we wait. When the doors slide open, Charley says, “This is so cool. I’ve never been to NASA before.”
“Not even space camp?” I ask as we step on.
She shakes her head and I start to wonder if maybe her family can’t afford it. Because, honestly, that’s the only reason I can think of that someone wouldn’t go to space camp. “Everyone should get a chance to go to space camp — it’s life-changing. They have scholarships, you know. I can get the forms for you if you’d like.”
“That’s really nice of you, but it’s not necessary.”
“I’d be happy to help,” I tell her. “We can use all the brilliant minds we can get around here. And I’d like to be part of setting you on the right track.”
When the doors open to my floor, Serafina says, “He’s trying to get you away from the crazy zodiac woman who’s wasting her brain getting rich when she could be doing something useful like contemplating the cosmos.”
I glance back at her and see she’s got a wry smile on her face. Then, looking at Charley, I say, “She’s not wrong.”
“Did you just say I was right?” Serafina asks me.
I chuckle, then nod. “Don’t get used to it.”
When we get to the Exoplanet Research Center, I swipe my key card and the door swings open leading to the large bullpen where most of the team sits. The screens lining the walls are filled with images of faraway solar systems as well as graphs and charts depicting wobbles, temperature changes, shadows, and all sorts of things that bore the heck out of most people, but I find it positively exhilarating.
The entire team is so quiet, you could hear a Post-it note drop. They’re all hiding behind their computer screens while simultaneously peering over them to take in the newcomers. We’re a roomful of mostly socially awkward intellectuals and I’m their leader. We should just put on our headgear and be done with it. I ignore their gawking and lead Charley and Serafina to my office.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding about not caring about decor,” Serafina says.
Shrugging, I say, “Did you expect to find a bunch of Star Trek figurines or something?” I’m totally pushing it, but there’s no way she can really know what my office usually looks like.
She stares at me for a moment before asking, “Are you not even a Star Trek fan?”
Lifting both hands in the air, I say, “That’s like asking a teenage girl if she likes K-Pop.”
I give Charley an am I right look and she nods while asserting, “Love it.”
“I rest my case,” I say with a grin. “Listen, I don’t want you to go to too much trouble with this. I’m not going to keep whatever it is you do to the office anyway.”
“How do you know when you haven’t seen what I’m going to do?”
“I need to reduce distractions and maintain a professional decorum at all times,” I say. “No offense, but based on what you already told me about adding a bunch of bright colors, I’m kind of expecting it to look like a Ukrainian Easter egg when you’re done here.”
“Clearly you meant no offense …” Serafina says, raising one eyebrow.
Urgh. I should not be allowed to talk to women. “That came out wrong. What I meant to say is that I don’t want you and Charley to kill yourselves. You don’t really know me, so making these types of choices on my behalf means you have an extremely low probability of success.”
“Your faith in me is underwhelming,” she practically growls.
“I just don’t want to set you up for disappointment,” I tell her. “Anyway, is there anything else you need to bring up?”
Nodding, Serafina says, “One more trip.”
“Let’s do this,” I say, glancing at my watch.
By the time the film crew shows up, I’m a little sweaty from lugging the world’s heaviest boxes up from the lobby. One of the makeup artists comes at me with some powder and I try to avoid her only to end up having her powder my ear. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” she tells me.
I pause for a second, tempted to ask for her to enumerate the differences, but settle for a nod, before standing still so she can do her worst. One of the crew opens a large box of donuts and sets it on a table that’s been set up just outside my office. That ought to draw the team out from behind