’Frowning, I reprimanded her. ‘Mars, he was not a nice person. I bet he wasn’t even a good kisser.’She giggled. ‘Nope.’I returned her smil... with twice the warmth and then leaned over her, pressing my mouth to hers. I felt her smiles against my lips, gently kissing back.Us kissing wasn’t new. I’d never had a serious boyfriend, for various reasons, but when Marsie had been curious about kissing at thirteen or so, I helped her learn. We didn’t think there was anything wrong with it, and had plenty. ’ She smiled at my flirtation and returned my gaze as she handed me my drink. ‘You know we really should do something about this stranger business, I am not at all satisfied with such a level of acquaintance with one such as yourself.’ She declined to accept payment. ‘This one’s on me. What did you have in mind?’ She leaned over the counter a bit and the smile in her eyes shook me to the core. ‘Let me take you out to a movie tonight, there’s that vampire film you had said you wanted to see.’. When I came down, he was kissing my face, and laughing softly."Oh, Bob," I mumbled, "I don't ever want anyone but you."He kissed me and replied, "What do you want to do about the contest?"Before I could answer him Dad's voice boomed from upstairs. "You two have twenty minutes! Move it!"I stripped the bed while he showered and then I showered and dressed in a blue jean skirt and blouse before we went up to the kitchen for breakfast. Though, we hadn't said anything about doing it, we both acted. Then again, he couldn’t count on that. He had seen firsthand how repair requests piled up.He would be able to point it in the vicinity of an orbiting spacecraft and then blast them with a high-powered transmission. It would be impossible to ignore, but the encrypted data would just be gibberish to them. He also had no way to locate them from the ground, he needed coordinates in order to reorient the dish.Fuck it, this wasn’t getting him anywhere. He leaned back in his chair as the display.