Love at First Sighting

Chapter 22: Landing and Unpacking

Paul, Ovi, Tara and I stood amongst the crowd of other Talgian's in front of the door that would lead us into the outside world, a world I'd never seen before. My arms were full of my bags and other belongings, Paul helping me carry everything as well.

"Please leave in an orderly fashion," the captain exclaimed over the loudspeaker, the doors slowly opening. I prepared myself for a stampede of people, but it never came. All the people around me started moving forward slowly, not rushing, just like they had been ordered too. Paul looked up at me and nodded, and we followed the crowd out into the outside world. I stared around just to be met with a room that looked like an airport, except with spaceships. I looked down at Paul and he shrugged, leading me over to a desk where a single Talgian stood behind, smiling.

"Welcome to Talgis, do you have anything to declare?"

"Um, what do I need to declare?" I asked, staring down at my arms full of stuff.

"Anything off world, unless of course you come from off world."

"I'm from off world."

"Obviously, have a nice day!"

I frowned in confusion, but Paul smiled at me and led me over to the luggage thing, grinning as I saw all my belongings being wheeled out on a massive levitating trolley.

"Luggage for Lillian from Earth?" The Talgian exclaimed, reading something off a clipboard. I walked forward and raised my hand to signify it was mine, smiling at the worker.

"Thank you so much, is it all, you know, safe?"

"Everything on this trolley has been thoroughly sanitized and checked for off world bacteria. I can say with 100% confidence that everything here is safe to be on this planet," The worker smiled, handing me the handle for the trolley and walked away, leaving me with a trolley full of everything that I own. I looked over at Paul to see that he was signing some forms on a seat nearby.

"Hey Paul? What do we do now?" I asked, walking over to him with the trolley trailing behind me. He glanced up at me and, putting the forms in a chute next to him, he got up and took my hand.

"Now, we go home. You should probably hide on the trolley though; the captain had a word with me before and said he doesn't want anyone knowing where you are until the dinner, we're having for you and Tara's arrival. Thankfully my house is only a short walk from here."

"You still have a house?"

"Since they didn't know where I was for 60 years, I was perceived as 'out of action' and they, by law, weren't allowed to do anything to my house other than clean it. Considering a heap of our kind goes out of action during missions, if the time lost is over 100 years then they're allowed to resell the house," Paul explained, picking himself up before rummaging through my stuff. "Here, there's an empty refrigerator you can hide in. I think I saw something like that in a movie once."

I rolled my eyes slightly and got into the fridge, giggling as Paul closed it. I heard some rustling around which was what I could imagine Tara getting into something, and then felt the trolley moving underneath me. All the sounds around me were muffled greatly, and I wondered where exactly Paul was taking us.

Not even 5 minutes went by when I heard the mechanical whir and the trolley stop. I braced myself to adjust my eyes to the light as I heard Paul rustling around before opening the fridge, offering his hand for me to take it.

"Enjoy your ride?" He teased, helping me get out of the fridge and onto the ground. I looked around me and took in what I took to be a Talgian version of a garage. Everything was white and clean, but there were also tools and clutter that gave it that garage feel.

"Is this your house?"

"This is just the garage, love, you can go and make yourself acquainted with the rest of the place if you want," Paul smiled, helping Tara out of a little nook between my couch and the fridge. I nodded and walked out of the garage into the house, smiling softly.

The first room I entered didn't consist of much, mostly just a couch and a screen that I could imagine was the TV along with an open kitchen which didn't have much other than a psychomaterialiser and what I could imagine was a fridge and a stove. It was open plan, separated from the lounge with only a counter. Past the counter there were two doors, on in front of me and one to the side and a door to the left of the garage door she had entered from. The house wasn't exactly small, she found, the whole house consisting of 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms, two lounges that were connected via a hallway, a little den-like area that had a bed, TV, books and what looked like a play on vinyl records, a Talgian hookah and a bunch of potted alien weed plants. The house seemed to be in a sort of macaroni shape, surrounded by bushes with the front door being opposite the garage door with a little garden area in the area between the two.

I finally settled in the loungeroom, sighing slightly as I flicked through the channels on the TV. It was all in Talgian other than the news channel, which had English subtitles that I could turn on and off. Tara had set herself next to me after making a cup of tea and was sitting, still in her nightgown and clutching her teddy bear, staring out the window. Paul walked it, his arms full with a box full of my stuff and grinned, poking his head over the top of the box.

"Do you want me to put your stuff in the den for the mean time? We can sort it out later but you have a lot of memorabilia that might freak out some of my friends."

"What do you mean 'freak out?'"

"I mean, that massive life-size plush version of me that you sleep with and probably dry-hump in your spare time," He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, running his hand down the chest of the stuffed version of him. I rolled my eyes and threw a pillow at him, laughing slightly.

"You wish!"

He chuckled and rolled one of the trolleys into the den area, the trolley full of boxes of what were probably full of assorted Pop figures and posters from my bedroom. The fridge I'd hidden in had found itself in the kitchen next to the much more futuristic-looking fridge.

I looked over at Paul before taking a second, looking him up and down. "Paul, did you lose weight?"

Paul looked down at himself and chuckled slightly, looking back up at me. "Yeah, look at yourself. Earth's gravity adds ten pounds."

I looked down at myself and see that my shirt was a little looser and that my fat mass was less as well. A had a slightly slimmer stomach and it seemed that my breasts were a little smaller. The body that I was usually comfortable in, the slightly thick me that I had hated throughout my childhood and just managed to start loving was 2 sizes smaller. I'd gone from a 14-16 to a 12-14. I sighed and adjusted my bra slightly; thank god it was just a sports bra.

"Will I be able to get that weight back?"

"Well, unless you eat a heap. But you'd have to probably binge since it's easier to lose weight here. Why? You look beautiful either way!"

I sighed and flopped onto the couch, looking at my skinnier body. I looked like an anorexic barbie doll, or a model. I hated it. I'd spent so long ideolising models and hated my body and as soon as I learnt to love myself despite my curves, I lose 10 pounds out of nowhere. It didn't feel right. I shook my head and got up.

"When is the dinner exactly? If we're going to a dinner, I'll need to wear something fancy."

"Quarter Past 6?"

"Well, I'm going to go get dressed."