Chapter 2: The Tour
Location: Apartment above the noodle shop, Morgantown, WV
Julian had rented a car and offered to drop me off at my apartment. He apparently had some things to discuss with Marcus, and the two went on their way after walking me to the outside door. I told them it was too cold for them to get out of the car, but it was a losing battle from the start. In the end, I climbed the stairs to my apartment with a stunned silence.
As I went to put my key in the inside door, it swung open. Dan and Ellie were waiting in anticipation.
I looked at both of their faces. "You already knew?"
They both smiled with the exact same smile, leaving no doubt that they were siblings.
"Do you need me to help you pack?" Ellie asked.
"That sounded like you're eager to get rid of me," I said with a pout.
"It's actually the opposite," Dan said.
It turned out that there was a whole conspiracy happening. Dan had an offer from SF General and Ellie was in the process of arranging to finish her residency there. When Marcus reached out to Ellie about the offer that was coming my way, Ellie and Dan were already determined to talk me into it.
"Bay Area housing is astronomical," Ellie said. "But Marcus said Julian was going to offer housing as part of the contract."
"So what I'm hearing is that you need me to accept so you can get free housing?"
Ellie shook her head. "Free-dom housing. If I can't stay with you, I have to stay with this guy," she said pointing her thumb at her brother. "And he can be overprotective."
"I said I would be too busy to even have that kind of time," protested Dan. But all three of us knew he'd find a way.
"And? Are you coming with us?" Ellie asked, making a cute but hopeful face.
"I need a little time to think about it…"
Ellie interrupted. "C'mon. You're the most impulsive of all of us."
"What is it with the backhanded compliments today?" I asked rhetorically in protest.
The rest of the afternoon stretched into evening, both centered around "what ifs," "pros and cons," and even a few diagrams and mathematical equations. We finally settled around the coffee table after grabbing some takeout from the noodle shop downstairs.
"Do you think you and Marc will get back together if you're in the same area again?" Dan asked.
"Did he ask you to ask me that," I responded to Dan with obvious skepticism. "Marc and I will always really care about each other."
"But…" Ellie said, waiting for the rest of it.
I shrugged and took a drink of water.
"Well, if you're keeping your options open, why don't you go out with my brother?" Ellie said as she patted Dan on his shoulder.
"Oh, that does sound amazing," I said, helping Ellie tease Dan. "And if Dan and I get married, you and I will be sisters."
"Yes! Let's do that." Ellie ordered. "What do you think, Dan?" We both looked at him and the reddening of his face.
"I think it's time for me to go home before Ellie goes online and gets ordained as a minister with some cult just to officiate."
"Dan. Dan. Dan," Ellie said as she shook her head slowly. "You assume I haven't already."
I couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.
After Dan went home and Ellie declared she was going to bed, Nephy and I retired to my room. I re-read the executive summary of my rejected thesis. Then I re-read the lists we made on whether or not I should accept Julian's offer.
I grabbed his business card from the pocket of my puffer jacket. "Julian Vane, Apex, LLC," I read out loud to Nephy, as if my cat somehow cared. "What do you think, Nephy? Would you like to be a California cat?" Nephy pawed at the card like a new toy until it slipped out of my fingers. Then she jumped off of the bed having shown the card that she was superior and was now bored.
My phone buzzed with a text.
[Marc] I'm guessing you can't sleep.
I considered not responding to make him wonder.
[Unknown] This is my personal number. Save it. -
Julian
Did Marc give him my number? And what's with making it an order? I wondered, even as I was adding it to my contacts. After waiting a moment to decide if I should respond, my phone buzzed again.
[Dan C] Ellie really hopes you can come with us. Of
course, I wouldn't mind, either.
Location: White Hall, Eberly College of Astrophysics, West Virginia University, Morgantown
Lonna:
I understand that the feedback for your thesis may have been a bit of a disappointment. The faculty will review it again and let you know if the assessment has changed.
You worked hard. Enjoy some time off, and we'll let you know how the reassessment went by the end of next week.
-Professor Alanet
The email came in around noon. I had to wonder how much of it was pressure from Julian.
Did they wish to pawn me off? Or now that there is external interest, they are willing to take it more seriously?
[Marc] Have you had lunch? I'll cook.
[Lon] Adding flour to a can of tuna and frying it isn't really cooking.
[Marc] I'll have you know I've been practicing.
[Lon] We'd have to get groceries. There's not much here. I'd planned to go to the store.
[Marc] Have the ingredients already. Open the outside door?
And that's how he let me know he was waiting with groceries downstairs. Before I knew it, I was sitting at the kitchen table, watching him chop vegetables.
"I'm a pretty good chopper," I said, hoping to convince him to let me help. I had flashbacks to many experimental and burnt cooking attempts back when we dated.
"This is something light and simple. Even I can't mess it up," he assured me (though, it wasn't really working).
"The extinguisher is mounted on the wall in case you need it."
He responded by sticking a carrot in my mouth.
In the end, he set out a lentil salad and joined me at the table. He put his elbows on the table and rested his head on his hands. He was clearly waiting for my response. I took a bite, put my fork down and said, "This doesn't suck."
"Yes!"
"You have incredibly low standards for complements."
"Let's just say I made sure I knew where the extinguisher was before you mentioned it."
"Pfft. Only you would worry about burning a salad."
"I'll have you know I have been taking lessons, and I can make unburnt meals," Marcus said with an odd sense of pride.
"Noted." I giggled. "So what brought you to show off your new culinary skills?"
"I have to fly back tomorrow morning, and I wanted to spend the day with my friend," he said without even looking at me. "And I'm not going to ask or even pressure you for your decision. I learned my lesson."
I gave him a weak smile.
"I just want you to make whatever decision makes you the happiest. And I'll support it, no matter what."
I let a few moments pass in silence, letting his words seep in before I said, "Holy crap. That was terrible. Hallmark card?"
He shrugged and returned a mischievous grin. "I wasn't sure I could get all the way through with a straight face." We both laughed.
"Is it bad that we're both such cynics?" I asked.
Marcus responded, "I think… we have the perfect amount of cynicism."
"Speaking of cynicism, thank you for yesterday."
"You mean when you were blushing like a school girl in front of my boss?"
"I was not. I mean, I won't lie and say he's not handsome," I confessed as if it wasn't completely obvious. "But I just wouldn't allow myself to believe anyone would want to know more about my research. It's been rejected so many times lately, it was really wearing me down. I expected it all to be a prank. I still kinda do. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop."
"And if it doesn't?"
I thought about his question. What would the ideal scenario look like? If I could choose the best outcome, what would I choose?
"Is it weird that scenario almost scares me more?" I had been thinking as much since last night. Could I really just pack up one day and walk into a corporate R&D lab the very next day to find something that is only a theory to begin with?
"If it were anyone else, I'd say yes," Marcus said with a light chuckle. "But you've always been afraid of your own success. I think that's why you try to prove unprovable things."
"Saying I'm a trailblazer would have been kinder."
"Lon. You. Are. A. Trailblazer."
"Yeah, yeah. It doesn't count if I have to feed you the lines."
We cleaned everything up and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around campus, visiting every shop on High Street, and ducking into any place that would serve us something warm to drink. He finally called a ride share to pick him up around 11 p.m. We waited just inside the door to the street to stay warm.
When he got the alert that his car was only a few minutes away, he pulled me into a goodbye hug. "I'm really glad I came, Lon. I've really missed you."
"I've…" I was going to say I missed you, too.
Instead, he kissed me. Then he stepped back with a smile. "That never happened."
"Marc…"
This time, he pinned me up against the wall and kissed me until I started to kiss him back. His phone buzzed to let him know his ride had arrived. But he stayed a moment later and whispered in my ear, "That never happened, either."
And then he was out of the door and in the car. I watched the car pull away, locked the outside door, climbed the stairs, opened the apartment door, closed it, then leaned against it and exhaled.
Nephy rubbed against my shin, purring until I picked her up and we went into our room to get ready for bed. On my pillow, I found a little gift box. "When did he put this in here, Nephy?" I knew she wouldn't answer, but I had to ask someone.
I carefully opened the box and found a keychain inside, depicting the Golden Gate Bridge. I picked it up and snapped a pic, which I added to a text message.
[Lon] You devious jerk. You're trying to honey trap me!
[Marc] Is it working?
[Lon] 🤷♀️
I tossed my phone on the other side of the bed. I knew we were both smiling.
Ellie was on a night-time rotation in the E.R. for a week, which meant she stayed in the resident dorm or her brother's place because it was nearer to the hospital. It's probably why there weren't any clues to remind me that I was supposed to take the week off instead of reporting to my desk in the small room I shared with four other doctoral candidates.
When I reached for my office door, I heard a voice say, "Lonna, you were supposed to take the week off."
I turned to see Professor Alanet stiffly standing next to Julian. Of course, Julian was sharply dressed and carried a faint scent that had both citrus and wood notes. I, on the other hand, had thrown on some black yoga pants and my gray "Running on Negative Energy" t-shirt that continuously slouched off of my left shoulder when I was carrying my backpack. My wavy, chestnut hair was in a high ponytail with a frizzy halo from the static caused by removing my toboggan. And the capillaries on my face were dilating from the rapid temperature change, making me look like I was—once again—blushing in Julian's presence.
"Professor. Mr. Vane. I was just going to grab something I left on my desk," I explained because I didn't want to admit that I forgot I wasn't supposed to come in and had only followed my daily routine out of habit.
"I would prefer that you call me Julian," he said looking at me.
"Of course, Julian. I'd be happy to accommodate…" Professor Alanet began to say, but was interrupted by Julian.
"I meant I'd prefer Miss Patricks call me Julian," he clarified to Alanet. Although he wasn't smiling with his mouth, I could definitely see it in his eyes.
"I will try to remember, Julian. And you may call me Lonna." I did my best to suppress a smile, but I was not as good at it.
"I will also try to remember," Julian said. "And to solidify our new friendship, maybe you can help me. I'm sure the professor has a lot of better things to do than to play tour guide. Do you know where this lecture hall is?"
Friendship?
I looked at the calendar app on his phone with the location and nodded.
"Great. You can take me there. I have unfairly usurped the professor's time for the last couple of days, and he did just say you had a week off."
I smirked. Well-played, Sir. Well-played.
Without waiting for a response from either of us, Julian directed me to lead the way down the hall with just a head movement. "Shall we, Lonna? I wanted to grab some coffee on the way there."
When we got away from Alanet and outside, Julian said, "Thanks for rescuing me. I know he wanted to show off university facilities, but it came out like a bored docent at a museum."
"Yeah? Did you learn anything new?"
"Sure. I learned that Boeing built the monorail system you all have and the original cars were made from Dodge Truck chassis. He seemed to think that, as an engineer, I'd enjoy that trivia."
"Well, I only knew half of that, so maybe the docent tour would be better?"
"No. I have commandeered a new tour guide for the rest of my stay," Julian declared.
"That's good. Let me know where you'll be meeting them, and I can get you there," I said, trying to be helpful.
He just stared at me with a thin smile.
"You meant me, didn't you."
"I happen to know for a fact that you have a week off," he responded.