The spaceship landed with a thud and Bev’s heart thudded with it. They were back on Earth. Their journey was over. But not completely. After seeing the earth, so innocent and small, all of her problems seemed minuscule by comparison. She didn’t feel she had the right to complain about a broken high heel or having to eat spaghetti again for dinner when she’d rather have steak.
Bev unbuckled her harness and Charles held out a hand to help her stand. She wasn’t sure why he thought she needed the help, until she tried and her legs wobbled under her. She took his gloved hand in hers, grateful for the support. It wasn’t until they walked down the steps from the spaceship that she let go and steadied herself with the railing. They had only experienced zero gravity for a few minutes, but her legs felt like limp noodles, just the same. She really didn’t want to lose her balance in front of all the cameras that flashed as they exited the spaceship.
As she stepped off the last step, Phil and Darrell rushed over to her.
Great.
She moved to the side so the others could finish exiting.
“How are you feeling?” Phil asked. “Was it as physically demanding as you thought it would be?”
“It was amazing,” Bev said, plastering on a smile. “Any discomfort I felt was overshadowed by the experience itself.” She tried to step around him, but Phil blocked her with his microphone.
“Not only were you the luckiest woman in America when you won these seats, a woman who we already knew worked for a non-profit organization that helps the homeless, but is it true that you yourself used to live on the streets?”
It had taken Phil longer than Bev had thought it would to stumble upon the truth, but hearing it out loud with a camera capturing every word still managed to make her feel queasy. “I’m feeling a bit tired. I think that’s enough for now.” Bev tried to step around Phil once more.
“It’s in your contract,” Phil murmured. “You have to talk to me.”
“So ask me something else,” Bev shot back, no longer caring about being polite.
“Fine.” Phil broke into his grin and held his microphone back up. “You are truly an inspiration to America, Bev Miller. You have beaten the odds and created a lovely life for yourself. Tell me, what is your relationship like with Charles Michael? I’m sure a previously homeless woman like yourself can think of about a billion reasons to be attracted to a man like him.”
Bev fumed. “You are out of line.”
“Would you care to comment, Mr. Michael?” Phil asked, looking behind Bev.
She whirled around to find Charles standing there, staring, seemingly shell-shocked.
Bev’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean for you to find out this way.” She brushed past Phil, catching him off guard so he didn’t have the chance to stop her.
“Wait up,” Katie called from behind her. When she finally caught up with Bev and managed to match her fast pace, Katie was breathing hard. “Poor Charles. You pretty much left him to the wolves back there.”
“No, I didn’t. Phil’s not allowed to interview Charles, remember?”
“Now that the flight is over, it’s fair game,” Katie said. “Besides, you didn’t even want to give him a chance to react?”
“You mean, stay while Darrell filmed Charles telling me that it would be best if we didn’t see each other anymore?” She paused. “He was going to take me out on a date. A real one. Away from this fishbowl.”
“Why do you think things would be any different now?” Katie asked as Bev scanned her badge at the door that would lead to their dorm room.
“You really think Charles, a billionaire who could get any woman he wants, would choose a woman who used to hold a sign on the corner, begging for food? Someone once gave me a half-eaten burger, and I devoured it. I didn’t care that someone else’s mouth had been on it.”
Katie was silent as they walked down the hallway, and Bev realized that she had never opened up about those dark days before. By the time she had met Katie, the town had started an initiative where the homeless were given tents to set up in a local park and food had been delivered daily. It hadn’t been ideal, but it had certainly been a step up.
Katie caught Bev by surprise by throwing her arms around Bev’s neck and giving her a long hug. “I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry about?” Bev asked. “You’ve been in tight places before too, maybe even tighter than mine.”
“But I didn’t know how awful that time in your life was, because I never asked. I’m sorry for not being a better friend.”
Bev released a long sigh. “I guess…it was easy to pretend that Charles and I were equals, that something could happen between us. But these few days in the spaceport…it’s not real life. I’m happy where I am in Amor. I may have lived the fast-paced life in New York, but I was miserable. It turns out that I’m a small-town kind of woman, and Charles is a billionaire hedge-fund manager.” She gave Katie a small smile. “It was fun while it lasted, though.”
Katie linked her arm in Bev’s. “Come on, let’s get out of these spacesuits.” She then laughed. “Can you believe it? We just got back from space. And it was the most amazing thing ever. It will be something Liv can brag about to all her friends when she’s older. Her mama is an astronaut.”
Bev smiled. “Yes, it was the most amazing thing, wasn’t it? I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at things the same way again. Doctor Randall was right. It does change a person.”
After they had changed their clothes, she looked in the mirror. She was older than she used to be, but the same bright woman with big ambitions was there. And she didn’t have time to mope about a man that she kind of liked—okay, really liked—but wasn’t meant to be hers. Just because she wasn’t going to mope about it, though, didn’t mean she felt she could be around Charles at that moment. She didn’t want to see the disappointment in his eyes. Because no matter how Bev looked at it, she had kept him from getting close because she didn’t want him to learn the truth. All of this was her fault.
Bev’s phone pinged and she looked down at it. A text from Charles. He wanted to talk.
“I wish I could skip the fancy lunch and all the interviews,” she said, frowning. “I am so grateful for the experience we’ve been given, but I’m tired of cameras being thrust in my face and people feeling like they have the right to ask personal questions.”
Katie looked up from where she was packing clothes into a bag. “I know what you mean, but in another couple hours we’ll be on our way home. We can hold out that long.”
Bev’s phone pinged again.
Please. I want to talk about what happened outside.
That was the last thing Bev wanted to do. She’d already been humiliated enough for one day, she didn’t need Phil and Darrell capturing the rest.
“Is that him?” Katie asked.
Bev ignored the question and slipped her dress on. “Time to smile our faces off and tell everyone how amazing space is.”
“There’s no rush,” Katie said, helping Bev zip up the back of her dress. “The lunch doesn’t start for a while.”
“Maybe we can get some of the interviews out of the way before it begins.”
She walked out of the dorm and into the hall, but then froze. Charles was leaning against the wall, like he was waiting for Bev.
“How long have you been standing there?” she asked.
“Not as long as I would have.” Charles pushed off from the wall. “I think you misinterpreted my reaction out there.”
Katie stopped beside Bev, like she wasn’t sure what she should do. “I’ll…meet you at the lunch.” She hurried off before Bev could protest.
Bev folded her arms. “You mean the one where you stared at me as if I was an alien we had brought back from space?”
“You have to understand,” Charles said. “I’ve had an image of you this whole time, and it doesn’t match who you really are. That’s not a bad thing, but it made me realize that even though it feels like I’ve known you for a long time, it’s only been three days. And it turns out I know nothing about you. It’s like when someone posts a picture of themselves on an online dating site, but then when they meet in person, it turns out the person had inserted someone else’s image.”
“So you think of me as a catfisher?” Bev asked, her voice rising. But she wasn’t angry with Charles. She was angry with herself. Everything he’d said—it was true. She was the one to blame.
“No, I just wish you’d given me the chance to learn who you are—the real you.”
“I doubt you would have liked what you saw,” Bev said.
“Why? Because you hit some rough times after the economy crashed?” Charles asked, waving it aside like it didn’t mean anything. “I have plenty of friends who barely escaped being burned alive by their clients after that crash. That doesn’t matter to me.”
Bev dropped her gaze, and her anger was extinguished. The only thing left in its place was a deep sadness that she had tried to keep hidden so long, she’d thought she’d suffocated it. “It matters to me,” she murmured. “It changed who I am. Did your friends crawl through dumpsters, looking for anything that might be of value? Did they have to sleep with one eye open, clutching a makeshift knife? Thankfully I ended up in Amor, or I’d probably still be like that.”
She looked up, meeting Charles’ gaze. She expected him to look away, but he didn’t.
Bev was the first to break eye contact. “What we had these last few days—it was fiction. It was nice, don’t get me wrong, but we’re from different universes, and you’ll never understand people who don’t have everything you do. That’s why I couldn’t tell you the truth.”
Bev tried to ignore the pain she saw in Charles’ eyes as she walked away, and she refused to turn back. It was better this way.