Page 58 of Love in the Lab
“Are you done?” Molly asks, her eyes sparkling.
My ears warm. “I think so … except to say I think you’re amazing and beautiful and you smell really good, and I can’t stop thinking about your mouth on mine—”
Stepping onto her tiptoes, Molly brushes a kiss across my lips. “Jonathan,” she says again.
“Yeah?” I croak.
“I’m really into you, too. I want to date you, and kiss you, and spend as much time together as possible. Only with you.”
“Only with me,” I repeat dumbly. Then, as the words sink in, a slow grin creeps across my face. “You mean, like, exclusively? Are you asking me to be your boyfriend, Carrots?”
She smirks, pulling her hand away from mine and turning forward again, ready to continue walking. “I mean, if you don’t want to label it…”
“No,” I say quickly, catching her hand in mine again. “Let’s use all the labels. I love labels. The more official, the better.”
She stops walking again and smiles at me. “I like you better like this.”
My eyebrows pull together. “Like what?”
She tilts her head thoughtfully. “Messy. Vulnerable. Real. It makes me feel like you’re just being you, rather than trying to trick me into something.”
I shake my head. “I was never trying to trick you into anything. I just wanted your attention, whether positive or negative.”
“I gave youa lotof negative attention.” She grimaces, and I pull her against my chest in a hug.
“Whydidyou hate me? What did I do?”
Molly’s cheeks turn red, and she hides her face in my neck. “Honestly?” she asks in a muffled voice.
“Of course.”
She lifts her head and looks me in the eye. “I’ve always been attracted to you, from our first class together. But that attraction was a threat to my routine and my rules. You were a threat.” She shrugs. “It was easier to hate you. Plus, you were kind of a reminder of what I thought I could never have, what I was depriving myself of in pursuit of my goals.”
I smirk. “I was too much of a temptation, so you had to cut me out completely?”
She rolls her eyes. “Something like that.”
I pinch my lips together as I turn serious. “But not anymore, right?”
“No,” Molly says, curling one hand behind my head and pulling my mouth down to hers. “I’m done denying myself. You’re mine now.”
I swallow a moan, heat creeping down my spine. I like the sound of that. A lot.
Chapter twenty-three
Molly
After our walk around Jonathan’s neighborhood, during which we saw minimal damage and lots of other people escaping their stuffy, dark buildings for the cool weather outside, we open the apartment windows and cuddle on the couch.
I meant it when I told Jonathan I’m done denying myself. Something happened to me on that boat yesterday—Was that only yesterday?—that changed me. A realization. An epiphany.
I can exhaust myself trying to control what I can control, but I’ll never be able to control enough. Maybe a better use of myenergy is to continue excelling at my work whilealsoembracing joy in my life. Nothing brings me more joy than Jonathan. Except maybe beignets.
Speaking of things I can’t control, I’mdyingto see if the gliders have transmitted any data. No electricity means the shore station can’t receive the satellite transmissions from the gliders, though. Even if the server could receive the data, I can’t get online to check it. I’ll just have to be patient.
We spend the day on the couch, talking, laughing, and kissing. At one point, Jonathan pulls my feet into his lap and traces the small tattoo on the top of my foot. It’s the letters MNO in script.
“I wouldn’t have guessed you’d have a tattoo,” he says.
