The Space Between by Maggie Robbins

Author:Maggie Robbins [Robbins, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

Daphne

As much as I hadn’t wanted to, I decided for one of the few times in the history of my career at NASA, to join some of my colleagues for dinner upon my return to Houston a few days later. It had been a very impromptu and casual retirement party for a fellow researcher, a biological engineer named Edward. Most of my entire research division had come along, it was a group of a dozen of us or so. Unlike my friendship with Mason, I wasn’t close to most of these people. I didn’t know Edward very well, but he’d always been a kind person.

We’d ended up at a small restaurant on the beach on Galveston Island. A place I avoided as often as possible, due to its touristy nature. The party had started late into the evening, the sun already setting, streaking the sky with pinks and oranges that reflected off the water. The light pollution, while less here on the island than in downtown Houston, still made it difficult to make out as many stars as I would have liked. Nothing had remotely compared to the view onboard the ISS, so it hadn’t mattered much.

I did my best to focus on the random conversations at the table. I had sat next to my intern, and two female colleagues, Stephanie and Kelly. On the far end of the table, where Edward had been sitting, Dr. Hale sat, with my ex-husband beside him. Michael hadn’t been in Houston long, yet somehow, he’d made friends with nearly everyone. His charismatic personality was infectious, so I wasn’t completely surprised. But still, it bothered me.

“How’s your research going?” Kelly asked me, and it brought my focus back to the people around me, which I was grateful for. “Dr. Hale told us that you managed to secure more funding for the project.”

The mention of the securing of the funding had me thinking of Michael all over again. That hadn’t been my doing this time, unfortunately. “Actually, it was Dr. Riddler that gave the presentation,” I replied, hating having to give the man any sort of credit at all, but I wasn’t a liar. I wouldn’t take credit where it wasn’t due, unlike him. “And he did quite well, to be honest.”

“Commander Peters is doing well, too?” Stephanie asked. “It must be interesting working so closely with an astronaut aboard the ISS.” The comment was most likely harmless, just casual conversation, but the mention of our “closeness” and our working relationship gave an uncomfortable tumble in my stomach. No one knew about what I had done in Florida a few days prior. No one knew of the things I had admitted to Ruby that had indicated that I was far more invested in her than purely work colleagues.

And no one was going to find out, I hoped. “She’s been very helpful,” I decided to say, taking a sip of my water and a bite of my food to try and distract myself from speaking any further on the matter.

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