Page 24 of Rooting for Kiran (The Mate-Cute #1)
KIRAN
I’m fairly certain the booming echoes of the door slamming in my mind are going to drive me crazy… Maybe I’m already there.
I can’t resist pacing back and forth from the front door to the alien section I set up that caused all of this. And all the while, I alternate between checking my phone and peeking out the door to see if Thea has returned.
Please let all of this just be some terrible nightmare.
Then I do the only thing I can think of. I call Colton. The twenty-year-old community college student has no business meddling in my life, but since he’s the one who helped me with all of this and accidentally mentioned something to Thea that even he doesn’t understand, I’m not sure who else to beg for advice.
He answers on the first ring. “Everything okay, boss man?”
“Can you come back to the greenhouse? Please?”
The line is silent, followed by the jingle of his keys, which filters through the speaker. “Be there in fifteen.”
“Drive safe,” I say before he hangs up.
True to his word, Colton strolls in exactly fifteen minutes later, his girlfriend, who I’ve only seen in pictures, in tow. My gaze bounces between the two of them as I try to figure out why he’s brought her here.
He points a thumb over his shoulder at her. “This is Magda. Her stepdad is an alien. Figured it was fine to bring her along, due to that fact alone.”
My eyebrows jump in surprise. “He is? Which subspecies?” I blink rapidly, forcing myself to focus. “I’m sorry. It’s nice to meet you, Magda. I’m Kiran. I should’ve started with that.”
Magda chuckles. “Nice to meet you. And he’s a J?mm’sa. His name is Hamal. Maybe you know him?”
I shake my head. “No. I’m sorry, I don’t.”
Colton laughs next. “Why are you sorry for not knowing someone? What the hell happened after I left?”
Hands on my hips, I stare up at the ceiling for a few seconds, mulling over the way I can say this without making him feel bad. “Um… You know how you mentioned my love plant to Thea?”
He nods, his eyebrows scrunching.
“Well, I had to tell her the truth. She got mad at me and left, and now I need your help.”
“Wait. The love plant really works? I was just kidding around with her. Oh, this is rich. Tell me everything.”
I puff out my cheeks with a sigh and then ask, “Are you guys hungry?”
Magda gives me a close-lipped smile. “We were just about to head to dinner when you called, so yes, we are starving.”
Head in my hands now, I drum my fingers on my forehead once, then drag them down my face. “I’m fucking everything up tonight.”
Both of them race over to me, standing on either side.
“Nonsense,” Magda assures me. “It’s no big deal. Let’s go figure this out, shall we?”
I lead the way to the room where the meal is waiting, and we use the containers to divvy up the food and start eating, and the only time I leave is to grab one more water and check my phone again.
Halfway through our dinner, I’ve explained the infamous “love plant” to both Magda and Colton, obviously leaving out the transformation part. Colton had no idea that there really was something to the Talahecksiya, confident that when he teased me about it, it was nothing more than a joke.
But now, we have a mess to clean up, and I’m hoping with all I have that these two, who are at a completely different place in their lives, can help me fix everything and win my mate back.
“I think the important thing to remember here, Kiran, is that there’d never really be a good time to reveal something like this to someone like Thea,” Magda says.
“Someone like Thea?” I repeat. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
“Well,” she starts. “From what you’ve told me, and what you’ve told Colton, she’s obviously a very independent woman who didn’t think she had the time for a relationship. She decides to give it a go and is basically told she’s stumbled upon her one and only by randomly visiting a greenhouse and buying a phallus plant one day?” Her eyes widen. “I think it scared her because it seems to me that she was pretty dead set on the single life.”
Colton takes Magda’s hand and nods at me. “I’d have to agree with Maggie. We have to figure out a way to give her time while also convincing her that this can be a good thing. I mean, what happens to the plant if you guys don’t end up together?”
I push my cleared carton away, my gaze flitting between the both of them. “It dies. If she refuses our bond, it will die, and I’ll never have another chance to find love again.”