Page 44 of Love and the Laws of Motion
That wasn’t exactly what Andy was asking.
“Are you saying she might not wake up?”Andy asked, his voice strained.
Now Singh did smile, but that only made it worse, because it was small and sad, and not the least bit encouraging.“Time will tell.”
Andy exhaled, his eyes on the floor.Then he turned to Livie.“Why don’t you guys go home?I’ll text you if there’s any change.”
“Are you sure?I hate to leave you here alone.”
“My father’s flight lands in an hour.He’ll be here soon.”
Livie still looked like she wanted to protest, but Nick laid his hand on her shoulder.Finch’s family was going to be here for her, as they should be.“Okay, but let me know if you need anything.Anything at all.”
“I will.And thank you again, Livie.I’m glad you were with her when she—”
Andy trailed off, unwilling to give voice to what they were all thinking—that Livie might have been the last person Finch would ever speak to or see.
Chapter Seventeen
Janet didn’t wake up by morning.Instead, Livie got a call from Andy.She’d had a stroke during the night, immeasurably complicating her situation.A full recovery still wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, but the chances were much slimmer, and the timeline much longer, if it happened at all.Livie offered to come back to the hospital, but Andy declined.She wasn’t conscious and probably wouldn’t be for some time.He promised to call her if anything changed.
It didn’t bear thinking about, Janet not fully recovering, so Livie tried her best not to think about it.Shewouldcome back, but it might take some time.
Outside of her very personal grief over Janet, her advisor’s heart attack left Livie in a strange no-man’s-land at school.Without Janet there, she was left spinning her wheels.Janet had some data analysis she’d wanted to explore in conjunction with the big black hole project.Livie pursued that on her own, waiting and hoping that Janet would be back at work soon.
At least the work on the Hubble program wasn’t dependent on Janet’s presence.She and Nick could move ahead on that on their own, and having him in her house had turned out to be good for that, although not always in a way Livie would have preferred to work.Nick tended to work in fits and starts on whatever happened to capture his imagination, whenever it happened to occur.It wasn’t uncommon for him to bang on her door at midnight or later because he’d suddenly had an idea and he wanted her to come work on it with him.It drove her crazy, but they were making good progress so she kept her complaints to herself.
But being around him so much was wreaking havoc on her peace of mind.She’d thought maybe familiarity would help dispel her stupid crush.Living twenty-four seven with his infuriating quirks should have killed her infatuation dead.Frustratingly, it didn’t seem to be working that way.He was mercurial, sometimes hopping between five projects in an hour and sometimes closing himself away with an almost obsessive single-mindedness.He ran hot and cold, one minute happily embracing her entire family in a way sure to win her heart, the next throwing up his walls and refusing to talk about anything personal.He was, in short, everything she was not, and nothing she wanted to be.Nothing about him should have appealed to her.And yet he haunted her, and nothing she did—nothinghedid—seemed to exorcize him.She was beginning to think nothing ever would.
The Lyft let them out in DUMBO in front of the building and they retrieved the flattened boxes from the trunk.It was Saturday, and nearly dark outside, the streetlights flickering on.Nick paused, staring up at the facade of the building.Two weeks after his breakup with Poppy, he’d decided to come get the rest of his stuff.Livie could see in his face that this wouldn’t be easy for him.
“Are you going to be okay?”
His smile wasn’t as reassuring as he meant it to be.“Sure.I’m fine.”
“Are you worried about running into her?Should we have called first?”
“Don’t sweat it.It’s Saturday night.She’s going to be out until three a.m.at least.”Then, taking a deep breath, he produced his keys and let them into the lobby.“Let’s go get this over with.”
Upstairs, everything looked much as it had all the other times Livie had been there.Everything was sleek and orderly, no sign that Nick had ever lived there, and no sign of his absence.Shouldn’t a place bear some imprint of the two people who’d lived in it?Shouldn’t you have been able to see signs of the life they’d been building here?The absence when one of them left?
“There’s no stuff here,” she said, without meaning to.
Nick glanced over at her as he assembled a box.“What do you mean?”
“You can’t even tell anyone lives here.There’s nostuff.How do you do that?”
“Poppy likes minimalism.She read some book about it and decided her personal shit was crowding her psychic energy or something.She hates clutter.”
Livie snorted in laughter.“You don’t, though.”It was amazing to her that someone with so few belongings could create such chaos with them.Nick was forever losing his keys, his phone...anything he owned was at risk of being sucked into his personal maelstrom of mess.
He chuckled, too.“True enough.”He stopped and looked around.“It kind of feels like I was just passing through here, doesn’t it?”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“Funny,” he said, shaking his head.“The shit you see in hindsight.Anyway, that bottom shelf of books is mine.Can you pack them up while I get the rest of my clothes?”
“Sure.”
