Cure for Insomnia
Page 24
Remi looked toward my building. “No more lab coats?”
“You sound disappointed. I bet Judy will let me take the one with my name stitched on the pocket. Plus, I’ll need it for touring students around to labs.”
She placed her hands on my shoulders but still kept her distance. “I’ve been telling myself that it was selfish of me to want so much.”
“It’s not selfish of you! I’ve been trying to tell you that. How come it takes Valerie calling you for you to listen? It’s the accent, isn’t it? And how does she have your number? Should I be worried?”
She laughed then, and some of her sparkle returned. “It’s not the accent. Remember the picture of you doing the Southern blot?” She waved her phone which made me cover my eyes with my hands. She pocketed her phone and pulled my hands away from my eyes. “It was not her accent at all. It was your sleep-study spreadsheet that convinced me.”
My hands flew back up to my face. I said between my fingers, “She didn’t tell you about the spreadsheet.”
“She did. That is why I finally understand that you are not sacrificing your life’s dream.”
“All I had to do was tell you that I was sleeping fine, and you wouldn’t have freaked out?”
“I did not freak out.”
The words sounded funny on her lips. I leaned forward and was about to kiss her when I heard her question about Maricela. She had not shaped the “r” at the back of her mouth like she was saying “tiger.” I reached back in my memories and heard her saying my whole name. She pronounced it with a silent “h.” She gave the Spanish pronunciation, ehr-nahn-des. “You speak Spanish!”
A light shone in her eyes. “That is not a guess. A guess is a question.”
“Why didn’t you tell me on our ice cream date?”
“You did not say it was an official guess. You said something about needing more time to study my linguistic patterns.”
“My studies have revealed more than linguistics,” I ventured. “I love you, Remi. I want my days to be shaped by you. I want to know that when I crawl into bed, you’ll be there.”
She wrapped me in a tight hug. “I love you too. I should have said so instead of pulling away.”
“I’ll forgive you if you let us make up for lost time.”
“Will you continue to log in whether we have sex or not?”
“I don’t actually have a spreadsheet.”
“Perhaps you will have to begin.” Her fingers tickled the stray hairs that had come free from my ponytail.
“I think it would be best if we start with the ‘how I sleep after sex’ column,” I suggested.
“Agreed.”
She kissed me, and I burned for her down to my toes. “I don’t think I can wait till tonight.”
“Do you still have access to that darkroom?”
That surge of excitement and adrenaline zipped through me. “Are you serious?”
She stepped closer, her mouth so close to my ear that I felt her breath. “I am very, very serious.”
I shivered and placed my finger over my lips. We retraced our steps back to my building to get a start on our joint research project.
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