Page 25 of The Love Simulation

“It’s the dishwasher manual. We’re supposed to get familiar with all the gadgets here.” Quietly, I tack on, “Roman reminded me.”

“Oh cool. I’ll have to make sure to check that out later,” Jordan says. “Right now I’m starving. I wonder how good the eggs are.”

After saying his name, I look at Roman, who offers a small smile. The butterflies in my stomach are very real and come on quick, and I know that for someone who should be suspicious of every breath Roman takes, I’m walking a mighty fine tightrope right now.

Chapter Eleven

It’s another hour before Simone and Angie emerge. While they were sleeping, Jordan scrambled some rehydrated eggs and bacon. I couldn’t bring myself to touch the eggs since I still haven’t acclimated to the horrible smell here, so I let the guys have it all to themselves and ate oatmeal while trying not to mentally replay my conversation with Roman. It didn’t work.

“Good morning, ladies,” Jordan says to Angie and Simone. “Ready to start the day?”

“Sure,” Angie says.

“I’m ready,” Simone says, only slightly more enthusiastic.

“We have to spend at least thirty minutes a day in the gym,” Jordan says. “The gravity on Mars is different, so we’ve gotta hit the weights to keep the biceps beefy.”

“Orgetthe biceps beefy,” Simone says with a giggle in response to Jordan flexing.

“It’s six in the morning,” Angie deadpans.

“Working out first thing in the morning is a great way to wake up,” Jordan says.

Angie huffs out a breath and looks to me to back her up. “It’s six in the morning,” she says again. “I’m not doing a damn thing until I’ve at least eaten.”

“Yeah, Jordan,” I say. “I’m with Angie on this one. I never work out on an empty stomach.”

“Okay, okay.” Jordan holds up his hands. “I know we’re still working out the kinks in our new schedule. Though I am a bit surprised teachers would have issues waking up early.”

“It’s summer break. I should be in Cancún. It’s six in the morning!” Angie gets more agitated with each statement, her eyes turning an accusatory glance on Jordan.

“Totally right and absolutely valid points.” Jordan steps back slowly, and my opinion of his survival instincts rises. He can obviously sense when danger is near and knows when to back off. “I’m going to go ahead and get my workout in. You all enjoy breakfast and whatever else you need to do, and we’ll see you in there in about, what, twenty minutes?” Angie bares her teeth, and Jordan amends his statement. “I mean, forty-five?”

Angie doesn’t answer, which gives Jordan leave to take his timeline as acceptable, and he turns to Roman. “Do you want to hit the gym with me now?”

Roman stands from his stool and walks up to Jordan, patting him on the shoulder. “Sure, man. Let’s get to it.”

I don’t miss the way Jordan shakes out his arm as he follows Roman, nor do I miss how Roman’s eyes shift to me before the two leave the common room. But I’m still confused and processing my chat with Roman, so I do my best to avoid eye contact.

“Let’s see, what should I eat?” Angie says, opening a cabinet. Finding nothing to her liking, she lets out a disgusted snort. “I guess I’m eating another protein bar.”

She heads to our room.

Simone goes to the cabinet and pulls out a cup of oatmeal and shrugs. “Oatmeal is oatmeal.”

After she gets her food ready, she sits at the table and passes me the book I let her borrow yesterday.

“Wait, you’re done already?” I ask.

“Yeah, I read it before falling asleep. I go through these phases where I either read nothing for months or I devour everything I can and finish books in, like, a day.” Simone takes a bite of her food, then looks down at it, surprised. “This isn’t bad at all.” She eats some more, pausing when she’s about halfway done. “Do you have any other good ones in your bag? I’m usually not a werewolf girly, but that one was really cute and fun.”

Angie walks back in finishing off a protein bar. I hope at some point she’ll try some of the food available. I’m pretty sure it’s not good for her to rely on so many of those.

“Angie, you were right about Felix and those tentacles,” Simone says to her, waving her fingers as if they’re her tentacles.

“Of course I was. And I heard you ask Brianna for another. I’ve got some books you can read. One has an alien that growls,” Angie ends with a wide grin.

“I don’t know,” Simone says, scraping her bowl to get the last of her oatmeal. “Growling doesn’t really do it for me. What about you, Brianna?”

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