Page 156 of Dial L for Lawyer
He said he did. He said he liked me. He said he's liked me since before we met.
But then when I tried to kiss him, when I tried to act on these supposed feelings, he literally put up a barrier between us.
A sob escapes me. I'm twenty-seven years old and I just got rejected in the most humiliating way possible by the only guy I've had real feelings for since grad school.
What's wrong with me? Am I that repulsive? He can like me in theory but not in practice? He wants to admire me from a safe distance like I'm some kind of specimen in one of his experiments?
I pull out my phone, opening my messages. My fingers hover over the group chat with Layla and Serena. I start typing:You're never going to believe what just happened. Logan literally put his hand over my mouth to stop me from kissing him.
But then I delete it. They're still at the club, celebrating Caleb's good news. They're happy. They're having fun. The last thing they need is me dumping my humiliation on them. It can wait.
I close the messages and open my email instead, desperate for any distraction from the burning shame in my chest. Spam, lab equipment newsletters, a reminder about next week's department meeting…And then I see it. An email from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
Dear Dr. Greene, We are pleased to offer you the position of Senior Research Fellow in our Molecular Genetics Laboratory. As discussed in your interview, this is a three-month appointment with possibility of extension...
Sweden. Three months. The position I applied for when everything was up in the air with the Carmichael/Mercer takeover. I never heard back, and Bennett ended up partnering with James Tech, so I didn’t think anything of it. But now…
I read the email twice more, then look around my apartment. It’s no longer my sanctuary. It’s a crime scene. The exact spot on the rug where he stood, the lamp casting the same humiliating light, the lingering scent of his stupid, expensive cologne. My life here feels contaminated. Three months. A new city. A new lab where no one knows about the catastrophic system failure of my love life. It's not running away. It's a strategic retreat. It's the only logical move. My fingers fly across the keyboard, typing a reply before I can second-guess myself.I accept.
Three months later, Dr. Audrey Greene returns from Sweden with one goal: avoid Logan Whitman at all costs.
Too bad they're assigned to the same high-stakes project.
Too bad their lab is the size of a closet.
Too bad Logan's determined to explain why he literally put his hand between their mouths when she tried to kiss him.
He has ninety days to tell her the truth—that he's never kissed anyone.
She has ninety days to resist the urge to try again.
And they both have ninety days to save a billion-dollar biotech deal.
But when the virgin genius finally finds his courage... will the woman who ran to Sweden give him a second chance?
