Page 43 of Rewrites of the Heart

The café was crowded with noisy, enthusiastic students. It was a fluke Kenn found an empty booth after he placed his order and took his element placard.

Or was it a fluke?

He felt the eyes of German physicist Werner Heisenberg on him as he looked up and saw the man’s Uncertainty Principle written out next to his portrait. He didn’t understand a single symbol of the equation, but he knew the word “uncertainty” summed up his current situation all too well.

Not only the relationship he had hoped to have with JJ was uncertain, but his ill-timed action even put his professional rapport with the wonderful woman in jeopardy.

His element number was called, 10Ne, and he picked up his Higgs-Boson Bison Burger and side of Onion String Theory. He had just bit into his burger when Dr. Chare and Deb came up to him.

“Where’s JJ? Why isn’t she with you?” Deb flashed him a smile and then said sweetly, “You two seemed so close at the game.”

“Professor, may we sit with you?” Chare asked. Kenn was off the hook for answering Deb, at least for the moment. He knew, though, she wouldn’t drop the conversation that easily. “It seems as if all the other accommodations are full. It’s not every day the student body receives an opportunity to celebrate a Fighting Fingers victory.”

It was against his better judgment, but he really had no recourse. He couldn’t very well refuse his boss. Of course, Deb Dilley was another matter. “Please, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Thank you.” It had seemed they had already passed by him once on the way to the register, since the man had the periodic element of 2He.

He and Chare made small talk, which mostly centered on other professors, until his number was called. Chare excused himself.

Deb didn’t waste any time returning to the topic of JJ in his absence.She must have been sitting on pins and needles waiting for the chair to leave.

“So, where is JJ? I would have thought she would be with you celebrating the big win.” She raised her eyebrows as she reached for her Pomegranate Proton Smoothie.

Kenn shifted his weight as he tried to think of a noncommittal comment. “She wanted to go home.”Immediately.

“That’s a shame. You two looked like you were getting along so well.” She paused. “The jumbotron really caught you in a close moment.”

Just then, Chare came back with the food. He settled in and gave Deb her Chernobyl Chicken Meltdown and Feynman Fries. He picked up his Philadelphia Experiment Cheesesteak. He went to take a bite, but hesitated.

“Do I note a bit of tension at the table since I left?” Chare turned to eye Deb. “Don’t tell me you brought up Kenn and JJ’s experience with the jumbotron?”

He didn’t think anyone could make Deb feel remorseful. But he was wrong. Deb looked like a small child getting reprimanded for acting out in public.

Chare put his sandwich down and turned his attention to Kenn. “Son, it seems to me that you and JJ may have something special that goes beyond a professional affinity.” He paused, as if he were choosing his words carefully.

“That’s rare in this day. JJ has experienced more loss than any young woman should in her life. I do believe she feels something special for you. Just give her time. All she needs is a little time.”

He took a bite of his sandwich. “But you didn’t hear that from me.”

Chapter 32

“Did you see what I did? Why, of course, you did. It was broadcast on international TV, for crying out loud. The entire world saw it.”

JJ slammed her purse on the dining room table, then dragged herself to the living room where she collapsed on the couch slouching with her legs extended.

“You kissed a man, that’s all,” Alex said as she sat on the arm of the chair next to her.

“And wow, did you kiss him good,” Blake added, standing in the middle of the living room, still in the palm part of his mascot’s uniform.

“Blake.” Alex glared at him.

“But truthfully,” she said as she turned her attention back to her creator, “I missed it. I was busy with the man of my dreams.”

Even in her state of desperation, JJ couldn’t help but notice that Blake, with his hair still an unmanageable mess from his character’s outfit, beamed with pride.

“I didn’t kiss just any man”—she ran her hand through her hair and held it for a moment—“but Kennedy King Cooper.” She released her hand from her head and allowed her hair to fall to one side. “How could I let myself do that?”

“Perhaps because you’re finally allowing yourself to recognize those feelings you have for him?” Alex ventured.

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