Maggie's Story (Intergalactic Matchmaking Services) by Ava Louise Page B

were a little larger than a human’s eyes. He held his hand out to shake hers. It was automatic to shake his hand. As she did, she noticed he had large hands. His handshake was surprisingly gentle. Well, I was right…there are no little green men; but there are definitely big green men , she thought to herself.
    “It is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Cline. Claire has told me a lot about you. May I introduce the Starrays’ Security Chief, Daxon of the Flame clan?” He indicated the individual standing directly behind him. As he did, this person also removed his hood.
    Maggie gasped as she took in this new person. She found him to be quite beautiful with his light blue and light green mottled skin. Again, the colors joined seamlessly, fading from one to the other.  He, too, wore a black tattoo wrapped around his head. The markings looked like stylized flames. His eyes were a dark blue, allowing Maggie to notice that his pupils were vertical, like a cat’s. The effect was quite startling. The Security Chief was almost a foot taller than Maggie at about six and a half feet in height. His nose was a bit broad and somewhat flat. She could see his nostrils flaring as he breathed. He didn’t say anything, just nodded his head in her direction. Maggie felt like she had been zapped with an electrical charge; she was speechless.
    “ Mrawr ,” came Mamzell’s voice from the bedroom doorway.
    “Aha, this must be the pet Claire told us about, is it not?” asked the ambassador. He spoke so formally it reminded Maggie of older British movies she sometimes watched.
    “Yes, this is my cat, Mamzell. She doesn’t normally come out around guests.”
    At this time Mamzell sauntered out of the hallway and went directly to the security chief, wrapping herself around his ankles, rubbing along his pants legs. As he picked up his foot, Maggie called out, “Don’t kick her! She is only checking you out. She doesn’t normally go up to strangers, so I’m surprised.”
    “I wasn’t going to kick her, I was just going to try to get her off of me. She is leaving her hair on my clothing,” said Daxon. His gravelly voice brought to mind Sean Connery; deep, rich, and a bit of a brogue.
    “Well, cats shed a little. It won’t hurt you or your uniform. Come here, Mamzell, let’s put you back in the bedroom for now.”
    “ Mrawr ,” answered the cat. She really didn’t want to leave Daxon’s legs, though. Maggie had to resort to scooping her up, walking her into the bedroom and placing her in the middle of the bed. Maggie left her a couple of cat treats as a bribe.
    “You stay in here; I’ll let you out once our company has left,” Maggie said, as she closed the bedroom door.
    The two Nordonians looked at each other, each raising an eyebrow in query. “I didn’t realize cats were sentient beings, Claire. Ms. Cline talks to her pet as though it understands her. Do all humans talk to their pets like this? And do the pets understand them in return?” asked Ambassador Pacer.
    Maggie had walked back into the room during this question and laughed out loud. “I talk to my cat all the time. And while we don’t understand each other like you and I would understand each other when we talk, I do know what she wants usually when we ‘ talk’ . Think of it more like a mother being able to understand the different cries of a child.”
    “Ah, that makes sense then. I was afraid my research had been severely lacking. Ms. O’Donnell said you would not consider relocating without your pet, so we had to do some research on what exactly humans considered pets and how they dealt with them.”
    Just like that Maggie was reminded she was talking to aliens. Real life aliens. How could she forget why these two exotic-looking males were in her home?
    “You don’t need to worry about that, Ambassador, I have no intention of leaving Earth to live with aliens. I think this has been one big mistake. I’m not interested in being used as a breeding machine