Even with the proud confidence he carried as he strode towards her, Hale’s cerulean eyes revealed the loneliness of his weary soul to Zaya. It wouldn’t be long before Hale would reach out to her because of that loneliness, and trying to turn the other way was a fight Zaya always lost. She knew she would lose to him eventually, no matter how hard she fought.

Only minutes ago, Hale’s ship had connected to hers, and he came through the airlock on the left side of her ship. He wore a loose shirt and his black cargo pants lined with knives and guns of an unknown number. He never left his ship without them. When he stood in front of her, she noticed his temperament was oddly calm. The corners of his mouth rose in a gentle smile, and he reached out both arms and embraced her. Zaya knew it was nothing more than a friendly gesture because she remembered the way he used to hug her when they were together. She quickly broke away from him. She was supposed to detest his touch.

“You’re late,” Zaya commented, crossing her arms and trying to put distance between them.

Hale’s pretty lips curled upwards in a grin. “You should have expected that.” He took a couple steps closer to her.

She pushed him back and gestured to the sofa along the back wall of the bridge. The sofa was made was made of a shiny, white fabric and was half the length of the back wall, just enough space for two people.

Hale sat at one end of the sofa, leaving ample room for her. Zaya walked over to the row of storage compartments and opened one of them stocked with her favorite alcoholic drinks. She pulled out a large bottle of a dark golden liquid along with two small glasses. She set the bottle and the glasses on the small table in front of the sofa.

“I doubt you need anything more to drink today, but here,” she said.

“Thanks, I shouldn’t.” Hale quickly poured himself a glass. “But this is one of my favorites.”

Zaya held her breath for a moment. “Really?” He’d better not assume that was intentional because it wasn’t.

“You’re the one who used to buy it for me all the time. Did you really forget?”

“Look,” Zaya said sternly, “We’re not here to talk about the past. We’re here to talk about the job. And if it goes well, we won’t ever have to see each other again.”

Hale frowned, as he nodded. “Right.”

She sat beside him and poured herself a drink. This job was the only reason he came so far to see her. After all his past years of betrayal, he owed her this. It would never be the time to reminisce their past. The only thing they should talk about is the job. Did she have the strength to keep things purely professional? Glancing over to her left, she diverted her attention to him for a moment.

He held his glass in his hand as he stared at her, his eyes flickering with intensity. He smirked at her when they made eye contact, and she looked down at her glass. That shouldn’t be happening. It was as though he was testing the waters with her to see how far she might let him get with her, or really… how close.

Didn’t he love Pandora? Was his love for her not strong enough for him to last two months without pursuing someone else? Although, he could just be playing her. Yes, that’s all it was. Hale liked to play games after all.

Zaya leaned over to set her glass on the table. She needed a clear head as she explained as much as she knew about the upcoming job and the client to Hale.

“My contact brought this opportunity to my attention because he told me I was the only one with the guts to take it on who could succeed,” Zaya began.

“Plenty of people would be willing to risk their lives for eighty million. That’s almost enough to buy three brand new personal cruisers.”

“Yeah, forty million actually. The client is offering forty to each person. He wanted two of the best on this.”

Hale furrowed his brows. “Have you met him yet? You haven’t exactly told me any details.”

“That’s because I don’t really know much. We’re meeting him tomorrow.”

“Alright,” Hale said obviously hesitantly. He pressed his lips together probably to suppress further comments from leaving his mouth.

“I’m confident in my contact.” Zaya reached into one of her pant pockets and pulled out a transparent lavender card. “This holds two million credits just for you, Hale.”

He snatched it out of her hand and studied it closely. “For?”

“It’s from our client.” She stood up and walked towards the command center behind the main viewport. Leaning over, she gazed down at the planet in the distance. Hale followed and looked where she pointed. “He wants us to meet him on K’aldi at a tavern called the Lilac Inn. He’s given us each two million for just meeting with him tomorrow night.”

The planet far beneath them was known as K’aldi, located near the beginning of the Outskirts. From her ship, it was a deep midnight sphere made of equal parts of dark water and land dotted by faint city lights. Zaya had done some research about the planet. Most of the land was covered in cities of buildings traditionally constructed out of stone and clay. In spite of the ancient appearance of architecture throughout the planet, she had read that the technology on K’aldi was as advanced as the rest of the world. This job would likely be just as difficult as the ones she was used to.

“That’s suspicious to me. Exactly what is he asking us to do?”

“I don’t know,” she snapped. “We’ll find out tomorrow.”

“I hope so. Either way, I can’t get out of it.”

“Yeah, because you owe me.” She smiled as she feigned a punch at his chest.

He grabbed her wrist and forced her to remain close to him. With a scowl, she looked up at him to glare. But he only smiled at her.

“You wouldn’t let me forget.” He let go of her and walked back to the couch.

Zaya followed him. “Since I’ve told you basically everything I know about the job, I think I’ll turn in for the night.”

“Don’t do that. We didn’t even get through the bottle, which is pretty pathetic. I might add.”

She placed her hands on her hips. “You actually want to talk?”

“I mean, mostly I’ll be drinking, but sure.” He poured them both a glass.

She stared at him cynically. “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re being nice to me. Actually, way too nice. What do you want?”

He sighed. “Honestly, I feel bad about what I’ve done to you in the past. I guess you could say I’m trying to make up for my mistakes.”

“Weird.”

“What?” He seemed surprised by her response.

“That was almost like an apology.”

“I would like to apologize actually.”

She held up a hand towards him. “Don’t. It would only piss me off. Nothing could make up for what you did. And I don’t want to talk about it. Ever.”

He reached for the hand she held up. “Just don’t go. Please. Can’t we be friends.”

Zaya scoffed. Clearly, he had no clue how much pain he had inflicted upon her, pain that she still carried.

“Just for tonight. You can hate me tomorrow.”

She reached for the drink he had poured her and swallowed the liquid in one go. “Pour me another.”

The bright smile he made when he knew she was staying could have easily awoken old feelings if she didn’t have her guard up.

* * * *

What are you doing? Zaya had asked him.

Hale knew what she meant when she said that. Zaya wanted to know why he was being so nice to her. She probably suspected he wanted her again. And maybe he did.

He swallowed the liquor in his glass and immediately refilled it, hoping that he could get drunk enough to avoid answering that.

Glancing over to her, Zaya was stretched out on the sofa and crossed her legs over the metal table in front of them. Her tall leather boots were severely scratched up and even ripped in certain places. Her shiny black pants were shredded where her knees were. And the jacket she had worn for all the years he had known her was patched up at every seam. Her dark skin was still adorned by spiraling silver vines across her body and face. He was amazed at how little she changed in the years they spent apart. Right now, she sat in the same position she used to.

Only one thing was different about her really. And that was the way she looked at him. While partially subdued, hatred flared in her dark eyes every time she looked at him. It hurt, but he deserved it.

He shouldn’t have asked her to stay because the reason he wanted her was completely selfish. He wanted her to be his distraction from all of his pain. Using women as merely distractions was an old habit of his, and this night proved it still was. Although a distraction was needed because of his inability to stop thinking about Pandora. It had been two months since he had last seen her, but it might has well have been just yesterday. Sleep was the one time he stopped picturing her face, but his thoughts made sleep impossible most times. Alcohol helped a lot, except for the migraines he would wake up with.

Through his late teen years and early twenties, Zaya had been his best friend. He might have not loved her, but he had cared for her deeply. And still did because she had been his friend for a long time before he had broken her trust by cheating. He should have been honest back then that he didn’t want to be in a relationship instead of sneaking around on her. The first few times she caught him— it killed him now when he thought about it— she had forgiven him. She excused his behavior because of how young he was and that he was nearly five years younger than her. Even he saw that had been a mistake on her part. He never deserved her forgiveness.

Hale hadn’t wanted to hurt her, but from the start he knew that he didn’t love her in the way Zaya wanted him to. Cheating on her was despicable. But at that time, he was just realizing getting girls was easy for him, and he didn’t want to stop.

Zaya’s last straw was Lorelei. Hale perfectly remembered the night Lorelei had come into his life. It was by no means romantic. He and Zaya were meeting a client at Trey’s strip club for a job as they often did. Lorelei at that time was working there as a pole dancer. She was magnificent, and he thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Never had he witnessed hair so naturally red. That night they had made eye contact far too many times for him to deny that she wasn’t interested in him. After Zaya left, Hale stayed behind and introduced himself to Lorelei, and for the next couple months, he was with her almost every night.

That betrayal was why Zaya walked away from him, and her intention was forever.

As he looked at her now, he understood why she despised him still. Zaya turned her head and met his eyes with hers.

“What?” Zaya asked.

“I was just thinking about something. Nothing important though.” He reached into his backpack leaning against the sofa. He pulled out a tiny metal case and opened it on the table. Inside was his favorite deck of cards because they had once belonged to his mom. The cards were clear and flexible, each with a number and an insignia. She rolled her eyes. “Not this game. You always lose.”

He shuffled the cards between his hands and fanned them out across the table. “You go first.” He placed two shot glasses next to the cards.

Zaya selected four cards from the row of cards running across the table. Out of those four she chose the pair she wanted to challenge Hale with. Hale picked his four cards and the two from those four to play against hers. Because her pair added up to more points, Zaya won that hand.

Hale filled up his shot glass and threw his head back as he swallowed his drink. Zaya smiled smugly at him.

“I’ll get you on the next one,” he said.

She laughed as she drew two cards. Hale followed and drew two of his own. Two of his cards had high numbers, but the two lower numbered cards had matching symbols, which meant more points. He chose to play the matching cards.

“Almost,” she teased. She also presented a match but with a much higher value.

Hale took another shot. Considering how much he had already drank, he wasn’t sure how long he would last if he continued to draw poor hands. By the time most of the cards had been used, there was an obvious difference in the levels of soberness between them. Zaya could almost sit up straight on the sofa. Hale could barely feel the sofa and struggled to not collapse in front of her. He had lost nearly every hand, but he still wanted to finish the game.

He meant to reach his right hand out for a pair of cards, yet his arm wouldn’t move like he wanted it to. His arm went forwards but not towards the cards. Eventually, his hand found them.

“Hale.” Zaya placed a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you should lay down. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone lose so much in one round.”

He laughed, definitely too many times for him, but he couldn’t stop himself from laughing. His head fell back on the back of the couch and turned to look at Zaya. Her brows of precise arches were furrowed with concern about him.

Zaya stood in front of him and held out her hands. “Can you stand up?”

Her dark hands were adorned with her shiny, silver birthmarks that twined around her wrists and over her hands delicately. And when he held onto her hands, he started to think about and appreciate everything she used to do with those hands. He still had enough mental strength to know he didn’t want to be thinking about Zaya like that. Obviously, he wasn’t drunk enough.

With Zaya’s help, he could barely stand because he couldn’t feel the floor under his feet. She helped him balance and walked with him to the bedroom. Reaching the edge of the bed, he fell forwards onto the mattress. Zaya effortlessly turned him over so that he was facing the ceiling.

“Try to sleep this off, please. You have to be one hundred percent for tomorrow’s meeting. I never should have played that stupid game with you.”

After she left him, he didn’t know long he stared up at the metal ceiling. He continuously saw Pandora in his mind and even with his eyes open he could visualize her too clearly. He knew he hadn’t drunk enough because the thought of never seeing her again and never having the chance to love her was excruciating. Why couldn’t he let it go? It had been two months. If he drank more, he would definitely have a severe hangover and throw up. That had been him two days ago, and he didn’t want to go through that a second time in the same week. Especially not in Zaya’s presence.

But with just a little more alcohol, he might fall asleep and be able to stop thinking about Pandora.