Origin & Earth (The Orris Project Book 1), page 20
2
The knock at the door came at 11:59. An exhausted Garrett, showered and deliriously tired, answered the door. When he pulled the door out of his view, he saw a young girl buried in a sweatshirt with its hood up and a look of exhaustion on her face.
“You look like death. Did you sleep last night?” Lauren asked.
“Not for the last two,” he said. She walked into his small, one-bedroom apartment without invitation, taking his hand as she walked past.
“Me either. Can this date be sleeping?” Garrett had never heard a more wonderful question in his life.
“Absolutely,” he said. She led him to the couch in his modest living room. She stopped and pointed at it. “That isn’t going to work. Don’t get the wrong idea, but let’s go to your bedroom.”
“I get it, let’s go.” They went to his bedroom, and both of them laid down on his bed. Although they were close together, they did not embrace. With her ankle draped over his, they both fell deeply and immediately asleep.
3
A comically loud kiss on his cheek awoke Garrett at a time he could not fathom.
“I feel much better, but we have a little problem,” Lauren said. Garrett sat up, fully clothed in his bed, and wiped his eyes.
“What problem?” He recognized that it was dark in his bedroom.
“We both slept the entire day and most of the night. We have to be at work in four hours,” she said. Garrett picked up the clock from the nightstand next to his bed and read 5:04. Lauren was smiling, but she looked a little drunk, with her sweatshirt twisted awkwardly around her and her hair disheveled.
“Well, okay. How much time do you need to go home and get ready for work? Do you have to leave now?”
Lauren sat up on the bed and smiled at him. “Well, knowing how tired I was, and being a little presumptuous, I brought a bag with all my stuff. I can get ready for work here, if that’s okay with you.”
Garett laid back down on the bed and smiled. “Of course. So, we can have a little date while we both get ready to go in?”
She bent over and kissed him hard on the lips, “Yeah, I’m going down to my car for my bag.”
Before she could get out of the room, Garrett said, “Car? Fancy!” She turned in the doorway, smiled widely and squinted at him.
“That’s right, slouch!” she said, and disappeared.
Garrett got up and walked into his kitchen. Although he was a bachelor, he kept a fair amount of food in his apartment and started making a decent breakfast for them both. He never bothered buying a kitchen or a dining room table and typically ate his meals at his computer desk in his bedroom. There was a narrow island that divided the kitchen and the empty dining room with two stools at it, and he set it as though it were a normal breakfast table. Lauren came back into the apartment a moment later and dropped her enormous bag on the floor.
“What? Are you making us breakfast?”
Garrett laughed. “Is it so unbelievable that I can cook?” He set down his spatula and walked to her, gently placing his hands on her sides. “I’m a pretty smart guy. I can cook eggs and toast.”
She smiled. “Hey, smart guy, your eggs are burning.”
Garrett turned around to see the smoke and rushed to the stove to address it. He then turned to her and said, “I’m so smart, I can make new ones!”
Lauren rolled her eyes. “You do that, I’m going to shower.” She walked to the bathroom with her bag, and Garrett restarted making their breakfast.
When she emerged from the bathroom, she was wearing oversized shorts and an equally oversized tee shirt. Her sweet, perpetual smile still held firm. “I decided to dress sexy for you.”
Garrett laughed. He placed their plates of unburnt food on the kitchen island and they both sat. “I have a question for you,” Garrett said. “And please don’t take it the wrong way. I think you already understand how I feel about you, but you are less than a year older than me, and…”
“I’m twenty-three years old, and I already have my doctorate,” she said, and nodded. She looked up at the ceiling and smiled. “What you don’t know is what age I was when I got it.” She raised her eyebrows and looked at him. Garrett shook his head and imitated her. She laughed. “Guess!”
Garrett thought. A doctorate typically took eight years after the undergraduate work, which would take four. At that rate, it would put her graduating from high school at eleven, but it had to be even earlier than that, because she had already established a career. He did not know, so he guessed. “Twenty-one?” he asked.
She smiled a big, beautiful smile and whispered, “Seventeen.” She squinted at him again and turned her attention back to her food. Garrett had felt a certain amount of intimidation when he spent time with her, but he thought he was becoming comfortable with it until she uttered that number. She was not merely a smart woman; she was one of the smartest people on the planet. “Nothing to say about that, huh? Smart guy?” she asked. Garrett felt his soul melt a little.
“I told you last night, I’m enamored. There is nothing above that. You are remarkable beyond measure, and if you are after my affection, you have it,” he said. Lauren blushed. Garrett tried to lessen the blow, leaned in, and kissed the corner of her mouth. She relaxed.
After Garrett had showered and they were both ready to go, they walked down the three flights of stairs to the parking deck. Lauren led him to her car and unlocked it. “Hey, after we’re done at OPM tonight, let’s go to my apartment. Yours is terrible.”
Garrett laughed but thought about the implications. “Are you committing to us?” he asked.
She placed her hands on the roof of her car and looked at him sincerely. “You have to go. You have to. As long as you commit to that, then I commit to you.” Garrett nodded. The question that had so bothered him faded to obscurity.
4
As the two-hour acquisitions class ended that day, instead of strategizing covert relations with Garrett, Dr. Astor took a different approach. “That is all for today, gentlemen, but I have one quick announcement. Garrett and I are seeing each other. I would prefer that it was not a rumor that you all gossiped about. Yes, we know it’s silly; yes, we know it can’t last; and yes, Garrett is leaving in less than ten months. We both understand all of that. But if any of you see us together outside of work, don’t get worked up about it.” Jaws dropped. Garrett, having stood, was a statue. Lauren walked to her desk, gathered her things, walked to Garrett, took his hand, and led him out of the classroom.
After they were out, Garrett reeled her in and kissed her hard. “Wow, you just dropped a bomb in there!” he said.
She looked at him innocently. “Do you care? Because I don’t. I just want to go home, and I want you to be with me.”
Garrett embraced her. “Me too. Let’s go.” They walked to the elevator and stepped in. As the doors were closing, Garrett said, “I am completely unprepared. I have to go home and get my things.” The elevator descended.
Lauren frowned and looked up at him. “What makes you think you’re staying the night?” Once the look of surprise registered on his face, she burst into laughter. “I’m kidding! Go home and get your things. I’ll get dinner and we can meet at my place.”
“You’re kind of a jerk,” he said, but smiled through the insult.
She kissed him. “Lighten up, slouch. Remember, it will be important to keep this relationship light. It is, by design, going to crash and burn.” She lightly slapped his side and kissed him again.
“As someone who will be flung off this planet at thousands of miles per hour, can we refrain from the ‘crash and burn’ talk?” he asked.
She frowned. “Sorry,” she said. “Do you know where I live?”
“If I did, that would make me a stalker, but yes, I know where you live,” he said. She frowned, and Garrett laughed just as hard. “No! I have no idea. You have to tell me!” She gave him directions to her apartment, and they walked out of the building, holding hands. Before they reached the large exterior doors, they heard a voice.
“Lauren?” It was Cecilia. “Are you two…?”
Lauren looked at her and said, “Yeah.” She never broke stride, and then they were out into the evening stampede.
5
Garrett knocked on Lauren’s door ninety minutes later, hoping the bouquet he had picked up on the way to her place would surprise her. “Be there in a minute,” he heard through the door from deep within the apartment. She opened the door and was wearing large red gym shorts and a black, oversized tee with the letters ‘OPM’ printed on the chest, with the Orris logo beneath the text. “Are those for me?” she smiled at him. “So sweet.” She took the flowers from him without inviting him in and walked away from the door. He stepped in and closed it. She had produced a vase from somewhere and was arranging the flowers in it. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way,” she said. “I genuinely love the gesture, but I would rather have had the ten minutes it took you to get them than I would the flowers.”
The sentiment warmed Garrett’s heart. “I understand. And you were right, your apartment is much better than mine.” He was standing in an entryway that she had placed a table in to mock a dining room. To his left was an island similar to his, separating the space from her much larger kitchen. He scanned deeper into the apartment and spied a small telescope pointing up through the glass pane of one of her living room windows. He laughed and pointed at it. “You’re such a nerd.”
She finished with the flowers, walked over to him, and embraced him. “You can see Orris with it,” she whispered into his ear. The snarky smile melted from his face. “Now who’s the nerd?” she said, kissed his neck and walked into the kitchen. “I just got takeout. It should be here any minute.” There was a knock at the door as she finished her sentence, and Garrett answered it.
Lauren served the food on proper plates and with proper silverware, and they ate at her “dining room” table. While eating, they only made light conversation about the other Envoys, and Lauren described her schooling adventure and her almost unbelievable journey to her doctorate. When they finished eating, he helped her clear the dishes, and they went to the kitchen to clean up. He used the casual opportunity to ask about the one thing that had been picking at his mind since that morning.
“I have another question,” he said as he washed and rinsed, while she dried and put away. “This morning you told me I had to go, like you had put a lot of thought into it, like you knew I was second guessing my decision. What was that about?” He handed her a fork, the last of the dishes. She dried it, dropped it into its place in the silverware basket, and hung the towel up to dry.
“I didn’t know.” She was not looking at him but took his hand and led him into the living room, which again was massive compared to his, and sat on the couch. He sat on the opposite side and faced her. “I suspected that if it went far enough between us, you might consider backing out and living on Osa for the rest of your life,” she said, rubbing at her temple. “I’ve only had two relationships in my life. You are my third. Both of the first two started out great and ended badly after a year or two. I can’t bear to think you would give this up for me, just to have our relationship flame out in a couple of years, with you wondering what might have been.”
Garrett shifted in his seat and offered her a small smile. “First, you need to stop the references to failing flight equipment,” Garrett said. He breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly. “You’re right. As much as I want to disagree with you, I can’t.” He shifted again in his seat. “There is just no way either of us can know for sure. Especially this early in the relationship, and honestly, we won’t even have a year together. There is no way that we can know, especially after less than a year. You really are smart.” Lauren shifted herself over to him and kissed him. He laid back, and she laid on top of him, her head resting on his chest.
“It’s hard for me to believe that once you’re gone, before you even get started, I’ll be gone. We’ll all be gone. Does that tear at you? Not about me, but about your family?” she asked. He pulled her tightly to him.
“Yeah. About my family and about you, too. About everyone I know. If I’m honest, I expect to be in tears about it shortly after the launch. How does anyone console themselves from losing everything and everyone in one action? We’ve talked about that with Dr. Paige,” he said.
Lauren closed her eyes. “Hmm, I love Christine.”
“Yeah, she’s a great person,” he said.
She climbed up far enough to plant a kiss on his neck and then looked at her watch. “Ugh, it’s too early to go to bed.”
“Let’s find something to watch. If you want to sit on the floor in front of me, I’ll rub your shoulders,” Garrett said.
She sat up and smiled. “That sounds great!” She put on a cooking show and sat between his legs. He rubbed her shoulders, and they watched and learned about proper grilling and smoking techniques. Twice, he felt her head bob down to the back of his hand. The third time, it stayed there. She was out. Garrett got up carefully, picked her up, walked into her bedroom, and put her into bed. He walked back into the living room, stripped down to his shorts and tee-shirt, and laid down on her couch. It took almost an hour, but he eventually drifted into a light, uncomfortable sleep.
After what seemed like hours, another one of those loud kisses on his cheek woke him up. “Hey, dummy,” she whispered into his ear. “What are you doing out here on the couch?”
Garrett yawned and sat up. “Um, I wanted you to sleep well,” he said. She sat down by his knees. “What time is it?”
“It’s not even midnight yet,” she said, and put her hand on his cheek. “And my sleep would be far better if I knew you were with me. Would you really rather sleep out here?”
His eyes still closed, he said, “Let’s go,” and he reached for her.
“Okay, no funny business, just sleep.” She took his hand, stood, and led him into her bedroom.
6
The following evening, at Garrett’s request, the two went to Brenia and Rodney’s small house for dinner. Garrett warned Brenia that he would bring Lauren with him and had spent the larger part of his lunch break on the phone with his sister, explaining the details of their relationship. The whole affair confused Brenia at first, but upon understanding, she assured him she supported the decision. There were two other things, though, that Brenia specifically did not do. She did not inform Garrett that she had also invited their parents to dinner, and she did not inform her parents beforehand of the news about her brother’s love interest.
When Garrett and Lauren arrived that evening, Brenia walked out to meet them before they even reached the door. She hugged her brother first and then hugged Lauren, who smiled with surprise at the unexpected affection.
“It’s so nice to meet you!” Brenia said. “Please, come in!” The couple followed her through their front door and living room into their large kitchen, where Rodney was chopping vegetables. He wiped his hands off and extended one to Lauren.
“Hi, I’m Rod, Breni’s husband.” Lauren shook his hand, and Garrett found it humorous watching Lauren’s small hand be swallowed up by Rodney’s.
“I’m Lauren.”
Rodney stepped over to the refrigerator. “What are you two having to drink? Beer, Gar?”
“Yeah, make it two. She’s the first girl I’ve ever met who drank the good stuff,” Garrett said. Rodney nodded and pulled out two bottles. He opened them and handed them out as Brenia walked in with the baby.
“Awww!” Lauren exclaimed in a pitch that Garrett believed only females could produce.
As the girls got acquainted, Rodney said quietly, “Good-looking redhead man, cheers.” Garrett smiled and lifted the bottle to his lips. As soon as he felt the liquid touch them, he heard his mother’s voice.
“Where’s my baby boy!” She had just come through the front door with his father in tow. Garrett shot a look at Rodney, with Brenia on the other side of the room.
“What, man?” Rodney said in response to the look. Garrett closed his eyes and breathed in. “Oh, they don’t know about her yet?”
“No! And Breni didn’t tell me they were coming!” Garrett said. He could think of only one potential solution to ensure the meeting would not end in a disaster. He put his beer down on the counter and walked into the living room where his parents had entered. He took his mother by the hand and led her straight back out of the house again.
“Garrett, what in the world is going on?” his mother asked.
He spoke quickly. “Breni didn’t tell me you and Dad were coming. There is a girl in the house who I’m with. We’re dating, and I was going to talk to you and Dad about it tomorrow night. But now you’re going to meet her without us having discussed the details, and I just want…” His mother’s face lit up when she understood what her son was saying. She didn’t wait to hear more.
