Page 85 of Love Without Demands

“Um, yes. We’re meeting Artie at that breakfast shop he’s been wanting to try. Are you okay? You sound out of breath.”

“Just left the workout room,” I panted as I entered my living room and flopped onto the couch. It wasn’t technically a lie.

“Okay, I’ll let you get cleaned up. See you in an hour.”

“Seriously, it was the most uninspiring sexual experience of my life,” Nicolette complained, sipping on her mimosa. “And I’ve had some boring sex in my days.”

Artie and I shared a glance. We’d heard similar stories from Nic for years.

“And where did you meet this lousy lay?” Artie asked.

Our friend lets out a long sigh. “At a convention.”

“Therein lies the problem,” I commented. “You need to have smexy times with someone other than other scientists.”

“And the people saidAmen,” Artie sang, raising his own champagne glass in the air. “You need to get you a big, hairy biker dude, honey.”

Nicolette looked appalled. “Not my type.”

“Ohhh, that’s right. Your type is men who don’t know what to do with their penises,” Artie said a bit too loudly. Two women who appeared to be in their eighties gasped as they passed our table, and Artie gave them an overexaggerated smile and a sarcastic twiddle of his fingers.

“I like clean-cut guys. I just want adirtyclean-cut guy,” Nicolette clarified.

“Clean-cut doesn’t necessarily mean a science nerd,” I mused. “What about, like, an accountant or something?”

Nic gave me a droll roll of her green eyes. “The only accountant I know is my own. His name is Earl, and he sucks his teeth while he talks.” In demonstration, she placed her tongue against her top teeth and emitted a long sucking noise.

Giggling, I mouthed athank youto the server, who was dropping off our breakfast sandwiches. I was feeling a little better after seeing that Cruz looked okay today at the gym and now that I was with my crazy friends.

“What about work? How are things in the lab?” I queried, changing the subject.

Her nose scrunched. “My boss is a bitchy, micro-managing, shrew who is driving me cuckoo pants. Last week she told me she wanted to observe me running an HPLC assay to make sure I was doing it correctly. I mean really! A first-year grad student could do that, and I have two doctorate degrees.” She held up two fingers to prove her point.

“The, um, H-L-what?” I asked. Sometimes I wasn’t sure Nicolette was actually speaking English.

“HPLC,” she corrected. “It's a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatograph, and I’ve been running them for over a decade.” She waved a hand at Artie, whose mouth was gaping so wide, a piece of egg fell out and onto his lap. “Hell, even he could do it.”

Artie closed his mouth and lifted a doubtful eyebrow. “Yes, well, I think I’ll pass on running the chromosome-o-graph of asses or whatever. I wouldn’t want to embarrass the other scientists.”

Nicolette giggled. “Chromatography assays, and my boss isn’t even a scientist. She has a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies.”

Artie and I shared a stunned expression. “How the hell is she running that lab then?” I asked. Nicolette had a PhD in biochemistry, an MD with a residency in dermatology, and amaster’s in microbiology. I couldn’t imagine anyone being more qualified than her.

“Oh, she’s not. I run the entire lab, but she has the title—and the corresponding salary—because she’s the CEO’s favorite niece. The other day she asked what I was doing, and I told her I was checking a sample for mercury. She asked what a planet had to do with cosmetics.”

I pressed my forehead against my palm and shook my head. “Please tell me that’s not true.”

“It’s the god’s honest truth, and I’m not sure how much more of this shit I can take.” She pushed her glasses up her nose and took a bite of her bacon, egg, and cheese croissant.

“What are you going to do?” Artie asked.

Nic’s pretty face contorted into a wince. “I’ve put in an application with Hale Cosmetics.”

“That’s the one in Houston?” I could feel my heart dripping with sadness. Of course I wanted my friend to do what was best for her career, but I’d miss her if she was all the way in Texas.

She gave me a gloomy smile. “I don’t want to move, but cosmetic research and development is my jam, and they’re supposed to have the best in-house lab in the country.”

I put on my brave face and my best smile for her sake. “Then you did the right thing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.”

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