Page 7 of Gravity Between Us

SEVEN

ELAINA

Elaina sat across from Lance at the teahab, smiling at the appropriate moments, nodding when he talked about his latest project. It was fine. He was fine. But the whole evening felt like she was watching herself from a distance, like someone else had taken over and was going through the motions of what a good date should be.

It was orbits apart from her lunch with Cyan the sol before. She wasn’t sure what had happened there, but she knew one thing—whatever chemistry she’d felt with him, it wasn’t here. The connection wasn’t the same.

But maybe that was all right. Lance was objectively hot, and kind, and local . Elaina hadn’t even asked Cyan how long he was planning on staying on Earendel.

Maybe part of it was that it seemed premature for such a pointed question. Besides, with the right person, location was just another logistic.

“You’re blushing.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Elaina looked up from her teacup.

“You’re blushing,” Lance flashed a white grin. “I’m really enjoying this too.”

“Oh. Right.” She hid behind a sip of tea. “Same. ”

After lunch with Cyan, Elaina really felt like cancelling on Lance and just going for an evening hike alone out in the arids.

But she was making an effort , and dating was meant to be fun, and meeting people was good.

And before she randomly stumbled into a fierce-looking offworlder with a weirdly compatible sense of humor and interests, Elaina had thought Lance had potential. It would be stupid to put all her sandseeds in one palm.

Luckily, Lance didn’t suggest they do this again when they got up to leave. He would, though. She could tell. And under normal circumstances, she would say yes. She should still say yes. But at least she didn’t have to try to work up her enthusiasm on the spot.

But as she walked back to the garage to wrap up some work for the night after the date, what Elaina really kept doing was checking her comms.