Page 142 of The Scientist
Surprise flickered through me. “I can’t even picture it,” I mused. “You’re always so easy-going about everything. The first time I met you, all I could think was that this guy doesn’t have an insecure bone in his body.”
He gave me a half grin. “A lot has changed. I’m not that person anymore, and I have Lex to thank for that.”
“How so?”
His eyebrows knitted together. “He never told you what I did to him?”
“No,” I answered. He only ever told me what a great asset to his team Jace was.
Jace shook his head, chuckling. “Figures.”
I was curious to hear what happened between them, but I didn’t want to push. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s none of my business. We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of.”
“I will tell you only because I want you to understand something about Lex.”
“Okay,” I said, waiting for him to explain.
He paused for a beat, seeming lost in his memories before he finally spoke. “Every year, MIT has this competition where teams try to come up with the most innovative research proposal to win funding for a community-based project. You get the prestige and a ton of money, and I was desperate to win. I wanted so badly to beat the great Alexsander Strovinski just once…” he said, lowering his eyes. “So I stooped really low and convinced his partner to switch to my team in the last few weeks of the competition. He wasn’t exactly Lex’s biggest fan either.” He smiled wryly. “I told myself that my ideas were better, but I’d essentially copied Lex’s ideas that his partner stole, and we built our proposal around it. Lex had to finish the proposal on hisown, and there just wasn’t enough time for him to complete all of the work… although he still came pretty damn close.”
That didn’t sound anything like the Jace I knew. “Did you win?”
Shame tugged at his expression as he nodded. “Yeah, we won,” he said. “I thought Lex would be furious. I thought he would report us for what we did, but he did something even worse… When they called our names as the winners, Lex was the first one to stand up in front of all our classmates and start clapping for us. He even came to congratulate me and his old partner after the ceremony. I thought I would be on top of the world when I finally beat him, but I felt like an absolute piece of shit and a complete fraud.”
His shoulders sagged as he finished the story, and I could tell how badly he still felt about it.
“That’s not you anymore, though,” I said, letting him off the hook.
“No. I wasn’t the same after that. I realized how much time I wasted trying to be the best when the opportunity to learn from the best was right there in front of me. I apologized to him so many times for what I did, and Lex, being the person he is, forgave me like it was nothing. Years later, even after all of that, he still gave me a job on his team and a life doing something I love. It’s crazy to think how much I owe that man.”
I smiled, becoming teary-eyed listening to him talk about Lex this way. “Same.”
He smiled back at me in understanding. Jace had become a close part of my circle through Sarah, so he knew what Lex had done for my mom.
“My point to this very long, rambling story is to tell you that Lex has never been jealous of anyone or anything, ever. He didn’t care in the slightest that I won that award with ideas that were stolen from him… But that same man didn’t talk to me foralmost a month after he found out that I asked you out. Asked. You hadn’t even accepted!” Jace started laughing so hard, and I couldn’t help but smile. “Sometimes I still catch him giving me the side eye when your name comes up.”
He continued to laugh, and I shook my head, thinking of how I was standing by my statement that these men of science could really be so dramatic.
“I guess all I’m trying to say is to cut him some slack,” he said. “It may not be as obvious to the rest of the guys why he didn’t want to take this job offer when he’s been completely focused on our work for so long. But I know exactly why… He’s never wanted anything as badly as he wants you. Not even this project.”
I sniffled. “I feel the same way about him,” I said, the emotion getting caught in my throat. “But I can’t be the reason you guys don’t finish this project. It’s too important.”
He nodded. “I know… Just don’t give up on him, Hadley. He really is the best person I’ve ever known.”
I pulled Jace in for a hug and thanked him. There was no shortage of wonderful people in my life.
Jace and I called it a night not long after that, and I walked him to the door.
“Thanks again, Hadley,” he said with a wave as he walked out the door, but almost ran straight into an irritated-looking Lex. I saw Jace’s face break into a grin.
“Just here for my guitar lessons, man.” He held up his guitar like it was exonerating evidence. He turned his head back to wink at me before running down the steps.
Once Jace was gone, Lex and I stood in the doorway staring at one another, so many unspoken things moving between us. It had only been a few days, but I had missed him like we’d been separated for twenty lifetimes.
"Can I come in?" he asked quietly. The tone in his voice made my chest instantly tighten with worry.
I cleared my throat. "Of course," I said, gesturing for him to follow me inside.
We went to sit down on the couch together, the stillness pressing in around us, and I waited, heart pounding, for him to say the words I’d been dreading.