She lent over and made sure he was strapped in. He looked nervous.

She gave him a kiss and squeezed his…manipulator.

“It will be OK, honey.” She hoped it was reassuring. “He has to like you, because I love you.”

He did that thing that he assured her was smiling.

She strapped herself in and pulled out.

They were heading to her folks. It was dinner and an ulterior motive. They wanted to meet her big secret.

It’s not that she was ashamed. Inter-species relationships were looked at differently.

And her father was very strict.

She put on some music.

“He’s going to hate me.” He said.

“He isn’t.”

“You said that he hoped you’d find someone of your own kind. I am definitely not your kind.”

“I don’t care. And neither should you. He’s not the one dating you. I am.”

The disk ended and they sat in silence for a while.

It started to rain.

She flicked on the wipers. He watched them wipe.

“You’ll hypnotise yourself if you keep doing that. And then I’ll program you to say “Hi, I sleep with your daughter” whenever you hear my fathers voice.”

He tried to fight the smile, and looked out of his window.

“Oh..oh, don’t smile. You’ll crack your face…doooon’t.”

There were laughs. He mumbled something.

“No…no I don’t think I heard that.”

“You did too.”

“Nope. I think you said “slurh, shlurh, slurgh”

He smiled again. “That’s because our language is different to yours.”

She looked horrified. “Oh, so now it’s a language thing. I think I understood every word you said last night. And you seemed to understand what I was saying.”

He blushed.

“OK, OK, I love you. I said I love you.”

“That’s better. Now, give me a kiss.”

They pulled up outside the apartment. He unclipped, took a deep breath and got out.

Her mother was already at the door. Boyfriend introduced, they went inside.

Dinner wasn’t so awkward. He thought he did OK. He even tried some of her language – which caused a few smiles.

But dinner soon came to an end, and they jumped in the car and headed off into the night. Her parents stood at the door, waving them off.

Her mother closed the door, turned to her husband, smiled fading, and said “Don’t. He’s nice.”

The husband looked mortified. “What do you mean? I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Yes you were. He’s OK. And it doesn’t matter that he’s not one of us.”

He huffed, caught by his wife’s piercing logic. “No…no…If she’s happy, then I’m happy.” The father shifted on his tail. “But, really. Did she have to pick a human?”