The Universe Between Us

by Jane C. Esther

  Jolie shivered as a chill radiated down her spine. “I feel better already, actually. Want to take these annoying clothes off again?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “She kissed me,” Nova said as she repositioned herself on her bed. Jolie leaned on her elbow in rapt attention. “Karlee fucking kissed me. And then fucking fucked me.”

  “You sound sort of mad about that,” Jolie said.

  “Yes, I’m mad, because you know what she said when we were messing around in her bed?”

  “I really can’t wait to hear.”

  “I think you can.” Nova huffed. “She was drunk, so I’ll take about five percent of the responsibility away from her, but it’s still no excuse. She said your name.”

  Jolie popped straight up. “What? That’s a thing that actually happens? I always thought that was an urban legend to discourage extramarital affairs or something.” She shook her head.

  “I wouldn’t have believed it either. But it happened. Apparently, she has the hots for you so bad that she has to sleep with me and pretend it’s you.”

  “That’s messed up,” Jolie said solemnly.

  “No kidding. I don’t even look remotely like you. How she managed to fool herself into thinking that is beyond me.”

  “Wow.” Jolie smiled. “I’m almost sorry you told me that.” She quickly cascaded into full-blown laughter. A moment later, Nova joined her.

  “Oh, man, I needed that,” Jolie said.

  “After the week I’ve had, me too. So. Tell me about your love life.” Nova’s face lit up with anticipation.

  “Hold onto your britches.” She paused for effect. “So, I told you that we had that super romantic night in the apple orchard, right?”

  “Yes, you did. Did you finally get to home plate?”

  Jolie covered her face in her hands. “Maybe. Maybe a lot of times.”

  “Oh my God, I’m so happy for you. It’s been way too long since you’ve been properly laid.”

  “You sound like a frat boy.” Jolie rolled her eyes.

  “Frat boy, sorority girl…”

  Jolie rolled onto her back. “I just don’t know what to do.”

  “What do you mean?” Nova asked. “It sounds like you know who to do, at least.”

  “I just moved into her house like a month ago, and I’m acting like an idiot. You don’t go and sleep with your roommate. That’s like Roommates 101.”

  “Okay, but it’s Lesbians 101 that you do.” Nova chuckled.

  “Also, the reason she wanted a roommate in the first place is because she is going on some lifelong work trip and she wants me to stay at her house for who knows how long. Who wants to be in a relationship that will last a few months at most?”

  “You’re looking at her.” Nova pointed to herself. “Also, Karlee. She would be happy to be in a relationship for a few minutes, especially if it’s with you.”

  “I don’t think she wants a relationship. It’s called sex addiction.”

  Nova laughed. “So true. And I am, apparently, more than happy to be her sex toy.”

  “Clearly not that happy. If she were less annoying, I’d be happy to be her sex toy. I mean, before Ana happened.”

  “Christ. How did we end up back on Karlee again? We were talking about your roommate-slash-love interest. Anyway, I’m happy for you. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that you two had the hots for each other. How was it, by the way?” Nova wiggled her eyebrows and poked Jolie in the stomach.

  “Wonderful, obviously.”

  “Obviously.”

  They lay side by side in silence for a moment. “So, have you figured out what her job is yet? I think she’s some kind of spy.” Nova giggled.

  “You’re ridiculous. She’s a biochemist.”

  “That’s what a spy would say. Plus, biochemists don’t just disappear off the face of the Earth all of a sudden.”

  Jolie shrugged. “I don’t know. She fixed my leg. And she’s always up in the middle of the night doing science things in her lab and talking to her friends from all over the world. Especially a hot one from Paris. Anyway, apparently I’ll find out her real deal after she’s gone for good.” Jolie gazed out the window into the night. “Which is unfortunate because I am fucked. I know that we just got together, but I really, really like her. And I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual.”

  “Oh, honey.” Nova put an arm around her. “Not that I want you to be sad, but I do want to point out that at some point, it will end, whether or not she leaves. Eventually, one of you would die, even if you made it through everything else. You might as well live it up while you have the chance.”

  “Great, lovely thought, Nova.” Jolie rolled her eyes. “It’s not the same, though. It’s different when you know that it’s going to end soon.”

  “Isn’t it better this way? You know exactly what’s going to happen, so you can plan for it. It sounds kind of perfect to me.”

  Jolie sighed. “How so? I’d rather be in the dark and have hope that it could last forever. Otherwise, what’s the point? You don’t make yourself vulnerable for someone if you don’t think it will last. How could we even really be together if we’re both holding back?” She rubbed her face with her hands. “Let’s talk about something else. This is depressing me.”

  “Okay. How’s the prep for your art show coming?”

  “Fine,” Jolie said quickly.

  “Fine?”

  “Yep.”

  Nova looked at her with feigned annoyance. “Want to go get a drink at the Station?”

  Jolie wasn’t usually one to use alcohol to forget her problems, but that seemed like the perfect solution right now. Just then, she felt the familiar buzz of a message against her wrist. She held it up to her ear and listened.

  Nova’s eyes went wide. “Who is it? Is that Ana? Does she want to come to the bar with us?” Nova practically inserted herself between the bracelet and her ear.

  “She wanted to know if I’d be home soon.”

  “Booty call.” A wide grin swept across Nova’s face.

  “Booty call, or making sure I won’t be around for some top secret spy stuff.”

  “I told you,” Nova said, smugly.

  Jolie ignored her. “I’ll ask her if she wants to come.” She pressed the phone icon on her wrist and it immediately connected with Cassiopeia, who would notify Ana of the call. She heard a click.

  “Hi,” Ana said, shyly.

  “Hi.” A slow smile formed on Jolie’s lips. She saw Nova roll her eyes and realized she was taking too long. “Nova’s here with me and we’re going to Station Bar. Want to join?”

  “A bar? Not normally my thing, but I’m not getting anything done here, so sure.”

  Nova gave her the thumbs up. “Okay, it’s pretty swanky, just so you know,” Jolie said.

  “Got it. See you in a bit.”

  Jolie ended the call and turned to face a suspicious Nova. “It’s not that swanky,” Nova said.

  “Oh, that was just for me. It’s not my fault she looks hot all dressed up.”

  Nova laughed. “I love the way you think.”

  They both turned at a knock on the door. Karlee stuck her head in and Jolie cringed before catching herself. The last thing she wanted to do was fend off Karlee’s advances all night.

  “Did I hear something about Station?”

  “Yeah, want to come?” Nova asked. “Otherwise, I’ll be the odd lady out.”

  “I’ll be ready in five.” Karlee disappeared as quickly as she had come.

  Jolie turned to Nova. “Did you have to?”

  “Oh, she’s harmless. And she’s a good friend, if you give her a chance.”

  “If you say so,” Jolie said, stretching and cracking her neck. “Let’s go do our faces and make sure we look sexy.”

  “Double dating. I never thought I’d see the day.”

  Jolie smiled and tugged Nova toward her by the waist. “We’ve come a long
way, babe.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ana twisted her hair into a bun for the fifth time. It looked okay, but not exactly perfect. She took it down again and hastily brushed the thick strands with her fingers. She didn’t understand why she was getting so worked up. It was a downtown bar, not a meeting with the CEO of Hammer Corporation. She’d feel much better wearing a suit, but that wasn’t really appropriate for a night out. Three black dresses were thrown in a heap on her desk, none of them worn. Her mother had bought them for her years ago, and she wasn’t even sure if they still fit. They were the only garments in her closet that screamed swanky.

  She turned her bedroom walls into a 360 degree mirror and appraised herself. The long-sleeved, shimmery dress she had chosen was fairly conservative, but she imagined the lack of skin would have Jolie wishing she could see what was underneath. Satisfied, she grabbed a coat and headed out the door. She was in such a hurry to get into the truck that she barely registered her wrist buzzing. It was Martine, who had projected a small hologram of herself that floated ghost-like against the backdrop of night.

  “Calling an emergency meeting of the HammerOne crew,” she said in her Parisian lilt.

  Ana sighed and went back to the house. She hoped this one was short. She didn’t want Jolie waiting for her all night. After sending a quick message apologizing to Jolie for her impending lateness, she projected her own hologram to the group. Soon, she was surrounded by the faces of her fellow crew members, several of whom had been awakened and were in various states of yawning and stretching. Luke was actively falling back asleep, and she sent him a private ping to wake him up. He smiled at her and ran his hand through his mop of blond hair.

  The entire crew was family at this point, but she had favorites, and carefree Luke was one of them. They rarely talked outside of meetings, but they had the most similar personalities in the group. When they lived together full-time in a few months, she was sure they’d become closer.

  Martine had an indecipherable look on her face, and Ana braced for the news. “Thank you for meeting on such short notice. I’ll make this quick. I’ve received word from Hammer’s intelligence division that our competition, let’s call them Mission 2, is on a time frame to leave one week earlier than we plan to. With what we know about the MarsOne incident, and its connection to Mission 2, we should all watch our backs. I ask that you keep your eyes and ears open, and don’t share information with anyone outside of our group. Never has this been more important than now, since we are only months away from departure. Please be advised that we will have to make changes in our mission schedule based on this.”

  Nobody spoke, but Kyoko, Udeme and Carlos nodded. Liv and Luke both look like they’d already fallen back asleep. Ana wondered if Martine had heard of a threat against one of them. A competing mission could mean, at best, a jump in funding and preparation for their own, or at worst, direct sabotage and cancellation over lack of resources if the other one left before theirs did. There was only enough ready built shelter for one small team, and the privatization of the missions meant that neither would be working together.

  “What do we do?” Kyoko asked.

  “At this point, we wait,” Martine said. “I’ve been discussing mission details with Dr. Mitchell, and she’ll make the final recommendation after she talks to the rest of the stakeholders. I’ll keep you all apprised. That’s it for now, have a good night, or morning.”

  Martine shrunk back into her wrist, and one by one, the rest of the crew followed. A sick feeling replaced the excitement she’d had at going out. Nothing had changed about the mission, not exactly, not yet. But she knew it would, and all she could think about was how Jolie would react to a change in the timeline for their already abridged relationship. She didn’t feel like going out anymore, but she hadn’t seen Jolie since this morning, and she missed her. Reluctantly, she gathered herself and made her way to the truck.

  The town center was busy for a Thursday night, and Ana had to park several blocks away. She navigated around couples and through a group of loud college students, bristling at their recklessness. When she finally got to the entrance, an unassuming, poorly lit wooden door, she was anxious and annoyed, not to mention exhausted from the day.

  The hostess pointed her to a table at the back of the long cylindrical room. It resembled the belly of a steam engine, dark walls lined with small tables, almost all of them occupied. She spotted Nova, who was laughing at something said by a petite blonde seated next to her. The blonde leaned across the table and touched Jolie’s arm, too intimately as far as Ana was concerned. She fumed inside and turned back toward the door. Maybe she should just go home. It was a mistake to come here in her current mood. She started toward the door when she felt a hand on her arm.

  “Hey, didn’t you see us?” Jolie stood before her, puzzled at her attempted departure.

  “Yeah, sorry, I wasn’t feeling well all of a sudden, so I thought I’d go home.”

  “Aww, don’t leave. Come hang out with us.” Jolie looked at her with such disappointment and hope that she cracked inside.

  “Okay,” she said unhappily. “I’ll stay for a little while.”

  She felt slightly more herself as Jolie took her hand and led her to the table. They passed table after table of nice jeans, T-shirts and sweaters, but nobody was dressed half as nicely as she was. “Hey, I thought you said this place was swanky.”

  Jolie stopped walking and turned toward her, snaking her arms around her waist. “Maybe I just wanted you to dress up for me. Is that a crime?”

  Jolie leaned in for a kiss that tasted like whiskey. Under other circumstances, she would have enjoyed dressing up for her, and may have even liked the taste of her lips, but today was not that day. Ana fell further into a funk as they approached the table. Nova greeted her first, giving her a tight squeeze.

  “It’s so good to see you again. You look fabulous in this dress,” Nova said.

  “Thanks,” she said, annoyed that her appearance was affording her more attention than normal.

  “This is my sorority sister, Karlee.” She saw Karlee size her up as she stood and stuck her hand out.

  “Hi, you must be Ana,” Karlee said, too sweetly. “We’ve all heard so much about you.”

  Ana shook her hand briefly, not at all impressed with this Karlee character, and took the seat next to Jolie.

  The service robot didn’t miss a beat, maneuvering toward their table between the standing, chatting patrons. She ordered a seltzer with lime, reminding herself of the importance of being sober and not sharing secrets she knew might slip out innocently in a moment of weakness. As they made small talk, she noticed that Karlee avoided looking at her, instead focusing on Jolie and touching Nova’s arm.

  “So, Jo, you coming to our talent show next week?” Karlee asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.” Jolie shrugged. “What’s your talent going to be?”

  “You don’t want to know.” Nova rolled her eyes. “Worse than her usual performance.”

  “Hey, no fair. At least I’m participating, you wimp. I’m doing a burlesque type dance to our song.”

  Ana almost choked on her drink. “You have a song?”

  Jolie blushed and shook her head. “Not like that. Nova, Karlee and I used to drive around last year listening to ‘Touch Me, Touch You’ by The Grinders.”

  “Oh. Sounds fun,” Ana said, unconvinced. Of course, Jolie could do what she wanted, but if she had to think about Karlee doing a striptease for Jolie to a song about touching each other, she thought she might throw up. Especially if it took away precious time from Ana that she and Jolie could be spending together.

  “Hey, I’m going to run to the bathroom,” Ana said to Jolie in a low voice. Her head was spinning and she wondered if she’d been given the wrong drink.

  There was a six person deep line for two single bathrooms. Ana sighed and queued up, avoiding an appreciative gaze from the man in front of her. She wasn’t in the mood, and his cologne was
making her nauseous. She felt a hand on the small of her back and turned around to admonish the person who’d accidentally touched her.

  “Whoa. Easy there, tiger,” Jolie said.

  “I’m sorry. I thought it was a stranger.”

  “The way you were acting back there, I might as well be,” Jolie said.

  “I’m sorry. I got some bad news right as I was leaving the house and I shouldn’t have come. It’s like, you guys have your own thing. I thought being around people was a good idea, but I feel worse than if I had just stayed home alone.” Ana took a deep breath and sighed loudly.

  “Hey, I’m glad you came.” Jolie put her arms around Ana’s waist and pulled her close. “Karlee was being a little too flirty with me and I was kind of thinking she’d stop if you were here. Ever since I told her we were together, she’s been acting weird.”

  “Thank you for saying that. I thought it was just me in my terrible mood.”

  “Aww, were you jealous?” Jolie pushed a stray hair behind Ana’s ear.

  “No,” Ana said, scrunching her face up. “Why would I be jealous of a hot woman closer to your age who won’t be running off soon?”

  Jolie just smiled and looked into her eyes. “Let’s go home and see if we can’t make each other forget about all that.” She squeezed Ana’s butt, bringing an immediacy to her need to get out of here.

  Just like that, Ana’s doubt and jealousy melted away, and even the weight of the mission news didn’t seem all that bad. Of all the things she would miss, how was she going to leave this behind?

  “Come on.” Jolie dragged her from the bathroom line, out into the bar, and back to the table. “Hey, guys, we’re going to head out. I just realized how tired I am.”

  Nova raised her eyebrows. “Really. Okay, you two, have fun sleeping.” She snickered to Karlee as Jolie shot her a withering look.

  “Bye,” Karlee said to Jolie, not bothering to acknowledge Ana.

  Jolie shrugged as they walked to the door. “Okay, then,” she said.