Page 42 of Starrily

Not that dissimilar to myself.

A framed print hung on the wall above the bookshelf: a minimalistic graphic of a sci-fi spaceship with a star-like logo underneath and an inscription:May you never walk in fear, only in wonder.

Starship Andromeda.The name wasn’t written anywhere, but it came to him, clear as day. He used to … no,Raleighused to watch the reruns of the TV show every Thursday night, with Newton softly purring next to him on the sofa.

He had to stop thinking about this. What use were old memories?

How strange he’d find a poster of the show here. He wasn’t surprised Calliope would watch something sci-fi, but Starship Andromeda was such a corny, optimistic show, and Calliope was …

Perhaps Calliope wasn’t who he’d judged her to be.

He turned his attention to the bookshelf. A fair number of scientific titles; again, no surprise. But also some fiction and—comic books? He pulled out one issue and looked at the bathroom door, left ajar. “You knew who Phoenix was all along, didn’t you?”

“What do you mean?” Calliope’s voice came from the bathroom.

“You read X-Men comics.”

Her head peeked out. “Well, yeah. But it’s hardly an original name. You could’ve been thinking of anything.” She disappeared back into the bathroom.

He figured she was a nerd—her job gave it away—but he hadn’t imagined she was anerdynerd. He didn’t know why, but it made him smile. There were so many things he didn’t know about her, and discovering them felt like unwrapping a piece of candy. It might be bad for him, but he wanted more.

He sat down on the sofa and spread his legs. A soft tapping sound came from the open door to the bedroom, and then even a softerhopas a ball of beige and brown fur jumped on the sofa next to him.

“No, no, Theia!” Calliope ran out of the bathroom, changed into a simple t-shirt and sweatpants. “Be careful. She doesn’t like people, and she’s a scratcher.”

“Just like her owner, then,” Simon replied, throwing a smile over his shoulder. Calliope raised an eyebrow in a ‘not impressed by your joke’ answer and took her clothes to the bedroom.

Simon watched the cat as the cat watched him. She meowed and slowly approached, then rubbed against his arm. He raised his hand and ran it along Theia’s long, silky smooth fur. “Scratcher, huh?” he said gently.

Calliope returned to the main room and stopped at the sofa. “You little traitor,” she said to Theia, then looked at Simon. “She doesn’t even like Ava, and I’ve knownherlonger than I’ve had Theia.”

“I used to have a cat. Maybe she feels that,” he said before he could stop himself.

Calliope still stood at the edge of the sofa. “I didn’t take you for a … person.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“I meant …” she waved her hand in frustration. “I wanted to say cat person, then I thought if I should say pet person instead, but remembered you liked that dog that ran up to you at the observatory and in the end … it came out wrong.”

“No, no. I think it came out just right,” he teased.

“Would you like some coffee or tea or soda while you wait for Stan?”

“Right.” He’d completely forgotten he was supposed to get a ride back home. Damn rain. This whole “let my chauffeur get me on his day off” was really enforcing the spoiled rich man idea Calliope had of him.

Which didn’t use to bother him that much.

“Tea, please.”

“Good choice.” Calliope filled up the kettle while he called Stan.

“He’s not picking up,” he said, five minutes and several tries later. “If you have a spare umbrella, I’ll take that and walk back to the bus station and figure it out from there.”

“That makes no sense.” She turned off the whistling kettle. “Besides, you’re crazy if you think I’m gonna let you wander outside so everyone can see you in my old stretched t-shirt.”

“You mean …”

“There’s a whole sofa available, and apparently, Theia doesn’t intend to murder you, so you’re safe to spend the night here.”