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“I blame Pro. She was the daredevil.”

“Oh, and you never were any trouble, sneaking out the window to meet boys.” Carol rolled her eyes.

Nadzia stuck her tongue out. Carol laughed as she got up.

“You girls are a blessing, boys, stunts, haircuts, aliens and all.” Her mother kissed her forehead. “Don’t stay here too late.”

“Okay. Love you, Mom,” she said as Carol left then looked at her dad. “Well, Pops, my luck with men still sucks but Bethany’s gotten much better at haircuts.”

She was about to pour some of the fruity wine into one of the cups she brought, then shrugged and took a drink straight from the pitcher.

“Maybe you should’ve run Todd off,” she commented to her dad, then took another big swig from the large tankard.

Nadzia frowned as she thought about the bastard she was almost engaged to.

“I’m so sorry I was depressed that my sister went missing,” she snapped at the ex-boyfriend who wasn’t there.

It’d been six months since she learned just how much of a fucker Todd truly was.She’d gotten off early at the bar and headed to his apartment. She stuck her key into the door and walked right in, wondering if Todd had already eaten and wanted to order pizza. They’d been talking about getting married and he was going to move in with her, so his place was a wreck, half-packed boxes all over. Her gaze landed on a pair of girl’s jeans and panties laying in the middle of the floor and she froze. The high-pitched giggle down the hall confirmed her worst fear. She marched down the hall and threw open the bedroom door.

“What the fuck is this?” she growled.

The bimbo looked suddenly stunned, then hid under the sheets. Todd popped up from his muff diving expedition and scrambled to get out from under the covers. She couldn’t bear seeing him, afraid of what she might do, and stormed back down the hall.

“Hope, wait!” he hollered. “I’m sorry. You’ve been doing nothing but working and have been so moody. I got lonely. I have needs.”

She stopped dead in her tracks and spun around. “Oh, I’m sorry my sister’s plane going down in the ocean, and the havoc it’s wreaking on my family have been inconvenient for you. I’m so very, very sorry I’ve been less than pleasant and haven’t been servicing you as much as you’d like!” she shouted, eyeing the cheating bastard who hadn’t even bothered to cover his semi-hard flopping dick.

“It’s been months.” He moved closer and she could clearly see the glazing around his mouth from another woman’s pussy. It made her gag.

“You know what, Todd, you’re right. This is what I get for picking up men at the bar I work in.”

That part, sadly, was true. Nadzia took another big gulp of the alien wine. She worked a lot and flirted her ass off for tips to cover the bills. That didn’t leave much time to meet men who did more than hang out at bars in their free time. Of all the winners she’d met, she’d been with Todd the longest, nearly two years. He was gainfully employed, didn’t drink all the time and seemed to have half a brain in his head.

“Obviously I was wrong,” she mumbled.

Her thoughts drifted to Aculus and she rolled her eyes. The exotic man made her smile, but was a total playboy. He couldn’t even deny it.

“Why do I attract this type of man?” she asked her sleeping father and took another swig of booze. “I meet an alien, afuckingalien, and even he’s boinking every skirt he can catch.Christ on a cracker!”

She frowned. The antagonistic silly banter that had made her smile and took her mind off how crazy things were, now frustrated her after the revealing conversation in the mess hall. She drank more as she replayed what was said. There was a lot of truth in what she’d told him about being more than her lady bits. She had hopes and dreams and wanted to be more than a warm body in a long string of random conquests, whether it was with a guy back home or elsewhere in the vast universe.

Nadzia polished off the carafe as she stewed about her less than stellar love life, and her life in general. She was only supposed to work at the bar long enough to make money for school, but a few years turned into nearly a decade in the blink of an eye.

“Ugh,” she abruptly stood, aggravated with everything.

Now is not the time to evaluate my life. What am I really going to do a million miles from home? Get more booze. That’s what I’m going to do.

She wandered out of the clinic, heading back toward the mess hall.

“Stupid men. We’re not objects.” She scowled. “I should give that bonehead a piece of my mind.”

She stopped in her tracks. That was actually a pretty good idea.

No, it’s an exceptional idea.

She traipsed over to one of the fancy control panels and slapped her hand on it.

“Show me where Aculus is,” she instructed the computer.