Page 119 of Time After Time

Early morning calls before I start my rounds.

Late-night video calls while she’s curled up in bed.

I leave voicemails. She leaves voicemails.

She sends me photos—snowy sidewalks, half-finished pastries from the café near her lab, and cartons of Chinese takeaway.

“What do you mean you fainted?” There is a thinness to my voice that I don’t recognize.

“Faintmight be an exaggeration.”

“Ember?” I growl.

“Ugh! Okay. I was dehydrated. I was in the lab all day and…I blacked out for a second, so?—”

“Drink more water and don’t be a dumbass.”

“Yes, sir,” she teases.

“Em, baby.” I run a hand through my hair. “You’ve got to take care of yourself.”

“Why, when I have you to do it?” she chimes.

That makes my heart grow in size.

We have our first fight over the phone.

She’s just finished reading a paper, “Resolving the Faint Young Sun Paradox: A Review of Proposed Mechanisms” in theJournal ofAstrobiology.It’s got something to do with how Earth stayed warm billions of years ago, even though the sun was weaker.

She’s excited. Animated. Talking about greenhouse gases and albedo feedback like they’re characters in a television show.

I, unfortunately, make the mistake of saying, “Isn’t that theory kind of outdated?”

There’s a beat of silence on the line. Then, “Excuse me?”

I lean back in my office chair. “I’m just saying. The faint young sun paradox has been around for a longtime. I thought newer models ruled out CO2 as the main factor?—”

“No,” she snaps. “The models haveevolved. The principle is still being explored. Just because you last glanced at anAstrobiologyarticle in 2018 doesn’t make you the final word on climate modeling, Ransom.”

“Okay,whoa. I didn’t mean to dismiss your work?—”

“You kind of did.”

I hate this distance. I hate that I can’t see her when we’re having a fight. I hate that we won’t be having any Goddamn make-up sex after this little tiff.

“I said the theory was outdated. Notyou.”

“Well, that’s a dumb distinction.”

I smile to myself. “Are we fighting about a planetary climate model?”

“No,” she retorts smugly. “We’re fighting because you’ve been short with me for two days, and now you’re casually steamrolling something I care about.”

Ah. There it is.

“Baby, I had back-to-back surgeries.”

She sighs. “I know.”