Page 39 of Love in the Lab
He walks away without glancing back. My brain fogs up as I try to sort out what just happened. I still feel the whispers of his thumb along my skin, see the ring of green in his hazel eyes.
Wait. I clear my head with a toss of my hair. Did he agree to no more pranks or not? It’s his turn, so even if he has one more planned, I don’t have to retaliate. I can be the bigger person here, the more responsible one. I finish my lunch and get back to work.
I’m still working at my computer later that afternoon, typing up another report, when Jonathan’s voice coming from behind me makes me jump. “It’s about time to go home, isn’t it, Carrots?”
I check the time—5:45—and swivel in my chair to face him. I’m confused about the new nickname until I realize I have a baggie of baby carrots sitting next to the keyboard on my desk. Jonathan has his computer bag slung across his chest, sunglasses perched on top of his head.
“Are you heading out?” I ask.
“Yeah. You?”
I turn my head to survey the document open on the computer screen. “Soon. I just want to finish this report.” I swivel my chair back around.
In a low voice, Jonathan teases, “I’ll be in the depths of despair without you.”
My mouth drops open, and I freeze, turning my head to see him smirking. I face him and point an accusatory finger. “You said you’d never heard ofAnne of Green Gables!”
He shrugs. “I looked it up. Couldn’t find it streaming anywhere, so I bought the DVDs. Can you believe that? In this day and age?” He shakes his head.
“You bought the DVDs?” I sputter. “Idon’t even have the DVDs!”
He slides a box out of his satchel. “All yours, Carrots.” He winks and hands me the boxed set of eight DVDs. Too stunned to argue, I reach out my hand to take it. He doesn’t let go of the box. Instead, he pulls the chair and, consequently, me closer, crouching down until his mouth is next to my ear.
“By the way,” he rumbles so quietly that I have to lean even closer to hear. “I noticed that Gilbert Blythe andhisCarrots end up together. Isn’t that interesting?”
I gulp and pull back to see his face. Isthatwhy he’s calling me Carrots? FromAnne of Green Gables? The corners of his lips quirk upward, but his eyes are devastatingly serious, a whirlwind of green and brown. I’m powerless to look away. He breaks eye contact first, straightening back to his full height and turning toward the door.
“See you tomorrow,” he says casually.
“Yeah,” I answer in a daze. “See you tomorrow.”
When I get home, I open the box of DVDs. One slips out onto the ground, and I pick it up. It’s labeled “Bonus Content,” but it looks a little … off. I investigate the box and see that each of the advertised eight DVDs are there, snapped snugly into their trays. There is no empty tray. The Bonus Content is a ninth disc. I study the label on the Bonus Content disc and compare it to the labels on the other eight. It’s pretty darn close, but the Bonus Content label is slightly askew, not perfectly centered like on the other discs.
Curious, I slide the DVD into my player. When it starts playing, I groan loudly. It’s a video of Rick Astley singing his popular ’80s song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” I stare at the screen as Astley belts out the lyrics speaking to his commitment.
Before I know it, I’m laughing so hard that literal tears are streaming down my face. He’s just too much. I pull out my phone.
Molly:
You rickrolled me? Seriously? What is this, 2008?
Jonathan:
[laughing emoji] A prank and a promise
I shake my head, my smile so big it’s actually hurting my cheeks. Okay, one more prank. The prank to end the prank war. And I need to make it the best one yet.
Chapter fifteen
Jonathan
Thursday morning, I know something is up the moment I walk into the office. My colleagues are frantic, speeding back and forth between the office and the lab with piles of papers and straightening up their desks.
Dr. Gantt sees me come in and pulls me aside before I even have a chance to set my bag down in my cubicle. A flush on her cheeks makes her brown skin appear even darker. “Good morning, Dr. Stanch. Change in plans today. We just got word that Dr. Perron will be stopping by this morning. He wants to see how we test our water samples.”
Dr. Perron is the dean of the College of Coast and Environment at NOSU. While most of our research is funded through grants, the dean still has quite a bit of power over our purse strings, including our ability to use the building space for our lab. A visit from him likely means he wants to check in on our progress and be sure our research is a worthwhile use of the university’s funds.
This is the first Dr. Perron visit I’ve experienced in Dr. Gantt’s lab, but we had them all the time when I worked with Dr. Shepherd, at least before his big research breakthrough last year. After the Society for Conservation Biology honored Dr. Shepherd’s work, the visits stopped.
