Page 2

“You got a hit, and I didn’t?” Her sister’s jaw dropped.

Didn’t see that one coming, huh? “I’m sorry?” Kismet hunched her shoulders. Joining Cosmic Mates had been Karma’s idea, not hers.

They both longed for true love, a happy marriage, and a couple of kids, but their prospects dimmed with every passing day.

Single men close to their age—thirty-two—were either gay or unmarried for very good reasons.

However, while the pool of marriageable men on Earth had dried up, marrying a stranger, an alien, still seemed too extreme a solution.

What if they both met mates, but the men lived on different planets? What then? She and her twin sister hadn’t spent more than a few days apart in their entire lives. They did everything together.

For that reason, she had been dead set against Cosmic Mates. But Karma had been so gung-ho, Kismet reluctantly joined, too, hoping they’d at least meet men who lived on the same planet.

“The universe has a plan. We have been led to Cosmic Mates. We need to put our request out there, and the universe will provide,” her sister had argued.

Which sounded like supernatural doubletalk.

If the universe already had a plan, what good would putting in a request do?

Pointing that out hadn’t deterred her sister.

Karma took after their spiritual mother, Destiny, who’d cobbled a personal faith from a variety of sources: Buddhism, Christianity, Wicca, astrology—whatever lit her candle.

When Destiny sought answers to life’s questions, she meditated, prayed to Jesus and the Triple Goddess, cast a spell for wisdom and deliverance, and consulted her horoscope. She left no crystal unturned.

Which also contributed to Kismet’s reluctance to join Cosmic Mates—she might never see their beloved mother again.

“I’m happy for you, but I wonder why you got picked, and I didn’t,” Karma mused. “We look alike. Why you, and not me? Not that I’m not happy for you.”

They looked enough alike to confuse people, but although genetically identical, they were mirror-image twins. Kismet was right-handed; her twin was a southpaw. Her smile skewed a little to the right, Karma’s to the left.

“You sound a little jealous,” Kismet said.

“I’ll let you know if I’m jealous after I see the guy. Show me his picture!”

She woke up her multipurpose communication device with a tap. A somber alien man with a head of thick blue hair, pointed ears, and three blue stripes across his nose and cheeks appeared.

“Nope. Not jealous.”

“What do you mean? He’s handsome!”

Her sister peered at the screen. “Jaryk Rullok-Myka of Kaldor doesn’t look happy. He’s not even smiling! He looks like a real wet blanket. Not fun at all. No, he’s not the one for you!” Karma dismissed him with a flip of her curly brunette hair.

“Why do you say that?” she asked, irked by the sudden judgment. “Because he’s not smiling? You didn’t read his profile.”

“I can tell. It’s a feeling.”

A feeling. One of those. She caught herself before she rolled her eyes.

“The universe—”

“Oh, the universe.” Her anything-goes twin was normally very open-minded, although she tended to rely on imaginary omens a wee bit too much.

“Okay, you want facts ? He’s too serious, too stern.”

“Those aren’t facts; they’re your opinion,” she retorted, although she’d gotten the same impression.

However, his solemnity appealed to her. Marriage, after all, was serious business and should be approached accordingly.

She much preferred someone thoughtful and reserved over a person who would join Cosmic Mates on a lark. “He’s very handsome,” she said again.

“Since when do looks matter to you?”

True, she cared more about a man’s character, but it didn’t hurt that he was drop-dead gorgeous.

“He’s thirty-four. He’s a government official with Kaldor,” she read from his profile.

“It says his interests are horticulture, learning the ancient Kaldoran language, fostering interplanetary diplomacy, reading, journaling, and engaging in philosophical debate.”

Karma fake-snored.

“What do you mean? I like to read, journal, and I’ve been learning Latin.” She also enjoyed a rousing debate with people who made reasoned arguments. Their interests dovetailed rather nicely. She worked in government, too—albeit she was just a supervisor at the Department of Public Safety.

“Exactly! You need someone unlike you—someone fun and adventurous who will expand your world.”

“I’ll ignore the fact you just called me boring because sometimes your mouth runs ahead of your brain. But, for the sake of argument, wouldn’t marrying an alien and moving to another planet open up my world ?”

“Yes, if he’s the right one for you. He’s not. You’d better pass on this one.”

This one? Like there’d been others. In the month since they’d joined Cosmic Mates, Jaryk was the only man who’d expressed an interest. They’d had the option of letting Cosmic Mates select a match for them, but they’d drawn a hard line at that.

They’d preferred to have some say-so as to who they married.

Not that she’d reached out to anybody herself. The truth was, she didn’t want to do this, and she’d kind of counted on her fickle sister losing interest so they could un join and get on with their regularly scheduled lives.

Oddly, she’d started to feel a little hurt by the lack of interest until Cosmic Mates notified her she had a match.

“Besides,” her sister continued, “if you move to Kaldor, I may never see you again.”

“That just occurred to you now? It’s been an issue from the beginning.”

“It’s no longer a hypothetical; it’s real.”

“Well, you’re in luck.” She grinned. “It says here I’m welcome to bring along my personal handmaid if I wish. You could be my servant. Do my hair, set out my clothes, pick up after me.”

They both laughed. Karma hardly picked up after herself.

People called them the Odd Couple Twins; Kismet was a neat freak, while her twin could turn a room into a disaster zone in minutes. Out of economic necessity and sisterly love, they rented an apartment together. Karma tried to rein in her messiness, but mostly her untidiness drove Kismet nuts.

“Seriously, Kis. You ought to pass on this one. Trust me. He’s not right for you. Give it some time. Don’t do anything crazy, okay?”

Crazier than joining Cosmic Mates in the first place? Kismet rarely made a decision without a pro-and-con list. She lived by the motto, “Sleep on it.”

Her sister regarded her with concern. “Please? I have a feeling about this.”

She didn’t give much credence to her sister’s feelings . She had once analyzed her twin’s intuitive hunches , keeping track of the premonitions and the outcomes over a span of several months. The predictions had a 50/50 accuracy rate. Flipping a coin would have worked just as well.

However, the love and concern for her welfare were genuine. “Don’t worry. I won’t do anything drastic.”

“Phew!” Karma hugged her. “Don’t worry. Prince Charming will come. I’m going to the store. Do you need anything?”

“Can’t think of anything.”

Alone, Kismet studied the alien’s profile.

He is handsome. Those ears are so cute. So what if he didn’t smile?

Maybe, like her, he was shy and reserved.

Some people went around grinning all the time; she didn’t smile unless something pleased or amused her.

Besides—it could be a cultural thing. Maybe Kaldorans didn’t smile for photos.

She toggled over to her account and clicked on the message icon to reread Jaryk’s transmittal.

She’d intended to share the note with her sister, but the unexpected disapproval had floored her, and she’d forgotten about it.

If she was a gambler, she would have bet the house her sister would push her to accept the marriage offer.

The fact she’d done the opposite had motivated Kismet to give it more consideration.

Greetings, Kismet Kennedy,

It would be my great pleasure to make your acquaintanceship and discuss marriage.

I confess I don’t know how to introduce myself.

I’ve never contemplated anything as audacious as an arranged marriage through a matchmaking service, but I have been unable to achieve my heart’s desire on my own.

I do not wish to settle for anything less than true love. Is it the same for you?

A provisional marriage through Cosmic Mates offers us a chance to shape our future and fates.

We already seem to enjoy similar interests, and your attractive appearance pleases me.

Many couples have married with less. Please view my profile.

If you are similarly pleased with me, perhaps we could wed.

Stranger things have happened than strangers becoming friends and then finding true love.

Ever hopeful,

Jaryk

He seemed to echo her own yearning for love. She’d been unable to achieve her heart’s desire on her own. They shared common interests. And his appearance did indeed please her.

Before she lost her nerve, she replied.

Dear Jaryk,

I would be very happy to discuss next steps with you. I have noted we seem to share similar interests, despite coming from different planets. Your physical appearance is pleasing to me as well.

It seemed shallow to talk about appearance, but physical compatibility could not be taken for granted. She couldn’t marry an alien who resembled a giant insect or a jellyfish. She’d seen several of them as she’d scrolled through the profiles.

Marriage is a bold step, but I am ready to take the leap. Please advise how you would wish to proceed. FYI, I am hoping I can convince my handmaid to accompany me.

Hopeful too,

Kismet

Hopefully , her sister wouldn’t be too upset with her. She had promised not to do anything drastic. However, this wasn’t drastic; she was following the plan—Karma’s plan. This whole thing had been her idea.

While the twins looked alike, and they loved each other unconditionally, they were polar opposites in personality and likes and dislikes. Time after time, when Karma hated something, Kismet loved it. So, if her twin deemed Jaryk a bad choice, then he must be a good one.

* * * *

She’s going to accept him! Grinning, Karma leaned against the closed apartment door and polished her fingernails against her shirt. Worked like a charm! My work here is done.

She’d been monitoring her sister’s Cosmic Mates profile, deleting the undesirables before her sister saw them. They’d both gotten a lot of proposals from incompatible aliens. She didn’t want her reluctant, wary sister to become discouraged and cynical before the right offer came around.

The instant she’d seen Jaryk’s profile, a zing of prescience had shot through her.

He’s the one for Kismet. She’d never been more certain of anything in her life.

Feigning ignorance, she’d waited with bated breath for her sister to log on to the Cosmic Mates site and discover the match and then tell her about it!

She had to get her cautious, skeptical sister to take a leap of faith.

For at least a year, the universe had been signaling her twin would meet her soulmate. The instant Karma heard about Cosmic Mates, she knew that was the conduit to her sister’s happiness. A reading of the tea leaves confirmed it. The universe helped those who took action!

But the only way to get her stubborn, pragmatic, uber-grounded twin to join the interplanetary matchmaking service was to do it with her.

Discouraged by her history of broken relationships, Karma had put her own search for love on hold, deleting her proposals without looking at them.

She had to settle herself and get grounded.

Dating too much, she’d been sending out a desperate vibe.

She had to fix herself before she could enter a relationship.

Her contrary twin, on the other hand, had the opposite problem.

Kismet rarely went out. She couldn’t meet her soulmate if she holed up in the apartment like a hermit.

Her sister worked her dull government job all day then came home and studied a dead language online and read boring nonfiction to “improve herself.” At the very least, she should have been reading a self-help book on how to get a man.

After a couple of blind double dates, Karma could see her introverted sister did not make a good first impression. When she opened up, her twin was a lovely, warm, caring, fun person. But if drastic changes weren’t made, life and love would pass her by. Karma couldn’t let that happen!

Despite her introverted nature, her twin could be stubborn. And pragmatic to a fault. She placed no credence in the energy of the universe or intuition.

Opposites attracted but likes endured. Her sister needed someone enough like her to make her comfortable so she would come out of her shell and reveal what a wonderful person she was. Then he would fall madly in love with her.

Jaryk was perfect for her. But if Karma had said so, Kismet would have rejected him outright.

So, she’d discouraged the match. A little reverse psychology.

This alien was Kismet’s Prince Charming. The universe had provided.