider all over her coffeetable, Poppy sat up straight and pointed at the TV.
“Oh my god!” she yelled, making Pixie jump beside her.
“What the fuck, Pops? You scared the shit out of me.”
“It’s them!” Poppy was stunned at what she was seeing.Unable to believe her eyes, she stared harder at the TV.
“It’s who?” Pixie yelled in frustration.
“It’s the Mega Mart rock stars!” Poppy now stood to getcloser to the TV.
“What the fuck are you babbling about?” Pixie was blottingat the cider she’d spilled on her shirt when Poppy had startled her.
“Oh my god. Remember the hot guys I saw at Mega Mart? I toldyou about them watching everyone, and, and about their leather pants. I swearto god, it’s them!” Frantically pointing again at the men standing next to the president,she hopped up and down. Being able to see them clearly now, she realized howfucking hot they were. They were much taller than the president, who happenedto be a little over six feet himself, and they were buff. All four men werebroad in the shoulders but seemed lean everywhere else.
“Wow. They are hot,” Pixie said, eyeballing each ofthe men and fanning her face.
Hell yeah they were smokin’. These men were the entirepackage. Strong jaws, great hair, and boy, did they fill out leather pants well.
“Shhhhhhh, he’s talking.”
“Good afternoon, everyone. I am happy to introduce you tosome members of the Phaeton Council. Many of you have questions regarding theirspecies and they are here to answer those inquiries.” Stepping back from themicrophone, he gestured toward the man closest to him.
“Holy. Fucking. Shit.” Poppy was having trouble breathing.
These were the aliens. And she had seen them. In person. Andthey were hot. Not just a little hot, but really hot.
While her brain was trying to play catch-up, Poppy satstunned at what was in front of her. Not able to make a sound, both women wereglued to the TV. As the camera panned to the man closest to the president,Poppy almost drooled over the gorgeousness filling the screen. When he startedtalking in a deep voice, she felt like melting into a puddle on her couch.
The Phaetons who were representing their race took turnsanswering questions that had obviously been pre-screened for the conference.Poppy threw all thoughts of little green men right out of her head. If this waswhat the aliens looked like, what the hell was she waiting for?
When the conference ended, Poppy and Pixie still both satstunned.
Finally clearing her throat to move the frog that seemed tohave appeared there, Poppy could only say one thing. “Wow.”
Pixie nodded enthusiastically. “Exactly. Wow.”
“They are gorgeous…and not…alien-y.” Poppy was still tryingto connect the dots as to why they’d been at Mega Mart. When people had beentold the aliens were here to “observe”, she had assumed they were watching fromtheir ships. It hadn’t even crossed her mind they would have been walkingaround among humans. Of course, at that time, she had imagined they wouldn’tappear “normal”. Aliens were supposed to be green, dammit! Not smokin’ hot guystempting Poppy into doing something she knew Pixie would think crazy.
Seeing the expression on Pixie’s face that always came rightbefore a lecture, Poppy quickly popped in the movie to take her sister’s mindoff the aliens. Since the DVD was one Poppy had seen before, she knew she’d beable to at least pretend she was watching it while her mind whirled with thepossibilities of a sexy alien man in leather pants.
That evening, after Pixie had left and Poppy had locked upher apartment, she did something that had her hands shaking. Poppy logged on tothe State Department website to view the application for the Bridal Pact. Therehad obviously been quite a few visitors to the site. The system crashed twicedue to high traffic issues before she was even able to click on the link. Notwanting to take a chance of having to start all over, she quickly hit the Printbutton on her laptop.
She reasoned, “It’s not like I’m going to fill it out. I’mjust curious about the questions.”
After scanning the paperwork she now held in her hands,Poppy admitted some of the questions were pretty invasive. Setting the stack onher nightstand, she tried to get some sleep. After an hour had passed withPoppy tossing and turning, she finally turned to the packet of papers that waskeeping her awake. She picked up the application and walked to the kitchentable.
“For fuck’s sake, this is going to drive me batty.”
She reached for the cup of pens she kept on the table.Clicking a pen several times, she took a deep breath and read the first page.
Bridal Match Questionnaire
Please complete the following thirty pages. Any questionsthat you are unable to answer please mark as “unknown”. Please answer allquestions listed. Potential matches are based on your answers, so honesty is extremelyimportant. Upon completion, please return this form and all signed documents tothe nearest Intake Center and you will then be assigned a human liaison for therest of the application process. Please be aware that if your last physicalexamination took place over thirty days ago, you will need to have a
