Page 21 of Love, Theoretically
“You’re being absolutelyunreasonable. All I ask is that you—”
“—do you think about the girl? Hannaway, right?” one of the urinal voices asks. We both instantly tune in.
A mistake, clearly.
“CV’s real good. Her two-dimensional liquid crystals theories... good stuff.”
“I remember reading her paper last year. I was very impressed. Had no idea she was that junior.”
“Right? Makes you wonder how much of it is her mentor’s.” A vague hum of agreement that has my hands tightening around the balls of Jack’s shoulders.None, I want to scream.It was my model.“She’s young and beautiful. Which means that she’ll get pregnant in a couple of years, and we’ll have to teach her courses.”
It’s like a punch in the sternum, to the point that I almost slip butt-first into the toilet. Jack stops me with a hand between my shoulder blades, arm contracting around my waist. He’s frowning like he’s as disgusted as I am. Though he’s not. He can’t be, because Pereira, or maybe Crowley, adds:
“Doesn’t matter. I’m voting for Jack’s candidate. He’s got influence, and hehatestheorists.”
“He does? Oh, yeah. Can’t believe I forgot that article he wrote.”
“It was brutal, man. And hilarious. Wouldn’t want to be onhisbad side.”
A hand dryer goes off, muffling the rest. Jack’s still holding me, eyes on mine, foreheads near touching. My nails dig into his chest—made of some granite-Kevlar blend, engineered by a task force of experimentalists to exude heat. He’s a sentient weighted blanket, and I—
I hate him.
I’ve never hated anybody: not J.J. Not the Film Appreciation 101 professor who nearly failed me for saying thatTwilightis an unrecognized masterpiece. Not even my brother Lucas, who had me convinced that I was adopted for over six months. I’m mild mannered, adaptable, unobtrusive. I get along with people: I give them what they want, and all I ask in return is that they not actively dislike me.
But Jack Smith. Jonathan Fucking Smith Fucking Turner. He’s been hostile and unpleasant and suspicious since the day we met. He has shat upon my field and destroyed my mentor, and now stands between me and my dreams. For that, he lost the privilege that I afford every human being: to deal with the Elsie he wants.
The Elsie he’s going to get is the oneIcare to give him. And she’s pissed.
“Iwantthis job, Jack,” I hiss over the hand dryer. I actuallyneedthis job, but—semantics.
“I know you do, Elsie.” His voice is low pitched and rumbly. “But I want someone else to get it.”
“I know.Jack.”
“Then it seems like we’re at an impasse.Elsie.” He articulates my name slowly, carefully. I’m going to lean forward and bite his stupid lips bloody.
No, I won’t, because I’m better than that.
Or am I?
“You do not want to come at me,” I hiss.
“Oh, Elsie.” His hands on me are incongruously gentle, and yet we’re on the verge of the academic equivalent of nuclear warfare. “I think it’s exactly what I want.”
The dryer turns off into silence and saves me from committing aggravated assault. “They left,” I say. “Let mego.”
His mouth twitches, but he deposits me on the floor in some ludicrous reverse–Dirty Dancingmove. His hands on my waist linger, but as soon as they leave me I’m scampering out of the stall, heels clicking on the tiles. I nearly lose my balance. With Jack’s scent out of my nose, the stench of the place hits me anew.
“Talk to Monica if you want to,” I bluff, turning back to him. “You’ll see the good it does you.”
“Oh, I will.” He’s clearly about to smile, like the angrier I get, the more amused he becomes. A never-ending vicious cycle that can end only in me holding his head in the toilet bowl.
“It’s my word against the word of the guy with a decade-long agenda against theorists, after all.”
He shrugs. “Maybe. Or maybe it’s a physicist’s word against a librarian’s.”
I scoff and stalk to the entrance, suddenly confident in my stilt shoes, determined not to be in his presence a second longer. But when I reach the door, something ticks inside me. I whip my head back to Jack, who’s standing there like K2, studying me with an interested frown, like I’m an exotic caterpillar about to pupate.