That was Jo’s plan, anyway. If she played her cards right, she could probably get another paper or two to add to her CV this summer, and then she’d be all set when it came time to get her grad school applications ready in the fall.
Carol arched an eyebrow. “A bunch, sure. But we are in Puerto Rico, you know.”
“So?”
“So, how often do you get to visit here? And in all those e-mails we got from P.J., she said they had a bunch of trips planned.”
Oh, great. So this girl was on a first-name basis with Dr. Galloway, then?
“I don’t know. I’m not a big field trip kind of girl,” Jo hedged.
“Suit yourself. I mean, I’m all about getting my job done. But life is about more than that, you know?”
“If you say so.”
Because life hadn’t ever been that way. Not for her. Not when she was a kid, desperate to live up to expectations that always seemed right about to crush her. And definitely not now.
“I do,” Carol said. She smiled, and it wasn’t mocking or pitying or any of the other hundred belittling responses Jo had received over the years. “Just you wait. I bet you’ll end up having a great time in spite of yourself.”
“Weirder things have happened,” Jo muttered. Louder, she sighed and gestured around the room. “So where should I put my stuff?”
“Right-hand side of the closet is empty, and I left that whole dresser for you.” With that, Carol dropped to perch on the edge of her bed and pulled her laptop closer.
Jo could work with that.
Aware the whole time of the potential for eyes on her, she hauled her suitcases over toward the window and squatted down to tug the zippers open. She hadn’t really had a clue what she was packing for. Already, she could tell she was going to die of the heat, but she hadn’t worn anything but boots in years and wasn’t inclined to stop now. Somehow or other, she’d make do. She dumped her two extra pairs of Docs on the floor of the closet, then started loading socks and underwear and bras into the top drawer of the dresser. She checked over her shoulder to see Carol seemingly immersed in whatever was happening on her computer screen before slipping her vibrator in there, too.
She really hadn’t been planning on having to share a room when she’d decided to bring that.
Before long she was pretty much unpacked. She glanced at the closet to see her array of black and gray and brown hung side by side with Carol’s pink and yellow and purple. Cargo pants and canvas shorts against frilly skirts. It made a weird tangle unfurl in her gut—that mix of superiority at her own utilitarianism and uncertainty. Not for the first time, she wondered how her life would’ve differed if anyone had ever taught her how to be a girl.
“You’re welcome to borrow stuff if you ever want to,” Carol said from behind her.
Jo choked back a laugh. “Thanks. But I don’t think your stuff would really fit me.”
“I don’t know. I’d say we’re about the same size.”
That wasn’t what Jo had been talking about at all. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Okay.” Carol was clearly waiting for reciprocity, but Jo didn’t see much point in offering. Jo’s clothes really wouldn’t fit Carol, either.
Sometimes, Jo wasn’t even sure they fit her.
Adam was sitting on his bed, leaning against the headboard, writing a letter to his grandmother of all the ridiculous things when a knock came on his door. He pulled out one of his earbuds and looked up to see Jared standing in the hall.
“Hey,” Jared said. He jerked his thumb behind him. “Welcome session is down at the main building in half an hour. I was thinking about heading over and maybe poking around a little. Wanna come?”
Do I ever, Adam thought gratefully. Capping his pen, he shrugged. “Why not?” He took a quick second to set his things aside and unhook his headphones before pocketing his (still-silent) phone and hopping off the end of the bed. “You ask Tom?”
“Yeah. He passed.” Jared raised one eyebrow meaningfully, and Adam chuckled.
“Shocker.”
“Pretty much.” They headed out the front door and down the path toward the road. Jared glanced over at the other house as they passed it. “You been over there yet?”
“Kind of?” Adam wasn’t sure exactly how much to say. “Met one of the girls when she got dropped off.”
“Yeah?”
“She, uh, made an impression.” An impression on the back of his skull, mostly. And his toes.
“Good impression or bad impression?”
Adam rubbed at his neck. “A little of both. It was… weird. I’ll let you make up your mind when you meet her.”
“Okay,” Jared said, drawing out the last syllable. “Was she cute at least?”
“Yeah. Sort of. No.” Not cute, exactly. “Hot,” he eventually decided on. “But kind of in a might-just-fuck-you-up type of way.”
Jared made an appraising noise. “That’ll be something, huh? Six of them and three of us?”
“Unusual, anyway.” Astronomy wasn’t as bad as physics, but there were still typically a lot more guys than girls in his classes. Being outnumbered would be a novelty. That probably wasn’t what Jared was asking about, though, considering the first thing he’d wanted to know was if crazy-girl was cute or not. “Why, you looking?”
“Isn’t everybody?”
“I’m not.” Not really anyway, no matter how he’d reacted at the first sight of those piercings and that hair and hint of ink. The way he was still reacting to the thought of it. Even after the way their meeting had gone—especially after the way their meeting had gone.
After the past year of tepid sex, the idea of a girl who got up in his face like that, got physical with him… it had its own appeal. In another world, if he’d been another guy, he might have pushed right back when she had pushed him. She’d have looked so good shoved up against a wall. Felt so good pressed up against him, and he bet she would bite.
All of a sudden, the walk was getting a little uncomfortable, and he tried to think of other things. Like the fact that Jared had just asked him a question. “Huh?”
Jared chuckled. “You got a girl at home or something?”
“It’s… complicated.”
“I’ve heard that story before. How’s ‘complicated’ working out for you?”
His silent phone felt like it was burning a hole in his pocket. “I guess I’ll have to let you know.” He really didn’t want to get into the specifics right now, so he redirected. “How about you? Single?”
“Free as a bird.”
“Well, enjoy it.”
“I always do.”
The road rose up into a pretty steep hill that was going to be a lot of fun on his morning runs, but it was less exciting now, with the late afternoon sun beating down. His damp hair kept falling into his eyes, and he brushed it aside, only to have it slip right back down. After what felt like an awfully long time, the hill crested, and just like that, both of them stopped at once.
“Damn,” Adam let slip.
“You got that right.”
The whole of the observatory campus spread out before them. In one way, it was like any facility he’d been to before, with clusters of buildings linked by asphalt paths, but in other ways it was a sight unique unto itself. There was no doubting they were in the tropics, with palm trees and lush greenery taking up all the unoccupied space. And that was just the beginning.
Because beyond all of that, far off in the distance through the haze, lay the reason they were there. The biggest radio telescope in the world. From this angle, he couldn’t see the giant receiver dish nestled into a crater in the earth, but all the trappings of it were plain as day. The three columns rising from the edges of the dish, soaring umpteen stories into the sky, all connected by cables and walkways, and suspended from the center of them, a half dome of shining metal. Intellectually, he knew it was big enough to house equipment and full-grown men, but from here it looked like it could fit into the palm of his hand. And held inside it were all the optics and receivers and antennae a person needed to look into the vastness of the universe. Into an invisible world of darkness and stars.