by Ali Parker
“No, but you sure are obsessing about him. I have never heard you talk about a guy this way. And you’ve certainly had lab partners before.”
“No, you’re putting words in my mouth. I was just telling you how my research was going, that’s all.”
“And what is this lab partner’s name? Is it that cute guy we saw in the hallway that day?”
I flushed pink, remembered that I wasn’t supposed to speak about this at all. I had promised Mr. Phillips so faithfully.
“No, it is not the guy we saw in the hall. You wouldn’t know him, just another bookworm. Now tell me more about Trent.”
“Oh no, no, no. You ain’t getting off that easily. What’s this guy’s name?”
“It’s no one. It’s not a big deal, and I’m just venting. He’s only working in the lab for a few days anyway and then he will be gone.”
“Why aren’t you telling me his name?”
“Because, I can’t. Mr. Phillips said to keep it to myself, a very academic controversial thing. He’s not even from this town, he’s from another college and they’re interested in the crop work, that’s all.”
“I don’t believe you, and just so you know, you’re not good at fibbing, but if you’re not going to tell me—”
“I’m not.” I took a drink of my coffee.
“Fine. But you’re bound to let it slip eventually,” she said.
A few minutes later, the food arrived. I was hungry, but in truth I could not stop thinking about Tanner. A part of me really did want to tell Jenna everything. Just so that I could see the look on her face that I was working with a Dawson. But I couldn’t say anything, not yet anyway. But another part of me wanted to gush to her about how handsome he was. She had already sensed it, because I was talking about how frustrated he made me. She could see right through me; I guess a best friend was able to do that.
After breakfast, I sat in my truck at the diner watching Jenna drive off. It wasn’t until she was out of sight that I pulled out my mascara. I tilted my rearview mirror and applied a fresh coat. Then I put on some cherry stained lip gloss. Turning the ignition of my truck, I pulled out of the parking lot. I was driving to the college in a good mood, and it wasn’t just the work that I was going to do that day that had me feeling good. I knew it was because I would be working with Tanner that day. I wouldn’t admit that out loud of course, but I knew deep inside that I was looking forward to seeing him.
Bing. Bing. My cell phone went off. It was lying on the passenger seat. Even from this distance I could see the word ‘Dad’ lighting up on the screen. I immediately grew nervous, even though I wasn’t going to answer it, of course. As always, I would just let it go to voicemail. I felt bad for avoiding him, but I had to.
My father and mother separated when I was ten years old. I went to live with my mother in San Antonio. I visited my father in Safety a few of summers from the age of ten to thirteen, and then my mother wouldn’t let me come anymore. I didn’t realize it then, but she was protecting me. She knew that my father’s drinking had gotten out of hand and she didn’t want me in that environment. How could a man that was drunk 24/7 take care of a child? She knew it was too dangerous so I wasn’t able to visit anymore. But I had seen him a few times when I visited after turning eighteen. Those times were not good times, because he was still always drunk. I didn’t even stay with him, instead choosing to stay in a hotel and only for one night. But now that I was living in this town because the college had a good agricultural master’s degree, I wouldn’t be able to avoid him indefinitely.
I pulled my truck into the parking lot outside the research lab. Picked up my phone, I looked at it. If I didn’t listen to the voicemail, the stupid blinking light would be bothering me all day. So I played the message.
“Madison, it’s me. I’ve been waiting for you to stop by. Give me a call,” he said. But his words were mumbled and slurred together. I was disappointed. It was early in the morning and he was already drunk, or was still drunk from the night before. I wasn’t sure which was worse. Hanging up my phone, I decided not to think about it. I had work to do.
Grabbing my bag, I walked into the research lab and headed down the hall. I saw Tanner leaning against the wall outside the lab and immediately noticed how attractive he was again. His long lean body leaned against the wall so casually. He had his straw cowboy hat in his hand. He looked at me as I walked up.
“You are late.”
“I am not.” Taking out the keys, I unlocked the lab.
“I should have a set of keys so that I won’t have to wait for you if you’re going to be late all the time.”
“I am not late. I’m right on time.”
“My father would say that being right on time makes you late. If you’re early than you’re on time,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. Another day of this? I didn’t know if I could handle more bickering from this guy, even if he was devastatingly handsome. But at least it would be a welcome distraction from thinking about my father, assuming I was able to push those thoughts aside.
“Come on in then. Let’s get started,” I said, opening the door and walking in. I put my bag in my locker and grabbed my lab coat. Tanner did the same thing, and neither of us said a word. But I could feel the tension between us, it was as thick as soup. I didn’t know if there was tension because he was angry thinking I was late, or if it was something else?
9
Tanner
I watched Madison coming down the hall and couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her hips would swing a certain way while she walked, and it was absolutely mesmerizing. I had arrived just a little early, because I couldn’t wait to see her. Also because my father had put so much pressure on me to figure out this thing before we lost more money. So I figured the sooner I got started the better, but I didn’t realize that the lab would be locked. She held the key.
I put on my lab coat and gloves and got to work. But Madison was acting strange. Yes we were still bickering as usual, but she seemed a little bit deflated and I did not know why. It wasn’t like me to pry into other people’s business, but I thought that maybe we would have a better working relationship if we connected on a real level. It would definitely help with the work at least.
“Hey, you alright?” I finally asked her.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, avoiding eye contact with me.
“You don’t seem fine. There’s something going on with you. I haven’t known you very long, but you’re not in your usual spirits,” I said. I moved around the front of the counter to face her. She pulled her eyes in another direction.
“You won’t even look at me,” I said. “There’s definitely something wrong. I usually catch you staring at me all the time.”
“What! I do not!” she said, turning to lock eyes with me.
“There, now that’s better,” I said, looking into those deep pools of blue.
She huffed in annoyance. Her pink lips pursed together. Her dark blue eyes said words without saying a thing. It was as if she was saying that she was shocked that I cared about her mood that day.
“Do I really seem that different today?”
“Yes, it is subtle but I noticed right away. I noticed a lot of things like that. I am actually quite observant,” I said.
She arched her eyebrows at me.
“So, you going to tell me what’s going on? Is it something with the work?” I asked.
“Sort of. Why does this all have to be a secret? I can’t even tell my best friend what I’m up to in the lab, and the lab is my life. Without it I don’t have much to talk about with my own friend. Why can’t I tell her that a Dawson is in here with me?” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
“Oh, I understand. Well, my family is very private. We don’t like our business to be the talk of the town. We already are the subject of idle gossip all the time, just because we have a large yield every year. Having our crop endangered could really impact the town, so it’s best for it not to get out, at least
before we know what’s going on. That’s all.”
“But it’s just my friend. She won’t tell anyone,” she responded.
“What does your friend do?” I asked.
She was quiet for a minute. Then she held back a smile as she said, “She works at the salon.”
“Oh, the salon. Yeah, there isn’t any gossip going on in there,” I said, sarcastically.
“I see your point,” she said.
“Look, my family would really appreciate it if you would just keep it to yourself. It’s a lot to ask, but it’s only until we figure this out. I would really appreciate it. You would be doing me a favor,” I said.
“It really needs to stay a secret, huh?” she asked.
“The Dawson Ranch is the financial backbone of the town, and we can’t have everyone panicking if they think that we’re going under. The town needs us.”
“Oh, someone is conceited,” she said laughing.
“Are you teasing me?”
“Maybe.”
I smiled at her. There was a little bit of that spark back in her. I liked that she was teasing me. It was good fun. I liked her bickering with me instead of being down, but I wondered if that was what was truly bothering her, or if she had just given me another reason so I would drop it all together. Everyone had secrets and I was sure that it was true of this little minx as well. But if she didn’t want to talk about it, I wouldn’t press her, for now.
“What do you think we should start on first?” I asked.
“I’m going to check the experiments that we set up yesterday. They should have results already. I guess we can clean off this counter and work in this work space. It looks like the cleaning crew left behind some items. I told Mr. Phillips I would prefer that they didn’t come in here to clean, it could have an effect on the experiments,” she said, looking around.
I pulled out some of the specimens of corn and laid them on the counter. We had been doing all sorts of experiments on them, but nothing really drastic had been happening.
“It’s all right, I’ll get rid of it,” I said. In that moment I turned. Being a tall guy, I was all elbows and knees, always bumping things without realizing that I took up so much space. I accidentally elbowed the bottle of cleaner. It fell over and the top came off, pouring onto the crop. “Oh shit.” I said.
“What? What happened?” Madison asked, coming back to the counter.
I looked at the bottle of cleaner pouring onto the corn crop.
“Oh no, that can’t be good. See, I was right. I’m going to have to have a talk with Mr. Phillips.”
“Well, I guess this specimen can’t be used anymore. I’ll set it aside,” I said.
“I’ll go get the mop,” she said, walking off. I picked up the bottle of cleaner and put the top back on. I set it in a cabinet, then wiped down the counter and picked up the corn crop and put it on a silver tray and set it on another counter out of the way.
Madison walked in with a mop and bucket. I walked over to her and took it from her hands.
“I’ll do that. It’s my mess, I should clean it up,” I said.
Once again she looked at me, surprise in those dark blue eyes. Maybe she wasn’t used to men doing things for themselves, or maybe it was something else. I took the mop and bucket from her and cleaned up the floor. She headed to the back of the lab to prepare a few experiments.
When I was done I put the mop and bucket back in the corner of the room. Then I put on gloves and walked over to Madison.
“What can I help you with?” I asked.
“You can sterilize these petri dishes and we can run a new set of tests. I want to see if a particular fungi interacts with the virus. It might be just the thing that’s needed,” she said.
“I like where you’re going with that thought. Use nature to fight this. After all, nature is its own defense mechanism,” I said, getting excited about this new path of experiments.
“Exactly. There might be something natural that can fight off this virus, we just have to figure out what it is,” she said, smiling at me. When she smiled it took my breath away.
“I will—get to work sterilizing these dishes,” I said, hardly able to finish my sentence because those lips were distracting.
“And I will get the fungi samples out,” she said.
We split up in the lab, but not too far from each other. As I sterilized the dishes I watched Madison doing her thing. It was extremely attractive. I liked an intelligent woman, and watching her do these things was turning me on. I felt my cock stir as she was working. That was a first, I thought. Of course I had been attracted to her, but this was turning into pure animal attraction. I could not take my eyes off of her.
We spent the next three hours working on her experiment. This day was different though, there was a lot of light-hearted interaction between us and less bickering than before. We were getting to know each other. But I was very aware of how aroused she was making me. It was always in the back of my thoughts.
“I think we could take a lunch break now, these need to set don’t they?” I said, looking at the clock. “It’s almost 2 p.m.”
“Yes, these do need to set in the controlled unit for a couple of hours,” she said.
“Can I buy you lunch?” I asked.
She looked at me, completely stunned. It was as if I had just asked her something completely inappropriate.
“Lunch?”
“Yes, you know—food?”
“Oh, maybe that’s not—I mean, I was just going to go down to the cafeteria and—”
“Alright, the cafeteria it is. I can buy you lunch you know. That’s not against the rules. It’s just lunch, Madison.”
“All right. Sure, why not,” she said, unbuttoning her lab coat.
I pulled off my gloves and set them on the counter and unbuttoned the lab coat and set it on the rack. She grabbed her bag and we walked out, locking the door behind us.
“So, how are things on the ranch? I mean how is the crop doing?”
“Not good. We had cut a large swath of corn down, a lot of rows in order to separate the healthy from the sick. But that doesn’t look like it’s going to work anymore. It seems to be spreading,” I said, as I walked beside her down the hall.
“That’s awful. I am very sorry to hear that.”
“Yes, it is awful. But everything else on the ranch is good.”
“Like what?” she asked, as we walked out of the building and crossed the plaza of the college. There were students sitting in the grass loitering all over the place. The cafeteria building was in front of us, and I could already smell the food.
“Well, we have a good breed of hogs and horses. That’s going very well this year. My sister takes care of the horses and she does a really good job. We have sheep out in the pastures, and a lot more going on,” I said. I opened the cafeteria door and she walked in.
“Thank you,” she said.
“No problem.”
“I would like to see it someday,” she said.
“See what?”
“The ranch. Of course I’ve seen it from the road, who hasn’t? But I mean actually see it,” she said.
“I would be happy to show you one day. Perhaps if we haven’t figured this thing out by tomorrow you could come out and check out the crops. See the thing in action,” I said.
“Yes, that might be a good idea.”
“So, what’s good here?” I said, looking at the menu offering and grabbing two trays. I handed one to her.
“Well, the pizza isn’t bad.”
“All right. Pizza it is. I could use another round of coffee myself.”
“Me too. Black,” she said.
“I take it black too,” I said, looking at her. She looked back at me. We locked eyes for a moment, as though she was surprised that we had something in common.
A few minutes later, we were sitting down and eating slices of greasy pizza. It was nice to take our minds off the lab work and just talk about normal things. We did a li
ttle people watching, trying to guess which student was studying what. It was a fun little game. When we were done we headed back to the lab.
“Here, let me unlock the door,” she said, putting the key in the lab door. She unlocked it and I pushed it open for her. Once again she gave me that look. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I was starting to get used to it. It felt like a reward of sorts.
We both went to the rack and put on our lab coats.
“I’ll go check on the control unit to see if the timer is off,” I said to her.
“Sounds good to me,” she said.
I walked to the back of the lab.
“Tanner! Tanner! Come quick!” I heard her shout at me across the lab.
I quickly jogged over to her. For a moment I thought she might be in trouble, perhaps maybe she’d broken another glass item and had cut herself. I wanted to be there for her as soon as I could. But when I got to the counter, I found she was standing over the crop on the silver tray, the one I had spilled the cleaning bottle on.
“What? What is it?” I asked.
“Look!”
I looked over her shoulder down at the corn crop. The brown spots on the leaves were disappearing. It didn’t make sense.
“What in the hell?”
“Do you see it? The virus seems to be clearing up. It’s not completely gone, but it looks like it’s—”
“Like it’s being washed off.”
“This is unbelievable,” she said.
We both stood there in shock looking down at the plant. Then we looked at each other. There were no words needed. We knew that we had just stumbled onto something but we didn’t know what.
10
Madison
I couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be real, could it? We had just stepped out to have lunch and came back in to find that the corn crop was starting to clear up. It was amazing, but also confusing at the same time.
“Where is that bottle?” I asked.
“I put it in the cabinet,” Tanner said, walking over to it. I moved to his side and he handed me the bottle. There was nothing special about this cleaner. It was very typical of what you would find at any major retailer. I looked at it, reading the ingredients.
