Jenna went home that night and went through her clothes. She was not the kind of girl who needed to go shopping because she had just been asked on a date by the man of her dreams. All of Jenna’s clothes were already awesome. It came from meticulous planning all year round. She put together an outfit from her closet with accessories and shoes. Then she put them together in a garment bag and hung them on a hook for her date with Armen.

Armen asked her to meet him at a cafe near the bay.  He said he would meet her there and walk down to the boat with her. He didn’t want her to get lost, so he would escort her, saying marinas could be hard to navigate if you weren’t used to them.

The outfit came out of the closet. It was a pink and white horizontal striped shirt with a gather above one shoulder. It had the added benefit of doubling as a dress due to its length, so she paired charcoal leggings with it. She wore light brown boots that looked pink, only because there was pink near them. She wore a blush-pink ribbon in her bun, which was a slightly more extravagant design than the usual messy bun she wore. This one incorporated a thick braid. 

She went to meet him and her breath caught when she saw him on the other side of the glass through the coffee shop window. Without a doubt, he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and when she stepped through that door to join him, her life would be forever changed. He was the exact person to make her throw everything out the window.

Armen got to his feet when Jenna entered.  

“I already ordered for you,” he said with a sly grin. “We’ve got a lot of sailing to do if we’re going to make it to the right place by the time the sun sets.”

Jenna smiled. “What did you order for me?”

“Apple cider.”

“Sounds perfect.”

“It’s going to be more perfect once we’re out on the water. Even in the summer, it can get chilly.” He placed the warm cup in her hand and offered her his arm.  

With a blush as golden as the sunset, she took it. 

Together, they left the cafe and walked the tree-lined sidewalk until the ocean came into view.  

“Where did you learn how to sail?” she asked.

“It’s not a sailboat,” he replied. 

“You said ‘sailing’ earlier.”

“I probably did. It has a better sound to it than boating. The thing is, I’m not good at everything I try to do, and learning how to manage all those knots and pulleys was not happening on such short notice, so I got a boat with a motor instead. The ocean can be really unpredictable and sailing against ocean tides or being pushed along by them is too much for me. I need to be where I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be there.”

She was about to ask him a question about that when he continued.  

“Do you see that boat with the blue stripe down the side?” he asked, pointing.

Yes, she could see it. It was one of the larger boats parked there. It was no small wonder he could live there. It looked perfectly comfortable and she felt this sensation of luxury pass over her. Like she was being treated better by Armen than she had been by any other man. He was taking her on a sunset cruise to watch starlight. Suddenly she felt like she’d never seen either of those things before.  

He jumped onto the boat first and delicately lifted her aboard to join him. Efficiently, he moved around the vessel, untying ropes and taking his place behind the wheel in a way that struck her as a hundred times more masterful than the way a man looked when he drove a car.  

She was about to do something daring. Daring for her. She was about to come up behind him and rest her elbow on his shoulder when he turned around and took her out of the cabin and onto the deck.

“The real show is out here,” he said, seating her in the front and covering her lap with a blanket.

He left her and a minute later the engine was running and they were fast leaving land behind them.

Soon they were out of the bay with the mountains surrounding them and onto the fiery mirror of the ocean. Jenna sipped her cider and watched the changing colors of the tilting light reflecting on the clouds, the emerging stars, and an inexplicable feeling of wonder and adventure enveloped her. It suddenly occurred to her that she had not experienced a feeling like she was exactly where she needed to be in a very long time.  

She glanced back at Armen with the sun making half his face bright and half his face dark. He looked very confident in the way he piloted the ship. Trustworthy even.  

Then he cut the engine, grabbed a blanket of his own, and joined her in the front of the boat.

“Are you having a good time?” he asked as he sat next to her with his blanket folded on his lap.

She nodded comfortably. “This is already such a good date, but I can’t help but wonder if you have anything else planned.”

“Of course I do,” he said pleasantly.  

“Like what?”

“Anything you want.”

That comment made Jenna suspicious. He sounded like the man who was looking for the missing dog in the park—like he would have said anything to get Jenna to go with him. She pushed off the thought. She was being paranoid and it had to stop. But when she saw Armen’s face, looking unexpectedly anxious to please, she had the feeling again. To cover it, she asked, “Why don’t you tell me more about yourself? How long have you lived on a boat?”

“About three weeks. I started living aboard The Windstorm when I came to Victoria,” he explained.

Jenna squinted. Had that been the name on the side of the boat? She felt like it wasn’t. Hadn’t it had a woman’s name like The Lucia?  Or The Margaret? It was too late for Jenna to check then. She couldn’t very well swing her whole body over the edge to see what was written on the side of the boat. Nor could she challenge him on the name of his own boat.

“Why did you buy it?” she asked, keeping to her line of questioning.

He didn’t answer but looked her up and down. “It’s getting darker,” he said cryptically. “Tell me something. Are you as attracted to me as I am to you?”

Her heart hit a hitch, but she managed to nod.

“Are you aware that I can’t place a finger on you until you place a finger on me?” he challenged.

She wrinkled her nose. What was he saying?

“I can’t do more than offer you my arm. If you want to get involved with me, you have to make the first move,” he said, tilting his nose to the side and offering her his lips.

Jenna placed one arm over her stomach, scratched her ear with her opposite hand, and took a cleansing breath. She hesitated, waiting to answer, toying with her options. “So you are giving me all the power on this date?”

“All of it!” he confirmed. “I can’t bring you to this remote location and let you think that I’m not making any moves on you because I don’t want to. I’m being courteous.”

She stifled a laugh. Though it was not a kind laugh. It was an annoyed laugh. He wanted her to make the first move and he asked for it using those words? She laughed to prevent herself from rolling her eyes.

He made amends with the smile he gave her that was without question the most adorable one she had ever seen in her life. He was using his eyes to persuade her to kiss him and it was a far better tactic than using his words.

Jenna burst out laughing. She wasn’t sure if she even remembered the last time she had made out with a guy. She was always thinking about bloody fingers and severed tendons.

Well, not tonight, even if he was acting like he deserved her affection just because he had taken her out. It was presumptuous, but… she was in the right place at the right time.

She kissed him, and his kiss was so warm that it made her forget her fears, who she was, and how to stay seated.

They fell on the floor.

She would have gone on kissing him if an alarm on his phone hadn’t gone off. It was the worst sound she’d ever heard and she practically jumped off him in her hurry to escape the blaring noise. 

He retrieved his phone from his back pocket and silenced it.

“What was that?” she gasped.

“My virgin alert,” he replied. “Good thing I shut it off,” he said, reaching for her.

“Don’t joke. I need an explanation as to why your phone, or anyone’s phone, would ever make that sound. No one ignores their phone enough to warrant that sound.”

“It was to remind me of a celestial event that is going to take place in a minute,” he said, looking up at the near-black sky. “It would be a pity if we sailed all the way out here only to miss it.”

“Okay,” Jenna said, steadying her breath before wrapping herself up in the blanket and looking up at the sky. “What are we looking for?”

He settled as close to her as was humanly possible and pointed up. “We should see color.”

At that exact moment, Jenna did see something. It was like the twinkle of a satellite, a slightly off-color point of light moving across the sky quickly when it suddenly turned and fell toward them. It got larger and larger like a crimson comet descending with a sparkling tail behind it. As it got closer it stopped looking like a comet. The shape and style were more like fireworks.

“Did you do this?” she asked, feeling like she’d never seen anything more beautiful.

He didn’t reply. He just looked up into the sky with a look that could only be described as the opposite of wonder. His expression caught her attention more than what was happening in the air above them. When his eyes met hers, it was obvious that he knew a lot more about what was happening than she did, and he did not savor the phenomenon.

When she looked up again, she saw other lights—white lights. The thing had a shape and control over its movement. It was hovering.

She felt the prick of a needle in her arm.

Armen caught her as she fell forward.  

Her last thought was that whatever was above them... it did not look like a flying saucer.