Hello, my alien lovers!

I'm back to my routine, which is an unsustainable amount of things to do at once. Writing! Working in community! Hiking! Having a social life! And no time to watch my telenovelas...

During my European retreat, I made a plan to keep my writing and publishing goals on track. So far, so good, although that means sometimes having to wake up at 6 am on Friday to make sure the weekly chapter is ready to go for 10 am.

Since burnout isn't conducive to achieving goals, I'm also trying to practice radical self-care. Watching Elsbeth with my husband helps a lot. (booo! america sucks! but this show is gooood.)

Here's to Chapter 18! Salvatore is back, and this time, I don't think Maple is going to shake him off easily.

He has a mysterious SUV car. She needs to get somewhere...

Enjoy!

L. 🩷

If you're new to the story, start with Chapter 1

If you missed the last chapter, Previously on Perilous Love Stars

Maple hadn't seen Salvatore since his alienhood revelation. With everything happening, she'd almost forgotten that the star of her show was a real-life alien. 

"What are you doing here?" she demanded not so gently.

The mysterious SUV had been following her for two days. Being a sexy, secret alien superstar didn't give Salvatore a pass for stalking. Every woman's biggest fear was to have the man they had a crush on revealed to be a sociopath, something that had happened to enough of the Betteraves' women for Maple to have second-hand trauma about it. Her experience with men and dating was limited to one-night stands and friends with benefits that fizzled over time. She had too much work to care about anything else.

Salvatore crossed his muscled arms to rest on his chiselled chest. He wore a fitted, long-sleeve shirt and jeans that displayed more than Maple could handle. She was mad at him and potentially worried that he was, in fact, a stalker. The size of his junk should be of no significance right now.

"I needed to talk to you," he said.

"You have my phone number," she retorted.

"You haven't been picking up your phone."

"I've been busy."

"I wanted to make sure you were safe."

"I am safe." 

And she was… kind of?

Sure, someone was still out there trying to kill her, but now, at least, she knew the SUV wasn't hosting a potential murderer. Salvatore following her around was shady as fuck, but she didn't think he'd want to kill her. Tailing her around Sobriquet Lake didn't seem the best place to execute a murderous plan. He had other opportunities.

His eyes darkened. "I've been following you since you left the studio last night. I need to make sure you are okay. I don't think you are safe."

He needed to make sure she was okay? How presumptuous and possessive that was, but also extremely attractive. She was a grown-ass woman who could take care of herself. But he was a sexy alien superstar who needed to care for her. How many nights had she fallen asleep dreaming about that exact scenario?

Salvatore was becoming aggressively more protective. Although she wondered why–had he learned something new about the real potential killer?–she'd reflect on his overeager protective tendencies once she was on her way to find Daphne and save their show. 

"Very sweet of you, albeit a slight patriarchal. I'm fine." She motioned at the empty street and noticed Mrs. Parviere, probably alerted by the noise, glaring at them from her front porch window, a burning cigar between her lips—a familiar sight."As you can see, there's nothing to fear except for noisy neighbours. I appreciate your concerns, but I have to go. I have a plane to catch."

He grabbed her wrist, his fingers smouldering on her pale skin. "No, you're not."

She was too gobsmacked to utter anything other than, "Excuse me?"

"I can't let you go on that plane, Maple. It's too dangerous."

So many thoughts ushered in her head at once. Salvatore was so close to her that she could feel his heat. His eyes were pinning her down, his mouth, usually so quick to smirk and grin, formed a straight, severe line. He wasn't joking.

She glanced at her wrist. He let go. "Maple, please—"

"No." She moved away and brought her sword between them. "Who the fuck do you think you are?" That made him smile, which annoyed Maple so much that she grunted. "It's not funny!"

Salvatore lost his levity. "No, you're right, it's not. I need you to trust me. I believe the person who's trying to kill you is an alien."

Maple tried to hide her reaction the best she could. Another plot twist she hadn't seen coming.

"How do you know that? Do you have one of those extra senses that lets you detect other aliens?" She'd read about those during her alien studies.

He appraised her with a steady stare. "No. I asked my security friends to review the surveillance feed from yesterday morning when the sign crashed into my car. No one was near the sign. It detached by itself."

"Malfunctions happen," she said with little conviction. 

"Neither of us believes it was a malfunction."

He waited for another response, which didn't come. Maple decided that lying to Salvatore was pointless, even without his human lie-detecting powers. He was right, she didn't believe the light or the sign had been accidents.

"I believe an alien did it, just like I have powers that allowed me to stop the light from hurting you. Someone on set must have a different set of powers, too." He paused. "But they're using it against you."

It pained Maple to admit he was making some sense. Of course, there was also a chance he was lying and that he was the one behind the sign crash. But that didn't align with his previous actions. Why save her from the crushing light if Salvatore was trying to get rid of her? She had to accept he was telling her the truth. Salvatore worried for her safety.

His theory was frightening, though. It meant that whoever was trying to end Maple's life had unknown abilities that she was powerless against.

"Stalking people is creepy, Salvatore," she relented, finally letting her guard down. She placed the sword on the car's hood. "You can't just go around following me in secret."

He scowled at her as if she were an unreasonable child. "I'm not stalking you. I'm protecting you."

"You can't 'protect' a woman by following her without her consent."

"There's an alien that's out to get you, Maple. I'm not going to take any risk. I need to protect you."

She sighed, incredibly frustrated by their exchange. She was a die-hard feminist, but how was she not supposed to feel all warm and tingly between her legs when a man of Salvatore Suarez's stature was treating her like the little, fragile, naive princess that she always dreamed of being? Yeah, stalking was terrible, but he needed to protect her. Like the great poet Dula Peep would sing, that was "hotter than hell."

"You're not my bodyguard," Maple said, trying to regain composure. "You're an actor—one of my employees. It'd be unprofessional for me to ask—"

Salvatore took a decisive step forward. Her breath caught. "You are not asking, Maple. Nobody's asking. I am telling you I'm going to protect you."

"Why?" she all but whispered.

He leaned forward, bringing his lips to her ear. “No quiero que mueras.” 

His warm breath on her skin made it difficult for Maple not to lose all decorum and grab his face to kiss it.

None of this situation was professionally appropriate, and HR could never know, but Maple trusted herself not to cross a line from which she couldn't return. No matter how flirty Salvatore sounded, she didn't want to become the boss who, once confronted with her misdeeds, defended herself by claiming that "he asked for it!" Salvatore was not asking for it. He was only asking to protect her, which was somehow even more intimate than anything else he could've asked for.

"I didn't get you a plane ticket." She was almost running out of excuses.

"I don't need one. We're not flying there."

"Why not?"

He shook his head and turned to the SUV.  "Too dangerous. This car was custom-made. It's bulletproof, impossible to hack into, and resistant to most known alien powers. It drives under water, too."

She raised an eyebrow. "Custom made for whom? An intergalactic spy?”

He briefly hesitated before he said, "It was custom-made for me."

Before she could ask another question or find another reason why she couldn't agree to his offer, he moved to the other side of the car, opening the passenger door for her.

"Let's go," he said.

"You don't even know where I'm going. It's across the province. Driving there will take us days."

"Then, we better get started."

She thought of Daphne and her reaction to Salvatore. Would he help convince her? He wouldn't need a briefing since he already knew Maple's predicament, and his charms could play in their favor. 

She closed her eyes.

She saw the light fall on her. She remembered readying herself for death. The sound of the windows shattering in the car, the realization she could have died next to Salvatore.

Death was so close.

Maple wasn't ready for it yet. She had a show to save first. If a sexy secret alien superstar wanted to help her do it, who was she to refuse?

She opened her eyes.

"Fine," she said. "Let's go."

Humanity Celebrates a Decade of Alien-Human Cohabitation

Although it may feel like yesterday, it has been ten years since [redacted] revealed to the world on live TV that he was an alien—or a "hybrid," as most scientists have learned to call most aliens on Earth.(1)

Many historical records indicate that aliens have lived on Earth (2) for thousands of years. However, their existence entered mainstream culture and societal conversations when a Canadian teenager decided to tell the world who he was. Born from a [redacted] and a [redacted], [redacted] told the whole world on January 16th, 20XX, that he was "[redacted]."

A decade later, cohabitation between the two species has not always been easy. We all remember the [redacted] or what happened when [redacted] had to [redacted]. However, with most aliens looking like human beings, their inclusion into modern human society has proven more manageable than some alien activists had feared.

(1): A recent study revealed that 99% of aliens on Earth were born on the planet, with only XXXX individuals identified as visitors from another galaxy. “It’s actually very unlikely for people to see aliens who don’t have some human DNA. Most non-Earth born aliens tend to live away from civilization, having learned to hide who they are,” says scientist Charles Von Brahanfield.

(2): Scientists caution against the idea of one uniform alien species. “We’re actually seeing traces of multiple species in the alien DNAs we’ve been analyzing,” says Charles Von Brahanfield.

Excerpt from Maple Defleuvier's final essay for 213B Introduction to Alienhood. From the University of Sobriquet Lake's archives.