Page 78 of Conspiracies and Chemistry

“Thank you.” I wanted to slip my arms around her and kiss her, but one, she was driving, and two, we were still a secret.

After she parked at the far end of the lot, I didn’t give her a good-bye kiss. I grabbed my satchel and the boxes of donuts we’d picked up, gave her an awkward wave, and trudged toward the building. Once I was inside, she’d drive up to her reserved spot and breeze into the lab like we hadn’t spent the weekend at the spa or last night cuddled up in her bed. I hated the dishonesty of it, but with Tessa, I’d take what she’d give me, and so far, this was it.

Once I’d set down my laptop in my office and the donuts in the breakroom, I walked into the lab and shrugged into my coat. The lab was the same as any other Monday morning, quiet and sleepy until everyone’s second cup of coffee. I rolled my shoulders while mentally organizing my to-do list.

Sadie walked in. When she saw me, her eyes narrowed. Then, like every other Monday, she said, “Hey, Ollie. Did you have a good weekend?”

“It was excellent,” I said. “How was yours?”

Instead of reaching for her lab coat, she grabbed the sleeve of mine. “Come with me.” She pulled me out into the hallway. “No, really.How was your weekend?”Her eyebrows disappeared into her blond bangs.

“Very relaxing. Why are we standing in the hallway?”

“Because ofthis.”She pulled her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and tapped it a few times. Then she turned the screen to face me.

It was one of those social media sites, not one I used. ClickClackGo, if I wasn’t mistaken. On it was a photo of Tessa, an old one, her red hair scraped back into a ponytail, and dark circles shadowing her eyes. I missed the faint smile lines around her mouth and eyes and the sparkling silver threads in her hair. She looked young, exhausted, and scared.

I tapped to read the caption:She’s done it again. Tessa Bond is fucking her colleague, according to a credible source. Like it wasn’t bad enough when she was too busy fucking her number-two to keep Red Rover afloat, now she’s getting cozy with the founder of Discovery Diagnostics, where she’s currently working. I hope those poor saps know what they’re in for…

My heart hammered, and I shoved the phone back at her. “It’s not true.”

“You’re not with Tessa?” she asked. “Because you didn’t fool anyone by walking in separately. You can see the parking lot from practically every window in the building, and no one else drives a car as expensive as hers, not even you.”

“No, it’s true we’re together. I meant that she’s going to destroy Discovery. That’s false.”

“Of course it’s false. She’s helping us kick ass. But this”—she waved her phone—“isn’t the best way for the lab to find out about you two.”

“What.” Tessa’s voice didn’t rise on the question. It whispered out of her like her last breath.

Neither Sadie nor I had heard her approach in her soft-soled boots. She had her hand on the latch to enter the lab, and her green eyes were wide and wild as the thunderstorm I’d seen rolling in one spring break in Fort Myers.

“What did you say?”

32

It's Only a Projection

From Barry Wright’s manifesto:

The Earth is flat. Everyone knows it. The moon is an image projected onto a hollow sphere surrounding the plane of our existence.

TESSA

Iwent still as a statue. Even my heart stopped beating, and my lungs seized.

“What did you say?”

When Sadie turned her innocent blue eyes on me, they were shadowed with betrayal. “Why’d we have to find out from ClickClackGo? Why couldn’t you be, like, cool about it?”

“We—” I glanced at Oliver, but there was no help there. He stared at his loafers as if to keep from reminding me that he’d wanted to tell our colleagues weeks ago. “I wanted to keep my private life private.”

“Really?” The mournful tip of her lips was a reminder that she’d shared her hopes, dreams, and secrets with me.

“Look, I’m sorry, I?—”

“Tessa. Oliver. Just thecoupleI wanted to see.” Judgment sharpened the already crisp consonants in Maya’s voice. “My office, please.”

“Of…of course, Dr. Perrell,” Oliver said. “We’ll be there in five.”

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