The virgin & the bad boy (Gravity)

Chapter 4/Bad boy stole my sense of balance

I tried to talk to people, I'm naturally pretty shy and stuck with 'Hi I', Scartlett... What do you do?'  People, I figure, like talking about themselves. On Earth this was falling flatter than an Ikea wardrobe. In answer to 'what do you do' I got 'this or that', 'breathing mostly' , 'In the mornings I like to stare out of the window'. It was weird, on mars what you did to earn money really was a huge part of you. 

"Doesn't anyone work?" I said to Aunt Catherine. 

Aunt Catherine was too well brought up to roll her eyes. "Not for the last thirty years. Not since the last human was fired from the last job on Earth. I remember watching him pick up the last pink slip on live TV with your Mother. FYI we also stopped having slaves and wearing bones through our noses."  

"Binks darling," said Aunt Catherine as he walked passed the kitchen, "This 5 foot, 12 bundle of blonde fun is Lilly Banks."

"Autocorrect calls me Scarlett," I said.

"Me is your humble servant. May I introduce my new wife, Guru Tvaakar Shan," said Binks.

"If it is difficult for you, feel free to call me Lucy," said Guru Tvaakar Shan- let's stick with Lucy.

"Lucy this is Scarlett Lilly Banks," said Binks coming in.

Lucy smiled and twisted in acknowledgement of the event. Behind her was the hot twenty something Aunt Catherine called Uriel.

"Oh congratulations!" I said "When was the wedding?"

"About 10 minutes ago," said Binks.

I was confused and it wasn't the space lag. "Really? You just got married? Where?"

"Here," said Lucy smiling.

"You got married here? In my apartment? How?" I said, wondering if any rogue priests were roaming around that I should be aware of.

"Oh this app," said Lucy, bringing her phone out. It was running some marriage app. As far as I could tell setting your status to married on Facebook was legally binding or something.

"How do you get married on Mars? In a church?" said Uriel, clearly getting close to mocking me.

"Well, yes," I said.

Uriel's smile broadened to a smirk. She put her hand over her mouth to hide her hearty laugh. Now I felt super naive. Someone was leaving my Christmas card list before they even got onto it. I think Aunt Catherine might have scowled at her behind my back.

"I'm just joking. We save things like churches for the fourth or fifth reiteration of vows," Uriel said.

"Oh, that's what churches are for," said Binks. I wondered if he was joking. "I kept walking into them and wondering what you could buy there. My robot pointed out the seats and then I thought it was some really uncomfortable cinema. That was before I lost my robot."

"Don't worry," replied Lucy, "it will turn up again. It always does no matter where you leave it."

"Well I get lost my self all the time but I never seem to lose me," said Blinks.

I got the feeling Blinks struggled with things like 'how things got smaller the further away they got.'

"No, churches are for classy weddings and stuff, and fat women sing in them!" said Uriel.

"Uriel, you're confusing churches with opera houses again," said Aunt Catherine.

"Are you sure?" said Uriel.

"Very," she replied.

Mr. 'Not Important' came around, serving cold drinks.

"I'm hoping to visit the Sistine Chapel while I'm on Earth," I said, hoping to get the conversation running in a different direction. Possibly away from Aunt Catherine stamping all over it like a T-Rex in a toy village.