Close Liaisons

Chapter 19



Shortly after Peter left, Edgar departed as well. Mia heard them kissing and giggling by the door, and then there was silence. Almost immediately afterwards, Jessie came into her room.

“So,” said Mia, smiling at her roommate, “I take it things are going well with Edgar?”

Jessie gave her a huge grin. “They are going very well. He’s just so nice, and so fun, and so cute . . .”

Mia laughed and said, “I’m glad for you. You deserve a good guy like that.”

“That I do,” said Jessie without any false modesty, still grinning. And then her expression abruptly became serious. “And so do you, Mia –”

Uh-oh, thought Mia. Here comes the lecture.

“– and you’re clearly not getting it.”

“Jessie, please, let’s not beat a dead horse –”

“A dead horse? I’d like to beat up a certain K!” Jessie took a deep breath, clearly riled on Mia’s behalf. “Peter is such a nice guy, and he seems to really like you – to come all the way here like this after everything that happened . . . and you’re stuck with that monster!”

Mia rubbed the back of her neck to get rid of some tension there. “Jessie, please stop worrying about my relationship . . . everything will get resolved in its own time –”

“Speaking of getting things resolved, did you talk to him about the summer?”

Mia bit her lip. She hated lying to Jessie, and she so badly wanted to talk to someone about the whole maddening mess. If John was right about the Keiths’ timing, her trip to Florida would be merely delayed – and not even by all that much. Of course, that assumed she would still be alive at the time. Mia decided on a slightly edited version of the truth.

“I have,” she said slowly.

“And?”

“And we agreed that I’ll go later in the summer, and do an internship here in New York instead.”

Jessie stared at her in shock. “What internship?”

“I’m not sure yet. Korum promised to find me something in my field.”

“Oh my God, he’s not letting you go, is he?” Jessie looked completely horrified.

“Not exactly,” admitted Mia. “He did say, though, that we’ll go to Florida together once his business in New York is done.”

“Together? What, he’s going to meet your family?” The expression on Jessie’s face was utterly incredulous.

“I have no idea,” said Mia, and she really didn’t. She hadn’t had a chance to think about it, with everything that had gone on – but she couldn’t imagine her normal down-to-earth family interacting calmly with her alien lover. “We didn’t get as far as discussing the particulars –”

“That bastard! I can’t believe he’s doing it to you! No wonder you’re helping the Resistance – you probably hate his guts.”

Mia couldn’t believe her ears. “What? What did you just say?”

“Oh come on, Mia,” said Jessie calmly. “I’m not an idiot. I can put two and two together. John was waiting for you here in the apartment even before you showed up. Clearly, he knew you were coming. You’re communicating with them, aren’t you?”

Damn it. Sometimes Mia forgot just how astute her pretty, bubbly roommate could be. Denying it any longer would be pointless, but Jessie could not know the extent of Mia’s involvement – it would be much too dangerous for both of them.

Mia gave her a piercing look. “Jessie, listen to me, don’t ever say something like that – and don’t ever talk about it with anyone, not even Edgar. Do you promise me?”

Jessie nodded, her eyes narrowed. “I would never say anything. When Edgar asked me if you and John were dating, I just said that he was an old friend of your family’s.”

“That’s good,” said Mia with relief. Then she added, “Look, I am not doing anything too crazy, I promise. John just asked me to keep an eye on Korum’s activities and report to him occasionally. That’s all I was doing today. Korum met a couple of other Ks recently, and I just wanted to tell John about it. Turns out he already knew, so it really wasn’t a big deal.” Mia had no idea where she had learned to lie so smoothly.

“Not a big deal? Mia . . . you’re dealing with an extraterrestrial who has no regard for human life. You saw what he did to Peter – and that was just for dancing with you! If he catches you spying, he would kill you for sure! Of course, it’s a big deal!” Jessie blew out a frustrated breath.

There was nothing Mia could really say to that, so she just shrugged.

“And it’s all my fault for blabbing about you to Jason! I can’t believe those bastards decided to use you like that.”

Mia rubbed her neck again. “They just saw an opportunity and decided to use it. It doesn’t really change my situation. I’m still with Korum, whether or not I’m spying on him. So I might as well try to help out, you know?”

Jessie gave her a frustrated look. “I can’t believe all this shit is happening to you. You’re the most by-the-book person I know . . . and you end up sleeping with a K and spying on him.”

Mia sighed heavily. “I know. I’m so screwed, Jessie – and not just in a good way.”

A small smile broke out on Jessie’s face, and she shook her head in reproach. “Mia . . .”

Mia grinned at her. “I know, I know, that was pretty bad.”

“Not James Bond caliber, that’s for sure.” And Jessie grinned back.



* * *



That evening, Korum got home around eight o’clock. Mia was already back at his place and frantically working on her paper.

He entered her study room and came up to kiss her. “Hey there, looks like somebody is hard at work,” he teased, brushing his lips briefly against her cheek.

Mia gave him a little frown. “Yeah, I have to finish this paper tonight. I have this and my Child Psychology paper due Thursday, and I’m not done with even one of them.”

“Sounds terrible,” Korum said, the slight curve of his lips giving away his amusement.

“It is!” said Mia, her frown getting worse. Couldn’t he see she was stressed? He didn’t have to laugh at her just because her worries seemed minor to him.

“Do you want some help with it?” he asked, causing Mia to give him an incredulous look.

“Help with my papers?” Was he serious?

“Isn’t that what you’re stressing about?” He didn’t look like he was joking.

“Uh . . .” Mia was speechless. Finally finding her tongue, she mumbled, “That’s okay, thanks . . . I should be able to handle it.”

Stifling a grin, she imagined turning in a paper on the effects of environmental factors in early childhood development – written from the perspective of a two-thousand-year-old extraterrestrial. The look on Professor Dunkin’s face would be priceless.

“I can write in English, you know,” said Korum, apparently offended by her reluctance.

Mia smiled with some condescension. “Of course you can.” This was the strangest conversation ever. “But there’s more to writing an academic paper than just knowing the language. You have to have read all these books and attended the lectures . . .” She gestured toward the big pile of paper books sitting at the corner of her desk.

“So,” said Korum, shrugging nonchalantly, “I can read the books right now.”

Mia gave him a dumbfounded look. “There’s about ten of them . . .” She swallowed to get rid of the sudden dryness in her throat. “H-How fast do you read?”

“Pretty fast,” he said. “I also have what you would call a photographic memory, so I don’t need to read the material more than once.”

Mia stared at him in shock. “So you can read all these books in a matter of hours?”

He nodded. “I would probably need about two hours to finish them all.”

That was incredible. “Is that normal for your kind?” Mia asked, still digesting that shocking tidbit.

“Some of us have that ability naturally, while others choose to enhance it with technology to keep up. I was born this way.”

Mia could feel her heart rate picking up. She’d known that he was very smart, of course, and John had told her that Korum was one of the best designers among the K. She just hadn’t expected him to have what amounted to superhuman intelligence.

“I probably seem really stupid to you then,” Mia said quietly, “given how long it takes me to do all this –”

He sighed. “No, Mia, of course not. Just because you’re lacking certain abilities doesn’t mean you’re not smart.”

Yeah, right. “What else can you do?” asked Mia, realizing how little she still knew about her alien lover.

He shrugged. “I can probably do some math in my head that you would need a calculator for.”

This was fascinating and scary at the same time. “What’s 10,456 times 6,345?” she asked, simultaneously reaching for her phone to check the answer.

“66,343,320.”

That was exactly right. And he’d given her the answer before she even had time to input the numbers into the calculator on her phone. Mia swallowed again.

“So do you want my help with the paper or not?” Korum was beginning to look impatient.

Mia shook her head. “Uh, no – that’s all right, thanks. I’m sure you could write a great paper – probably better than me – but I still have to do this myself.”

“Okay, sure, whatever you want,” he said, shaking his head at her stubbornness. “Are you hungry? Do you want me to make something?”

Mia had snacked throughout the day, so she wasn’t starving. “I don’t know,” she said tentatively. “I don’t think I have time for a sit-down meal today.” She looked up at him, hoping that he would understand.

“Of course,” he said, “I’ll bring you something to eat here.” Giving her a quick smile, he left the room.

Mia stared at the door in frustration. Why did he have to be so nice to her today? It would be so much easier if he treated her with cruelty or indifference. The guilt burning her up inside made no sense; she knew she was doing the right thing by helping the Resistance. The Ks had invaded their planet, not the other way around; liberating her species should not make her feel like this – like she was betraying someone she cared about.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to focus back on the paper. It was an impossible task. Her thoughts kept wandering, jumping from one unpleasant topic to another. Had she set in motion something that would result in the loss of thousands of lives? And would Korum be one of the casualties? It still didn’t seem entirely real to her, the potential impact of her actions.

Korum came back a few minutes later. He had made some kind of sushi-like rolls with crunchy lettuce and peppers and an apple-walnut dish for dessert.

Mia thanked him and gladly dug in, finding that she was quite hungry after all.

He smiled at her and bent down to kiss her forehead. “Enjoy. I’ll be next door if you need me.”

And then he left, letting her work on her papers – and battle her own dark thoughts.