“Mmm, Tara bakes the best cookies,” Freddie moans so loud it makes my cheeks flush.
“The woman is a wizard,” I agree, trying to ignore the way my stomach flips at the sound of his appreciation. It’s just Freddie being Freddie, I remind myself. He’d probably make the same noise over a well-prepared lab sample.
We’re holed up in the lab, surrounded by stacks of data printouts and empty coffee cups. The clock on the wall reads 5:45 pm, but I barely register it. Time seems to lose all meaning when we’re working like this. Freddie met me here right after his shift at the gym so we could work together.
I reach for another cookie, my fingers brushing against Freddie’s as he does the same. We both pull back, laughing awkwardly. Freddie hasn’t brought up the mind-blowing sex we had last month, and neither have I. We’ve been working well on the project together and kept things mildly flirty at best. It seems we’re both waiting for the other to make the first move.
“Sorry,” he says, gesturing for me to go ahead. “Ladies first.”
I roll my eyes but take the cookie anyway. “Such a gentleman,” I tease, biting into the chocolatey goodness. The lab hums around us, a weird mix of stressed-out whispers and the click-clack of laptops.
“Fuck,” I mutter, scrolling through Professor Bam’s email again. “Two weeks till the big presentation. I’m starting to freak out.”
Freddie glances up from his laptop. “About what? The rehab plan is solid.”
“Yeah, but we haven’t even started on the slides yet, and this is worth what, 70% of our grade?”
“Hey, PowerPoint is my superpower. Give me a night with a Red Bull, I’ll make us something beautiful.” He grins, then sobers when he sees my face. “What’s really bothering you?”
I chew my lip. “The GSRI internship. Getting into the summer program depends on this grade.”
“Ah.” He leans back. “Of course, the internship thing.”
“Yeah, the internship thing. And then we’ve got that poster session a week after for the other 30%.” I start tapping my pen against my notebook. “I just... I can’t screw this up, Freddie.”
“Hey.” He reaches over to still my tapping hand. “We’ve got this, okay? The whole phased rehabilitation approach? It’s good. Really good.”
I pull my hand away, pretending to reach for my coffee. “Says the guy who wanted to title our presentation ‘A Special Shaft.’“
“That was comedy gold, and you know it.” He flicks a piece of paper at me. “Come on, let’s nail down this data, then we can work on an outline and make our presentation beautiful. With a super boring title.”
“Fine,” I mutter.
“Alex, you deserve the internship. If they don’t see that, it’s their loss. You’re the smartest and most passionate person I know.”
I swallow a thick lump in my throat and nod.
We fall back into comfortable silence, the only sounds the clacking of keyboards and the occasional rustle of paper. I try to focus on the data in front of me, but my mind keeps drifting.
What if once I’m there, I fail?
I’ve been so focused on getting there, I haven’t thought about the possibility of failing once I’m in.
I’m squinting at the data on the screen, my eyes burning from staring at numbers for hours, when Freddie suddenly lets out a whoop that nearly makes me jump out of my skin.
“Alex! Look at this!” He’s practically vibrating with excitement, pointing at his laptop screen.
I lean over, my shoulder brushing against his as I peer at the numbers. For a moment, I’m distracted by his proximity, the scent of leather making my head swim.Focus, Alex.
Then I see it. The data. The beautiful, impossible data that confirms our theory.
“Oh my god,” I breathe. “Freddie, we did it!”
Before I know what’s happening, we’re hugging. It’s spontaneous, born of pure joy and months of hard work finally paying off. But as Freddie’s arms wrap around me, as I feel the solid warmth of his chest against mine, something shifts.
We pull back slightly, our faces inches apart. Freddie’s eyes drop to my lips, and my heart starts racing like I’ve just run a marathon.
Don’t do it, a voice in my head warns. You know he doesn’t want anything serious. You know you’re already in too deep.
