Coffee Cup Dreams (A Redpoint One Romance) Read Free Page A

you.
What will it be?"
    Tish licked her suddenly dry lips. "No
drugs?"
    "No drugs. And if you take a job with the
Station itself, you can move in immediately."
    "With Arthur?" Maria asked with a small laugh.
"The girl won't last a week. Hardly anyone does."
    "She needs a job, it's a job with the station
itself, and she could be on a transport within the week," Neil
said, casting a glare in her direction. "Arthur only asks for hard
workers. Tish is a hard worker."
    "She is not a mechanic!"
    "I'm not a mechanic," Tish echoed, taking a
quick sip of coffee. The flavor filled her mouth, slipping down her
throat. With it the clouds in the coffee swirled in her mind,
mocking her confused state of mind. From a heart operation, to no
boyfriend, to no house, to no planet?
    Neil put the small computer down and leaned on
the table on folded forearms, pinning her with all his attention,
"Listen closely. This is an alien space station, as you said. As
such, normal mechanics and maintenance professionals have a
difficult time adapting. Arthur needs people with the inclination,
but not the training, so he can train them for this specific
station. No certification or degrees, but once you are up and
running you get the same pay-scales."
    Tish sucked in her breath. She still had a
school-friend she kept in contact with who crewed on a larger
trader vessel in the maintenance department. The pay dictated by
the Free Trade Association had taken her breath away. A few years
of that and she could set herself up comfortably on just about any
planet.
    She'd wanted a job of more excitement than the
data processing of the last job, but to leave the planet? It felt
extreme. Too far. And yet, it gave her a shiver of
excitement.
    "No previous training?" Tish asked again, not
believing she could be considering the possibility. Surely someone
like her couldn't qualify for something so high-paying.
    Neil smiled, leaning back in his chair. "No
training. Just a willingness to learn and work hard. You've helped
me around the house before. You learn quick. Programming the
robotics, troubleshooting the heating system. None of it stumped
you."
    Tish smiled weakly, "Just weeding the flower
bed manually."
    "And if you had known exactly what a marigold
looked like compared to a weed, I'm sure you would have done well
with it, as well." He tapped a finger on his pocket computer.
"There are three job openings in his department and Arthur will
take a recommendation from me as if from an employer. Now, do you
want in, or not?"
    She glanced at the white bag sitting on the
table next to her coffee cup. The multi-colored containers of pills
were barely visible through the thin plastic.
    She'd never felt so threatened by things so
small. A new heart valve in her chest that should last the rest of
her life, and yet she wasn't free to live it. On the pills, and the
side-effects would start, leaving her unfit for most jobs. Off the
pills, and the government would come looking, perhaps even force
her to take them or incarcerate her where she could be 'safely
observed.'
    The walls started closing in, making it hard
to breath. All because of what the doctors said happened in the
operating room. Because of the government fear of those with mental
powers.
    "I'm not a psi," she whispered.
    Neil frowned. "That's not an
answer."
    She straightened her shoulders and took a deep
breath, thinking of the clouds in her coffee. Ephemeral as dreams.
Well, maybe it was time to make a dream or two solidify, to finally
come true. Time for an adventure. To stop reading about them and
start living them.
    Time to restart life, even if it meant moving
away from the only planet she'd ever known.
    She pushed the pills even further away, saying
firmly, "I'll go for the job."
    Once she made the decision it all happened
rather fast. A response came from Redpoint One by the end of the
day telling her that her application had been accepted. The message
included the full job offer details.
    Seeing the