Page 55 of The Love Simulation

“I found Miles!” Roman says, and I look in his direction. Roman has just pulled the rover out of a hill of dust and is gently cleaning it off with his gloved hand.

I run over and sink to my knees beside Roman. “Oh, you poor thing. We left you out here all alone.”

Roman wipes off a little more dust and ensures the rover won’t tip over. “I think that’ll do it. But how come it’s not turning back on?”

“Him.Don’t be disrespectful. You’ll hurt his feelings. How do we turn him back on?”

Roman sighs in his mic and continues looking Miles over. “I see. It’s solar powered, but its little battery—hislittle battery,” he corrects himself when I clear my throat, “must have gotten knocked loose in the storm.”

I look around again. There’s no way we’ll be able to find a small battery in all this dust and sand. “Another one bites the dust,” I say with a sigh, stroking Miles. Will this simulation ever let us live in peace?

“What do you mean, ‘another one bites the dust’? We didn’t even look for the battery.”

“Yeah, but look at everything we’d have to dig through. Finding the battery would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Time-consuming and pointless. And I’m tired and sweaty and hungry. And I’m tired of all this stupid red and the stupid dust!” I punctuate my frustration by grabbing a fistful of sand and tossing it away from me. And I know it’s finally happened. I’ve cracked. The simulation has finally broken me.

I’m breathing so hard I can’t hear anything else, and the mist from my breath is fogging up my helmet. I keep my head bent and eyes facing my lap, afraid that if I glance up, Roman will be looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. And he would be correct.

As I clap my hands together, trying to get the remaining dust off my gloves, Roman’s voice comes through my comms. But he’s not speaking. He’s humming. I sit in stupefied silence as I realize he’s humming the theme song toMission: Impossible. His voice is low and in perfect pitch. If I weren’t in such a bad mood, I’d ask him to really sing so I could know what his voice sounds like.

“Don’t give up, Bri,” he says when he pauses. “You’re not here alone. I’m here, and we can find the battery if we do it together. We can do anything together.”

I know that in the grand scheme of things, not being able to power up Miles is a nonproblem. Keeping himoperating isn’t a requirement of the task, only finding him was. But damned if I won’t let Roman’s enthusiasm and belief in me—in us as a team—be wasted.

“Okay,” I say. “Let’s find Miles’s battery.”

Roman is the first to stand up, pulling me to my feet. As I stare up into his face behind the glass barriers of our helmets, he starts humming again. This time I join in.

We keep searching through piles of sand and under rocks. Even as we go separate ways, with me on one side and Roman on the other, Roman’s baritone continues to carry the tune, so I harmonize with the alto notes.

Finally, after who knows how long, I see it. A small rectangle under a group of rocks. I lunge for it, picking the battery up and waving it in the air in victory. “Got it! I got it!” I yell.

Roman runs over to me and I throw myself in his arms, laughing as he spins me around.

We get back to where we left Miles on the ground. “Would you like to do the honors?” Roman asks.

I nod and attach the battery where it goes, right on top of his head. Or what passes for a head. Within seconds, lights flicker as he begins coming to life, and I clap.

“We did it,” I say with a sigh as the energy begins draining from me. I don’t know how long we were out here cleaning or how long we looked for Miles, but I’m beat. And happy. I turn to Roman. “Thank you for not letting me give up.”

“I knew it was important to you. All you needed was a little push. And don’t worry, when I’m right here by your side, I won’t let you give up.” He squeezes my thigh briefly. “I think we’re pretty much done out here. Ready to go inside?”

I nod, and we head back inside the Hab.

“What do you miss from the outside world?” I ask Roman while we eat rectangles of fried rice. The food isn’t bad, butI can’t help but wish for more. “I’ll tell you what. I would kill for some fried crab rangoon and egg drop soup to go on the side.”

Roman thinks for a minute. “I could go for some wings or burgers.”

“Do you cook?”

He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Cook? Girl, I throw down. They don’t call me the master of the pit for nothing.”

“Who? Who calls you that?”

He chuckles. “I do. But it’s true. You’ll see one day.”

I smile down into my food and scoop another bite.

“What else?” he asks. At my blank look he continues, “What else do you miss from the outside world besides food?”

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