Page 16 of The Fallback

‘Almost sounds like you’re describing Mitch,’ Jasmine said, jokingly.

‘Ha ha!’ Rosie laughed a little too loudly. ‘I thought we had agreed that I wasn’t looking to settle down with Mitch’.

‘OK, so not Mitch. Is there a specific dating app for London-based, well-read, foodie scientists?’ Jasmine asked.

‘If only,’ Rosie sighed. ‘I’m going to have to take Nadia up on her offer, aren’t I?’

‘What offer?’ Jasmine shot back, suddenly interested.

Nadia and Jasmine had an interesting relationship. Both of them would have died rather than admit it but they were jealous of each other. Both secretly thought they were the only best female friend Rosie needed and that she really didn’t have space in her life for the other one.

‘Oh, she’s always trying to invite me over when her and Nico are hosting some single visiting professor.’

‘But why don’t you ever say yes?’ Jasmine asked incredulously.

‘Because it’s a bit embarrassing, isn’t it?’ Rosie asked, ‘To be so obviously set up like that?’

‘Is it?’ Jasmine said. ‘I’d have thought that being set up with a friend of a friend would be perfect, practically the same as getting together with a friend, and they’d at least figure you have a couple of things in common.’

Rosie felt a little uncomfortable with where Jasmine might head next with this train of thought. ‘Maybe I’ll think about it,’ she said quickly.

‘I honestly don’t know why you’re so against being set up, or dating apps, to be honest,’ said Jasmine. ‘I think it would be fun to go out with some different people, it’s exciting. You never know who you’re going to meet!’

‘Exactly,’ Rosie practically shouted back, ‘you never know!’

‘But they could be the man of your dreams!’ said Jasmine enthusiastically.

‘No, they’re not going to be. More often than not, it’s a complete disappointment from start to finish, and it’s a wasted evening when I could be seeing friends or doing something a lot more worthwhile.’ Rosie was feeling desperate for this conversation to end. ‘And please don’t mention “the man of my dreams” again, you’re beginning to sound like Mitch,’ she grumbled.

Jasmine started to open her mouth to say something. ‘No, Jasmine. Please, just leave it. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. The chance of meeting the man of my dreams on a dating app are almost completely zero.’ Or actually a big fat zero, Rosie felt like saying, because she knew for a fact that even if the man of her dreams did stumble upon her profile he wouldn’t swipe right.

At that moment, her two nephews came tearing into the kitchen. Evidently they had finished watching TV, and it was a matter of absolute urgency that they be fed that very minute. At five and seven, they were still happy to be occasionally cuddled by their aunt, especially if she had food for them, and at that moment she had never been more relieved to be handing out the carrot sticks and crackers that Jasmine had already laid out in tasteful porcelain snack bowls on the island.

Rosie pulled them both into a hug, burying her face in Rory’s neck. He still had that sweet babyish smell that Rosie remembered them both having as newborns. She might have been using him to deflect Jasmine’s attention but she also genuinely loved his smell and the feel of his still little body enveloped in hers. Perhaps, she thought to herself, perhaps it would be rather lovely to have one of these.

ChapterFive

Rosie was in her office, head down, poring over lab reports. It had been a happy moment when she had discovered that not all the data from her recent experiment was redundant. She’d made it just in time after Nadia left her office to oversee her post doc and rescue the results, and while some of those results weren’t what she was hoping for, some were OK. Rosie had done a little shimmy of delight and then quickly stopped before one of her colleagues saw her.

For most people, spending an afternoon studying lab reports would constitute mind-numbing boredom, but Rosie was in heaven. She felt calm and in control with pages and pages of numbers in front of her, her office door shut and no one to disturb her.

Rosie had always loved data, finding beauty and patterns in places where other people merely saw columns and numbers. Even as a child she’d loved the order that maths imposed on an otherwise confusing universe. She was sure a psychologist would have a field day with this, but Rosie chose not to think too much about it. She enjoyed it, it made her good at her job and to be honest it was no one else’s business.

She was in just such a headspace when there was a knock on her office door. Somewhat startled, she looked up to see Nadia’s head poke around the door.

’OK if I come in?’ Nadia asked. Rosie looked at her watch, surprised to see how much of the day had passed. Trying not to be irritated at the interruption, she nodded and gestured to Nadia to come in.

‘But close the door behind you, if you leave it open I will be inundated with students,’ Rosie sighed. ‘I think having an open-door policy is the way madness lies.’

Nadia grinned at her. ‘Buy yourself a lock, that’s what I do.’

Rosie pretended to look scandalised, ‘What would Facilities say?!’ she joked.

‘“Good idea?”’ Nadia said with a wink. ‘Anyway, I knew you had lab reports in today so I don’t suppose you’ve stopped to eat or drink since you got in this morning?’ She held up a large paper bag and two cups of coffee and then dumped them on Rosie's desk, right on top of her lab reports. Rosie carefully eked the papers out from underneath while Nadia plonked herself in a chair opposite. After a moment, Nadia said, ‘I’ve been thinking about Mitch.’

Rosie head snapped up. An added bonus of losing herself in the lab reports was that she hadn’t had to think about awkward propositions for several hours. But it would probably have been a more effective strategy if she hadn’t told Nadia about it in the first place. Then Rosie could avoid Mitch forever and pretend it had never happened.

When Rosie had told Nadia earlier on in the week, her response had been incredibly muted which was exactly what Rosie had been hoping for. It gave her hope that maybe Jasmine's reaction was over the top and Mitch's plan really was nothing to worry about. Although Rosie had suspected at the time that Nadia just wasn't listening. And the fact she had brought it up now made Rosie worry that Nadia had simply been thinking about it quietly ever since, mulling it over like a scientific puzzle she needed to solve.

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