Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
“You’re familiar with these?” Zane asked.
“Definitely.”
A song began to play, and it was familiar but the tempo seemed slower than it should be. It nagged at me as I listened and tried to figure out what song it was. I turned the volume up.
“Dance with me, Tanya.” He held his hand out.
I moved to him and took one hand, putting the other on his bare chest. His arms went around my waist and then I knew what I was listening to. We began to move to Stars by Simply Red. It was definitely a slower tempo than it was supposed to be on the circa 1980s ghetto blaster but not so slow that it sounded weird.
“You can dance,” I told him.
“Is that surprising?”
“Did you guys dance before… four years ago?”
“Sure. This music is a little strange, but I like the lyrics.” He smiled.
The chorus was giving me goosebumps.
“Kind of ironic, some of these lyrics," I whispered.
“Mm hm.” He pulled me closer and I felt him smile against my forehead. He planted a kiss there.
He really did know how to dance. We were swaying in slow circles and it was bordering on Dirty Dancing style, the way his hips moved, how his hands moved up and down my hips, over my back, caressed my arms as I tried to follow his smooth footsteps around in slow rotations.
He looked down into my eyes. “Except all the hurting parts. I guess it’s not a perfect song after all.”
“A lot of our songs are about pain and hurt.”
“Hm. Not here.”
“No?”
“Music on Phallyx is celebratory.”
“It is where I’m from too at times. It’s an expression of emotion. Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good.”
The music strangely cut out at that point.
We stopped and looked at the ghetto blaster.
“Batteries died?” I asked.
“Must be. It was nice dancing with you though, Tanya.”
“It was,” I said softly. We were still holding one another, though standing still.
“Would you like to watch a film?"
Damn. This meant less body contact.
“Um, sure. How about we watch your very favorite Phallyx movie?”
He scrunched his nose up a little. “I was hoping you’d choose an Earth one. Elaina Blackstar gave me a list of must-watch films. I’ve saved the list she recited on my communications device. Here; let me read it to you. Tell me if you know any of them, or which one you’d like to watch.”
He sat down on the comfy-looking chocolate brown velvety sofa. I sat beside him and looked at the strange symbols on his screen.
“Earth Girls are Easy," he read.
I snorted.
“Space Balls…”
“Oh God, no.”
“Men in Black?”
“That’s actually not a bad one.”
“Coneheads?”
I snickered. “Definitely not. Not a great look into Earth culture, though a funny look at our take on aliens. What else?”
“Muppets in Space. Killer Clowns with a K from Outer Space. Howard the Duck. Abbott and Costello Go to Mars.”
“Um, she totally punk’d you.”
“Punked?” He put his device down, smiling.
“Yep. She played a joke.”
“I suspected by a few of those titles. How about that first one about Earth girls. What’s it about?”
“I haven’t seen Earth Girls are Easy, so I don’t actually know, but she gave you a list of mostly shitty movies. Most of those were slapstick comedy, movies that poke fun at the science fiction ‘space’ genre.”
“That sounds like something she’d do.” He smirked.
“You’re fond of her?” I asked.
“She’s a great girl. I think you’ll like her.”
“Will I get a chance to meet her?”
“Definitely,” Zane said. “I’m close with Quid, though not as close as I am with Daxx, but Quid and Elaina live in the city, just the other side of the mountains we see from the bedroom and the terraces so it’s a fast trip. Quid and I regularly compete either together or against one another at the sports club. I think you’d like her quite a lot.”
“Yay. Friends. So, what should we watch then?”
“Let’s check out this ‘Earth Girls are Easy’.”
“Do you understand the meaning behind that?”
He shook his head.
“It’s a joke making it seem like Earth girls are easy to convince to have… uh… sex with.”
He threw his head back and laughed.
“Then we very much need to watch it.”
He then lifted the larger home automation tablet from the table and touched the screen, bringing it to life with the same symbol that was on the roof of Zane’s house as well as his office building and then was tapping away inside an app that appeared to be a search engine. I didn’t recognize any of the symbols, so being leaned close to see what he was doing had no point to it except the point – being as close to him as I could get.
The movie poster appeared on his screen with a bunch of symbols below it.
“Certain you don’t want something to drink? Another milkshake?”
“Just water, I guess.”
He ordered me some on the tablet as the screen on the wall came to life. And just as Zane passed me a glass of water and reclined our seat, and put his arm around me, cuddling me close, a bunch of symbols came up on his tablet. He lifted it and examined it.