We hugged. Her ears jangled with an assortment of jewels she couldn't leave her home without. Her fair hair was in its usual twist. Her maroon fur coat draped behind her as she stepped inside.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. "Does father know? Mother?"

"Of course not," she said, leaning back and taking off her satin gloves. She must have gone shopping at the mall.

"Where is he?" she asked, darting her eyes about the small confinements of my apartment.

"You mean Cale?"

"Ha, named just as stupendously idiotic."

"Mrs. Rhine." Cale entered, hands behind his back, smile tight.

"Don't Mrs Rhine me, you...you..."

"Allow me to take your coat." He went to help her out of it. He glanced at how the top of my cami had slipped to one side, exposing too much cleavage. I blushed and dived into my room and threw on a dressing gown. It was satin and still short, but at least I had back some modesty. What was I thinking prancing around like that?

You want Cale to pay you some attention, my mind quarreled back.

When I returned to the living room, Cale was serving Grandma Pern some coffee. She had grabbed his arm and was squeezing a firm bicep.

I coughed, but she didn't detach herself. He had worked his magic on her, too.

"Grandma Perrn, it's too dangerous for you here. We have to get you back," I argued.

She peeled her eyes from Cale and acknowledged I was present. "Well that's why I'm here," she said after a sip of her coffee and wincing. "I'm here to tell you that your father wants you back home."

"What?"

"It's for the best. Perhaps there's nothing much we can do for our fellow humans here," she added.

"It's not like you to be so pessimistic." I frowned.

"Pessimistic, realistic, they usually go hand in hand, my dear."

I huffed. I wasn't giving up that easily. We hadn't even come up with a plan. We hadn't tried to communicate with our 'fellow' humans yet.

"Maybe you should go home for a while," Cale said to me. "At least until we have something figured out."

He sat on the couch, his hands linked in front of him. His soft brown eyes with their hint of green reminded me of a lost doe. My knees quaked. I had to look and away and grab my bearings. They were definitely swinging in unlawful territory.

"Right, well I'll pack a few things and get a friend to look after Jeddi." It wasn't like I needed my clothes where I was going. Serian had its own fashion sense, mostly the kind I didn't like. They were too short and revealing. I preferred to leave something to the imagination, but I would still be seen as a lower class human if I bore a resemblance to the humans here. We may have wanted to save them, but in the eyes of everyone back home they were still a deficient.

I glanced at the pull of Cale's eyes and ran for my room before my knees buckled and gave away how I was really feeling. He was married, and not to me.

He could never be mine, even if he wanted to be. Serian people didn't divorce. Ever. It was frowned upon, illegal, punishable with death.

Again, I was to be the sore loser.