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He nodded and gestured toward the door. He kept a respectful distance from her as they walked back to their cottage, and she was grateful while also missing the closeness they’d had on the beach.

That felt like a long time ago. Another life, another reality.

I’m overreacting to this, she thought to herself as they walked. He’d told her he was a spy. Warned her this would be weird. He’d been straight with her.

Well. He’d been straight with her when it had become advantageous to do that. Up until that point, he’d been fine lying to her about who he was.

Even knowing she’d given him a pass for that, that she’d told him she understood… seeing all of it the way she just had made her feel like everything was upside down.

They got back to the cottage, and she grabbed some clothing and ducked into the bathroom.

The first thing she needed was a shower.

She scrubbed every inch of herself, washed her hair, then dried off and took her time drying her hair, pulling it up into a messy bun, and generally pulling herself back together again. She felt a little more like herself, a little calmer, by the time she opened the bathroom door.

Andethor was sitting on the sofa, quietly speaking into a communicator. Not the one he usually used. This one was much smaller, more the shape of a large pill.

She grimaced. She guessed that would make it easier for him to hide it, if he ever needed to. He gave her a small nod and continued speaking, listening occasionally, and she realized he was talking to someone. She’d thought he was just recording a log of the mission or something.

Andethor nodded toward the small kitchen table, and she saw that there was food waiting. Of course there was. And even with as weird as she was feeling, her stomach rumbled. Breakfast had been forever ago.

She took her tablet to the table, helped herself to a pasta dish he’d ordered, and settled in, reading and enjoying her meal, trying to focus on the adventure story she was reading instead of listening to Andethor.

He spoke in a low voice, very business-like, his words short and clipped.

She couldn’t help hearing him say that he’d be returning to Asterion Station, and he asked for a few days’ leave.

Apparently, it was granted, because he thanked whoever was on the other end of the communication, and then a few seconds later, he was up and walking into the dining area as well.

Andethor sat down and added some sort of fish to his plate, as well as some of the spicy roasted vegetables she had on her plate as well. They ate in silence for a few moments.

“My supervisor is pleased, for the moment. He’ll be more pleased once it’s confirmed that Xiaron actually followed up on what we told him to do.”

She nodded, watching him as she chewed a bite of her pasta. “Do you think he’ll do it?”

“His kind only cares about self-preservation. Now that he’s against a wall, he’ll fold,” he said with a shrug, still studying her closely. “I’m more concerned with you. Something changed back there.”

She shrugged. “It was strange, seeing how easily you could switch personalities.” She took another bite, focusing on her food, aware that he was still watching her closely.

“That’s part of the job,” he finally said, and she nodded, taking another bite.

They ate in silence for a bit, and her gaze returned to the book she was reading. She read the same sentence at least three times before Andethor cleared his throat. She looked up at him.

“I don’t know what’s going on here,” he said. “Help me out a little, Jules.”

She set her fork down. “It… honestly it isn’t anything you did. It just brought back some things from my past, seeing you change so quickly, so easily. You didn’t do anything you need to worry about. This is my own baggage. I’m happy we were able to get him,” she said, meeting his gaze.

He was watching her, and his gaze was the Andethor she knew. Or thought she knew. That was the thing, wasn’t it? How could she even know what he was really like?

“Can you tell me about it?” he asked. “We’ve been friends for a while. I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to make you feel comfortable around me again.”

Her heart did a weird little stutter step, and she took a breath, trying to think past it. “That’s… I mean. It’s kind of what you do, right? Learn about people and use what you learn to get what you want?” she asked quietly.

His gaze sharpened, and for a second, she felt bad for saying it. But she’d always been straightforward with him. Changing that now would be foolish.

“Professionally, yes. That’s a big part of what I do. I don’t do that in my personal life, though.”

“How can you be sure?”

He set his fork down. “What do you mean?”

“It all seemed to come so naturally. Switching from my friend, Andethor the musician, to sleazy Savis Eletath, to this… cold, hard spy. I know Savis isn’t really you. But how much of what I’ve seen of you is an act?” she asked quietly.

“Jules.”

“I know. I know I’m making too big a deal of this…”

“Hey. You aren’t,” he said gently, and she met his gaze again. “When I’m with you, when I’m with my band, when I’m with Xarek and Maggie… that’s me. That’s pretty much the only time I get to turn the rest of it off.”

She looked at him, and a wry smile curved his mouth.

“And that’s exactly what I’d say if I was trying to pull something over on you, if everything was an act,” he said quietly. “But it’s still the truth.”

She nodded, pushing her plate away.

“Someone hurt you to make you this suspicious. It makes me want to hunt them down and let my fists have a nice long talk with them,” he said in a low voice, and she couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I was engaged for a while,” she said after a few moments. “It was… I was happy, you know? Taking care of our house, planning the ceremony. I hadn’t retired yet, but I’d taken more of a civilian-facing role. And he seemed just as happy. Affectionate, warm, caring.” She shook her head.

“What happened?” he asked quietly, his food forgotten as his dark gaze stayed fixed on her face.

She took a deep breath, then shrugged. “It was all a lie. All of it. He had a wife and kids on a neighboring planet, which I only found out about when there was a report about him on the newsfeeds. He’d won some big interplanetary contract to build housing.

And he was surrounded by his loving family as he accepted,” she finished quietly.

She looked up to see Andethor’s jaw tighten.

“I had no idea,” she continued after a moment.

“Afterward, after I’d confronted him and kicked him out, I don’t even know how long I spent trying to remember if there were signs.

There must have been, right? A man’s hiding a whole other life, there have to be hints.

But I couldn’t find any. Yeah, he traveled a lot, but he’s a businessman with projects all over the galaxy.

” She took a deep breath. “It just reminded me of that all over again. And that is not your fault. It’s just… it’s what it is.”

He was quiet, and she could tell he was thinking it through. “I’m sorry you went through that. That guy is complete garbage,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “Now I want to punch him even more.”

She nodded and took a sip of her drink.

“What you saw… what I do… I’d never pretend in my personal life. I have to do it enough in my professional life.”

“You were pretending most of the time we’ve known each other,” she said, shaking her head. “Playing at being nothing more than a musician traveling from gig to gig.”

“I don’t think even I can fake how much I love music. None of that was an act. That’s life, and then there’s my job. And unfortunately my job isn’t one I can talk about openly.”

She looked at him. “All of that makes sense. This is a me thing, and I understand why you couldn’t just tell me.”

“It still brought up some bad feelings, though,” he said quietly, and she shifted under his gaze. “Which means that, if I want to see where this goes with you, and I very much do, I need to give you every reason to trust me and no reasons to doubt that I am who I say I am.”

She shook her head. “That’s not the kind of thing I expect you to do. That’s a lot to expect of anyone, and even more of you, when I know now that you can’t just say everything you might want to.”

He frowned, then pulled another container toward him and opened it, and the scent of chocolate cake wafted through the air.

“It’s not a lot to expect that people are honest with you.

And now I recognize that I already had one strike against me in the trust department because I kept my role to myself.

And an added strike because now you see how good I am at pretending to be something I’m not.

” He pointed to the cake, asking if she wanted some, and she nodded.

He dished a piece out for her and then took one for himself.

“I care about you. I want you to feel safe and secure with me,” he said after a few moments.

She took a bite of her cake, nodding. “I do. Like I said, just rattled. You’re really good at that. All of it. Bellaria and the Alliance are lucky to have you.”

When he looked up and his gaze met hers, it felt like being in high school again, with that one boy she was sure was her future.

Her face heated, and it felt like butterflies were having a rave in her belly.

And the most alarming thing was that the last time she’d had that feeling was when she was a teenager, before she focused, before she knew better.

She couldn’t remember the name of the boy she’d had such a huge crush on in high school, but she had a strong suspicion she’d never forget Andethor.

She giggled, and then it turned into a full-blown laugh as Andethor looked at her in confusion, his mouth quirking in a smile as he watched her, waiting for her to collect herself.

She shook her head, and he laughed. “What was that all about?”