Chapter 1

We all come with baggage. The older we get, the more we accumulate.

When you first start a relationship with someone, it’s new and exciting, and you want to learn everything about them. At some point you might acknowledge that their previous relationships left an impact, maybe even a scar—their emotional baggage.

At twenty-five, I’d had a few relationships that lasted a year or close to it. A few relationships lasted no more than a few weeks and plenty that didn’t make it past the first date.

Then I met Derek, who was ten years older than me. He was going through a divorce, and my baggage felt small and insignificant compared to the baggage that Derek brought. They didn’t have children, which made things less complicated, I suppose.

She still rang him up when he was over and screamed at him, threatened legal action… to cut off his dick, the usual kind of break-up thing.

Afterward, there’d be this… awkward silence between us.

I told myself that I could be mature about it. That Derek wasn’t the only one with a past. My cheating ex, Levi, called me up once when he was drunk and begged me to take him back, said we were made for each other… how he missed my pussy.

Asshole.

But the baggage of past relationships is about more than unwanted phone calls. There is also a tendency to compare: to focus on what one partner was terrible at, so that when you meet someone who does that well, you become enamored by it to the exclusion of everything else.

My ex, Levi, couldn’t make a phone call, ever. Not even to his own mother, he would get me to call her on his behalf. When something went wrong with the hot water, it was me calling the landlord to report it. But, damn, that man knew how to eat me out. Really, he had skills. And so I always forgave him for the fact that he couldn’t pick up the damn cell and make a call.

Then I started dating Derek, and he was the exact opposite. If something needed doing, there wasn’t even a discussion. He just got on with it and did it straight away. I hate to use the swoon word, yet that confident facade hit the spot. And I’d think to myself: Levi never did that, and look how much better life is now.

The thing about relationships is you don’t always get the best of both worlds. And Derek, well, he doesn’t exactly light the same sparks in the bedroom as Levi. He’s not terrible, you know, but he doesn’t do that.

Does it make me shallow to even care about it? I’ve asked myself that a lot. Why do I miss one tiny thing and want both: a competent, organized man who can also give great head? Don’t get me wrong, my breakup with Levi wasn’t only about him shirking household chores.

Levi couldn’t keep a job for more than five minutes. He had some kind of weird aversion to putting trash in the garbage can. He’d put empty milk cartons back in the fridge... and I’d go to the pantry and find packets of all kinds that were empty.

And Levi, who I caught going down on another girl… in our bed.

Yeah, Levi was an asshole... with skills I still find myself missing in moments of weakness.

Baggage.

I might only be twenty-five, but I’ve come to realize I’ve got quite a bit of it.

But now Derek and I are making a fresh start, together. We’re moving to the other side of the world for his job. I’m excited and a little nervous. The day he told me he needed to move for business was the day that he proposed. His divorce had been messy even before they began wrangling over assets, so I was surprised, you know, that he wanted to jump back in again with somebody else.

Derek isn’t perfect, but he ticks a lot of boxes. He’s organized. He’s got a steady job. And I’ve never once found him in bed with anybody else, so that’s a definite bonus.

Accepting his proposal felt right. And I’m glad for this change: to put his crazy ex and Levi’s cheating behind us, to start again somewhere else where we won’t be constantly bumping into old memories, and to create new ones together.

That’s what life is about, isn’t it? The start of a new adventure. New experiences—stepping outside your comfort zone, moving somewhere else.

I’m so ready to do that. My parents were a little nomadic; we moved into six different houses during my childhood, and I found something that I loved about each and every one. So I’m not afraid of moving.

I’m looking forward to exploring Chancely, the supercity that we’re moving to, and building a new future with Derek; maybe even starting a family when the time is right.

I have just one tiny problem with all of this.

The route we have to take to get there.

Specifically, the journey through Andromeda.