Read Catch the Lightning for Free Online Page B

There. I had said it.
    His face blanked. Metallic. He felt like a computer doing a search routine. Then he returned to normal. “I can’t find ‘condom.’ What does it mean?”
    “It’s so I don’t get—you know.”
    “Get what?”
    “Sick.”
    “I am not sick.”
    “We shouldn’t take chances. Besides, I don’t want to get pregnant.”
    “You can’t get pregnant.”
    “Why not?”
    “It’s true my ancestors were human,” he said. “But they were taken from Earth so long ago, it’s unlikely you and I can interbreed.”
    I almost smiled. I doubted anyone else’s man had tried a line like that. “Althor, if you don’t have any with you, we have to get some. I’m not trying to lead you on, but I won’t go no further without it.”
    “Is maybe possible I could get you pregnant,” he admitted.
    “Yeah. Is maybe possible.”
    “This is not something you would like?”
    “Althor!”
    “I take it this mean ‘no.’ You don’t want a baby if I am the father.”
    “Of course not!” I had no way to know that, among his people, I had just done the role-reversed equivalent of a man in my culture telling a woman, “I’m going to bed with you because I want to get laid, but no way would I ever consider you good enough for anything more.”
    I could tell something was wrong, though. “My mother raised me without a father,” I said. “I don’t want a child until I know its father will stay with us.”
    His face gentled and things were right again. I didn’t know then that he had already figured out the cultural differences. All he said was, “I have no ‘protection.’ You have none either?”
    “None.”
    He tilted his head toward the television. “Can we order it from your console?”
    “That’s a TV You can’t order things from it.”
    “TV?”
    “Wait. I know. I’ll be right back.” I scrambled off the bed and went to the door.
    “Tina, wait.”
    I turned to see him sitting up again, boots planted wide, elbows resting on his knees. He said, “You will come back?”
    That caught me by surprise. That he thought I might skip out, leaving him alone—it seemed an odd idea, more like something I would think about him rather than the other way around. “I’ll be right back. I promise.” Then I undid the locks and went out into the hall.
    Bonita and Harry’s apartment was on the same floor, three doors down. I knocked, praying Bonita answered instead of her husband, Harry.
    The door opened a crack. “Tina? What are you doing up so late?” A chain rattled and the door opened, revealing a sleepy Bonita in her nightgown and a fuzzy pink sweater with pearly buttons. A black braid fell over her shoulder.
    I didn’t know her that well. We said hello when we saw each other, but given the differences in our work schedules that wasn’t often. She had always seemed to like me, though.
    I spoke awkwardly. “It’s—uh—I needed to ask…”
    She took my arm and pulled me inside. “What’s the matter, honey?”
    “Nothing. I’m fine. I need sort of a favor.”
    “A favor?”
    “Do you have— I mean, I guess Harry would have them…”
    “Have what?” She yawned. “It’s late, Tina.”
    I flushed. “A condom.”
    “Oh.” She came wide awake. “Are you sure?”
    “Well, it’s better than if I don’t have one.”
    “That’s not what I meant.” She considered me. “Is it Jake? Don’t let him push—”
    “It’s not Jake.” He had been my first and only boyfriend, and we had broken up months ago. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have woken you up.” I felt more foolish by the minute. I backed toward the door. “You go back to sleep. I won’t—”
    “Wait.”
    “Bonita laid her hand on my arm. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
    She disappeared into the bedroom and reappeared with a box. She put it in my hands, folding my fingers around it. “Tina, think,” she said. “Before you rush into something.” Her expression reminded me of my mother. “Why don’t you