Page 25 of Supernova

"Again!" they say in unison, nudging one another with their elbows as they laugh.

"But not until Enzo and Allegra leave," Frankie says as they round the bend and dip back onto the street that leads to the one they live on. "It's given me a good excuse to hang out on my back patio and to go for walks with you, because my mother hates cigarette smoke."

"What about your dad's cigars?" Jo asks.

"Eh," Frankie says, turning both palms to the sky. "One of the many millions of little things you overlook in a marriage that's lasted a million years."

"I guess we all have things we overlook," Jo says.

"I guess we all do," Frankie agrees.

TWELVE

bill

Bill hashis own cubicle at Cape Kennedy, and he likes to get there early each morning and sip a cup of coffee while looking through the memos that pile up in his inbox each afternoon, and which he purposely leaves for morning.

"Bill!" Jeanie Florence stops in her tracks. Her cubicle is about fifty feet away from Bill's, and she seems startled to see him as she walks across the quiet office space with a cup of coffee and a stir stick in hand. "I didn't think anyone else came in this early."

Bill sits back in his chair and gazes out at the way the sun is slowly climbing over the horizon. It's nearing the end of January, and the blazing orange ball of fire is rising quickly, spreading light across the flat Florida landscape.

"I like to come in and watch the sunrise," he says, taking a sip of his own coffee. "It's so peaceful out there before everyone is out and about, and it's so quiet in here before people start to trickle in."

"That's why I like to come in early," Jeanie says, stirring the cream in her coffee. "I love being here before anyone else."

"Have a seat," Bill says, sweeping a hand at the empty chair in the cubicle next to his. "We can watch the sunrise together."

"You sure?" Jeanie waits for him to nod. "Okay, then don't mind if I do."

They roll their chairs so that they're in the middle of an aisle between all the cubicles, facing the sunrise with cups of coffee in hand. They watch together in meditative silence for a few minutes, drinking coffee and thinking their own thoughts.

"Hey, Bill?" Jeanie asks, breaking the silence. "Do you think we'll get to the moon anytime soon? Do you really believe it?"

Bill looks at the rocket platforms outside the building as he considers her question. "I do," he says. "I believe it as much as Kennedy did. I think the moon is within reach, and I want to be one of the first people to see it with my own eyes."

"I wish I could see it," Jeanie says wistfully, her body leaned back in her chair as she rests her coffee against her chest. "But it'll be some time before women reach the moon."

Bill blinks a couple of times and then looks at her profile as the sun bathes her skin in warm, golden light. Of course he knows that Jeanie is a scientist who is fascinated by space travel, but it hadn't occurred to him that she might want to go to the moon herself. How could itnothave occurred to him?

"I think it will happen," Bill says with as much confidence as he can muster. Because, after all, who is he to say? He sometimes feels like he wakes up and swims through his life just as much as the next guy, hoping to do and say the right things, to make the people around him happy, and to learn something along the way.

Jeanie nods next to him, both hands wrapped around her coffee mug. "In the meantime, I just want to be as much a part of space travel as I can. I want to discover things, be a part of the team, and help put our people on the moon. It's all I've ever wanted."

Maybe because they're watching something as magnificent as a sunrise as they talk about putting humans on the moon, andmaybe because they're the first two people in the office, waking up together over a cup of coffee, Bill feels a real connection to Jeanie. There's an open friendliness to her that he appreciates. Over the past few months, Bill has conveniently forgotten how much of his imagination she'd captured during the trip he'd taken to Washington D.C. with his son Jimmy's sixth-grade class, and he hopes to continue to think of Jeanie as nothing more than an esteemed colleague.

"Bill?" Jeanie says, her voice soft and hopeful as the sky turns pink and then blue before their eyes.

"Yes?"

"I appreciate how nice you've been to me. I felt very welcomed here when I met you, and I think you're a really special guy."

All of Bill's intentions to think of Jeanie as some version of a male colleague with long hair and short dresses fly out the window and Bill flushes hotly. "Oh?"

"Yeah. Your wife is a lucky gal, and I'd really like to meet her sometime. I hope that when I meet a guy to settle down with, he's smart and forward-thinking like you."

It might be the tone of her voice as she says it, but Bill comes right back down to Earth when he realizes that Jeanie sees him as someone much older than her; a big brother figure, of sorts.

"I think when you land on the right guy, he'll be everything you want him to be, Jeanie. I can't imagine you settling for anything less."

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