Page 68 of Reluctant Chemistry

CeCe:Who knows?

Molly:You gonna go? Surfing, I mean?

CeCe:As if. You OK?

Molly:Yep. Great. But I have to go. Looks like my Tinder guy’s just turned up for our morning coffee date. SHIT. He has a mullet!!!

CeCe:Hahaha cute. Go you. Talk soon. I’m off for a run.

Molly:Spare me the deets.

* * *

There wasn’t much to Jay Blakely’s resume. In fact, on paper, one would wonder if the man had any life experience at all. Still, what could he say? That he was an expert in the manufacture of hash oil?

And resumes were like that now: two pages, and you’re done.

CeCe looked up from her computer when he knocked on the door. Tall and dressed in chinos and a button-down shirt, he looked nothing like she’d imagined. She stood and offered her hand. “You must be Jay. It’s nice to meet you. Please take a seat.”

He looked older than twenty-four and his handshake was a little weak, but he smiled as he sat in the adjacent chair. “Thanks for seeing me. It can’t be easy to put aside judgements based on my past.”

Okay.“It’s human nature to wonder why someone’s spent eighteen months in prison, but I’m not here to discuss your past, except to say that if it wasn’t for the reintegration program, I wouldn’t be able to afford you at present.”

Jay nodded. “I’m under no delusions on that score. At least you’ve given me an interview. Luka said your business is an organic skincare start-up?”

“Yes. Well, that’s the plan.”

“You obviously know my recent history, so what else do you want to know about me?”

CeCe stood and took a jar off the shelf behind her. “I have a better idea.” She handed him the jar and a spatula. “Try this. I can’t seem to get the consistency right.”

Jay rubbed the cream between his fingers. “Yeah, I see what you mean. It can be a problem when working with all-natural raw materials. Can you bring up the Turbiscan and zeta potential results? You may need to up your concentration of surfactants to see which one’s the better choice.”

Impressed by his formality and no-nonsense approach, CeCe crossed to the large desktop computer, shuffled her mouse, and clicked on a file. “Yes, I’ve looked at that, but the one I want to use is the least stable of the three I’ve tested.”

“Okay.” Jay sat on the stool in front of the screen and pulled a pair of glasses from his shirt pocket. He put them on. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with, shall we?”

33

Shaky Ride

As soon as she clicked her seatbelt into place, CeCe knew she’d made a big mistake by agreeing to come. She’d joined the Carpe Diem group with Jaz and Tracy as a way of balancing her increasingly busy life. Living in a lab day in and day out wasn’t healthy, but if she had her way, she’d be back at Lime Tree Hill, working on Botanical Ce rather than taking a chopper joyride on her precious day off.

While Jaz and Tracy chatted all the way from Clifton Falls CBD to Station Winery, a twenty-minute drive, CeCe watched the world pass the minivan window. As the road twisted and turned around rolling hillsides of fertile farmlands, her stomach did the same, and by the time they hit a straight stretch of highway, she was fighting an annoying case of motion sickness.

They traveled along an avenue of maples until they reached the winery’s entrance. Their driver parked beside a semicircular building constructed of cedar and stone. Manicured gardens of native grasses and flowering shrubs surrounded the exterior, and to the west, a forest of pines stood tall, filtering sunlight through the treetops.

As they walked through the main doors—large and imposing with circular knobs fashioned from burnished metal—and into the tasting room’s foyer, a strange energy filled the air.

Jaz moved to her side. “Guess who’s here?”

“Who?”

“White jodhpurs, black boots—”

“Luka?”

CeCe looked at the three choppers lined up outside and froze at the sight before her. Luka—navy flight suit, hair hanging over his forehead, and mirrored aviators—stood chatting with two other men. She muttered an F-bomb under her breath. Surely he wasn’t one of their pilots.

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