the window, watching the skyport grow smaller and smaller as they gained speed. It was a short hop to the larger ship, but he was thirsty and suspected Maisie was as well. He touched her arm and asked, “Are you hungry?”
She nodded. “Can you see if they have any soup? Spicy,” she added. “And with noodles.”
“Okay.” He left his seat in search of the refreshment station and waited in the short line behind other passengers seeking food and drinks. There were a pair of flight attendants in the galley nearby, close enough that he could hear them talking. He kept his gaze forward but listened to what they said, wondering if he might hear something useful.
“All I’m saying is that we should get hazard pay for landing on that janky ass station,” one of the women said. “That thing is older than both of us!”
“I always worry that it’s going to pop a few rivets and explosively decompress,” the other attendant replied. “I thought for sure that’s what happened earlier.”
“False alarm my ass,” the first woman grumbled. “I was in the cockpit asking the captain and first officer for their drink orders when I saw the message pop up on the dash about avoiding the debris.”
“Debris.” The other woman snorted. “That’s one way to describe a dead body.”
“I just want to know how he got out of the airlock. My ex was a mechanic, and he used to tell me about how many redundancies there are on those doors. No way that guy just opened the lock, closed it and waited to be sucked out into space to die.”
“People are weird, Cary. I’ve seen passengers do all kinds of loony shit. Taking a spacewalk without a pressure suit isn’t even the strangest.”
The alarm. The blood on Maisie’s neck. A dead body.
Maisie had done exactly what he had asked. She had lost her tail. Only he hadn’t meant for her to risk her life to vent the man out into space!
The line moved, and Terror stepped forward to order drinks and a cup of dehydrated spicy soup. He carried it to the hot water dispenser, tore open the small opening for adding water and filled it with the steaming hot liquid. He tucked the flap back into place and made a face at the spicy, sour scent of the broth. He wasn’t a fan of exotic flavors and spices. He liked things simple. Holding the hot cup of broth made him want to gag, but Maisie wanted it. After everything she had been through, she deserved whatever small comfort this cup of salt and heat would provide.
When he rejoined her at their seats, she perked up at the sight of the cup and happily took it from his hand. She tugged the sealed package of disposable sticks from the cup and expertly wielded them to peel back the top film and expose the steaming hot soup inside. She stirred the contents, releasing a cloud of peppery, savory scents and loosening up the long strands of noodles inside. He spotted flecks of vegetables and droplets of fiery oil floating on top.
His mouth burned just from looking at the soup, and he watched in a strange sort of amazement as she shoveled the extremely spicy noodles into her mouth. She grinned at him, her expression childlike and sweet, and his heart thumped wildly as he realized how much he absolutely adored her. He suddenly felt like the stupidest asshole in the universe for the way he had behaved back on the cargo ship and at the safe house.
Why was he fighting this? Why was he warring against his own heart? Why couldn’t he just accept that for once in his miserable life something beautiful and pure and good had been entrusted to him? Why couldn’t he let himself have what he wanted? What she obviously wanted?
When the shuttle docked at their long-haul ship, he had made up his mind. He was done running from his feelings. He was done walling himself off and denying himself the love and companionship she was so eagerly and freely offering. I’m going to make her mine.
Of course, little did he know that in his hurry to quickly book a cabin he had overlooked an extremely important detail about the ship he had chosen, a detail that became abundantly clear as he and Maisie departed the shuttle and emerged into the opulent arrivals deck of their new ship.
This wasn’t a regular civilian cruise ship that catered to families