Jack pulls his boot through the loop and is free within seconds. He’s graceful in the water, even in a 300-pound suit. I refocus on the replica of the planetary surface beneath me. The sound of Jack’s breathing inside the suit relaxes me.
In the past few days since the hotel room incident, we’ve kept our promise by maintaining a distance. Being suspended underwater in suits, behind the clear plastic of helmets, reflects the new normal of our relationship. I wish we could keep them afterward. It would be a much easier way to prevent us from touching.
Light from the surface trickles down to the bottom of the pool in fragments. Jack is a watercolor painting of navy blues, gray, and the brown of his eyes. Even with every color on my palette, I wouldn’t be able to capture the exact shade of him in this moment.
I push forward through the water, bouncing with each step. All divers’ eyes are on me, watching my every move. Meanwhile, I’m watching every one of Jack’s.
We’re given a task to pick up rock samples in the lunar area so we can experience what the astronauts do. There are a variety of tools at our disposal, and this generation of suits apparently have greater mobility. My heart nearly stops pounding when Jack kneels in front of me and lifts a rock up in front of him. He looks at me and grins. I laugh to myself. That is a very different type of rock than what his stance typically calls for. Our gazes catch as we both take deep breaths in. It’s too intimate hearing someone breathe like this.
I attempt to lift a mock space rock of my own with one of the tools. I’m able to pick up a few but the water slows down my movements and I can’t get a grip on my fifth rock. I sigh with frustration and have some choice words for this task.
“How’s it going over there?” Jack’s voice crackles into my ear.
For a second, I forgot that Jack can also hear me.
“I’m not as nimble down here,” I say, trying to wiggle my fingers.
“You’re doing great. Is that all, though?” Jack asks. “You’ve been quieter than usual today.”
Am I that obvious? “Oh. I’m fine.”
Jack’s back on his feet and testing out a new tool. “Rooney, the clean room strips us down. The pool washes us clean. Tell me what’s going on.”
I look back up at the surface. It’s not like I can swim away from this conversation.
“There are rumors that a museum in Europe wants to buy the video,” I share. “Apparently, they may be trying to put together a permanent exhibit that showcases nostalgia. They want pieces that are conversation starters.Baby Being Bornchecks off both of those boxes. The range is officially twenty-five to thirty-five thousand dollars. That’s slightly higher than I anticipated, which was already too high for what I can afford.”
“Wow,” Jack says, walking in slow motion toward me. “That blows my mind, and I’m in fake space.”
I huff out a laugh. “I don’t have museum competition money!”
“Hmm. The museum may want it, but it doesn’t mean they’ll get it.” He points toward the handle of my tool. “Angle it like this, and you might have an easier time using it with your gloves.”
I adjust my hand positioning as Jack instructed. “That’s easier. Thanks. But yeah, this adds more pressure to the showcase.”
“It certainly does. But having an installation will help,” Jack says as he bends down again to touch the sand. “There will be a lot of press on opening day. That’ll be good exposure. Exposure will drive sales. It has to. And don’t worry. An idea will come. Give it time.”
For a brief moment, Jack’s words comfort me. Sure, we’re underwater, but talking to him in a mock lunar area is as easy as it was at the hotel. Not just in the hotel. In his room. Me in Jack’s shirt, in Jack’s bed, after having kissed him in the Rocket Garden. I can totally survive off two, almost three, Jack kisses in my lifetime. That should be plenty. It has to be.
Stay present, Rooney.
I place my tool back on the metal table connected to the bottom of the pool. “Will it be enough sales? is the question. I’m in way over my head.”
Jack slowly stands and turns to face me. It takes him a moment to turn all the way around. “Would you say you’re feeling underwater?”
He says the unexpected comment with such a serious face that I burst out laughing. “Even after I save up just to spend it all on this piece, how will I stay afloat?” I counter.
Jack raises an eyebrow. “You’d think that down here, the weight of the world would be off your shoulders.”
I attempt to throw up my hands, but it’s more of a slow raisebecause of the water drag. Still, it captures the dramatic effect I was aiming for. “It was poolish of me to think this would be possible.”
It must be because I’m smiling that Jack takes it as a sign that he can laugh because it’s exactly what he does. Behind the plastic of his helmet, he’s amused, but the sound of chuckling only comes through in my earpiece after a short lag. It’s like watching a movie when the sound doesn’t match the actors’ mouth movements.
I exhale slowly and take in my surroundings of the pool, of the divers, of Jack. Of everything I’ll see and experience today, the one thing I’d want to bottle up is this moment right here, the feeling of weightlessness that takes over when I’m around Jack, and maybe most of all, the sound of his laughter.
Chapter 24
JACK
