“You actually graphed it?” He said it so complacently. It was as if he wasn’t fighting his weakness, he was embracing it.
He nodded happily.
“I wish I could do that.”
“Graph my nervous collapse regarding a one-hour presentation?”
“No, what are you presenting on anyway?” Nadia checked her watch. It was still quite early. Unsure of why she was doing it, she stepped over Toni and sat on a nearby bench. Herman sat on the far end, but with one knee on the bench and an arm propped on the back so that he was mostly facing her.
Toni woke up and inspected her as if she’d lost her mind. She never just stopped in the middle of a run. In fact… Nadia tapped her stopwatch to stop the timer as it was rapidly ruining her average time, just as yesterday’s stop had.
“The Identification and Preservation of Rare and Not-so-rare Flora. Sounds riveting, doesn’t it? Actually it’s a fascinating project. The Herbarium presently holds over eight-hundred-thousand specimens which…would bore the tears out of you.”
“Eight— I can’t even imagine a number that big.”
“Just imagine a twenty-eight-story tall pile of one-dollar bills. Then, not only would you be rich, but you’d have a dollar for every specimen we’ve stored and cataloged.”
She had to laugh.
“What?”
“Make sure that’s in your talk. These are donors. Equating money to specimens like that might get them to dig deeper into their pockets.” That was part of the food truck mantra—what can be added on as perceived value. Chicken biryani or, for just a few dollars more, the more authentic goat. Not quite implying that the chicken wasn’t good enough, but that the discerning patron would prefer the more expensive item. Giving value, but at a cost. The fact that they bought goat for the same price as chicken was irrelevant.
“Oh, that’s a clever idea. Maybe I should explain everything and you can help me figure out what to include?”
She glanced at her watch. Nadia had time, but not that kind of time.
“Right. Stupid. I didn’t mean to imply— Shutting up again.”
“No, it’s not that…” Then she had an idea.
Tonight was one of Mum’s family dinner nights. The trucks were all parked through Monday and Tuesday so that everyone could have a weekend off—though there were always some vats of this or that sauce bubbling away in the back kitchen for the next week’s meals. Tuesdays was when all of the family gathered.
Mum had learned to stop inviting eligible bachelors, but she’d recently come up with a new plan. Now Nadia’s various aunts and uncles would invite along one of their own children’s “friends.” All curiously male, Indian of course, single, and in their twenties.
“What time does the Herbarium close?”
“Five.” Herman looked at her in some surprise.
For reasons unclear to her, Toni also woke up and looked at her with shock. Everything Nadia was doing lately seemed to be a surprise to Toni. As if she wasn’t being herself. The question was, was that a good thing?
“I don’t get off work until six.”
“I’ll be there!” Herman said a little too emphatically, but she’d already seen that’s just the way he was.
Toni was still watching her as if she had been replaced by an alien. She stuck her tongue out at her dog who appeared to laugh at some silent joke. Or maybe she just yawned sarcastically.
“Great!” Nadia turned back to Herman. “Then you can give me a tour and I’ll tell you what parts I find most interesting. If that will help?”
“Help? Help? That would be stupendously fantastic. I’ll be waiting at the front door of the National Bonsai Museum. The Herbarium is mostly in the basement.”
They shook on it, then she and Toni rose to finish their run.
It might be a little extreme, but it would at least get her away from another of Mum’s candidates for courtship.
4
Herman looked at his watch.
Five thirty-seven.
Nadia had said she didn’t get off work until six.
Yet, like some hopeless goon (hopeful goon?) he waited by the entrance to the closed museum.
Was he more excited by seeing Nadia again or having help with his talk? Why was such an attractive woman even speaking to him? Why wouldn’t his brain ever shut up and just let him behave like a normal human being?
Sadly, he was used to this particular stream of internal chatter and had never found a way to tone it down. He had learned that others were never interested in it, which was fine. He didn’t need to process everything out loud. He was comfortable with—no…resigned to?...his own thoughts. They were a familiar noisy terrain upon which he—
“Hi!”
He looked up and almost swallowed his tongue in alarm. It was Nadia, he was sure of that. But she barely looked like herself. “You look…terrifying.”
“Terrifying? I like that. Our final meeting today was just across the street with the DC Metro police. I hope it’s okay that I just came over this way.” She waved a hand at herself.
Black-leather shoes, black slacks, then, over a white dress shirt, a black bullet-proof vest that did indeed say “Secret Service Police” clearly across the front. A small machine gun of some sort hung across her abdomen. A wide leather belt held a sidearm, a radio, a Taser, and a baton dangled off a loop. She wore dark sunglasses that hid her lovely eyes.
Toni was now on a leash, that attached to a bullet-proof vest of her own that also declared “Police.”
He held up his hands and protested, “I’m innocent. Honest. I’m just a flora archivist.”
“I don’t know,” Nadia poked him in the center of the chest. “We have reports of a plant guy running around outside his area and spying on hapless birds.” Then she grimaced. “Lower your hands, Herman, you’re making me feel ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous? Not a chance,” though he did lower his hands. “Daunting. Magnificent. All powerful. You and Captain Marvel.”
“Captain Marvel?”
He slapped a hand to his chest, suddenly aware of his palm placed directly over where she’d poked him. “You haven’t seen Captain Marvel? The great blonde superhero who—”
Nadia swept her dark ponytail forward.
“Okay, maybe Wonder Woman.”
“I didn’t see that either.”
Again he slapped his palm to his chest. “I’m aghast.”
“I’m Nadia,” she responded with a such a straight tone that he couldn’t help but laugh. They shook hands solemnly as if meeting for the first time.
Curiously, in her running gear, she seemed a much more cautious and even dangerous woman. In her Secret Service uniform, looking like a one-woman army ready to take on the world, she was much less fearsome. Somehow, just a woman doing her job.
He held her hand for just an extra moment. It might have been too small a difference for any rational person to notice. But he was intensely aware of it as he led her inside, locked the door behind him, and they went downstairs.
In his tiny office, she stripped off her and Toni’s vests. She dropped the big belt, but slipped the sidearm into the small of her back. She slung the machine gun over her shoulder so that only the strap showed. Again she was transformed. A beautiful women in business-casual dress, and the wide strap of the weapon might have been for a purse.
“You’re not in any danger from me. And we’re the only ones here.”
“Sorry, I can’t just leave these lying around.” She shrugged an apology. “But Toni I can.”
She pointed down to his office floor and snapped her fingers. Toni lay down.
Herman retrieved the dog biscuit bag from his desk drawer and held it open for Nadia. She took two, then looked puzzled, before handing them back to him.
“It’s not okay?”
Nadia was still frowning as she spoke slowly. “It’s…not okay that your kindness should be presented as coming from me. You can feed those to her.”
Herman k
nelt down and held them out tentatively.
Toni sniffed them carefully, then looked up at Nadia.
She whispered in German, “In Ordnung.” It’s Okay.
Toni turned back, delicately collected them from his hand, and crunched happily on them for a moment before swallowing. Then she gave his fingers a gritty lick to clean off the last of the biscuit crumbs.
He pet her head. The fur on the dog’s ears was so soft.
It left him wondering what Nadia’s hair might feel like.
5
Naida’s first impression of the herbarium was…unimpressive.
The National Arboretum’s main floor had vast displays, the Bonsai Museum and the enclosed Tropical Conservatory. And outside were over four hundred acres of lovely gardens. She had to admit that she usually just ran through them, but they were gorgeous.
The basement herbarium was…in the basement. Concrete walls turned dark with age. Rows and rows of towering shelves were crammed uncomfortably close together. They were filled with banks of scuffed wooden shelves forming cubbyholes. Each was, in turn, crammed with thick papers.
“We house over eight-hundred thousand specimens in all major plant classifications. Oh, I already told you that. The number used to be much bigger but dropped drastically when we transferred our fungi to the US National Fungus Collection. They maintain over a million specimens. We also have one of the world’s largest algae collection with—”
“Of fungus? Like the stuff between people’s toes?”
Herman laughed, “That. And molds, yeasts—”
“Don’t you have anything not…yucky?” She’d been intrigued by Herman Finegold. But a man who spent his days staring at microscopic infestations?
“Well, mushrooms aren’t too yucky, are they? Truffles for shaving over wild boar pasta. Molds make bleu cheese blue. Or a wild mushroom-and-Swiss burger.”
“Okay, I suppose those aren’t too yucky.” She realized how judgmental she must have sounded and tried to apologize with her tone.
“But we gave all that away. They’re just so different. If anything, they’re more animal than plant in how they access carbon for processing their…” Herman grimaced. “Okay, that’s one of the uninteresting parts.”
“I’m guessing that it’s fascinating to a biologist, or an…animalologist, but I’m just a dog handler. How many in your audience on Monday will be ologists?”
“Not many.” Herman sighed and leaned against a rack of shelves. “So what am I supposed to talk about?”
Nadia tried to think of how to help.
What could possibly be interesting about this place? Even if it was, how could she ever find it in this stark basement?
“Okay, Herman. Try this. Did you know that the Secret Service was founded three months after the Civil War ended in 1865 to stop counterfeiting? It had been a devastating war and almost everyone was broke, so counterfeiting was rampant. It is still the largest aspect of our operation. We didn’t get into the ‘protection racket’ until after the assassination of President McKinley in 1901.”
Herman walked slowly down the length of the row of shelves and back.
He did it again, all the while staring down at the concrete floor.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just—”
“No! No! Beginnings. That’s great!” He grabbed her hand and dragged her down to another set of shelves that looked just like all of the others. “Do you know what this is?”
She just shook her head and wondered how soon she could politely escape. It would probably mean that she’d have to stop running through the Arboretum, which would be a pity.
“Originally conceived in 1828, it would require three different presidents and several changes in Congress to fund the United States Exploring Expedition. From 1838 to 1842, the seven ships of the United States Ex. Ex. sailed around the world collecting everything from penguins to plants to perch fish. They explored almost three hundred islands, performed the first major survey of the Oregon Territory, and returned with over sixty-thousand plant and animal specimens, many of which are in our Herbarium and the Natural History Museum. Hundreds of live plants are still in our Arboretum. This section, right here, was our founding collection.”
He paused and looked at her.
Nadia nodded to encourage him. Because that was interesting, and she didn’t even like history.
“Or this?” He again took her hand and dragged her to another area that looked no different than the first.
This time his energy was undeniable. When he didn’t let go of her hand, she didn’t mind. He squeezed it tightly as if trying to make sure she understood his excitement.
“In 1899, fifty years after the founding of the Arboretum, a railroad magnate by the name of Harriman was told that he had to take two months’ vacation for the sake of his health. Being one of the richest men in America, he decided he wanted to hunt Alaskan bear. Along the way, he outfitted a ship, filled it with his family, servants, and thirty scientists, artists, writers, and Arctic experts. They returned with over fifty-thousand specimens and gave them to the Smithsonian. These,” he waved a hand, “these are E. H. Harriman’s actual plant collections and all of the botanical information his scientists collected while he mostly hunted.”
He barely paused before turning to her in the narrow space.
“This, Nadia,” he patted the shelves with his free hand. “This is history. History of plant life and the study of it. Here we’ve preserved exact pieces of our environment as it was in 1840, late in the Little Ice Age. Again in 1899 just twenty years after the invention of the lightbulb but well before the widespread use of electricity accelerated us out of the Industrial Revolution and into the Technologic one. These are the exact plants, with all of their DNA, atmospheric clues, and who-knows-what still intact. Here.”
The excitement radiated off him. It was passionate and overwhelming. Some core of her being wanted to be a part of it.
Unable to even think about her feelings, all she could do was express them.
She kissed him.
After his initial surprise, he kissed her back soundly enough to, literally, make her toes curl.
Then the energy peaked and seemed to blow them apart until they were leaning with their backs on opposite sides of the aisle.
“That was…a surprise.”
“It…” she laughed at such an understatement. “It was.”
“Unexpected.”
“Which is different than a surprise?”
“Um,” Herman looked about him, then reached into a cubbyhole. From it he extracted a faded envelope. He slipped out a heavy piece of paper and turned it for her to see. It was a photograph of a small daisy, growing on a bit of dirt with a glacier poised to run it down.
“I feel bad for it. I always liked daisies.”
Then he pulled out a cardboard packet. “I wish I could actually give this to you.” He opened it up and turned it for her to see.
He held a daisy pressed between two sheets of glass. It was perfectly preserved from the top of its flower down to the fine tendrils of its roots.
When she looked up, she saw that Herman was watching her closely.
“It’s the same flower?”
He gave an infinitesimal nod.
Their second kiss was as gentle as the first one was heated. Just the two of them, separated by two sheets of glass, and a flower.
6
It was several more mornings and nights before Nadia decided that she was going to sleep with Herman Finegold.
Each morning, he waited by their bench with water and dog treats. Each evening, he’d test another section of his lecture on her.
Yes, he was utterly exhausting to be around, but he was also inspiring. Where she was linear, probably why running fit her so well, Herman was constantly pursing shiny objects. She had to help him focus and refine his topics, but the give and take between them had an energy and excitement.
No matter how long the day had been, Nadia always lo
oked forward to seeing him. The one night she’d had to cancel had made her feel awful. Far lower than made any sense.
She wasn’t the only one. Toni always found the energy to do her yellow Lab bouncing about whenever they arrived at the Herbarium. And it wasn’t just his insistence on providing the absolute best dog treats. He’d definitely won her dog’s heart and he was fast on his way to winning hers.
On the Sunday night before his talk, Herman took her hand and led her out of the basement.
“Come on. We’re going out to dinner.”
“I’m not dressed for going out.” She’d managed to lock her weapons in the gun safe in her car trunk, but was still in her work clothes.
They stood in the darkened Bonsai museum as he swung her into his arms. “You’re too beautiful to not fit in anywhere. Besides, I’m not a fancy dinner kind of person. Are you a fancy dinner sort of person?”
Nadia could only shake her head. Toni tried to worm her way into the middle of the clench. Even a hand on her head didn’t ease her back. When it came to sex, she was definitely going to lock Toni in a different room. Which left out her studio apartment. It was generous, but the only door led to the bathroom.
So far, they’d ordered in pizza or Chinese as he worked on his talk. She hadn’t told Herman about her family’s food truck business. Or anything about her family really. It was easier to pretend she didn’t have an overbearing mother and a super-achiever sister and all the others up in her business than to explain them.
“Good, I’ll take you to my favorite place to eat. Very casual, I promise. Besides, if I think any more about the talk, I’ll totally screw it up. You’ve…we’ve…I’ve, no, we’ve made it way better than it ever would have been otherwise.”
She’d been the one to reject any credit. It was his talk and his sharp brain. She was an academic plodder at best. But he also made her feel like a really smart, happy plodder. It’s like she was used to running and winning the race, but Herman had thought it up, made it fun, and gotten the whole thing organized.
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