Page 3 of Even If the Sky is Falling
“Uh, sure, if you think we’ll hear it.” Halley reached for the radio controls and a familiar song burst through the speakers—one that she and Griff danced to before. The impassioned lyrics hit Halley in the gut and Griffin stiffened at the sound, gripping the steering wheel more tightly. The heady voice of H.E.R. crooned melodically over a slow beat and the strum of an electric guitar. Flinching, Halley fumbled to quickly change the station, turning the music to a smooth jazz station with instrumental piano playing.
Griff mumbled thanks, and Halley turned to stare out the passenger window, but she was too deep in thought to take in the scenery. The last time they heard that song, “Every Kind of Way,” they’d slow danced in their apartment, celebrating an anniversary. Halley squeezed her eyes shut, remembering their bodies pressed together as they moved along with the sensual song. She’d hummed the lyrics with her face pressed against his neck as Griff held one of Halley’s hands to his heart as he ran the fingertips of his other hand along the small of her back.
Halley remembered his muscular body felt so hard against the softness of her curves, and when he dipped his head to kiss her, she tasted the remnants of the lemon torte cake they’d shared at the anniversary dinner. That night, she was sure that, whatever their trajectory, they were meant to be together. Two months later, she learned via text that she was moving out, and they’d avoided each other anytime they were both at headquarters ever since. In the past year, Halley never got further than a couple of dates; her walls were raised to barricade heights to protect her from ever falling so deeply again. Instead, she threw herself into her work, taking each promotion as assurance that there was nothing wrong with her while closing herself off to new possibilities of love.
She opened her eyes and stared out at the terrain. They’d left the city behind and houses were more sparse with large plots of land. The highway was paved at the foot of two large mountains, splitting the space between the two like a dividing wall. Halley pictured Griff on one side of an invisible barrier with her on the other.
“Just sit tight for a couple of minutes, I have to clear the station.” They’d pulled up to the gate of the station, which looked dark inside. The back of the building abutted the base of a mountain, with satellite dishes and safety sirens affixed to the roof along with solar paneling. Griffin put the SUV into Park, surveying the property in front of them.
Not far from the Rocky Mountain National Park, the team had turned off the highway onto a dirt road that wound around foothills and brush to a secluded area unlikely to be visited by random hikers or passersby needing a rest stop.
Halley rolled her eyes from the passenger seat. “Come on, Griff. No one is here. The team assigned to this station is a skeleton crew, and they don’t have anyone working here on Fridays.” She looked at the empty parking lot and the dark windows as indication that no one was present, even though she knew from experience that there could be unexpected visitors within the station.
“People do stupid things all the time, Halley. Let me do my job,” Griff muttered. He side-eyed Song, whose bag of stout bottles clanked as he jumped out of the SUV. “Song, I just said to sit tight. What are you doing, man?” His six-foot-three frame towered above Song’s five-foot-six.
Song opened his mouth to protest and then climbed back into the truck.
Halley leaned over the center console to look at Griffin through the driver’s-side window. “Fine, just hurry up. If we get everything implemented, we can get back to the airport in time to go home tonight,” she replied gruffly.
“What’s the rush?” Griffin’s eyebrow raised slowly. “You got a hot date or somethin’ waiting for you back home?”
Song shifted uncomfortably in the back seat, his bottles clinking together as a reminder that this conversation was in a public forum.
Halley clicked her tongue and shook her head as she turned to stare out the window while he moved to open the gate and secure the station—his service weapon on his hip.Home.When Halley and Griffin broke up, she moved out of their spacious two-bedroom town house in Alexandria, Virginia, and found a small studio with enough space for her cat to roam and a closet big enough for her shoe collection. These days, poor Luna spent more time being watched by Halley’s sister, Nova, than she did with Halley. Just before this last trip, Luna left an unpleasant surprise in Halley’s suitcase, forcing Halley to use a duffel bag and buy some fresh clothes.
“Guys, I’m gonna make a couple of calls. I’ll be outside,” Halley said over her shoulder, exiting the vehicle before she received a response. Holding up her phone, she dialed the first person listed on her Favorites list.
“Hey, sis, did you make it okay?”
“Hi, Nova. We made it to the station. Griffin is here.” She lowered her head and her voice, assuming the two in the truck were actively attempting to ear hustle.
Halley was met with a moment of silence. The last time Nova heard anything about Griffin, she said she would choose violence on sight if she ran into him around town. “Ugh. So he hasn’t crawled up his own ass and died,” Nova observed. “Is that weird for you?”
“Weird doesn’t begin to cut it.” She sighed. “How’s my Luna?”
“Chile, your cat is fine. How’s my couch is more like it,” Nova snapped. “Just know that if this cat ends up missing, it’s because she’s scratching up all my damn furniture and peeing in my shoes.”
“I’m so sorry, sis. I should have warned you,” Halley groaned.
“Is this some sort of cat phase or is she punishing me because I’m not you? Or is this some sort of comedy that I don’t appreciate? Like, what kind of animal mastermind is at work here for this level of foolery?”
Halley pictured Nova’s tilted head and pursed lips complementing her tone. She coughed to stifle a laugh. “Honestly, it could be either.”
“This is why I like dogs. You can tell that they’re happy to see you, there are very clear boundaries as far as excrement and I don’t have to worry that they might decide to overthrow humanity and smother me in my sleep.”
Halley could hear Nova moving around her apartment—she worked remotely as a strategic consultant. Drawers and cabinets were opening and closing in the background, which meant she was probably getting ready to make dinner. Complain as she might, Nova secretly loved when Halley left town and Luna came to stay. Halley grinned. “Luna had better be in perfect condition when I get back or I’m telling Dad that you have his missing wine Coravin.”
“Now that’s just dirty, Hal. Jesus. Let me live one wineglass at a time!” Nova cackled into the phone, and Halley pictured her full head of honeyed curls bouncing along.
Halley chuckled. “Try me.”
“But seriously, how is the installation going?” Nova knew Halley’s role in implementing the US system and often joked around about the sky falling, but that was before the piece of the old space station fell into the Atlantic and freaked out residents all along the East Coast. “We don’t have anything to worry about, right?”
Halley exhaled slowly, shaking her head. “Nothing to worry about, Nov. We haven’t received any reports of activity that would be cause for alarm, and if there was a cause for concern, you know better than most what to do if there is any issue. Right?”
“Yes, Hal. You’ve practically drilled it into me—if I hear the siren go off, I’m to immediately go to the basement and stay away from the windows until we get three siren blasts or the text alert that we’re all clear,” Nova exasperatedly repeated to Halley the instructions she’d heard over and over again.
Halley opened her mouth to add a piece that Nova had forgotten, but Nova continued before she could say anything.
