Page 112 of Problematic Summer Romance

“You like him,” he says. A blank slate of a tone.

“In the sense that I wouldn’t mind working with him. Not in aI cannot wait to bang him on the Hadron Colliderway.”

“Mmh.”

“He’s married. To this theoretical physicist who works with Georgina Sepulveda.”

“Oh, yeah. George. You did that internship with her last year, right?”

“Yup. And even if he weren’t…he’sold. And I’mnotin the habit of consorting with the elderly.” A beat. “Though I make an exception for you.”

I wait for him to choose from his usual array of retorts—Shut up, Trouble. I feel the same way about you infants. This is why I call, you keep me humble.But he remains uncharacteristically quiet, so I continue, “The girl who was leading this CERN project had a family emergency, which means that someone from her team is stepping up to fill her role. It leaves a research position unfilled, and you know what they say about the allocation of academic budgetsandfarm pigs.”

“Enlighten me.”

“Nothing can go to waste.”

He chuckles, low and husky. My hand clutches my phone like it’s a lifeline. “You should do it,” he says.

“Hmm. Yeah, I definitely should. I mean, I’d have to move to Switzerland for a while, and I know people your age struggle with the logistics of calling foreign countries, but before I leave we can meet and I can set up your cellular thingamajig—”

“Actually,” he interrupts.

And that’s when I know. If not the details, the gist of what’s about to go down.

“Oh, no. Did you drop your calling machine into the toilet again?” Me, trying to stop it with a joke.

And him, overruling me. “Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad, if we…decreased the frequency of our communications.”

He sounds like he’s drafting an intercompany memo. A touchtoodetached.

Stay calm,I tell myself. Nothing bad is happening. Take a deep breath, don’t be reactive.“Are you out of data?”

A heavy silence. “There is someone, Maya.”

Okay. So, something badishappening. Doesn’t mean that I should stop breathing. Calmly, I say: “There are about seven billion someones in the world, so you’re going to have to be precise about—”

“I’m going to start dating a woman.”

I don’t recall sitting down, but the angle from which I can see the neighbors’ yard through the window has changed, and there’s something soft under my thighs. “Ah.” I sound surprisingly calm. “When did you meet her?”

“I’ve known her for a while.”

“I see. Out of curiosity, how old is she?”

I can practicallyhearhim close his eyes. That put-upon, paternal irritation he reserves for me only.

“Just wondering. I know how important that is for you.”

“She’s certainly not in her twenties.”

I nod, and if he cannot see it, that’shisproblem. A small, leaden weight coalesces at the bottom of my stomach. Rolls and churns around. “I don’t…you and I are not romantically linked, Conor. We have periodic check-ins in which you make sure that I’m notdesperately in love with you, that I understand the score. That we’re justfriends. I didn’t hallucinate them, right?”

“No.”

“Are you going to quit talking to Eli and Minami? They’re your friends, too.”

“It’s not the same.”

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