TheDr. Ethan Meyer.
Damn.
“Um. Sorry, do you need help with…?” She hoped she’d said something like that, at least. Something useful. She bent down and reached for a white paper.
“No, it’s fine. I…” His voice was low, rough with tiredness or too much coffee. Close, too. Dr. Meyer knelt to take the report from her and stacked it with the other documents.
She reached for his travel itinerary.
But so did he, and static from his vest or the carpet jolted between them, quick as the surprised glance they shared again, eyes widening now with shock or curiosity—
“The revised data exports forNature Physicsare ready, Meyer. Correct?”
His attention flashed past her at that, down the hall toward another voice addressing him with a question that apparently wasn’t a question at all. He blinked and instantly straightened from his hunch. His hand retracted into a fist when he answered, suddenly louder and clearer, “Yes. I finished them yesterday. They’re—”
“In my inbox?”
“Yes, and—”
“Right. Good morning, Dr. Kramer. Excuse us, Dr. Meyer.” Nodding at her colleagues, Nadine urged Erin up and away from a conversation that seemed ready to happen directly through her, sidestepping the papers and Ethan Meyer on his knees. She steered her instead toward a desk in the bullpen, where a Human Resources representative flagged them down. “They have their resubmission form to complete, and you have some onboarding paperwork. I’ll formally introduce you to the rest of the Modern Physics staff later.”
“Erin Monaghan?” The woman at her new workstation pointed Erin into a chair and indicated a series of virtual forms on the desktop monitor. “Sign and initial where indicated. Finance will want to record your onboarding hours and it’s the last day of the pay period, so please submit the documents as soon as possible.”
“I’ll be back at noon for lunch and the tour,” and Nadine left her to it.
Was Dr. Meyer still collecting his reports?
She couldn’t see over the top of her monitor and divider…
No:focus.
She swung her chair back to the desk. She could parse academic grandstanding and also outpace her second brother in speed-reading; boilerplate legalese shouldn’t prove too much of a time or content challenge. She crossed her legs on her seat and settled down to develop her carpal tunnel syndrome.
Conflict of interestform—initialed.
Release of liability for workplace injury due to wildlife encounterform, which mandated the distribution of a protective air horn to each staff member—initialed.
Employee handbook.
At over two hundred pages, she was still deep in the handbook’s anti-harassment section when the woman from Human Resources returned to squint at the forms that she hadn’t reviewed yet. “Ms. Monaghan—”
Dr. Monaghan.
“—it’s eleven fifty-five. Initial the rest of these now and I’ll send you copies to read through later.”
Not inspecting every inch of the fine print ran counter to her years of scientific training, and even more time spent as a gullible younger sister. But the Human Resources representative didn’t move away from her desk, and Nadine would be back soon for their team lunch. She forced a smile and made her mark on the employee handbook. Then, galvanized into action under the woman’s continuing stare, trying not to wonder ifhewould be at the cafe, she repeated a quickE.M.on the remaining documents, her initials whirring away into the ether as the seconds ticked down until noon.
“Done. Thank you.” The representative walked off, past Nadine returning to collect her employee.
“You survived? That’s always the worst part. But administration is a necessary evil.” Nadine shook her head at the retreating woman. “Now, lunch. The cafeteria in the Science and Public Support building makes a good curry on Mondays, if you can handle the spice—and you must be hungry after that digital sprint.”
“Curry sounds delicious.” It did feel like she’d been running trial time laps.
“We’ll take the scooters over and meet the team on the balcony, then. It overlooks the campus and the turkeys, so you’ll get an aerial preview of our tour track. We’ll visit the interferometer control room first, obviously, and then the klystron gallery at the linear accelerator…”
Erin followed Nadine from her desk while the last onboarding form flashed a notice of its successful submission. She would read the documents she’d signed when Human Resources sent them back again.
It would be fine.
