"Miss Rembrite, it's Saturday night. Aren't you going home?"

Lola smiles at her secretary's innocence. "The clock never stops at Rembrite Women's Apparel, Penny. Besides, I'm meeting with a special client tonight."

"Special, huh? That explains the champagne you had me pick up." The younger girl nods towards the ice bucket and the crystal flutes on Lola's desk. "Not to mention your outfit." She eyes up Lola's form-fitting pink dress, the one with the low back and the criss-crossing shoulder straps. "Is it that actress friend of yours?"

All this set-up for Jessie? She'd be just as happy to get-together in sweats with a bottle of supermarket wine. "Actually, I'm meeting my fashion consultant."

Penny's eyes widen. "The one helping you with the Stellar Woman line? Miss Rembrite, we've been getting so many orders for those dresses! You have to tell me who he is!"

"Sorry, Penny. Our arrangement calls for strict confidentiality."

"Just a little hint? Please?"

"Well… you could say we're birds of a feather. We're both self-employed, we've both done a lot of travelling. We have that wandering spirit that makes us want to take life by the horns."

Her secretary leans in. "Is he handsome?"

"Penny, darling!" Lola mocks a fatal wound. "You know I always put business first."

"So you say, but I know you enjoy mixing your business with… pleasure."

Cocking a knowing smile, the college freshman sidles up beside her employer, breasts brushing against Lola's bare arm. Purring, Lola cups the younger girl's chin. "I thought Saturday was your date night. Something about dinner and drinks?"

"I can tell Jamal I have a headache. Besides, you must be starving, Miss Rembrite." The younger girl kisses Lola's thumb between her lips. "You could … eat out at my place."

Lola closes her eyes and enjoys the moment: the simple sucking, the doting arms closing around her waist; those perfect doe eyes. She really is a fast learner…

"Tempting," Lola muses, extracting her thumb, "but like I said: business first, Penny. C'mon, I'll walk you out."

"Aww…"

Lola sees her young charge to the door, sending her off with a goodnight kiss (and a generous fondle of those fat sweater pups). "Still good for Tuesday night?"

"I'm all yours."

"Lovely. Say 'hi' to your boyfriend for me."

"Yes, Miss Rembrite."

Once Penny's out, Lola locks the door, exhaling to clear her head. The freshman's a lovely girl – plenty of energy in bed, but so young and naive; barely a challenge. (And anyway, Lola's partial to blondes.) My 'consultant', on the other hand...

A coded rap on the shop door. Speak of the devil. She's here. Lola smooths her ringlets and checks her perfume (an alluring sea breeze). She's the portrait of beauty and confidence. Double-checking that the champagne's still chilled, Lola opens the door.

"Greetings, Miss Rembrite."

Lola shakes her head, both at the formal greeting and the ridiculous get-up. For someone keeping a low profile, you sure know how to stand out. Nothing turned heads quite like a 5'9" Asian woman rocking double-D cups and bare legs longer than Lola's kill list. Might as well dress up as a unicorn.

"I trust you've deactivated the security cameras?"

"Naturally. Client confidentiality is part of the service at Rembrite Women's Apparel. Make yourself at home, Celeste."

As soon as the doors are locked and the blinds lowered, the Asian giant does just so - pressing a hidden button on her wrist that dissolves her entire figure in a sparkle of light. Curls of snowy white hair cascade down a curvy body of powder-blue skin. Lola drinks in the alien eyes, golden as starlight, and the horns curling over Celeste's ears. This woman never fails to take her breath away.

"I'm curious to see the new footwear you've prepared," Celeste hums in her melodious, girlish tones.

"Trust me, Celeste, these boots are to die for!"

"Pa na isho, I hope not," Celeste titters. "I would most enjoy them while still living."

Lola joins in the laugh. She's never been sold on charity cases, but colour her surprised - sometimes it pays to farm out your website design out to your best friend's daughter's shut-in school pal.

Lola sips her champagne while Celeste test-walks the new, knee-high boots, clopping across the boutique in a natural catwalk strut. Following the curvy woman, Lola feels her head bubbling with new designs, most of them involving lingerie.

Something bold, something that growls 'take-charge'. For some reason, leopard print comes to mind.

"How do those feel, Celeste?"

"Remarkably comfortable." Sitting down on a cushioned stool, Celeste unzips her footwear, sliding out a smooth blue leg tipped with a hard, cloven hoof. Such a shame, Lola reflects, that this visitor from the stars would never get to appreciate open-toed heels or summer sandals, but with a touch of Rembrite ingenuity, she could at least walk comfortably and fashionably. No one would ever realize the boots were leather casings with false heels and toe-fronts.

"There is a slight pinch around the ankle. Could you -?"

"I'll get that ironed out," Lola nods, exchanging the offered boots for a champagne flute. Celeste's holographic camouflage would mask her alien horns and skin, but clothing – proper fitting and fashionable clothing? That was a challenge when your closest human reference was a socially-stunted "gamer girl" whose concept of high fashion meant putting on a bra outdoors.

"Are tonight's materials sufficient for your needs?" Celeste gestures to the alien tablet on Lola's bureau, currently projecting a 3D hologram of a green-skinned humanoid in dancing veils.

"More than enough! All these designs are really getting my brain buzzing!"

Lola swipes the air, swapping the green alien for a half-humanoid, half-snake model. According to Celeste, there were hundreds of sentient races across the stars, joining hands, claws or tentacles to form a harmonious galactic community. Politics, culture and – most importantly – commerce. For all their different body types, the desire to look glamorous was a universal concept.

Human wardrobe in exchange for galactic fashion magazines. Lola's Stellar Woman dresses were a viral hit for their 'out of this world' inspiration.

Lola tidies up her latest sketch, adapting the snake-woman's tight tail wrap into a slit skirt for human legs. Her drawing is in black and white, but already she's imagining the top and skirt on a curvy, tanned frame; a mature woman flipping her blonde hair and offering a saucy, come hither wink.

Whoa, girl. Breathing deeply, Lola composes herself. You've got a client who needs your attention.

Lola strokes her collar as she gives Celeste another once-over. White scars marring her blue skin spoke of the hardships endured, and overcome. The galaxy had given Celeste a raw deal - shunned by her people, exiled from her home planet, roughing it on her own as a mercenary - but through these trials she emerged all the more beautiful and confident. Now that's the woman I'd want as my partner.

As if sensing her lady-killer intent, Celeste glances up and raises an eyebrow. Lola plays it casual, smiling and swirling her champagne.

"So, Celeste, when are you going to let me take you out to dinner?"

The alien's smile wrinkles at the corners. "You are too kind, Miss Rembrite, but I must decline. Even with holo-plating, it would not do for me to be seen in such public venues."

"Aw, that's no fun. You spend too much time hiding. A beauty like you deserves to be seen, to be admired. With your looks and my outfits, you'd be the second-most admired woman in town."

"Second-most?"

"Well, I don't mean to brag but, c'mon - I've got a pretty nice package, don't you think?"

Lola pulls her own catwalk moves, turning and flexing a hip to flaunt her back 'assets', a practiced move that's earned her countless double-takes from men and women alike.

Celeste shakes her head and exhales.

"Lola, your advances are flattering, but I have found my mate."

Lola purses her lips. "You and that coffee shop girl. You've really got something going, huh?"

"Nicole is my precious chiletto. She and I are one."

"Clearly you see something in her that I don't." A shut-in content to serve coffee and play video games all her life? I thought they called it 'settling down', not 'settling for less'.

"Lola, what is your human age?"

Lola feigns shock. "Celeste, here on Earth it's not polite to ask a lady's age. But just between us girls, I'm twenty-five going on twenty-six."

Newly part of the 'Christmas cake club' according to Aiko - past her prime and going stale, not that she gave those misogynist Japanese proverbs any mind. How many other twenty-somethings were poised to storm the fashion world with their home-grown business, to say nothing of her tennis trophies and university degree. Hell, her cooking could give Julia Child a run for her money!

"Twenty-five…" The alien does some mental tallies and nods. "Perhaps when you are more mature you will appreciate having a home - a foundation - and a partner to whom you may return."

"Mature? Celeste, you joker! If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were calling me a kid."

The alien woman just smiles and finishes her champagne. "I should be retiring."

"Well, if that's how you feel…" Lola allows herself a microsecond to sigh.

"Are three of your solar cycles sufficient time for the adjustments?"

"Three? With my skills, I'll have the boots ready in two."

"Stellar."

Lola walks her client to the door, determined to keep a brave face. It stings when relationships and business deals fall through, but this is simply a small bump on her uphill road to success. Like battle-scarred Celeste, she'll walk on all the stronger for this setback.

"You could always bring this Nicole with you," Lola adds, a final offer. "A girl's first ménage should be unforgettable. You and me - we'd be the perfect -"

"Good night, Miss Rembrite."

The door slams shut. Lola sighs.

"I guess there's no helping some people."

With her social calendar newly empty, Lola returns to the alien holo-pad to complete her sketches. If she can't have Celeste to spice up her nightlife, at least she can use the woman's memory to inspire her designs.

An independent woman… shunned by her people… exiled from home… Lola closes her eyes. The images flow through her mind's eye and into her fingertips, immortalized on page. She takes the roughest jobs… the dirtiest work… and even still, she comes out all the more confident and beautiful. Nothing can stop her.

Lola's heart pounds, imagining this perfect woman in her arms. Her pencils slash and skritch across the page, rubbing down her desires. Her cheeks flush. Her legs clench. When her drawing is complete - when her muse has come - Lola stifles a gasp. She raises the page to the light -

What the -?

A curvy, blonde woman. Human - no horns, no hooves, her generous curves pressing snug against a leopard-print top and ripped jeans. Her smile brims with youth's playfulness but behind her eyes are a mother's wizened soul. Every detail captured perfectly down to the cigarettes Jess hides in her back pocket.

Lola tries to process her drawing, but this is beyond her. She flops back, lets the page flutter to the ground as she laughs at herself. "Lola, Lola, Lola. Falling for your best friend…"

There really was no helping some people.