Page 93 of Conspiracies and Chemistry

The line was back between his eyebrows. “Second thoughts?”

“None. But you still work here. You should keep some semblance of respectability.”

“With Dr. Perrell leaving?—”

“My god,” I interrupted, “did you expect her to have already secured a position at Greenwich?”

He shook his head. “Contingency plans are her superpower. But that means we have an opening for a CEO. We need someone with operational experience, since we’re also down a COO. Know anyone?”

“Are you offering me a job, Dr. Bond?”

“I’m absolutely offering you a job.”

“Wait,” I said. “How will that work if we’re, you know, sleeping together?”

“I’m giving myself a promotion. As Chief Scientific Officer, I’ll report directly to the board. We’ll be peers again. Partners. Will you do it?”

If I were anyone else, I’d have played coy, made him beg for it. But I wanted this. I believed in the employees, the science, and most of all, him. And us. “I will.”

“Good.”

“But first, I need to apologize for walking out on you and for not returning your calls. I was triggered, and I couldn’t be rational.”

“I hid the truth from you,” he said. “I’m sor?—”

“No.” I stopped him. “This is my grovel. Don’t fuck it up.”

“Your what?”

“Yeah, I know. I don’t watch rom-coms either. But apparently, when the hero has done something terrible, she has to apologize and make amends.”

“Wait, are you the hero or am I?”

I threw up my hands. “I don’t fucking know! All I know is that it was terrible of me to desert you when you needed me. I didn’t like that you didn’t tell me about the potential sale, but I should’ve trusted you to make the right decision. I respect you.” I lowered my voice. “I love you.”

He stepped into my space and cupped my elbows in his palms. “You love me?”

“I do. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for loving me?” He scrunched his nose.

“Sorry I didn’t admit it sooner. To you or to myself. Then I would’ve understood why I was so angry about the sale. We could have talked about it. I could’ve been reasonable.”

“Please stop apologizing. I fucked up too. Let’s promise to love each other today and tomorrow and all the next days. Everything else will work itself out. Okay?”

“Okay.” My knees trembled.

“Did you eat lunch?”

My stomach flipped over. “Let’s not talk about food. The tequila would only kick it back out.”

“Tequila?”

“There may have been an intervention last night. It helped me pull my head out of my ass, but today has been rough.”

He grasped my elbows. “You should rest. Want to get out of here?”

“What’s this?” I flashed him a flirty smile. “Dr. Oliver Bond is leaving work early?”

---