Page 7 of Love Below Zero

7

MEET AND GREET

JAMES

@b_baxter

Hi crew! I’m sad to announce that Traverse 4 is being pushed back to summer 2026. Due to my upcoming mission to Mars, I feel like I can’t give this book the time and attention that it deserves. I know this is disappointing news, so to make up for it I am releasing some bonus chapters of Traverse 2 & 3! You can find them for free on my website.

Lots of love, Becky.

Cape Town is windier than I expected. It is also January, the height of summer in the southern hemisphere. It is somehow both boiling hot, and freezing, thanks to the cold gusts coming in from the Atlantic. We spent the last three months making preparations for Operation Below Zero, and in three days we will be going into the dome.

But first we are having a crew meet-and-greet at the hotel. Rebecca and I flew in from the UK (separately, of course), Eli is coming in from Argentina, and Hall and Jemison are arriving from the US. We’re meeting face-to-face for the first time and my nerves are shot.

“Are you nervous?” Jules asks over the phone as I stand in front of my room’s mirror, adjusting my tie. In twenty minutes I am going to be meeting the people I’m spending the next four months with. I know Eli and Becky, of course, and have talked to the rest, but first meetings are always hard.

“No,” I lie, pulling the tie loose and restarting the knot.

“I can hear you fiddling with your tie. It’s going to be fine,” Jules assures me. She’s back in the UK, where she’ll be presenting our paper at a few conferences while I play astronaut. She didn’t want to do it without me, but I encouraged her to. We need the paper to gain some traction, and I can’t do that from Antarctica. We are going to have a forty-minute communications delay to simulate the time it takes signals to reach Mars and return. And we will be limited to email, so there will be no video conferencing either.

“Have you spoken to Becky at all?” Jules asks.

“Only in passing,” I mumble, trying to perfect the knot. We haven’t spoken directly to each other at all, actually. There were a lot of Zoom calls and emails, but there was always someone else in the call or thread with us. A few times when her camera was on, I tried to catch a glimpse of her, but mostly a small black cat with piercing green eyes took up the screen. The cat’s name is Mr Spock. I shouldn’t be surprised that she’s a Star Trek fan, considering the genre she writes in.

“So you haven’t apologised?”

“I was putting it off until we could meet face-to-face. I didn’t feel right doing it over email.” I’m finally content with the knot. I smooth down the tie, eyeing my reflection. It will have to do.

“I know you were just procrastinating, but that’s probably a good idea. You’ll be fine,” Jules reassures me.

I check my watch: fifteen minutes to go.

“I have to head downstairs. Good luck tonight.”

“You too.” There is a pause. “Tell Eli I said hello.”

“Will do.” I end the call and stuff my phone back into the pocket of my slacks. I give myself another once-over before heading out the door.

I am always chronically early thanks to my anxiety. We are meeting in one of the hotel’s private lounges. The space is bright and open, glass panelled doors leading to the balcony closed tightly against the wind. The ocean glitters in the distance, and across from it, Antarctica awaits us.

To my surprise, I am not the first to arrive.

At first, I don’t recognise her. She lost a fair bit of weight, and her normally long dark hair is cut short, probably to save herself the trouble of washing it often. I wouldn’t have noticed the change had I not been up close and personal with her last May. Her angles are shaper, and she seems almost taller. She’s wearing a white button-down top and slacks, and she looks comfortable.

Rebecca stands with her back to me, gazing out at the ocean. I recall that she is actually South African, though I can’t remember where in the country she’s from. Does it feel strange for her, being back here?

Before I can make my way over to her, a strong hand clasps my shoulder. “James, buddy, it’s good to see you.” Eli Gallo stands behind me, a wide grin on his face. I can’t help but return it, even though I promised Jules I wouldn’t be too nice to him .

“You too, man, it’s been ages.” He pulls me in for a brief hug and I clap him on the back. He looks good, though he’s always looked good. With Eli, what you see is often what you get. Chiselled, like Michaelangelo himself painted the man. Green eyes a few shades darker than mine, soft Italian accent, and a smile that makes hearts race faster. Or so I’ve been told. He is keenly aware of his good looks, and isn’t afraid of using them like a weapon, or a shield.

I certainly can’t blame Jules for loving him.

“Here.” He grabs a beer from one of the nearby tables and presses it into my hand. “You look like you could use it.” He is well aware of my aversion to people, and like Jules, he has the uncanny ability to give me exactly what I need. In this case, something to do with my hands. The alcohol doesn’t hurt either.

“Thanks,” I mumble, taking a swig. I was afraid things would be awkward between us, given the Jules situation, but I should have known Eli would be unbothered and easy-going as always. “How was Argentina?”

As a geologist, Eli travels all over the world, studying rocks. He spent a few years at NASA, but is now working for a large mining conglomerate operating in Argentina.

“This time of the year? Boiling. Not much better than here, minus the god-awful wind. That’s not important—what is important is her.” He gestures towards Rebecca with one finger. Before I can stop him, he’s striding purposefully in her direction.

“Shit,” I mutter, following after him. I am not about to unleash the full force of Eli’s sculpted jawline on Rebecca.

She turns around as she hears our approach, one eyebrow raised. Her eyes scan over the two of us, flicking quickly over Eli and resting longer on me. I stumble over the carpet, almost spilling my beer but catching it just in time to look stupid. This is going swimmingly already.

Her face hasn’t changed as much as her body, but it’s still slimmer. The last time I saw her in person, her eyes were dull. Now the sparkle in them is back, and it makes my heart skip several beats. That cannot be good for my cardiac rhythm.

“Eli, Doctor Reid,” she says in greeting, still using my title, as I requested all those months ago. Eli takes her hand, placing a soft kiss on it, his green eyes sparkling.

“It’s good to see you in person, gorgeous.” I forgot what a charmer Eli could be.

“You too, handsome.” Rebecca winks, and something ugly rears its head in my chest. She’s genuinely happy to see him. Just exactly how much are they corresponding outside of official communications? Her face changes as she turns to me, eyes becoming harder. Panic immediately seizes me. Do we shake hands? Hug? What is the protocol for greeting your archnemesis?

Luckily, Rebecca is much more practised at social situations than I am. She extends her hand. I only gape at it like a fish for five seconds before taking it and giving it a shake. The contact sends tingles up my arm, and I take another gulp of beer to calm my nerves.

“You look ... uhh ... well,” I manage to get out. Words. Yes, I can make words. String them together in coherent sentences, absolutely. I can see Eli snickering in my peripheral vision.

“Let me get you a drink,” he says to Rebecca. “Give you two some time to catch up.”

“Just water, please,” she adds as Eli darts away. The team knows about our history, of course. It’s one of the first things we addressed. Commander Jemison wanted to make sure there was no ill will between us. Rebecca said she was fine, and I followed suit, even though I could tell it certainly was not fine. I need to apologise.

“Rebecca I?—”

“Nice shoes,” she says, before I can start. I’m relieved, actually. I still can’t seem to speak properly. I look down, not remembering which shoes I put on. It’s the black brogues I wore to the convention.

“Well, they are sturdy enough to survive extreme conditions.”

Rebecca snorts, but her gaze softens. “I am sorry about that. I don’t think I ever apologised for vomiting on you.”

I shrug, my hand itching to rake through my hair. I resist. I did not spend twenty minutes trying to tame it just to ruin it because I’m nervous. “No harm, no foul. Besides, I think Eli’s thrown up on me at least twice, so it seems to be a common occurrence.”

“So you’re saying I’m behind?” she chuckles softly. I take a pointed step back, and she bursts out laughing. The sound catches me off guard, and I immediately want to hear more of it. “You’re safe, for now, Doctor Reid.”

“Please, just ... James is fine. We’re colleagues now, after all.”

Rebecca regards me for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, I guess we are. Fine. James.” My name sounds strange in her mouth, yet somehow also like it belongs there. “How are you liking Cape Town?”

Before I can answer, we’re interrupted by a streak of blond hair. Joanna Hall darts between us, grabbing Rebecca in a bone-crushing hug. For someone so tiny, she has a surprising amount of grip strength .

“Becky! It’s so good to finally see you!” She lets go of Rebecca, beaming at her. Rebecca looks slightly taken aback at the warm welcome, but she recovers quickly.

“It’s good to see you too, Jojo.”

Joanna turns to me, pulling me into a hug as well. She is a good few inches shorter than me and I pat her head, unsure what to do with the affection. Joanna is our engineer on the mission. She was a combat veteran, but now she works for NASA, developing new technologies to make space flight more accessible. She’s entirely too optimistic for my liking, but she seems to get along well with Rebecca.

“Dexter, it’s nice to see you out of the lab for once.” I also don’t appreciate her penchant for nicknames. She is of course referring to the cartoon, not the serial killer. I think. Google wasn’t specific enough.

“It’s mandatory to be here,” I remind her. She looks at me with a strange expression for a moment, like I have missed something, before turning back to Rebecca.

“Come on, B, there’s mini cheeseburgers that way and I’m dying to know about your next book.” She grabs Rebecca by the arm, dragging her away. Rebecca shoots me an apologetic glance, and I just shrug, making a what can you do? type of motion.

Eli slinks back toward me, his eyes on the retreating women. “This is going to be an interesting four months,” he says.

“How so?” My eyes linger on Rebecca, the way her short cropped hair swishes around her face as she talks excitedly with Joanna.

Eli just grins, shaking his head at me. “You’ll see.”