Page 13 of Starrily

“Fun,” Calliope said in a flat voice.

“I think she just added that word to her dictionary,” Simon said. When Jessica gave him a confused look, he added, “Never mind.” She was going to figure it out on her own if she was to study Calliope for a year.

Wait. That meanthewas going to be here for a year.

“It’s not a whole year,” Jessica said. “Sounds nicer for the title. But it will likely be a few months, so I can see some progress in your work, and the readers can get to know you better.”

“What about him?” Calliope inclined her head toward Simon.

“That’s up to Mr. Mo—uh,Simon. Since he’s investing in your project, I suppose he’ll be here for as long as he wants to.”

If only, Jessica. If only.

Jessica clapped her hands. “Let’s get started, then!”

Simon’s eyes met Calliope’s, and for a brief moment, their emotions aligned. She seemed desperate not to be in this situation, and just for once, Simon agreed with her.

It was going to be a long few months.

Chapter 4

How on Earth was he still here?

It had been a week since Callie’s first meeting with Simon and Jessica. Luckily for her, Jessica intended to only come by once or twice a week since Callie’s work progressed slowly. So Simon didn’t have to be here every day, either.

Surely, he’d get bored after the first day and leave. Mr. Forbes’30 under 30List had to have something better to do.

Apparently not. Because here they were, meeting number three, and Simon still nodded along as Callie was explaining how much progress she’d made since the previous week.

“These are the latest pictures of the galaxies I’m researching.” She pulled up grainy pictures of gray blobs. “I’ll need to process them to clear out the details we don’t want in there and leave what’s more useful to me. I’ll adjust some code I’d already written for another project.”

“A code?” Jessica asked. “Like in programming? I didn’t know you guys did that.”

“Every astrophysicist has to. There are way too many things to study and sort and compare to do it by hand, and by being able to do it ourselves, we don’t need to bother programmers.”

From the corner of her eye, she caught Simon shifting in his seat, and he glanced away. Was he uncomfortable?

“Cool,” Jessica said. “So you’re, like, an astronomeranda hacker.”

“Well, I can code … decently. I’m making my own software, but I don’t hack,” Callie said, feeling her cheeks grow warm.

Simon coughed as if clearing an itchy throat. “Software, huh? You have time at work to do that?”

Was he implying she was a slouch or the opposite? She hated how she could never figure out his tone. “Sometimes,” she said. “But since it’s not something I was specifically hired to do, I also work on it in my free time.”

“Okay, back to hack—coding,” Jessica said, eyes glittering. “Can I watch you do it? This is gonna be awesome for the article.”

“I don’t—” Callie paused, biting her lip. She’d enjoyed explaining parts of her work and was rather pleased when Jessica followed up with more questions or thought something was “cool” or “awesome.” But then there was the other side: having to deal with people, people other than her coworkers, being in her office, her personal space, the whole day long. Especially Simon. From the moment he stepped into her office, he was able to shrink it down, focus the whole space on him alone, like he was a black hole, sucking in everything around him. Jessica certainly gravitated toward him.

Callie just wanted to sit down, put on some music, and run tests without someone looking over her shoulder. But she didn’t want to be rude to Jessica. “Sure.”

Jessica wiggled in her seat. “How old are these galaxies?” She pointed at the screen.

“A little less than thirteen billion years, which is good, but we could find older,” Callie said. “I’d like to find ones as close as possible to the beginning of the Universe.”

“Wouldn’t those be gone already? Or do galaxies live forever?”

“Nothing lives forever. Although, in a sense, nothing dies, either. It transforms. When a star dies, it turns into something else—a smaller star, a neutron star, or even a black hole. It doesn’t simply die; it explodes into a supernova, forming a cloud of particles and elements, which are then included in the forming of new celestial bodies. Essentially, everything we see here on Earth, and everything we are, comes from the stars.”