“Yeah, we can sure tell you work in accounting!” Sonja exclaimed.
Clear shrugged his broad shoulders.
“I’m just trying to make sense out of your Earth legends, that’s all.”
“You don’t have to make sense out of them,” Melanie told him gently. “You just accept them. That’s part of the Christmas magic.”
“And it’s also magical to give presents to our coworkers?” Clear said, frowning. “Not that I mind, but how can I tell what to get them?”
“You get them something you think they’d like,” Melanie said. “Or something they need—something practical.”
“But what if I don’t know what they need?” Clear gave her a pleading look. “This is my first year aboard the Mother Ship and we don’t celebrate this particular holiday on Twin Moons. I’m very confused.” He brightened. “Which is why I was thinking that if you two tell me who you got for the Secret Satan—”
“Secret Santa,” Sonja exclaimed and snorted laughter again.
“Right—the Secret Santa gift giving event, then I could begin to understand what kind of present I should get the coworker whose name I drew in the drawing.”
“Not telling you!” Sonja giggled behind her cupped hand. “It’s secret, Clear!”
“That is kind of why they call it ‘Secret Santa,’” Melanie told him apologetically. “I tell you what—just try to get to know the person whose name you drew and you’ll figure out what to get him or her.”
Clear nodded, though he still looked troubled.
“Thank you. I’ll try.” He sighed. “Maybe my brother, Feels Strongly, will have some suggestions.”
“That would be your Dark Twin, right?” Melanie asked.
He nodded.
“Strong often has better insight into humans than I do—he’s a doctor at the Med Center so he sees lots of human patients.”
He started to go, but Melanie called him back impulsively.
“Clear, wait. I’m actually really glad you’re here,” she said. “I need your help.”
“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow and turned back towards her. “What can I do for you?”
“I was hoping I could get your expert opinion on this vid spot about Twin Kindred that I’m working on,” she said.
“Well, I don’t know about being an ‘expert’ but I’ll be glad to help any way I can.” Clear smiled and pulled up a chair beside her, squeezing into her cubical with her.
Melanie couldn’t help feeling how close he was. Her cubical, which had always seemed so roomy to her, now felt a bit cramped—probably because the Light Twin was so big.
He must be six foot seven or eight if he’s an inch, Melanie thought to herself. And so muscular…
God, she wished he wasn’t so handsome! He smelled good too—a warm clean scent that seemed to be his natural smell. She reminded herself to be extra professional. She didn’t want to make a fool of herself—her much younger coworker would never go for someone like her. Someone who was closer to forty than thirty and who had nothing but a failed marriage to show for the last fifteen years of her life.
That’s not true! she scolded herself. You’ve got a lot going for you, Melanie. You’ve had a very successful career and sooner or later you’ll meet the right guy—a nice older man—and everything will just click. You might even meet him in time to still have kids, if you’re lucky.
The only problem was, most of the Kindred warriors her age all seemed to be married. And since the Kindred didn’t do divorce, there were no divorcees around. There weren’t even any widowers. Kindred medical technology could cure almost any illness and in the rare case where a wife was killed in an accident, the Kindred soul bond was so strong that her husband often didn’t survive her for long. They literally died of a broken heart.
Not that Melanie wished for accidental deaths or divorces or awful things like that on anyone. But the fact that there were none, just meant that the only available men up here on the Mother Ship were warriors who were much too young for her.
Warriors like Clear.
“So what did you want my opinion on?” he rumbled, leaning towards her holo-screen, his broad shoulder brushing hers.
“Oh, well…” Melanie cleared her throat and tried to compose her thoughts. “I’ve been working on this marketing vid to try and explain Twin Kindred to the people on Earth who have never met any. And to try and explain why, er…” She cleared her throat. “Why two of them need to share one woman.”
She could feel her cheeks getting hot as she spoke, but she tried to stay professional.
“The idea of two males sharing a female—this is a problem for humans?” Clear asked, frowning and raising an eyebrow.
“Unfortunately, in a lot of cultures, yes,” Melanie told him. “In plenty of places polygamy is condoned if it’s a man having more than one wife. But a woman having more than one husband is really frowned on.”
“But why?” He looked honestly confused. “Why shouldn’t a female have two mates to serve and protect and pleasure her? I would think that anyone could see the benefits.”
“Well, I’m sure a lot of women could,” Melanie said, trying to keep from blushing, when she thought about the “pleasuring” part of his argument. “But the Earth is still a pretty misogynistic place where lots of men don’t think women should get the same benefits they do. Also, there are a lot of religions that only condone one man and one woman in a marriage.”
“We are religious too,” Clear protested. “We worship the Goddess and she is the one who made us like this—who gave Twin Kindred the need to share a female.”
“Well, that’s part of what I’m trying to explain in this vid,” Melanie said, nodding. “Here—watch,” she told Clear and touched a button on her holo-keyboard.
The screen at once began projecting the images she’d been putting together. First it showed a human woman around twenty-five walking alone on a beach and a voice said,
“Loneliness can be awful. Looking for the right person to spend your life with and not finding them can be devastating. But did you know that some people can be lonely even when they’re with their closest friend?”
The scene changed to show two Twin Kindred—a Dark Twin and Light Twin, strolling along the same beach.
“Twin Kindred are more than just brothers. They stay together all their lives and are born with the biological need to share a mate,” the narrator went on. “When they find the right woman, they want to bond with her for life.”
The two twins and the woman saw each other and ran together, embracing in a big, three-way hug.
“There’s nothing wrong or unnatural about their relationship,” the narrator said. “It’s just the way things work on their planet of Twin Moons.”
“Wait—” Clear held up a hand and Melanie saw that his face had gone pale. She paused the video to let him talk.
“The humans really think we are ‘wrong’ and ‘unnatural?’” he asked, looking so genuinely distressed that she instantly felt bad.