Page 61 of On The Beach

"I couldn't find him," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "There's no way forward without his signature."

I forced myself to hold it together as I looked at their faces, disappointment, and sadness settling into every expression. We'd all worked so hard and invested so much of ourselvesin this project. I hated to be the one bringing it all crashing down.

One by one, they murmured their sympathies, patting my shoulder and giving me a sad smile as they trickled back to their desks. I was gathering the last shreds of my dignity when my phone buzzed with a message from my boss:Can you come to my office as soon as possible?

I took a deep breath, dreading the conversation but knowing I couldn't avoid it. I'd sent my boss an email on the flight back, outlining the situation and explaining that the clinical trials couldn't proceed. I could already picture the disappointment on his face. He'd pinned so much on this project. We all had. But I knew this wouldn't be the hardest conversation of the day. In a while, I'd head to Mass Gen to meet the parents of the patients who had placed their faith in Helaxion's experimental gene therapy trial. I should never have gone down this path without securing the sign-offs on the patents—but I'd had no choice. And I'd been so confident that once Dr. Augustus saw how far we'd come, he would give us his blessing.

Well, Dr. Augustus turned out to be someone I could never imagine. Captain Mick was so far from how I perceived a scientist. So, the joke was ultimately on me. I'd had my heart broken, and my clinical trial fucked up all in the span of a few days. It sucked to be me.

When I walked into my boss's office, bracing myself for the worst, I was taken aback. Dr. Salim Kher had a huge grin on his face and was practically bouncing on his heels.

"Belle!" he exclaimed, coming around his desk with open arms. "Congratulations!"

"For what?" I was completely thrown, but I accepted his hug. "Dr. Kher, I…I couldn't find Dr. Augustus. I thought I made that clear in my email. We can't proceed with the trial."

He waved off my words like they were meaningless. "Oh, no, no, I got your email. But this morning—oh, Belle, this morning, we got the best news. Dr. Augustus sent over the signed documents for patent release to the Helaxion legal team. Clinical trials are a go."

I blinked at him, processing his words, my heart speeding up even as my brain struggled to catch up. "I don't understand."

He just grinned wider, his eyes twinkling with an excitement I didn't quite understand. Dr. Salim Kher, a sharp, quick-witted man in his early sixties, was one of the few people who could make a stern lab coat look relaxed. He had a knack for combining warmth with intensity, which was expressed predominantly in his booming laugh, his insistence on cutting-edge science, and his devotion to his favorite Bollywood star.

"But you know what's even better than that?" he said, eyes lighting up with the kind of enthusiasm he usually reserved for his fondness of Indian cinema.

"Ah, Priyanka Chopra asked you out for a date?" Dr. Kher was a huge fan of the actress, and he frequently brought her up with exaggerated, delighted sighs.

"Even better," he replied, eyes twinkling. "Come with me."

Heart pounding, I followed him down the hallway. My boss pushed open the door to a conference room, and standing in the middle of the room with his hands in his pockets was Mick.

I stopped dead in my tracks, staring at him as my heart hammered against my ribs.

He was in a pair of jeans and a sweater. His blonde hair was disheveled. He didn't look like a beach bum, just another regular Bostonian. He was wearing the Rolex watch that had given him away.

"Hey," he said softly, his eyes holding mine with an intensity that made me want to cry.

For a moment, I couldn't breathe.

No! No! No!He didn't get to hurt me the way he had and show up and say, ‘hey.'What the fuck?

The questions, the disbelief—they were all swirling around inside me, but the only thing that came out was a breathless, "What are you doing here?"

He took a step closer, his smile softening. "You left in a hurry." He pulled out a bikini top from his jeans. "You forgot this."

I stared at the pink fabric with white polka dots. "What?"

"You forgot?—"

"I heard you. Are you saying you came all the way to Cambridge to give me back my bikini?"

Dr. Kher cleared his throat. "What am I missing?"

I turned to face my boss, but before I could speak, Mick said, "She thought I was someone else, Dr. Kher. I misled her."

Dr. Kher looked confused. "Why would you do that?"

"Ah…I didn't want to interact with…well, anyone from out here," Mick explained.

Dr. Kher pointed to the bikini top. "But…ah…looks like you didinteractwith Belle."

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