After she finished pretending to go to the bathroom, and almost vomiting from the nerves, Mira stumbled out of the bathroom and into the hall that led outside. Ezra gave her a sly smile as he walked by her side.

Outside, there was a road lined with tall flowers and what almost looked like an earth pine tree, but the needles were purple instead of dark green. The road was made of orange and yellow bricks, and a transport, which looked like a horse carriage without a horse, waited outside. Ezra climbed inside of it and Mira slid into the seat across from him.

"Where's my bag?" She asked carefully.

"It's in the trunk." He slid his finger across a map built into the wall and the carriage began to move.

Mira sat quietly for a moment, and then she couldn't stop the question from coming out any longer. "Why did you leave?" She blurted, wishing she knew how to be quiet.

Ezra smiled, cocking an eyebrow. "I had already made up my mind."

His answer took Mira off guard, and she had to process it for a moment. "You mean, you chose me?"

His smile never wavered. "Yes."

Mira's eyebrows creased with confusion. "Why?"

Ezra didn't answer for a moment, entertained with her confusion. "Why did you choose me?"

Mira swallowed the lump in her throat. "They tell who we select?"

"No. They only told me."

"Why only you?"

"Because I have a higher authority than most Jayku. They wouldn't have told anyone else but me."

"Why do you have a higher authority?"

"Because my parents are powerful people."

"What do you mean they're powerful people?"

"They have authority. They're part of the government system we have on this planet."

Mira froze with fear. "They're part of the government?"

Ezra gave her a single, short nod.

She didn't know what to say. She was still reeling from the fact that someone important chose her as his baby mama.

"You are not what I expected, Mira," he said.

She was still choked up with shock.

"You were honest with me, and I liked that about you."

Mira finally found her thoughts and could form words. "But wouldn't you prefer someone who wants to be here?"

He chuckled, his eyes growing dark. "Yes, I would. That's why I wanted you."

Mira tried to put the pieces together, and began to think that this was some kind of sick fetish. "You like forcing women to do things they don't want to do?" She was disgusted.

"I'm not going to force you to do anything. I will wait for you to want it."

Mira's cheeks began to burn. "You're going to be waiting a long time," she said matter-of-factly.

He shrugged. "Perhaps. But I'm a patient person."

The burning sensation spread from her cheeks and radiated to her ears, her necks, all the way down her arms. The heat mixed with the anger, and part of her wanted to jump out of the weird, horseless carriage and never look back. But instead, she swallowed hard and forced herself to look out the window.

They pulled up to what had to be his home, but it wasn't some alien hut or some magnificent castle like she imagined. Instead, it was an average sized cottage tucked away in the forest, something that looked like it was cut out from a camping ad on earth. There weren't a lot of forests left on the planet, and so it was considered a huge luxury to spend a weekend in a cabin or even camping in a tent. It costs tens of thousands of dollars just to rent a space.

"This is your house?" She asked.

"Not exactly. The selection process calls for us to be alone for the next twenty-four hours, to make sure we like each other."

"And what if I don't like you?"

"Then you can be reassigned."

"You'll let me go?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

Mira paused, gazing at the man across from her. "You aren't what I expected either."

They climbed out of the carriage and Mira began to inspect the machine. Being from a family of mechanics, she was more than curious about how it worked—about all the alien technology. But then Ezra pulled out her single suitcase from a compartment in the back of the horseless carriage, and then another suitcase, one that didn't look much like a suitcase at all. It was a black case that reminded her of a giant cockroach. He pulled it on over his back and began rolling her luggage up the small wooden path leading to the cottage. She ran after him, taking her luggage from him.

"Isn't it custom for the man to do the heavy lifting on earth?" He asked.

She almost laughed. "Yeah, maybe a hundred years ago. I can carry my own bag." She went ahead of him, stopping at the door. She reached for the door knob, and found it unlocked. She stepped back to hold the door open for him, and turned to look over her shoulder, finding Ezra gazing up at her from the bottom of the deck. "What?" She asked.

Ezra raised his eyebrows at her. "I'm waiting for you to go inside."

Great, she thought. Another outdated tradition from earth she only knew about from watching old movies.

"Why?"

"It is Jayku custom to let the women enter first."

She rolled her eyes, suppressing her smile as she stepped inside the cabin. The floors were all dark hardwood, the walls painted a forest green in the kitchen area, and everywhere else they were a light brown paneled wood. A small, furry green couch sat in the middle of the living room in front of a stone fireplace. The kitchen was only divided from the living room with an island counter. But the countertops were not made of a normal material. They almost looked as if they were made of glass.

She set her suitcase next to the front door, and walked over to the couch, running her fingers through the fluffy green material.

"Is this made from some kind of animal fur or something?"

"No. It's a dried plant, Shalloewee."

She bent over and sniffed the couch, finding it the same scent as moss. Then she walked over to the kitchen and tapped her fingers against the countertop. "And this?"

"Also made from plants. The best way to describe it in your language is a dried flower stem cut and crystallized."

Mira turned to face him, her hands behind her back as they held onto the counter. "How do you know my language so well?"

"Jayku must be fluent in order to participate in selection. Most of us are taught many languages from a very young age."

"I've never even heard the Jayku language being spoken."

He smiled at her before taking off his shell of a backpack and hanging it on the hook on the back of the door.

"I can teach some of it, eventually. It's hard for humans to learn because we don't exactly have a translatable alphabet."

Mira shrugged and turned towards the back door. "Eventually," she agreed.

The back door did not swing or slide open. She looked for a handle or button along the glass that might make it open, but found nothing.

"It folds up," Ezra walked over and traced his hands along the glass in an upward position. As soon as he did, the glass began to roll upwards like a sheet, and Mira was astounded.

"How does that work?"

"Were you going to university or something?" He asked, stepping onto the pack patio.

"University, no. I was just born into a family of mechanics and engineers. Home grown, not school taught."

"I see," he said,studying her for a moment. "The door here is made out of the same type of leaves we use to make our clothing. But when it is still alive, it reacts to stimuli, to touch."

"So it's biological tech, not mechanical." Mira, being fascinated with the idea of it all, began to run her finger tips down the sheet, just to see if it would respond to her as well. But nothing happened.

"Why doesn't it respond to me?"

"You didn't do it right. Let me show you."

Ezra held the back of Mira's hand, and gently coaxed it in the right direction.

"You must be gentle but firm. It must feel the pads of your fingers marking the surface of the plant." Slowly, they're hands moved down together, and as they did, the foggy white leaf began to fold down once again.

Mira let out a small laugh, mesmerized by it all—until she realized how close Ezra was. So close, she could feel his warm breath against the top of ear, gliding along her cheek.

"There you go," he smiled at her, his gazing melting into hers.

Mira forced herself to snap out of his hypnotic touch, pulled her hand out of his and reached for the leaf door again. This time, she opened it herself and stepped out onto the stone patio. That's when she saw what could only be described to her as a hot spring in the center of the yard.

"This is our version of a hot tub."

A large circle was carved out of a stone, but water poured in from a stream from a small cliff that acted like a fence. The water inside bubbled with heat, and Mira made a face at Ezra.

"How do the jets work?"

He shrugged. That's a machine."

Mira shook her head and turned on her heel to go back inside. Though she had eaten a few snacks at the selection ball, her stomach had begun to growl for a real meal.

"Can you cook?" Mira asked, and Ezra was right behind her, pulling out pans and wooden spoons from drawers and cabinets like he had been here before.

"I'm a great cook," he smiled, and began to work. "How about you go get changed and I'll have dinner ready in thirty minutes."

Mira made a face, but didn't protest. She turned and began dragging her suitcase into the bedroom. The first thing she noticed was the enormous bed, but then she remembered how tall some of the Jayku were, and realized that it would be necessary for them. The next thing she noticed was the blankets were quilts, like the ones on earth, but the pillows were different. On one side there was a memory foam pillow, and on the other side was what had to be plant tech—a pillow that when she placed her hand on the center, stiffened around the structure of her fingers, but softened just enough to let it sink in comfortably. It was like memory foam, only better, and she wondered if he'd let her try it.

Along the ceiling was a ring of crystals that reflected a single lightbulb, but it wasn't a bulb. Instead, it was a chunk of crystal shards—long arms extending every which way. Mira made a note to herself to ask Ezra about it later.

She turned for the bathroom separated from the bedroom by a small wooden door that slid open with a handle. She was relieved when she saw the normal tub and shower, but very confused about the toilet. Instead of bowl shape, there were two stairs that led up to a diamond shape bucket. She inspected it for a moment and tried to imagine how she would use it.

She tested out, sitting down on the toilet with her clothes still on and without her dress pulled up. It didn't seem right, so she began to push herself up when her hand slipped and she fell into the bowl. A scream escaped the back of her throat as she became wedged in between the wall and the diamond shaped bowl.

Ezra came running into the bathroom in response to her scream. "Are you..." he paused, and all the fear from his expression disappeared as he suppressed a laugh. "What on Akaari are you doing?"

Mira groaned. "Your toilet is weird."

Ezra cleared his throat and knocked on the door opposite from her. A door sprung open and a toilet slid out.

"That's not a toilet. It's a sink."

"Well why is your sink so freaking big?"

He offered her his hand, but she refused it, pushing herself out of the sink and onto her feet.

"Because if you sever the plant it's made of, its water absorbing abilities will be multiplied, and the water will drain faster than it should. The outer layer has a natural wax to keep the water in for longer." Most of his words were lost to Mira, and she suddenly felt extremely overwhelmed. So, she closed her eyes and sat on the floor.

Ezra gazed at her for a moment, debating what to do. Finally, he crouched down beside her and began. "A lot of our technology is far more advanced than earths. We use natural renewable resources for almost everything. Magnetic forces for our transports, plants for building materials that we resupply at a constant rate in which we consume them, if not less. And although this may look like your kind of house, this is not the kind of home you will find on this planet. It was built to comfort you, to ease you into our technology. A little bit of yours and a little bit of ours... I know this must be overwhelming for you, and I will try and be better about explaining things before you fall into them."

She let out a small laugh, all the fear and anxiety and nervousness from the past few hours—hell, the last few months, fading away.

Ezra joined in and laughed with her, and as their laughter faded, he reached out to touch her shoulder.

"You are brave, you know, coming here."

"I didn't have a choice," Mira said, leaning her back against the wall. "My little sister needed money for medicine, and this was the only way we could get it in time."

His face twists with confusion. "Your government would not loan it to you?"

Mira shook her head. "My family maxed out on their medical loans last year when my brother broke his arm and my other brother accidentally cut off a finger."

Ezra's eyes grew wide. "They sound like a wild family."

Mira finally looked over at him, and she smiled at the thought of her siblings. "You have no idea."

They sat there for a moment, gazing at one another in silence, sitting on the bathroom floor. Until, finally, Ezra stood up and offered her a hand. "Come on, I'll help you navigate the closet."