Page 7 of Space Crush
I take Evan’s light laughter for agreement as he adjusts the controls to drive seamlessly over the curb and onto the grass.
Relaxing against the seat back, I’m both grateful for Evan taking the shortcut to Building Ten and for the fact that my bare ass isn’t bouncing all over the seat thanks to the LTV’s self-leveling technology that will enable astronauts to smoothly re-explore the moon’s rough terrain.
I may be a safety engineer with a wardrobe malfunction, but I defy anyone to ride in an LTV andnotgeek out.
“By the way”—Evan keeps his eyes straight ahead—“thanks for the bouncy house rescue.”
I snort, remembering unearthing him from the ball pit. “Well, as my job is all about safety, I couldn’t have just left you.”
The stomach flutters, the ones that had me agreeing to go to dinner with Evan two weeks ago, are back.
“And while I’m sorry your pants split and for the, uh, other thing”—we glide to the right as he simultaneously turns all four wheels to a forty-five degree angle, sending the rover into a glide to avoid a ditch before straightening out again—“I’m glad we finally have this chance to catch up.”
Dang it. I should’ve seen this coming.
Gauging the distance between us and Building Ten, I will the rover to speed up. “Ah, yeah. I’ve been kind of busy lately.”
Evan’s brow cocks at my lame excuse. “So busy you couldn’t return a call or a text?”
I wince at being called out.
“I thought things were going great,” he says almost to himself, as if he’s running over every aspect of our dates. “I just want to make sure I didn’t do something wrong.”
Guilt sucker-punches me.
I hadn’t meant to make him anxious. I just needed some space.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” I drop a hand on his shoulder, squeezing. His muscles bunch beneath my touch. “I’m sorry about going M.I.A.” Dropping my hand, I shift in my seat, my bare skin chafing over the carbon fiber weave. “I just needed to think.”
Evan slows the rover to less than a snail’s pace. “What did you need to think about?”
Mentally cringing, I do my best to answer without answering. “I’m still thinking.”
And while that isn’t a lie, it doesn’t mean my thinking this past week has been at all productive. Or that he was wrong when he said things had been going great between us.
I leda course for him and a classroom full of other engineers to recertify in heavy machinery safety. And while I’ve always loved my job as a safety engineer, during those twelve days of recertification, I found myself more eager than usual to get to work.
It was a no-brainer to say yes when Evan asked me to dinner when the course finished.
That first night, we covered a lot of ground, sharing things about our childhood, work, and interests.
He looked impressed when I told him I put myself through college on a softball scholarship, and we laughed over his stories from volunteering as a taste-tester for NASA’s Food Lab (aka kitchen), where the astronaut food is researched, developed, and packaged.
“Dehydrated tuna casserole is awful. I don’t care how much water and mayo you add back to it.”
The night ended with him kissing me on the cheek goodnight in the parking lot.
On our second date, just two days later, he listened as I told him about being raised by a single mother. How my mother, unaware that my father had been seeing other women, was devastated when he ran off with one of them when she told him she was pregnant with me. And even after that heartbreak, every holiday season my mom still loves to tell me and anyone who will listen that I’m the best Christmas gift she ever received, having been born on December 25.
Evan held my hand at the start and smiled at the last.
I’d never shared so much with someone so soon or felt so natural doing it.
And I had a sneaking suspicion that my mother would love him.
Which was confirmed when, just before we closed down the restaurant, Evan opened up about his own mother having died when he was six and his father just two years ago of a heart attack.
And while my heart hurt for him, it also beat faster, knowing he must feel as comfortable as I had to be able to share that part of himself with me so soon.
