Page 12 of The Scientist
He stared at me blankly for a few moments, I’m sure trying to decide if I was really crazy or not before he replied, “Okay.”
“Thank you, thank you!” Relief washed through me so much so that I had to hold myself back from throwing my arms around him in a tight hug. Bet that would have gone over about as well as a screen door on a submarine.
“I do have a roommate that I’m waiting for. He should be coming out shortly.”
“No problem! I so appreciate this, you have no idea. I didn’t think I’d have time to call a taxi and still make it there on time.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything further.Maybe he was on some kind of strict word diet because the silence seemed to stretch on and on. I found myself opening and closing my mouthlike a confused goldfish, desperately trying to think of something to say.
As the silent standoff continued, my eyes went skyward, searching for someone to save me from the jaws of this awkward monster. I was about to break down and call on the hero of small talk to come and rescue me, but today’s weather would have to wait because I finally saw my savior emerge from the townhouse.
“Well, well, well, who do we have here?” his roommate asked. He looked to be about the same age as Strovinski, but a lot smaller in stature, with a coy smile playing across his face.
“Hey, I’m Hadley,” I said, overjoyed to be with someone who embraced verbal communication. “I was having car trouble this morning, so I asked your roommate for a ride. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Damsel in distress is my favorite kind of damsel.” He extended his hand. “Stuart Benowitz. Pleasure to meet you, my lady.”
I offered mine in return, which he brought to his lips, kissing the back of my hand.I laughed at the corniness of the gesture, knowing in my gut that he was harmless.
“Let’s get going. We don’t want to be late,” Strovinski said tersely.
I was definitely on his bad side. Maybe if I searched high and low, I could find the roadmap to his good side. Then again, it would probably just keep rerouting me to the land of “do not disturb.”
“So, do you guys work together?” I followed them to a shiny, silver Lexus GS that was only a few cars down from my vehicle, which thankfully no longer had smoke wafting from under the hood.
Stuart rushed ahead to grab the door handle to open it for me. “Going on ten years now.”
“And you live together as well?”
Stuart paused, the door hanging open midway. “It’s not what you think.”
I smirked. “I didn’t say anything.”
Stuart’s head whipped towards Strovinski. “I told you people would start to say that about us!”
His roommate seemed totally unbothered by the notion.
“Knew we should have gotten separate places,” Stuart grumbled, opening the door the rest of the way for me.
“Thank you.” I smiled and slid into the front passenger seat at the same time as Strovinski, who still hadn’t said more than a few words.
“Thanks again, Dr. Strovinski. I really appreciate this,” I said, trying to warm him up to me a little.
“Lex is fine.” He put the key in the ignition and adjusted his seat back slightly to make more leg room.
Stuart got into the back seat and slid to the center so he could lean forward between us. “Yes, please! If I have to hear one more person around here sayDoctorStrovinski, I’m going to blow my brains out. This is an Ivy League university. We all have doctorates.”
“I don’t have one,” I pointed out.
“Well, what is it you teach?”
“I’ll be teaching music composition to level one freshmen.”
“Oh, so you’re part of the college of fine arts… makes sense. I thought you were a work of fine art when I first saw you.”
That was so cheesy, but I still couldn’t help but smile. “And it makes sense that you’re part of the biology department.”
“Why’s that?” he asked.