Page 111 of The Scientist
“I’d rather play checkers on a cheetah’s ass, Nicky.”
“Why’d you invite me if you’re just going to be an asshole?” she snapped.
“Isn’t it obvious? Lex made me.”
That turned her attitude around. She shot me a smug smile, and I felt a knot twist in my stomach. Lex had already explainedto me that he did it so that she wouldn’t be ostracized by her coworkers, but it still stung, and she knew it.
“Just do me a favor and go outside if you have to shed your skin,”Stuart said to her. “I’m still cleaning the rug from the last time you were here.”
Stuart's latest insult wasn’t enough to elicit a further response as she continued grinning at me.
I shifted uncomfortably in Lex’s lap. He pulled me close to his chest, ignoring both of them as he casually planted kisses along my neck and shoulder. That essentially shut her up as she walked off into the kitchen.
“Hey, where’s Jace tonight?” Peter asked.
Stuart nodded towards me. “Ask Hadley,” he said bitterly.
“He’s on a date with my friend Sarah,” I announced cheerfully. I had convinced her to take a chance and told her she wouldn’t regret it. She’d reluctantly agreed. I’d been checking my phone every so often, hoping she wouldn’t send me an SOS text to come and rescue her.
“What?” Peter asked incredulously. “You’re settingJaceup with your friends and not me?”
“Get in line,” Stuart said. “We’ve already had this discussion.”
“Jace is a lucky man,” Louis interjected.
“How would you know?” I said, chuckling. “You’ve never even met Sarah.”
“It’s a known fact that hot girls travel in packs,” he answered.
“Exactly what I said!” Stuart exclaimed, and I started to laugh even harder. Lex smiled, his eyes fixed on me, looking like he was really enjoying himself. I was glad we had agreed to come.
They settled into a discussion about work as they continued playing, and I couldn’t even begin to keep up. I listened closely, fascinated by how their minds worked. They were on a different level of thinking that really humbled me.
“Okay, but every time we put it through the electron microscope, we’re getting low throughput. The flow cytometric EV isn’t stable enough for those particles,” Peter was arguing.
“The smaller refractive index is what’s leaving the cells intact, dumbass,” Stuart fired back. “We need better fluorescent markers.”
I had listened to them arguing about the best way for these particles to pass through this microscope for ten minutes now, and the words slipped out without thinking.
“Sounds like it might be better as a waveform,” I said. “Kinda like musical notes.”
Silence followed as everyone in the immediate vicinity froze, and I felt my cheeks redden.
I looked around at them. “What? Was that really stupid?”
“No… that... might… actually… work,” Stuart said slowly, pausing between words. He had a glazed look in his eyes, his mind obviously somewhere else.
“Do you think?” Peter asked Lex.
“If we run the variables through the PMT-based flow cytometry then I think… maybe,” Lex said, his eyes narrowing a fraction.
“It’s worth a shot,” Stuart said excitedly, abandoning his cards. “Come on, we could still get into the lab. The security guard probably hasn’t left yet.”
The rest of the guys stood up, but Lex stayed rooted to the spot.
“I guess I’ll see you later,” I told him, smiling, even though I was a little disappointed our evening together was over so soon. I went to stand, but he held me in place with a torn expression.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, but he didn’t answer me.