Page 86 of Starrily

It couldn’t be true. They wouldn’t. Simon wouldn’t do this. He didn’t even want to be there at the beginning. He seemed to hate her. And yet, he remained … because he needed her.

No, he never neededher. Only her work.

Callie looked away in the approximate direction of their cabin as tears burned in the corner of her eyes.

Had everything been a lie?

***

A soft tapping on his cheeks woke Simon up. He smiled and blinked the sleep off his eyelids. “Morning, Phoe—”

Theia eyed him with her usual mild disinterest, comfortably nested on Callie’s pillow. He scratched between her ears. “Where’s your mistress?”

He sat up and stretched while Theia jumped over to a chair. Looking around, he spotted a note on Callie’s pillow:Meet me for breakfast,with a heart drawn next to it.

Could’ve had breakfast in bed, but there’d be other opportunities for that. Simon whistled as he headed for the bathroom, washed, and styled his hair.Many opportunities.A whole lifetime of opportunities—as soon as they fixed his problem. And on this bright and joyful morning, the problem seemed minuscule—such an easy thing to fix. Soon, he’d be free, and he and Callie … they could be anything they wanted to be.

Next to the door, he kneeled to Theia’s eye level. “What a night with an amazing woman does to a man, huh?”

Theia licked her paw.

“You don’t understand. You’re a cat.” He petted her again, then opened the door. “It’s gonna be a great day, you’ll see!”

It was still early, and there were only a few other people around in the restaurant; it wasn’t hard to spot Callie at one of the tables. Simon sat down and smiled. “Morning.”

Callie didn’t greet him back. She was staring off into the distance, and it took him a second to notice the shine in her eyes.

The shine of tears.

“Callie?” he reached for her, but she slapped his hand away.

“You lied,” she said, her voice on the verge of breaking.

He furrowed his eyebrows. “What?”

She finally looked at him. “Everything you did was to get my code.”

“Is this women’s talk for something?” What did he do wrong? Had he slept in too late?

Was she regretting last night?

Callie slid over her tablet. It was open to a web article, and Simon took in the title.Aries Tech. Stealing Technology.

He felt blood drain from his face.Her code.Callie’s software.

“When were you going to tell me?” she said in a shaky whisper. “Or, would you have never told me? Would you keep following me, trying to get on my good side with your fake smiles and bad jokes? Try to soften me up with your stupid cooking and art projects and bucket lists—oh, live a little, Phoenix,” she spewed. “When were you going to ask me? Today? I’m probably softened enough to hand you the software for free, right? Whip up a little contract, oh, my project is yours now.”

He flinched at her use of words—the exact phrase Everett loved to throw at him. “It’s not like that.”

“Which part?” She tapped on the article. “Which part is wrong? Please, tell me.”

He scanned through it, barely acknowledging his company might be in trouble. It didn’t matter—not when Callie was angry athim. “Oh, please,” he said, getting to the last few paragraphs. “Where did they—this information isn’t even current!”

Callie’s eyes widened, and he instantly realized how he’d messed up.

“So it is true,” she said.

“Callie—”