While I was trying to figure out how to make Zoey’s stinky loose-leaf tea, she fell asleep. She was curled around herself like a cat atop the loveseat. I waited awkwardly with the tea to see if she would wake up, but when she didn’t, I carefully lifted her the two feet between her couch and bed and tucked her in. Maybe she’d be angry that I’d touched her when she woke up, but if the half-empty bottle of vodka on the table was any indication, she may not remember where she fell asleep.

I poked around in her kitchen for a few minutes trying to locate a vase for the flowers, but it seemed like Zoey had been telling me the truth. She didn’t own one. She did, however, own a purple, plastic pitcher with little flecks of gold glitter in it, so I put the flowers in that. It didn’t look too bad, all things considered. It looked… festive.

Once the flowers, the tea, and Zoey were sorted, I didn’t know what to do. Ironically, this was exactly what I wanted last night: the opportunity to poke around in Zoey’s space.

Tonight, the thought was unthinkable. Other than looking for the bathroom, which wasn’t exactly hard to locate in such a tiny space, I actively tried not to touch, disturb, or even look at anything. There was no way I’d invade her space now.

But I couldn’t bring myself to leave either. I sat down on her loveseat and watched her sleeping soundly. She was beautiful.

Her soft hair was wavy and messy over her pillow, and even though her makeup was in ruins, I could still admire her pink, full lips, porcelain skin, flawless bone structure, and long eyelashes. The outfit she was wearing was probably not meant to be sexy, but the combination of the sinfully short shorts and the peaks of her hard nipples showing through the thin fabric of her t-shirt left me breathless. She was as sexier in her t-shirt and shorts than any other woman would be in expensive lingerie.

Zoey tossed around a bit, not snoring, but making some cute little mewling noises as she slept. She must be dreaming. I didn’t want to be voyeuristic, but she was distractingly attractive.

Unwilling to leave before winning her forgiveness, I stretched out awkwardly on the smallest, most uncomfortable loveseat I’d ever seen and turned off the lights. I knew there was no way I’d be able to sleep on such a disastrously uncomfortable piece of furniture, but at least I could watch over Zoey. I closed my eyes and willed my body to relax, but rest wasn’t available. The thought that Zoey had thought I’d been feigning my attraction to her in order to gain her trust or prove she was the hacker made me feel even worse than I already did.

When the text arrived from Cecelia that there was no new information to share on the data breach, I texted her back:

What do you think it means that the hacker’s hardware and software originated in Russia?

Her reply took several minutes to arrive. I fidgeted awkwardly while I waited.

I have no idea. Russia is a hotbed for cybercrime, so we have no way of knowing whether the hackers wanted the information themselves or were working for someone else. Maybe they just wanted some launch data to sell to terrorists making rockets. Or North Korea. There are still too many possibilities.

I frowned as I thought about my last interaction with a Russian.

You don’t think this has anything to do with Ysenia, do you? I asked Cecelia.

After I returned from my first, last, and most infamous mission, I’d never seen nor heard from her again; not that I wanted to. But as far as I could tell, she’d completely fallen off the map. The Russians refused to answer questions about her.

I don’t see how it could. No one’s seen her in years. We’ve turned all our findings over to the Feds, so I guess they’ll let us know if there’s a Russian government connection.

That wasn’t very comforting. If I had to rely on the Federal government in order to solve the crime of my missing data, I had little faith in ever discovering the truth. I’d been a military and government employee for a half decade. I knew how incompetent the system was.

Does Victor still think he’ll be able to identify exactly what was taken today? I asked. The good thing about texting was that my anxiety level didn’t come through.

I was really hoping we’d be able to proceed with the manned launch. If the hacked data had to do with the data collection from the unmanned test, it would make the entire experiment invalid. We’d have to throw the data out and delay for months.

I would never bet against Victor. If he says he will figure it out, I’m sure he will. Cecelia replied.

That gave me hope, at least. Right now, there was no reason to believe I wouldn’t be leaving Earth’s atmosphere on Friday. All of my work over the last four years had been leading to this week. More specifically, this Friday. It had to work.

“Nathan?” Zoey’s sleepy voice pulled me from my phone at 3:45.

“Did the light from my phone wake you up?” I asked her, “I’m sorry.”

“No, I just got cold,” she replied quietly, “do you want to come and lie down with me?”

Obviously yes. I undressed quickly down to my boxers and undershirt, leaving my clothes in a pile on her loveseat.

“Does that mean you forgive me?” I asked hopefully.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. It was too dark to see her face, but her voice was small and tremulous, “I’m cold though and I don’t want to be alone. You’re still here, so will you come to bed and hold me?”

I lay down next to her and she instantly snuggled up under my arm with her cheek against my chest and one arm and leg across me. For someone who was still angry at me, she was awfully affectionate. Or maybe she just wanted a warm, human body pillow. At that moment, I’d take what I could get. If I was just a human space heater, I’d fulfill my purpose as best as I could. I wrapped my arms around her tightly and buried my face in her hair, finally feeling my panic subside. Zoey’s warm, sleepy body felt totally natural and right next to mine. Our breathing synched up after a moment and each exhale felt less tense than the last.

Maybe she would wake up in the morning at hate me again, but it was a risk I was willing to take. She filled a gaping, painful void in me that I hadn’t realized was there. Even if it was temporary, being whole for a little while was better than being broken forever.