Page 28 of Love in the Stacks
Adam’s eyebrows furrow together. “Uh, yeah, Nicole and I both work in the library.” See, he agrees. Coworkers.
I turn my attention to Ashley. “What are you presenting about tonight, Dr. Cartwright?”
She meets my eyes and smiles. “Call me Ashley,” she insists. “I work in the coastal environmental science department at Harkness. My work right now is mainly focused on using constructed oyster reefs as living shorelines to protect salt marshes from erosion. I’m going to talk about that.”
I feel the crankiness trickling out of my body as I take in her words. My brain is pinging, and I’m not sure which part of her statement to focus on first.
I start with: “My sister is a coastal environmental scientist. In New Orleans.”
“Oh,” Ashley exclaims. “You should try to recruit her over to Harkness. We’re still growing our program and could use more faculty.”
I consider that for a minute. “I’ll definitely let her know, but she’s more about laboratory work than teaching. She’s a researcher more than anything.” I shrug.
“Ah, I see. We’re not really a research institution, as I’m sure you know. What’s your sister’s research focus?”
As we’re talking, Adam pulls a chair over from a neighboring table and sets it between us. Ashley smiles at him and sits, her attention back on me.
“Good question. She recently switched research teams, but I think she’s researching algal blooms in the Gulf? Does that sound like a thing?” I laugh. “Her name is Molly Delaney.”
“Definitely a thing. I’ll look up her work.”
“Speaking of work, yours sounds so interesting! I guess I’ll hear about it when you speak, but I’m dying to know more.”
I feel Adam’s eyes on me and when I turn my head, I meet his gaze. He’s beaming as he watches Ashley and I talk. He has a gleam in his eye, gaze trained on my face, as if waiting for my reactions. I give him what I intend to be a questioning look.
Ashley notices the exchange and stands. “I better head back to my own table. They’re about to start again, and it’ll be my turn before long.” She reaches her hand out to shake Adam’s. “So nice to run into you here, Adam. And Nicole….” She smiles at me. “Really nice meeting you. Would you like to get together sometime for lunch or coffee? We can talk more.”
I nod, smiling. “I’d like that. Email me?” I know she’ll be able to find my contact information through Harkness’ email system.
Ashley nods once before making her way to the other side of the stage where she’s sitting with a few other people.
Adam is still beaming at me when I turn to glare at him. “What?” I ask, my cheeks heating up.
He shakes his head. “I’m just thinking that I may have something new to add to my list of skills.” I raise my eyebrows at him in question and he smirks. “Friend matchmaker. You two seemed to hit it off.”
I laugh. “As if you had anything to do with it!” I hit his shoulder playfully. “You didn’t know Ashley would be here tonight, and besides, I draggedyouout, so pretty sure this is a coincidence.”
He grins. “Maybe so. But still, I’m glad. Ashley is a nice friend.” He seems to emphasize the last word. “Her fiancé is a great guy, too. We’ve hung out a few times.” He watches me out of the corner of his eye.
“Cool,” I say nonchalantly. I know what he’s doing. But it doesn’t matter because Adam and I are just coworkers.
The rest of the evening is full of listening and talking and laughing. Between each speaker, Adam and I chat about the presentation topic and then off on tangents wherever that leads us. Ashley gives a phenomenal presentation. I text Molly throughout with my commentary, which she mostly ignores.
After the last presentation, we wait for the crowd to thin before heading back to the car. Adam nudges me with his elbow. “You should do this,” he says.
The night has only gotten cooler. I have my hands balled up inside the front pockets of the hoodie I’m wearing. I’m ready to get back to those heated seats in Adam’s car.
“Do what?” I ask, watching the bottleneck of people exiting through the gate.
“Present at Soapbox.”
My head snaps toward Adam, and I laugh. “What would I even talk about?”
Adam shrugs. “Graphic novels. Comics. Tater tots.” He grins slyly at that, and I blush thinking about how many of his tots I ate. “Whatever you want. You speak well, know how to hold the audience’s attention. I think you’d be great.”
I laugh again, but Adam’s gaze is serious, earnest. “I don’t know,” I say. “Maybe.” That actually might be fun. Turning the tables on him, I ask, “Why don’t you present? You could talk about memes.”
“I’m not super comfortable speaking in public,” Adam admits. “Why do you think I’m in technical services instead of instruction?”
