Every time children came up, she demurred. Weeks turned to months. Cole spent longer at work. She found more excuses to go back to California for visits. It was easier, to let Valerie distract her with her various projects at Hawthorne. To go to lectures and dinners full of interesting people.

For the First Man of Mars had become utterly boring to Naomi. When she was home, they sat at the dinner table in silence. Cole could feel his fame waning. Mars had been years ago. Everyone was fascinated by the Gateway and the moon again. Breakthroughs and cost reductions made it not quite so astronomically expensive to set up bases and grow food. Naomi had considered a transfer at her work to focus on the Artemis missions to the moon, save for the fact doing so would annoy Cole further.

Cole was itching to find a way back into the spotlight.

“I was thinking of doing a documentary,” he said one morning over breakfast, before work. “A production company is interested. They’d follow me around, and it’d delve into the next Ares mission preparation. I’d be able to get NASA to put me in charge of training if I did that.”

“That sounds good,” Naomi said.

Cole poured another mug of coffee. “They’d want to film both of us. They’re interested in your research, too.”

Naomi swallowed a bite of cereal. She wasn’t sure their quiet meals would make for riveting television. “You already spoke to them about this? Before asking me?”

He sensed the misstep. Hid it with another sip of orange juice to take his vitamins and pills. “I had to make sure it was viable first, Naomi. You know how that industry is. Promise you everything, blow a bunch of smoke up your ass, then disappear.”

Naomi pushed her spoon through the dregs of her cereal. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I’ve never been good in front of the camera. Can’t they just focus on you?” She flashed him a smile. “You’re the Man of Mars, after all. I just grow some plants.”

Cole made a frustrated sound in his throat. “You always do that.”

“What?”

“Diminish your own accomplishments. You’re a leading expert in your field. The masses would love to see what you can do, how to make plants grow even in the harshest environments. Red and green plants. It’s got a certain poetry, right?”

Naomi bit her lip. It did make a sort of sense. “I’ll think about it. Okay?”

Cole beamed and knocked back his juice. He magnanimously cleaned off the table, scraping the remnants of their meal into the trash.

“I’ll be back late,” he said, kissing Naomi’s cheek. “A meeting with the production company. Unless you want to come?”