“Could they be any trashier?” Nora crossed her arms.
“Oh look, aren’t you three cute?” Bella and her minions stopped in front of us. “But it looks like you’re missing someone. What happened to the ditzy blonde?”
“Oh no she didn’t,” Sophie mumbled.
I put a hand on her arm.
“If she doesn’t come back, you’ll have to get someone to take her place. Otherwise who’s going to be the dumb one? You already have the curvy one”—Bella made air quotes when she said curvy—“the nerdy one, and the slutty one.”
“Was that supposed to be an insult?” Nora asked.
Drew spoke up. “Obviously.”
“I’m just wondering if that’s the best she can do. Sophie is curvy. Women would pay good money for boobs and hips like that. Calling Hazel nerdy? Really? Every woman who wears glasses just collectively rolled their eyes at you. And I assume I’m the slutty one?”
“If the shoe fits,” Bella said.
“Boring and unoriginal. And not very insulting. Better luck next time, sweetie. Maybe stick to jogging and dressing like truck-stop strippers.”
Bella put her hands on her hips. “Drew and I were only dancing to pay for school, and it wasn’t at a truck stop.”
“I don’t think that was intended to insult your choice of employment,” I said. “But rather your taste in fashion, or lack thereof.”
“Whatever.”
“This is a total waste of time,” Nora said.
“Indeed.” I checked my watch. “We have a half-marathon to train for.”
Bella burst out laughing. Drew and their two minions followed suit, although I doubted they understood the cause of Bella’s amusement.
“You’re training for a half-marathon?” Bella asked, swiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “The Soggy Seattle Half?”
I glanced at my friends in confusion. “Yes. And I fail to see why that’s funny.”
“We do that race every year,” Bella said. “It’s a little out of your league. None of you are serious runners.”
My gaze swept over the Bedazzled Bitches and their gaudy attire. “And you are?”
“Dead serious.” Bella held out her wrist, showcasing a Garmin running watch. The other three did the same. Naturally, they all matched.
“Running is basically our life,” Drew said and the other three nodded, their expressions serious. “I even subscribe to Runner’s World magazine.”
“How nice for you,” Nora said.
“No offense, but…” Bella made a dramatic show of looking us up and down. “None of you are really made for this. A half-marathon isn’t a little jog around the block.”
“We’re aware of the distance and training required,” I said.
“Oh my god, every time you talk I get cramps.” Bella turned her scathing glare on me. “Can you just not with the whole I’m-so-smart monotone thing? It was weird in high school and it’s still weird now.”
“You know what?” Sophie stepped forward. “I’m done with this. I don’t care if you have low self-esteem or if you’re just crappy human beings, you have no right to be mean to my friends. And yes, we are going to run the Soggy Seattle Half, and you know what else? We’re going to kick all four of your asses doing it.”
Bella’s face twisted in a scowl and she crossed her arms. “You think you can beat us?”
“I know we can.” Sophie moved closer. “We’re going to finish before any of you and we’ll be at the finish line when you cross, with signs that say suck it, Bedazzled Bitches. With glitter.”
Bella pointed at Sophie, sweeping her finger up and down. “You must be joking if you think all that is going to finish with a better time than me.”
“It’s not a joke.” Sophie’s hands clenched into fists. “I’ll bet money on it.”
“Whoa, Sophie.” Nora tried to grab Sophie’s arm, but she shrugged her off.
“I’m serious. I’ll bet you five hundred dollars that we finish before any of you.”
“I’ll take that bet,” Bella said.
Drew leaned closer to her and whispered. “Are you sure? That’s a lot of money.”
“Shut up, Drew.” Bella held her hand out to Sophie. “You’re on.”
Sophie took her hand and shook. “Prepare to lose.”
I met Nora’s eyes and we nodded to each other. We needed to get Sophie out of here.
“Well, that escalated quickly.” Nora hooked her arm through one of Sophie’s and I did the same on the other side. “Come on, Soph. Let’s go.”
Sophie craned her neck to shout at the Bedazzled Bitches as we led her away. “You guys better save all that bitchy energy and quit flinging it at us, because you’re going to need it.”
Nora and I led her across the street, straight to Brody’s.
“Wait, we have to run first,” Sophie said.
I opened the door and Nora hauled her inside. “We’ll make up for it later.”
We found a table, deposited Sophie into a chair, and sat down on either side of her.
She blinked, glancing around like she wasn’t sure where she was. “Oh my god, what did I do?”
“I should probably be mad at you for that, but I’m too busy basking in your badassery,” Nora said. “Betting money was a bad idea, but damn, Soph. I didn’t know you had that in you.”
“They just made me so mad. I don’t care if they make fun of me. I’m never going to be a size two and I’m fine with that. But they called Everly dumb, and you slutty, and the way they talk to Hazel makes me want to punch them in their stupid faces.”
I smiled at her. “Oddly, that’s a very nice thing for you to say.”
“All four of those shabby bitches could use a punch to the face,” Nora said. “But now what are we going to do?”
“There’s only one thing we can do,” I said.
“What?”
I adjusted my glasses. “Win.”
24
Corban
“Scientists are the peeping toms at the keyhole of eternity.” ~ Arthur Koestler
The alarm went off, and I sprang out of bed. I had a lot to do today, including a meeting with Elliott to go over my grant proposal. That was why I hurried through my morning routine to get into work. It had nothing to do with a certain prickly coworker in the office next door. I’d been gone most of last week, and although the conference had been great, I had a lot of catching up to do.
Whatever virus had hit me had run its course in about a day. By the second morning, I’d been more or less back to normal—well enough to finish out the conference with Hazel. We’d hung out between sessions and eaten our meals together. Nothing that could be considered a date, but I’d liked spending time with her.
Getting naked with her a few more times, however, had been the best part.
That hadn’t been planned, but we’d clearly been on the same sexual wavelength. And it had been fucking fantastic.
Now that we were home, I needed to get my head back in the game. No more hot hotel sex. Hazel and I had both insisted—more than once—that we were only sleeping together because we were away.
Was that true? I really didn’t know. Given the opportunity, I knew damn well I’d sleep with her again. Whether I’d get that opportunity remained to be seen.
I showered, dressed, and grabbed a quick breakfast before heading into work. Hazel was in her office cradling a mug of tea in her hands when I walked by. I paused, and my first instinct was to walk in there and kiss her. But I pushed the urge aside. Regardless of how insanely hot the sex had been, we weren’t together. Before last week, we’d barely even liked each other. So the little smile she gave me felt like a win. I’d take it.
Doing my questionnaire with her had been another big win. I believed in what I’d created—believed in the data behind it. I’d put countless hours into analyzing the information that had led to those questions. I was proud of it and I’d liked sharing it with her.
Not that it had made us fall in lo
ve. But I hadn’t expected that. I already knew it didn’t work on me. And I wasn’t going to let the discontent humming in the back of my brain ruin the fact that we were getting along now. That had to count for something.
I just hoped I wouldn’t say something stupid to screw it up.
The morning got busy. Hazel disappeared—probably to the lab. I lost track of time again, but I didn’t work through lunch. Not quite. Around one I grabbed a comic book I’d brought to read while I ate and headed for the staff lounge.
Flipping through the pages and whistling softly, I read while I walked down the mostly empty hallway. My toe hit something solid and I looked up just before walking into a door frame.
That would have sucked.
For half a second, I was disoriented. Where was I? This wasn’t the staff lounge.
I’d walked straight to the copy room.
What was it with this place? This was the second time I’d wandered over here without meaning to.
And once again, Hazel stood in front of the copy machine.
Pheromones, man. Motherfucking pheromones.
My mouth curled in a grin. She was wearing a dress today. Dark blue with tiny white polka dots, belted at the waist, with a pair of coffee brown heels.
It was impossible not to imagine stepping up behind her and grabbing her hips. Pressing myself against her while I kissed her neck. Hiking that dress up around her waist.
She glanced over her shoulder and her eyes flicked up and down, taking me in. Was she remembering that night too? Thinking about what it had felt like when I’d taken her right on that table?
I took a step closer. “We really need to stop meeting here like this.”
“We aren’t meeting here. I’m making copies.”
“Is that what they’re calling it now?”
With a roll of her eyes, she turned back to the copy machine.
I kept grinning. She was so cute when she was annoyed with me. I lowered my voice. “What was that? We should both work late and accidentally run into each other here? Hazel, I’m shocked. That doesn’t sound like it would be an accident.”
“Will you be quiet? Someone might hear you.”
“I’m just trying to keep things professional.”
She glared at me over her shoulder.
I put a hand up in a gesture of surrender. “I am. You’re the one in here looking cute by the copy machine. What am I supposed to do with that?”
“Do with what?”
“With you.”
She whipped around and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Nothing. Not here.”
I made a show of looking around. “You don’t have to whisper. We’re alone.”
“Corban.”
“Okay, not here. But there’s a closet down the hall. Or one of the interview rooms?”
She huffed out a breath and took her copies off the machine. But I’d seen the little smile she was trying to hide.
I chuckled again. “Okay, you’re right. We’re at work.”
“Thank you.” She tapped her copies into a neat pile. “Speaking of, I need to get back to my office.”
She moved to step around me. Without really thinking about it, I shifted so she couldn’t get past. She pursed her lips and tried to get by. I moved in the same direction that she did, then we both shifted to the other side.
“Corban.”
“What?”
“You’re in my way.”
We both side-stepped the same direction again.
“I’m trying to let you by.”
She rolled her eyes again, but the corners of her mouth turned up. “No, you’re not.”
“Did you know pigeons can do math?” I didn’t know where that had come from, but it got her to stop moving.
“Math? I think you’re making that one up.”
I took a small step closer. “Nope. It’s true. One study found that pigeons can rank images in order of how many objects were pictured. They can basically count.”
“One study?” she asked. “Without additional data to confirm the findings, I remain skeptical about the math skills of urban scavenger birds.”
“It doesn’t mean those initial results aren’t valid.”
She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows. “It means for those birds it was valid. But did they have a representative sample? Or did the researcher study his or her own birds and deem that adequate to draw conclusions?”
I knew she was trying to poke at me about my research, but I didn’t care. I was slowly inching closer to her. Pretty soon I’d be close enough to—
“Hazel,” Elliott said behind me.
She stiffened, clutching her stack of papers to her chest.
“Hi, Corban,” he said, standing in the doorway. “Good to have you both back. How was the conference?”
Hazel’s eyes widened. “It was just a typical conference. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
He looked mildly confused and swung his gaze to me.
“Unfortunately I was a little under the weather and missed the first day.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“But Hazel was nice enough to check in on me and make sure I was okay.”
“Um, yes, I did do that.”
“Once I was feeling better, the rest of the week was good. I learned a lot. The sessions were great, although I think my best experiences were in the off hours.” My eyes flicked back to Hazel.
Her eyes narrowed and she gave a tiny shake of her head.
“Good,” Elliott said. “Networking opportunities are always valuable.”
“Definitely. And Hazel and I did a lot of networking.”
Hazel made a noise in her throat.
Elliott didn’t seem to notice. “Did any of the sessions stand out?”
“Um, well…” Hazel stammered a little and trailed off. She was so adorable when she was flustered.
“Advances and applications of exploratory graph analysis was the standout session for me,” I said. “The technique is fascinating, especially when it comes to assessing the number of latent variables in multivariate data.”
“Excellent.”
Hazel was glaring at me again and it was hard to keep a straight face. She adjusted her stack of papers. “I attended a symposium on social signaling as a framework for understanding human nonverbal communication. They’re doing interesting work with functional near-infrared spectroscopy to study social signaling in a lab setting.”
“Sounds like you both got a lot out of it,” he said. “Glad to hear it.”
“I really did. And Hazel and I were able to spend a lot of time together privately…” I paused on purpose to see her squirm. “Comparing notes and going over what we’d learned.”
“Yes, that’s how we spent our time,” she said quickly. “Comparing what we learned.”
“That’s perfect. I was hoping you’d have the chance to share with each other.”
I nodded. “We shared a lot. We were very productive.”
She widened her eyes at me again as if to say shut up right now. I just grinned at her.
“Great. Hazel, I’ll need you in my three o’clock class today.”
“Of course. That’s not a problem. I’ll be there.”
He smiled. “Thanks. I have office hours soon, but I’ll chat with you both later.”
Hazel and I said goodbye to Elliott.
When he was gone, she poked my arm. “You need to stop.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“We compared notes and did a lot of networking? We did neither of those things in appreciable quantities.”
I gave her a wide smile. “I know.”
“You’re impossible.”
“And you’re cute when you’re annoyed with me.”
The temptation to kiss her was too much to resist. I craved her like a drug, and she was right here, only inches away. Stepping closer, I put my arms around her and hauled her against me. Pressed my lips to hers and teased my tongue
into her mouth.
She was stiff at first, drawing in a quick breath, her spine straight. But a second later her body softened. Her lips parted and her tongue met mine, sending a jolt of fire through my veins.
I loved making her relent like this. Melting her hot librarian exterior.
As much as I would have loved to continue—and rip her clothes off—I wasn’t that crazy. It was the middle of the day. I stepped back and dropped my hands, letting her go.
Her eyes fluttered and she licked her lips. I did the same, enjoying her lingering taste.
Just as quickly, she straightened again and adjusted her glasses.
I grinned at her. “You should really get back to work. I’m sure you have a lot to catch up on, and you need to assist in Elliott’s three o’clock.”
With a quick—and rather adorable—roll of her eyes, she brushed past me. This time, I let her by.
She stopped just outside the door and turned around, still clutching her papers against her chest. “I no longer view our competing grant applications as a negative. I probably shouldn’t have in the first place, and I’m sorry for what I said. In any case, should you need advice or suggestions on making yours as strong as possible, I’d be happy to assist.”
An unexpected warm feeling filled my chest. That was another win. A big one. “Thanks, Hazel. I really appreciate that.”
“You’re welcome.” She smiled, then turned around and walked away, leaving me with an unavoidable realization.
I liked Hazel. A lot.
This wasn’t hate-lust anymore. I didn’t hate her at all. Teasing her hadn’t been the same as arguing. I wasn’t fuming at her, and yet I could have easily bent her over that table again.
I still wanted her. And it had nothing to do with being enemies.
I didn’t know what I was going to do with that.
25
Hazel
“Half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn.” ~Larry Niven
Hesitating outside Corban’s office, I mentally cataloged a list of valid reasons to go in. All work-related. None of them having anything to do with the fact that he felt like a magnet, constantly pulling at me. We’d be bringing test subjects into the motion capture lab soon, which gave us plenty to discuss. That was the only reason I needed to see him.
Love According to Science Page 18