Chapter 2

"Okay, Soul Fam,"I crooned, perching on the edge of the plush red armchair in the waiting room. The room was huge but consisted only of the single chair smack dab in the center of it. Given that the ceiling and walls were all glass, the floor was newly laid vinyl, and it was separate from the main house, my guess was it was a repurposed greenhouse. It was separated from the main building out in the massive backyard. "I think we have time for one more question before my hot space elf shows up."

If he ever would.

Even an alien would take a step back if he saw some of the things people were posting about me online. I had a strict filter for my chat room, so there was a limit to the nasty things people could say to my face while streaming, but they sure tried. Just the thought of human women dating alien men sent the conservative ‘women are property' incel population into a tailspin. It seemed like they had come out in force to my channel today.

My moderator was dealing with some of them but still, it was a lot.

I didn"t let the negative thought drift into the visible spectrum of my face and mar what I knew was still a perfect smile. I"d practiced the expression enough in the mirror for hours while I meditated on how good being famous would feel, imagining the warm love I"d feel wash over me as people screamed my name as I walked down the red carpet. In that period of my life where I practiced my smile and imagined I could change my reality through sheer willpower, I never thought of the other experiences, like long hours on set trying to get the takes. The awkward moments where I was working on memorizing my lines and someone would interrupt me, wanting to make a connection with me all while I wanted peace and quiet to connect with my character.

I never imagined I would be waking up at 3 am to make it to a location shoot with enough time for hair and makeup. I never dreamed of picking up my phone and seeing thousands of comments saying that if I didn"t kill myself, they would do it for me.

It was the little things like that I didn"t expect.

I expected more love than hate.

Or at least I expected the hate to bother me less.

It was the physical threats that got to me the most, because it played into the direct, real fear that I and most every other woman had, that men would hurt us. That men would hate us simply for existing.

It takes a lot of hate to yell at a child on the street and tell her that you want to hurt her.

I pushed those negative thoughts away and repeated my mantra in my head.

I am fabulous. I am amazing. I am worthy of love.

A question chimed, popping up to the grand tune of one hundred dollars, enough money to have it plaster itself across my screen and have a robotic voice read it out.

"Do you think any guy will want you knowing you"ve f star star star star star a freak?" the voice read out.

My smile grew tight with the effort it took to hold it. I couldn"t let anyone know that it got to me.

Humans were pack hunters.

If I acted hurt or wounded, those too timid to strike the first blow would join in to hit me once I was down on the ground. I had to face these online keyboard wannabe warriors down and not let them know when their comments hit a sore spot.

"Now I don"t know about the rest of you, but I don"t date thinking about who "the next guy" might be," I said, modifying my tone so that I sounded gently scolding. "I date with the intention of finding my soulmate, the kind of person who really sees me for who I am, who gives me what I need to grow and holds space in his life for to be my best self, and frankly, he hasn"t come and found me yet, so maybe that is because he isn"t here on Earth in the first place."

I took a deep breath, ignoring the scrolling chat filled with comments and questions by those who didn"t want to pay to get my attention.

"You all sat with me through filling out the questionnaire and providing the biological samples- and if you didn"t, you can find that vid in my paid subscriber archive. Sign up to get exclusives on my whole journey! Whoever is coming to meet me is someone who is willing to do the work to learn about humans and see if a cross-cultural connection can happen. Whoever he is, he isn"t a monster."

I was about to launch into another monologue about the subject censored with those stars when I realized the chat was filling out with the same phrase written over and over again in all caps.

LOOK BEHIND YOU!

IT"S BEHIND YOU

RUN!