An Alien Love

Mall Catchup

The dog barking excitedly at the rapidly ringing doorbell woke Tosh from her deep slumber.

“I’m coming!” She shouted in the direction of the door. With a quick glance at her clock, Tosh groaned in frustration. She had overslept and was very sure it would be her mother at the door. She disentangled herself from her many blankets, shivering in the cold air. Walking to the door, she pushed her Great Dane, Ziggy, out of the way to let her mother in.

“Someone needed her beauty sleep.” The smile on her mother’s face was warm as they shared a hug.

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll be ready to go.” Tosh grabbed a long purple sweater, some black leggings and rushed through her morning routine. “How are you doing today?”

“I’m fine. It’s been a long week at work. Ziggy reminds me, we had someone bring in Great Dane puppies this week. They were so cute.” Her mom sat with Ziggy on her lap. At five feet five inches and small framed, the giant dog dwarfed her in comparison, but it didn’t seem to bother her at all. And besides, if Ziggy dwarfed her mother, she must have made Tosh look like a baby standing at exactly five feet. Throwing food into the dog bowl and grabbing her black scarf and cap before shoving her feet into her high black boots, Tosh was ready to go. She kissed her dog goodbye for the day before locking the door behind her and heading to Fifth Avenue Mall.

“Did you hear? Daniel is going to propose to his girlfriend on New Year's Day. He has the ring now.” Tosh’s mother beamed at her from the passenger seat.

“No, I hadn’t heard. Daniel never calls me anymore unless he wants something. He talked about wanting to live next to me growing up and it annoyed me to death, but now I almost wish he would. At least then I would know what is going on in his life.” Tosh pulled into a decent parking spot and turned off the car before looking her mother over.

She had put on some weight and there were definitely more gray hairs on her head than there had been a year ago. Despite this, her mother was gorgeous. There was an air of strength and certainty about her that had always comforted Tosh.

“If you really want your brother to talk to you, call him. He gets so absorbed in his video games that he would forget to eat if it wasn’t for Angela.”

“True.” The warm scent of the food court several floors above them hit Tosh in the face as they walked through the sliding door. The Christmas music played cheerily, mixing with the din of other shoppers chatting amongst themselves. Growing up, the family had turned Christmas shopping into a game of hide and seek. The family would draw names out of a hat and pair off with each other to find the perfect gift without being spotted by another team. One year, her father had dove into clothes racks to keep her mother from seeing him in her favorite store. Tosh had seen him do it and laughed so hard tears had run down her cheeks and her face had turned bright red.

Now that Tosh and her brother were all grown, Christmas shopping wasn’t as big of an ordeal. In fact, the only reason Tosh and her mother still shopped together was because Tosh lived in Anchorage and her mother liked to go to the mall there.

Daniel lived in Fairbanks, several hours away and wouldn’t come home until the week of Christmas. The two women went from store to store chatting about their daily life. Tosh’s mother had participated in a surgery on a snake a few days previous. She was also thinking of getting some chickens and a few rabbits on her land. Her mother had grown up on a farm in Oklahoma and enjoyed having animals around. Tosh was supportive though she could never see herself doing those kinds of things. Tosh shared stories from her snowboarding ventures the day before and chatted with her about college life.

“Are you ever going to date again? I mean that Connor seems nice?” Her mother had met Connor about two months ago when she came to visit for Halloween. She had instantly taken a liking to him despite Tosh’s insistence that there was nothing there.

“Mom, I told you, I am not up to dating. I’ve sworn off men until I finish college at least. Which is another semester away, by the way.”

“So, you are telling me I am never going to have grandbabies from you. Okay, that’s fine.” The smile gave her mother’s joke away and they giggled and hugged one another. Grabbing their respective bags full of gifts, the two traveled the escalators to the food court and each went to their traditional food place, her mother for ramen, Tosh for sushi and a smoothie. They found a table together, eating and chatting before heading back to Tosh’s apartment.

Setting the bag of gifts on her table, Natasha made hot cocoa for her and her mother and they sat down to their favorite Christmas movie. It was familiar and peaceful. Tosh found her mind wondering during the duration of the movie. She thought about her ex. In hindsight, he hadn’t been very good to her while they had dated. He had been manipulative and controlling. Her mother had tried to warn her against continuing the relationship for a long time and she had never listened. When Tosh had caught him in bed with the other woman it had hurt. But it was also been a good thing in a way. Tosh wasn’t so afraid of being hurt by another man cheating on her again. Her fear was more in the department of being manipulated again. Tosh never wanted to feel weak and insignificant like she had a majority of the days she was with her ex.

Connor, though they weren’t dating, still had a tendency to make Tosh feel like she was somehow less of a person. When it was dark and late after their study group, he had insisted on walking her to her car. He was trying to be a gentleman, but Tosh felt as though he didn’t think she could defend herself. She had been taking martial arts classes for years. She was a black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu in fact. And on top of that, Tosh always carried a can of mace in her bag. She was more than capable of defending herself.

Sometimes Connor would play around by holding a book way out of her reach. Tosh hated that more than she hated his overprotective nature. He would use her as an armrest, which Tosh loathed. Her height put Tosh at a disadvantage, but it didn’t give anyone an excuse to tease her. The only people who had ever been able to get away with it without Tosh wanting to punch them in the face were her father and her brother. Her father was six foot three inches. Her brother had gotten a tall gene boast and stood at a massive six foot five inches. But even with their teasing, Daniel and her father had respected Tosh.

Once, when Daniel had only been five foot five inches like her mother, Tosh had kicked him in the face with a flying front kick so hard it had knocked two of his front teeth loose and had bloodied his nose. Even last year, the two siblings had gotten into a tickle fight and Tosh had won. Granted, her brother was way more ticklish than Tosh had ever been. The point was, Tosh could hold her own and her brother respected her for it. When Tosh was much younger she had punched her father in the stomach while they were roughhousing around. She knocked the air out of him and the look of pride on his face was priceless. The respect for her abilities was clear.

Connor didn’t respect her or her abilities. He thought Tosh was cute and wanted to date her so he could protect her, but he did not respect her ability to protect herself and neither had James or Chris.

When the movie ended, Tosh and her mother said their goodbyes and Tosh began her night time routine but before she got too far along with it, Jenna called her in a tizzy. Amanda’s longtime boyfriend had dumped her over a text message earlier that day. Jenna was on her way to get Tosh so they could do the sleepover, ice cream, and sad gushy movie thing that they always did when a breakup occurred. They were in for a long night.