Zhen woke up in a daze. The room was covered in a floral perfume scent coming from candles placed around the bed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and let the tendrils of scent thread themselves around her soul. Tisha was a master perfumer. She designed scents for high-end customers, with a clientele that spanned from celebrities to politicians and royalty. When they first met, she made a scent just for Zhen. It was the one currently swirling around the room. The nose was based on a harmony between orange blossom, fresh spicy notes of ginger and warm sandalwood. It had a sensual trail that brought a sweet unity between all the components which included vanilla and honey as its base notes. Zhen absolutely loved it.
She stretched out on the bed, her naked body appreciating the high thread count sheets that draped Tisha's bed. They were royal purple, complimenting her favourite fragrance. Zhen slipped out of the bed and headed to the shower. She's been here so many times from when they first met that it was another home for her. The steam from the shower helped ease her even more. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a sweater from her bags and walked to the dining room where she heard Tisha and Richie talking. Her bare feet soaked up the warmth from the heated hardwood floorboards.
"Z! Z! Z!"
The happy chanting was coming from the perpetual bundle of joy that was three year old Richie. He was snapping together 3D holographic shapes into a variety of objects in the middle of the living rom. Zhen walked over and gave him a big hug, letting his giggles and struggles to get out of the hold fill her up to the brim. She let him be and walked over to join Tisha in the kitchen.
"Welcome back," said Tisha, handing her a glass of water.
"Thank you," said Zhen.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better," Zhen took a sip from her glass. "Hungry."
"I bet," Tisha pushed a full plate of food towards Zhen. "You've been asleep for hours."
Zhen looked up at her after a moment of attacking her food. She swallowed. "Thank you."
"After that workout this morning, I think I should be the one thanking you," said Tisha with a smile.
Tisha let Zhen finish her plate, going over to play with Richie. She was teaching him about scents. Letting him pick his favourites and telling him about their properties. Their power. He was already a natural at separating individual elements in a fragrance. It was wonderful to watch. Scarily impressive. And he was extremely picky at the scents he liked and those he didn't, even though Tisha kept telling him that they were all equally important. After the little lesson, she walked back to Zhen.
"So, how was space?"
"Being up there," Zhen started, taking a moment to gather her thoughts so she knew how best to say this. "It beat anything I could have ever imagined it to be."
They sat in silence for a moment, watching her little boy play.
"Are we going to talk about this morning?" Tisha finally asked.
"Can I stay here for a few days?" Zhen replied.
"Of course."
Zhen's head went up from her tablet to look at the door. She was surprised at how fast the day had gone by. She'd spent the last few days diving into MechSoft's database looking for anything she could use to get some leverage on Cruz and get out from under his thumb. She hated feeling helpless, especially when she was being backed into a corner by an entitled narcissist willing to rob humanity blind while at the same time taking advantage of her friend, Jo. Zhen wasn't going to just accept that. Her thoughts were interrupted when Tisha and Richie walked into the house after a day of work and play school. Zhen stood up from the office desk to go meet them. Richie ran over screaming her name. He gave Zhen a big hug and peck on the cheek then went to change out of his outside clothes. Tisha walked into Zhen's welcoming arms. Zhen gave her a kiss.
"It's good to have someone to come home to," said Tisha in a breathless sigh.
A streak of panic ran through Zhen.
"Don't worry, Zhen," said Tisha with a smile. "I know this isn't permanent."
"I'm sorry," said Zhen.
"Don't be," Tisha replied, giving her another kiss. "I've loved having you here this past week. But I've always known it's not going to be like this forever. I'm just enjoying the moment."
Zhen smiled. "I'm making dinner tonight. Go run a bath. Relax. I'll keep an eye on Richie."
Tisha nodded and kissed her one more time. "Thank you, love."
They spoke as they ate, listening to Richie regaling them with tales from play school. Apparently, he went on an adventure in the forest as a one of the Fae Knights with his friends, Cleo and Will. Zhen and Tisha let him talk himself out.
"What about you, Zhen?" Tisha asked. "Find anything?"
"As a matter of fact, I did," said Zhen, looking up at her with excitement. "I hit the jackpot. There's a warehouse..."
She was cut off by her vibrating wrist wrap. Zhen had been ignoring the numerous calls from Jack at the Think Tank and had set it up to ring only for family. And Finn. Family.
"It's my dad. I need to get this," she said. She stood up. "I'll be right back."
Zhen closed Tisha's room door behind her. "Hey dad."
"Hey Z. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything is fine," she said.
"How was your mission at the space station? I watched your livestreams. You're good."
Zhen laughed. "That's just stuff I do for the PR."
"Well, you've got quite the following, and it's not hard to see why," he said, his voice dripping with pride. Zhen's heart swelled with feeling. "I thought you might come over for a visit after?"
"I was," said Zhen, guilt prickling her insides. "I just... I needed to do something first."
"Right. I understand," he said. There was a pause, like he was thinking about what to say next. Zhen patiently waited. "Um... I was wondering if you wanted to hang out? Just you and me?"
"Yeah?" said Zhen, smiling. They hadn't in a long time. When she was younger, they'd leave Akemi with mum and go out on adventures together, usually camping and fishing.
"Yeah," he replied. "I fixed the boat. Been working on it for the last few weeks. I thought you might want to join me for its maiden voyage."
"I'd love to," she said, close to tears at the painfully nostalgic memories. "Tonight?"
"Isn't that too soon? It'll take you a while to get here from your place in the city," he said.
"I'm actually not at my place," she said, choosing not to elaborate. "See you in an hour or so?"
"Yeah! Sure," he said excitedly. "I'll pack the boat."
"I'll bring food."
Zhen went back to the dining room and explained to Tisha that she was leaving. Tisha was understanding, even helping her pack. They had a quick little rumble in the sheets, making sure they didn't leave Richie alone for too long. They shouldn't have worried. He was engrossed in a video about how animations were made. He loved drawing and the concept of making his drawings move just blew his mind. Zhen gave him a hug and promised to return with more adventure stories like the ones she'd been telling him about traveling to the stars. Tisha walked her to the door.
"Will you come back?" she asked.
"Tish, I... I'm not sure about much at the moment," said Zhen. She hugged her friend. "Thank you. For everything."
"You're welcome, Z. Anytime."
They kissed goodbye and Zhen walked to the autonomous cab she'd called to pick her up.
"I'm glad you chose to come," her dad said as they packed up their camp gear the next morning.
"Me too," said Zhen. "How often does Akemi sleep over at Sorcha's?"
"Apparently they're forever sisters and forever sisters usually sleep in the same house, is how it's been explained to me," said her dad laughing.
Zhen laughed. "It helps that you guys have dinner over there almost every day."
"Yeah," he said sheepishly. "I wanted to tell you, but I was waiting for the right time. Leana asked me to marry her."
Zhen resisted the urge to do anything but be supportive. It wasn't hard. Her dad was acting like a teenage boy, all giddy and effervescent. She tossed him a sleeping bag to pack into the back of the truck.
"I hope you said yes," Zhen said with a smile.
"I did," he said with that smile that she got from him. The one that she'd long since learnt to wield as a weapon.
"Akemi is going to flip," said Zhen.
Her dad laughed. "Yeah. One good thing from this is that she finally chose what she was going to design her curriculum around: marine biology."
"Isn't that Sorcha's core curriculum build?" said Zhen with a hint of concern.
"Don't worry," her dad said. "She's not going to lose her sense of self."
"How do you know?"
"Because she's adding astronomy to the mix."
Zhen looked up in surprise. "Like mum."
"Yeah. And I don't think it's because she knows that. She chose it herself," there was a little sadness in his voice now. "My girls all seem to love the stars."
"I'm sorry, dad," Zhen said. "I didn't mean to talk about..."
"No, it's okay," he said. "It hurts a little less these days."
"Because of Leana?"
"No. Because I finally realised that your mum would have hated the person I'd become," he said. "That hurts a lot more."
The person I'd become. The words played over and over in Zhen's mind. She thought about the person she'd become. She wondered if her mum would have hated it. Because Zhen didn't like who she'd become. She thought about Finn. How it hurt to see her with Jesse. She thought about why it hurt. It wasn't because she wanted Finn for herself. Not really. Seeing how happy her dad was, she knew that there could never be anything between her and Finn that could jeopardize that. No, that wasn't why she'd been upset. It was because Finn seemed happy. Genuinely happy. And Zhen was pissed because she was drowning in misery.
"Are you okay?" her dad asked. They were back home, unpacking the car. "You were really quiet on the drive back."
"I'm fine," Zhen lied. How could she have justified wanting Finn to be a miserable wreck. She looked over at the corner of their garage. "Hey dad?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I borrow your motorbike for the day?"
"Um, I guess?" he said. "Just be careful."
"Of course," she said.
She was going to make it up to Finn for being a shitty friend, and she knew exactly how she was going to do it. They finished unpacking and putting away all the camping and fishing gear and then her dad headed out to pick Akemi up from the Darrow's, while Zhen put on her leathers and drove the motorbike to a warehouse on the other side of town.