Page 67 of The Scientist
“Just spit it out.”
She smiled before chanting, “Lex and Hadley sitting in a tree…”
“Oh my god.” I rolled my eyes, smiling. “You’re so childish.”
“Admit it,” she said. “You like him.”
“I admit nothing.”
“That’s too bad because he definitely wants to be sitting in that tree with you.”
“How would you know?”
“Please. A blind man could see the way that man looks at you.”
“And how is that?”
“Like you invented blowjobs,” she said, cracking up at herself.
“Wow.” I shook my head. “I knew we never should’ve gotten you that medical marijuana.”
She continued to laugh. She was in such a great mood these days, and I wondered if I had her new friend Carl to thank for that.
“All jokes aside, it’s pretty obvious how he feels about you. His eyes barely left your face in the ten minutes I spent with him. If you moved even an inch, his attention was on you.”
That seemed like an exaggeration. “I don’t know about that.”
“Why are you fighting this? He seems great.”
“He is,” I agreed. “It’s just that we’re both so busy. I don’t think we’d ever see each other if not for the fact that our homes are directly across from one another. Plus, I don’t even know where we’ll both be in a year’s time. I might be back in New York, and his next grant might take him to Antarctica, for all I know.”
“Do penguins get Alzheimer’s?” she joked.
“I don’t know if it’s worth all the heartache.”
She smiled warmly at me. “Only one way to find out.”
I got uncomfortable thinking about how much it would hurt to not be able to see him anymore, and we weren’t even together. I didn’t know if I would ever be ready to take that risk.
“Let’s talk about your love life,” I said, ready for a change of subject. “You and Carl still sitting in a tree?”
“Oh honey, Carl and I have moved from the trees to the gardens.”
I made a gagging noise, and her laughter rang out playfully like a child’s. I loved seeing her this happy. My mom had never been unhappy per se, but I hadn’t seen herthisway in so long. Had she been lonely this whole time? I had a feeling leaving California was going to be an even bigger challenge now.
“So, what are your plans for the evening?” she asked.
“Actually, Sarah invited me to her friend’s bachelorette party tonight. I was thinking about going. It’s not until much later though, if you want to grab dinner before your canasta group.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
We ended up at that same sushi place we went to when we first came to California, where she continued to pester me about my love life, and I had to plug my ears when she talked about hers.
???
After dinner, I still had plenty of time to spare before the bachelorette party was set to kick off, so I decided to head home. I figured I could get a little writing done before we headed out since the plan was just to go bar hopping in downtown Stanford.
As I started up the footpath toward my house, I heard the sound of rock music and laughter filling the air. I could see a party going on a few doors down from mine at Sanjay’s, one of the guys from Lex’s team.