Page 31 of Starrily

She walked left and right, waved her hands, and pointed to areas of images covering her explanation; all with so much passion that Simon wondered how he could’ve ever thought her dull and boring.

Calliope’s zeal spread to him, imbued him with old memories and new desires. He knew this. Speaking to students, sharing his love of science, imparting it to others—to Raleigh, it had been as easy and essential as breathing.

He’d loved it.

Why did he let it slip away?

“And that is what we hope to answer in the future,” Calliope concluded. “If we’re lucky, I might be back in a few years with data—assuming you’ll stick around.” More laughing, and then an applause; Calliope lingered in the center of the stage for a few moments more, then, as the students began to filter out, went back to the podium.

Simon approached her as the last students left; she was putting her laptop back in the bag. “Nicely done.”

She yelped and turned. “Simon! I had no idea—wait, were you here all this time?”

“I’m pretty sure you would’ve noticed if I were on the stage for the entire presentation.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I was here for the talk, yes.”

“Oh, no.” A blush crept into her cheeks, turning them into a deep ruby shade.

“It was …” he lightly shook his head. “Amazing. You were amazing.”

She stepped closer to him. “Really?”

“Born to do it.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say—”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Phoenix.”

The corners of her mouth tilted up just slightly … “Thank you,” she said. “For helping me. I spent the whole weekend practicing in front of the mirror. I wrote down ten different opening lines, numbered them from most stand-up comedy tomost serious, then renumbered them at least five times because I kept changing my mind—”

“It was a good one. Your opening line.”

“It was?”

“Perfect,” he said, and he wasn’t sure if he was still talking about the opening line or something—someone—else. All he knew was that he was happy, in a far different way than he usually was.

And then Calliope let out a short, relieved laugh—and smiled. A true, wide smile that reached far into her cheeks.

She had dimples when she smiled.

And he’d made her smile.

“We should get going before they toss us out,” she said.

He could only nod, and followed her, his mind preoccupied with a single thing: how pretty she was when she smiled, and a single question—how could he make her do it more often?

Chapter 8

Stars are classified according to their mass and temperature, from the biggest and hottest ones to the smallest and…

“—Simon!”

Simon pulled out his earbuds and looked over his monitor. Everett stood at the door to his office and, if his impatient face was anything to go by, hadn’t called Simon for the first time.

“Yup?”