Peter leaned back in his chair. “I saw her earlier when I went to get some coffee by your office.”
“Yeah, looks like she was working in it. I’ve been trying to find her. I want her to clean off a coffee stain on my chair.” Chris put his hands on his waist and lifted an eyebrow. “So what are you working on?”
Peter started to point toward the manual when a frightening sight made his stomach plunge. The plug-in for his ear plugs was lying in clear view on the desk, an obvious sign he wasn’t listening to music. To prevent Chris from seeing the evidence, he quickly got up. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m studying the Iris manual, and I have a question on the number of thrusters and their locations.” He started walking over toward the detailed schematic of the capsule hanging on his wall.
“So I guess you decided to make yourself comfortable?”
Peter turned to see Chris looking at his socked feet as he followed. He casually grinned. “Yeah, since it was going to be a late night.”
When Peter reached the drawing he couldn’t think of a question. He already knew the machine pretty well. So he played dumb and asked one he knew the answer for. “I wonder if we have redundancy in the system for orbital maneuvering and altitude control.”
Chris grew impatient, shifting from foot to foot. “Absolutely, that’s why we have two thrusters at every location. Each one of those suckers puts out 90 pounds of force, which alone is sufficient to do the job. So we have duel-redundancy in all axes.” Chris took a step back. “You know we need to get you in the simulator. Let’s try to schedule that in the next day or two. I’ve got to get going. If you see the cleaning lady, please tell her about the stain.”
Though Peter did not give a rat’s ass about the stain, he pretended to care as he patted the man’s back when he turned to leave. “Will do, Boss.”
15
MOVING FORWARD
Once Chris left the building, Peter erased any evidence anyone had been in the area, putting the vacuum back and turning off the lights on Mahogany Row. Hustling back to his office, he took a quick glance at his watch—10:50 P.M. Anya was now weighing heavily on his mind, wondering what she wanted to talk about. He was relieved it was still before eleven and he hadn’t missed her deadline. He closed his door before trekking across his office and plopping down into his seat.
He took a deep breath to gather himself before speed dialing her number on his cell phone. He wiggled his foot as he waited for her soothing voice.
“Zdrah-stvooy.”
“Hey baby, it’s me.”
Her voice got higher. “Hi, Peter. I’m so glad you were able to call.”
“I’ve been looking forward to it ever since I got your text. So are you getting ready for work?”
“Actually, I am in my car in the parking lot. I was waiting for your call. So where are you?”
“I’m still at work.”
“Oh my, it’s late there. What in the world is keeping you at the office?”
Peter eyed the plug-in of his headphones still lying on his desk as he smiled. “I guess you could say I am just doing some catch-up work.”
“Have you had dinner?”
As if on cue, Peter’s stomach growled, reminding him he needed to give it a little attention. “Not yet; I guess it’ll be a late one. So what did you want to talk about?”
Her voice became intense. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about us.”
Peter’s knee started bouncing through the ominous pause. Is she going to break up with me?
Anya cleared her throat. “I’ve decided I need to be open with you. You need to know why I left. I don’t want to hide anything from you.”
Peter still wasn’t sure where she was going. “That’s the only kind of relationship I want, one where we are completely honest and open with each other.”
“Exactly. Having said that, you should know I was brought up to always be strong and never show any kind of weakness.”
Peter had always been impressed with her strength. “We all have our issues. That’s part of being in love, accepting both the good and the bad of the other. Believe me, I know I’m not perfect, even though I may think I am.”
Anya giggled. “You’re perfect in my eyes. I know I could be happy with you the rest of my life.”
Peter relaxed. “Ditto.”
“That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I want you to know why I came back to Russia.”
“Well, I was surprised you left. I thought we were set to live our lives together.”
“I thought so, too, but I was confused and needed some time to think. I was afraid I was too in love with you.”
Peter was now confused. “How could you be too in love?”
“Something happened when you were rescuing the cosmonauts that I didn’t tell you about.”
Peter straightened up. “What’s that?”
“I had an anxiety attack in the control room. I had to be carried out on a stretcher.”
Peter’s grip tightened around his phone. “Why didn’t you tell me that? That’s terrible. Where were you taken?”
She gave a reluctant sigh as she spoke guardedly. “I was sent to medical. When I came to, I wanted to get back to the control room immediately, but the doctor wouldn’t let me. In fact they had to sedate me to prevent me from leaving.”
Peter started to grind his teeth.
“Eventually the doctor explained the attack was brought on because of my deep love for you and my fear that something terrible will happen when you are on an assignment, especially when you’re in space. He said if I’m put into a similar situation, it will probably happen again, though there is some medicine I can take.”
Peter shook his head. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could have been there for you.”
“Me too, because then I wouldn’t have had the attack in the first place.”
Peter smiled at the conundrum. “Good point.”
Her voice started to crack. “I was so disappointed in myself. I thought I was stronger than that. But as the doctor said, when the body takes over, there’s nothing you can do.”
“I’m glad you’re telling me this.”
Sincerity lingered in her voice. “Peter, I don’t want to change you. I know you like working for SID, and I know you love flying in space. That’s why I left. I didn’t want you to have to make a choice. Besides, I doubted I could handle being in a relationship where these attacks could occur.”
Peter’s knee resumed bouncing. Damn, she’s thinking of leaving. “I’m positive we can work things out. In fact my new assignment is here in Houston, and there will be no flying in space.”
“That’s nice, but who knows where the next assignment will take you and what dangers you’ll be put in?”
Peter leaned back in his chair. “True.”
“But I’ve come to realize, I can’t live without you. I’m too in love. Mom used to be an emotional wreck during Dad’s missions, but she never let on. She wanted him to be happy and flying in space was one of his true loves. Space was the mistress Mom had to compete with. She learned to deal with the anxiety. I used to think she was crazy, but now I understand. When you are deeply in love, you can handle any problem. I would rather be a part of your life and deal with these episodes than be without you.”
It was tough for Peter to grasp her emotional pain, but he wanted to. He was glad she was willing to work through the challenging issue. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes. I just want us to be together forever.”
“It means a lot to hear you say that, Peter.” Her voice perked up. “Let’s try this again. Do you still want to move in together?”
Peter slammed his fist on his desk. “Hell yes!”